#naviyd

It had been six months since Zahara and Naviyd’s marriage dissolved into bitter recrimination and hate. She and little Mitra were long gone. Shadows, really. Memories. 

Naviyd coped in cycles. The ups and downs ran long, but not so long that there was no pattern. Naviyd could stave off the worst extremes by distracting himself with hobbies—architecture, astronomy, horseback archery, and more. Whenever he had the time, at any rate; raising his son, even with Arno and Lumina’s help, often left him asleep on top of whatever flat surface he found first. 

Tonight was a… night. 

At least Khalil was asleep on Arno. Lumina might have volunteered her lap on any other evening, but the twins she was carrying seemed determined to eliminate it from existence. Khalil gave up on that refuge weeks ago, once he realized he couldn’t fit no matter how he contorted. Besides, sitting on Arno meant the five-year-old could grab all the tiny honey-cakes whenever he wished. 

He still had sticky fingers wrapped around one last, uneaten crust. When he snuffled in his sleep, Arno had to keep his hand from applying the sugar to his face. 

“At least you took your shoes off before doing this,” Lumina said, because there didn’t seem much else to say into the silence of her best friend’s sulk. She nudged his side experimentally, but Naviyd didn’t budge.

“What do you take me for, a barbarian? I have standards,” Naviyd grumped. 

“Do tell,” Lumina said, raising one skeptical eyebrow. 

He grumbled into the pillows and didn’t answer. So much for an articulate evening, though Lumina frankly hadn’t expected much. She’d just have to be patient and outlast his moping. 

It didn’t take very long. Arno had just finished putting together a pot of tea—without disturbing the sleeping Khalil—when Naviyd finally said, “How did you know?” 

“How did I know what?” Lumina responded. She’d been occupied by shifting the pillows around her to more adequately support her back and wasn’t in the mood for guessing games.

“Or, I suppose—when did you know we would not be together?” 

Hardly clearer. “You and I, or you and her?” 

“Both. Either.” 

“Naviyd, as generous as you are, I would prefer not to share in your headache.” Lumina sighed, because it was already too late. The slight throb at her temples was bound to get worse as soon as she sat up properly, and cursing Naviyd for giving it to her was akin to closing gates after all the sheep were long gone. 

“A burden shared is a burden halved,” said Arno, in the light, mild manner of someone paying no mind to the meat of the discussion. His attention was wholly occupied by trying to drape a blanket over Khalil without waking him. 

Lumina threw a pillow at him before she could think better of it. 

Arno caught it with his forehead, which meant it bounced off toward the bookshelves. With no beading, it neither left a mark nor made a sound. He shot a look at it over his shoulder, then said firmly to Lumina, “You will not be getting that back until you learn to treat it with respect.” 

Lumina pursed her lips and tried to look dignified, knowing she’d fail even before Naviyd started snickering into his arms. Still, the tension in the room was neatly broken. She turned her attention to her best friend instead of her distracted husband, saying, “Did you want an answer to your question or to laugh at me?”

“Can’t it be both?” Naviyd wondered as he pushed himself up on his elbows, and mockingly quailed under her glare. “I surrender! Genuinely!” 

Lumina held her glare for a split second longer, then snorted. There was no point in pretending to be angry. Still… “You had a question.” 

“I did.” Naviyd sobered. He ran a scarred hand over his face and then his head in one neat sweep, which sent his curls into disarray. A few dropped far enough to block his left eye from view. As he settled again, he said, “You and I—I think, from the moment we met, neither of us were interested in the more physical pleasures. Unless I am wrong.” 

“I almost split your skull with a spear. I should hope not.” But still, Lumina humored him. “No, you have the right of it. There is and was nothing between us. Inarguably less, then—we hated each other.”

“Perhaps ‘hate’ is a strong word. I thought you harmless, then reckless and dangerous together.” Naviyd shrugged, smiling faintly. “And then, later, admirable for your strength. Beauty came in a very distant fourth.” 

“Rearrange the details several times, and you have my thoughts,” Lumina said. She rearranged the blankets next, covering her slightly swollen ankles. She was tall, and her twins carried low, but her center of balance was off and her joints knew it. “Apart from our friendship, none of it was beyond the bounds of my feelings toward any other man I’d met before.”

“Likewise,” Naviyd muttered. He rolled over with some difficulty, entangled in blankets and unable to quite complete the motion. Finally, he managed to get his shoulders flat against the floor, then went on, “Before meeting her, I never seriously contemplated taking a woman to bed.” 

“And no men?” Arno asked, while pouring tea for each of the adults. Khalil could go without. 

“No men,” Naviyd confirmed. He put both hands behind his head and said, “No one, really. Even when I was as grateful as I’d ever been to the both of you, for giving my life back to me when I’d assuredly lost it—no.”  

Lumina eyed him. “So, your flirtations—” 

“Sleeping with someone in a transactional sense is not difficult, especially for men,” Naviyd countered, “and the act itself is enjoyable, but that hardly makes it necessary. Most luxuries are the same, so…” He trailed off, gold-green eyes still fixed on the ceiling. “It never seemed important.”

Lumina and Arno both nodded along as he spoke. Since Arno went back to trying to pry the forgotten honey-cake from Khalil’s fingers, Lumina said, “I never felt I was denying myself anything. Did you?” 

“No. I knew, broadly, that there were celibate orders and solemn vows for this or that,” Naviyd said. He sighed. “But I thought only that the people who took them were far too serious. It was like being asked to give up cream buns or peaches. Irritating in the moment, but otherwise easily ignored.” 

Arno snorted with suppressed laughter, and Naviyd grinned at the joke landing where it was intended. 

“You see? I can mock the entire edifice.” Naviyd’s expression settled into a smile, though faint. “Really, the amount of time people spend eroticizing food is just ridiculous. I can hardly help mocking it all.” 

“I always thought of love as more… Oh, working together, appreciating each other,” Lumina cast about for an extra word, and ended up with, “raising a family. Love and being loved. I never especially thought of the process of making love as all that interesting once I understood what people meant. We raised pigs.” Her nose wrinkled and both of her companions laughed. Arno at least avoided the belly-laugh for which he was famous, which would have sent Khalil tumbling to the floor. “Hardly the subject of romantic poetry, but very educational.”

“Horses, for me,” Naviyd admitted, once he recovered.

“Goats,” said Arno. “And helping the nannies deliver many, many kids.” 

Lumina covered her mouth to hide her laugh, but it failed. “The lessons of the farm are truly wide-reaching.” 

“Best schoolroom I ever had,” Naviyd agreed, showing all his teeth. “Milking, too. Gods, we really are too practical for nobility. I can’t imagine what those would-be kings and queens think of us upjumped muck-rakers.”

“You needn’t wonder if you read more of my letters,” Lumina said, gesturing at the almost-forgotten desk at the far wall. “As is your supposed job.”

“I have yet to see a single wooden penny for it,” Naviyd sniped back. eHe threw his arms out, like an overturned turtle. “I cannot work under these conditions!”

“You live in my castle.”

“Which I designed and built!” 

Arno laughed again, drawing their attention. “You two are quite the pair. A pair of thundersnows, perhaps.”

“Bright, flashy, loud, and unstable? What a compliment,” Naviyd replied snippily, but he was smiling still. “All lightning seeks the ground, Arno.”

“And I am as much earth as the mountain.” Arno tapped the stone floor—what was visible of it—with his knuckles. His hands, unlike Naviyd’s, were neat and unmarked. “Personally, Naviyd? Had you asked at the right moment, you might’ve been able to steal a kiss—but not my heart, I think.” 

“I would hardly know what to do with it, besides frantically try to fit it back in your chest by force,” Naviyd said. He peered up at them, smile fading a bit. “Hearts are such slippery things.” 

Lumina rolled her eyes. “It helps if you clean the blood off first.” 

“And do what? Eat it?” 

“Bait bears,” Arno suggested. Khalil drooled onto the blankets and rubbed his face, smearing honey despite Arno’s best efforts. He looked down with false dismay. “At least there are no more of the white beasts.”

“Would one of those eat someone?” Naviyd asked. He sounded morbidly curious.

“I’ve been told so.” Arno rolled one shoulder until it popped. “Back to the topic at hand, though. Or something like it.” He rubbed at his beard thoughtfully, then said, “Your wife.”

“No longer mine,” Naviyd corrected, more dull than defensive. He sighed. “Now, I can hardly name a thing I miss about her. My love died after hers—a single stroke instead of a thousand bleeding cuts. So she says.” He got one hand out from under his head and clenched a fist. Beneath them, the castle rumbled faintly. “I’ll never forgive her for taking Mitra from Khalil. They were born together. How could she tear them apart?”

“I don’t understand,” Lumina said, frowning. 

“Call it a superstition. Twins—or triplets, even—ought not be separated by anything but fate or their own choices,” Naviyd said, shaking his head. “Had the two grown together and drifted apart like all siblings, I would not—I could be upset, but not like this. They come into the world together by the gods’ will. What they do with the bond is not for the hands of mortals.”

“Did Zahara know that?” Arno asked.

“I had hoped so,” Naviyd growled. “But what do I know of the Mishik who live and breathe Kaltekan influence? Less than I know of spite, apparently.”

Arno nudged Naviyd’s elbow with his foot. “Well? Out with it. What made her so angry that she would drive the knife in like that? Why would she spite the gods?”

“…It was my fault,” Naviyd admitted. His voice was low with shame. “I was just too thoughtless to understand before it was too late.” 

Lumina and Arno exchanged looks, as long-standing friends could. Husband and wife were secondary roles. Then, Lumina said, “I can believe that. You have a long history of behavior that could anger any wife.” 

“You could stand to develop some convenient forgetfulness.”

“Never.” 

Naviyd sighed. “Fine, then. If you want the sordid detail, I suppose you can stand to hear it. You’re old enough.” 

“I am four years younger than you are, old man.” 

“Neither of you are thirty,” said Arno, “so kindly shut up.” 

“It was slow,” Naviyd said, as though the other two hadn’t spoken. “I didn’t notice at first. Everything was so busy—the twins were born, we were still putting Gabilan together, the Tear was vomiting monsters all the damn time. I never did thank you for keeping me alive then, did I?” 

“You did,” said Lumina. “But generally while half-asleep or very distracted.” 

“Oh, good.” Naviyd nodded to himself, then went on, “And I didn’t—we came here with nothing but the clothes on our backs and your sister’s goodwill. And gold, I suppose, but you can hardly eat it when winter rolls in.” 

“True,” said Lumina. 

“But the difference was that I had you two. She had no one, because Lucky wouldn’t hear of leaving the capital or her…second? Whichever lover she’s on now, subtracting one.” Naviyd’s fist tightened. “No Ismene, who disappeared before the war was over. No Fiamma or anyone else. There were no Mishik besides us, even, until Keyah arrived. And Keyah does not count herself.” Naviyd blew out a harsh sigh. “She hated you, Lulu.”

Lumina frowned. “Because I was the one who chose to leave Celeste?”

“Because I followed you,” Naviyd corrected, “and separated her from everyone who made any sense to her.” 

“Then she should have left you,” said Arno, quite sensibly. 

Naviyd’s laugh was bitter. “She should have.” 

Arno frowned at the agreement. He patted Khalil’s curls, even as he said, “It sounds to me like Zahara would have been happier somewhere else. As much as I love your children, no woman ought to put love—even capped by great sex—before her happiness.”

“So, that was a poor start. I still thought you were both very much in love,” Lumina pointed out, folding her hands over her stomach. If she pressed, she could almost feel the two heartbeats under hers. If she didn’t, she’d still be kicked in the kidneys on occasion. 

“We were,” Naviyd readily agreed. “Caught up in each other. In being in love, I suppose. Passionate lovers, numb to all else.” 

It was all gone and dead now, but Lumina remembered that first year or so. The two of them had been wild during the early days of their marriage. 

“But none of it changed how little she talked to anyone besides me. She needed more,” Naviyd said. “And I could never give that to her. Nor could you, Lulu.” 

Lumina shook her head slowly. “I…never did like her.” 

Truth be told, Lumina’s unsociable nature never made her many friends, and Zahara shouldn’t have been forced to fight her way through that barrier at all. There ought to have been other options. Gabilan’s steady trickle of veterans, mages, and old soldiers hadn’t arrived then. Luxana was always better at the bright smiles and smooth words, even if she didn’t feel them. Even if she couldn’t spare any for her twin sister.

“Oh, she knew. We argued about you. Not at first, but later.” Naviyd scrubbed at his face again. “But, again, I spent almost all day with you, or Arno, or whoever else needed something when no one could be in three places at once. We were a triad, were we not? Corners to a triangle, lending stability everywhere we went.” 

Lumina frowned again. “Yes…?”

“And then she carried the twins, and things were different.” Naviyd’s eyes gleamed faintly in the firelight. “She and I were always together. Prying me from her side would take a pickaxe, and I would fight the entire way. We were starting a family of our own! How could anyone not be as excited as we were?”

“I trusted children more than you with tools during those days,” Lumina agreed. “I remember.” 

Arno’s silly little smile was fond. “You learned to play the lute for her.” 

“And she laughed at me! Often. I was never good. My best songs are shouted.” Naviyd’s face softened with the memory. “Scouring the land for whatever she craved. Not well, but I found those godsdamned olives all the same.”

“Too bad she hated the pickled kind,” Arno put in.

“You don’t, though, so I call it a success.” Naviyd shrugged. “And the twins were born, and everything was perfect.” 

Lumina thought back to the comment about Zahara’s hatred and had a guess where the story would lead. Nowhere good. 

“But… After the flurry of the first two years—infancy, toddling, and then Khalil learning to speak—work demanded more. And I could hardly say no to more responsibility. If I turned you down, you would have had to deal with all of Lucky’s demands after her ascension…” Naviyd pinched the bridge of his nose. “And the ones after. I think this would-be emperor might actually last. Radovan can hardly kill someone when exiled to the frozen nethers of the world.”

“Personally,” Lumina put in. “Or for a second time, come to that.” 

“He might try.” Arno didn’t look happy about the idea. 

“And so, four years.” Naviyd reached out with one hand and grasped Lumina’s. “And all the venom came out in one burst.” 

“Naviyd?” 

“A thousand slights. A thousand missed moments. How many times did I turn her away because I’d been run ragged by the demands of governing a province? How many times did I come to you instead, because we worked shoulder to shoulder in everything?” Naviyd squeezed her hand. “By the end, she thought the only reason I was here—the only reason I’d trap her here—was because of you, Lulu.”

“She thought I’d stolen your heart from her,” Lumina concluded grimly. 

“And so she’d tear mine out.” Naviyd closed his eyes. “If I’d been a better husband, I could have seen it and soothed her. I could have done so many things differently. But here we are. When she realized she could threaten me all she liked, and I’d not budge, she broke us both. Seemed…right.”  

Lumina said, after letting the statement sink in, “She threatened to slit you open from navel to nosering in front of twenty witnesses.”

“And that failed. How about that.” Naviyd huffed. “Besides, divorce is supposed to involve at least three witnesses, a threat of violence, and at least one god. She got it over with quickly.” 

“Did she really?” What little she knew of Zahara’s movements since leaving Gabilan did not paint a lovely picture. She seemed to spend more time with her rising band of pirates than with any child. It was more in line with those last few, bitter days than the years before. 

Naviyd couldn’t know if Mitra was even still alive. 

“No. But publicly, yes.” 

Lumina frowned. “And the twins?” 

Naviyd grimaced and tried to pull away, but Lumina’s grip was too strong to escape. “She’d have been within her rights to take both. She’s their mother. But…” 

“Come on, up,” Lumina insisted, hauling Naviyd upright with leverage and her uncanny strength, present even with her twins weighing her down. 

Naviyd grumbled, but it stopped when Arno handed over both a teacup—somewhat neglected and now lukewarm—as well as the fur-covered bundle containing Naviyd’s sleeping son. All bitterness bled out of him faster than winter ice melted in the sun. He stroked his son’s face with the back of one hand, eyes downcast. “I should have fought.” 

“Could you have?” 

“I don’t know. Could have destroyed us, possibly.” He tucked Khalil against his chest, where the boy snuffled in his sleep. Lumina didn’t even want to think of the possibility of two masters of mind magic deciding to murder each other inside of a city. Legal recourse wouldn’t matter. Everyone would claw their own eyes out. “Khalil will chase Mitra as far as his legs will take him. It won’t happen soon if the gods are kind, but it will happen. I could never stop him.” 

Lumina stored those words in a chest in her heart. Though she didn’t know when, Naviyd’s tone made it clear this prediction was as close to truth as he considered possible. For a Mishik, he generally put little stock in most of the religious practices—barring swearing by and at their gods—but this sounded as real as the power crawling beneath their skin. 

“Sky-Mother above, I would keep him safe here forever if I could.” Naviyd nearly bent double so he could rest his cheek atop Khalil’s head. His son drooled on, undisturbed. “But…”

“He would climb the walls and drive us all to drink,” Arno suggested, but fondly. The first children born in this castle could only inspire fond feelings, even if they were the kind of avatars of chaos Khalil aspired to be. 

“Neither of you can crawl into a bottle until I can join you,” Lumina told them. Lumina scooted across the floor with neither dignity nor ease, but managed to reach Naviyd and Khalil in decent time. “And it is well past this little one’s bedtime.”

“And not a drop of coffee,” Naviyd said. He caught Lumina’s eye, then added, “Not that I need it.” He sipped at his tea instead, which was herbal and not likely to keep him awake.

“So defensive,” said Arno. He got to his feet with only the slightest delay, as though his legs were numb. “I can put him to bed if you like.”

“No, no. I have him. He should stay with us tonight.” Naviyd set the teacup near the fire instead of within kicking distance. He coiled around Khalil and started shifting blankets, then settled on his side. Before he fully considered himself comfortable, he wedged himself up on his hand and said, “Lulu?”

Lumina nudged him with her foot as Arno picked up his entire pile of pillows and started transferring them to her side of the fire. “I can handle myself, Naviyd. Even when I cannot see my feet while standing.”

“I imagine you will never miss this part of the experience, even after the twins are as old as Khalil is and causing trouble. Speaking of, do they have names yet? I have ideas,” Naviyd remarked. His head dropped to the pillow beneath it almost on its own, and his voice came out a little muffled as he added, “Not that I want to impose.”

“No, Naviyd. Not until they’re ten days old,” Arno said. There was a hitch at the back of his voice, just barely audible as he curled into Lumina’s waiting arms. “I wouldn’t risk it.”

Black brows pulled together in a frown. “Why?”

“It is as bad luck as separating twins.” Arno hooked his arm around Lumina’s shoulders. Standing, he was shorter than she was, but lying down made no difference. “No names until we know their spirits are settled.”

Naviyd made a thoughtful noise, but it was clear he had no more interest in diving into cultural differences tonight.

“Sleep well,” was the wish around the solar, even with no beds to be found.

1. Does your character have good aim?

Several characters have very, very good aim. Among them are Naviyd, Mitra, Khalil (but not with an actual ranged weapon; he can throw rocks) and Serran, who is granted but a wee tyke. Middling aim is the threshold of people like Alena and (two of) her cousins, who have training but not a natural inclination or perfect eye.

Oceanus’s is just bad.

5. Can your character cook?

Most of the non-noble characters can. They’re not professional-level unless that’s their specific job, but those who grow up outside of a staffed household need to get by however they can.

7. Do any of your characters have depression?

Several, but the example who comes to mind immediately is Riyaz.

10. Would your character give up the chance to come back to life as a god so that someone else could be saved?

Riyaz, Tirane, Arno, and Serran would.

The rest of the cast is a bit vaguer and more “well, who’s coming back” about it.

12. Would your character marry someone their family didn’t approve of?

Alena most definitely would. Lumina definitely did. So did Naviyd, though that marriage went sour. Ismene would have, but circumstances went pear-shaped before the question was ever popped.

Khalil would probably ask who the hell he was marrying who managed to piss off his dad without annoying him first.

13. Do/Did any of your characters have large ears they had to grow into as a kid?

Arno did, and so does Serran.

14. Are any of your characters nonverbal?

Not that I can think of right now.

15. Did your character ever want to be a cowboy?

Khalil would if he knew what that was, but then would get bored and move on.

16. How does the way your character present themselves in public differ from how they are in private?

Khalil acts way more trollish than he actually is, though he has a fairly sharp sense of humor when he feels like expressing it. He’s also cunning, which someone who only sees the big-spending, brightly-grinning Mishik kid wouldn’t know immediately.

18. Is your character pro or anti union?

They don’t know what a union is, but they do understand guilds! Most of them look favorably on guilds that aren’t out to kill them.

19. Does your character like carrots?

Serran does!

21. Do any of your characters have heterochromia?

In previous editions, Mitra did. Now, she and Khalil are just on opposite ends of the extreme shades of Mishik yellow-green…but he’s managed to wander all the way into turquoise, somehow. They were both born with yellow-green eyes.

Zinnia also had heterochromia, but now her eyes are just wine-red.

25. Does your character experience sexism for the job/title they hold? (ie: she’s a girl, she can’t be x,y,z because only boys can be)

Yes, though the most obvious example was with regard to the Brandt twin sisters. Luxana facced severe opposition before taking her position as Empress, and there were multiple attempts to unseat her in favor of more established candidates due to her age, her “illegitimate” infant daughter, her commoner background, and her gender. She dealt with all comers by setting an awful lot of fires, so anyone who disparaged her directly had a very short life expectancy.

Her sister Lumina, on the other hand, faced similar opposition earlier when she was dragged into the Royal Kaltekan Army as a teenager and ended up busting more than a few heads as a direct result of other people’s pigheadedness.

27. Does your character know how to tie different kinds of knots?

Zahara, Naviyd, Mitra, and Khalil all do, whether because they worked on ships or are accomplished travelers. Oceanus also does, because he grew up in a fishing community.

31. How much does your character care about their appearance?

It depends. The higher the person’s social status is, the more likely they’re forced to care about and expend a lot of time and effort maintaining their appearance. People like Oceanus, who grew up poor in harsh conditions, had to keep themselves alive through whatever means necessary, so any personal grooming had to adapt to circumstances.

Lumina is probably the highest-ranked character who would actively prefer to tromp around in a suit of armor and chase down monsters all afternoon.

35. Naptime, yes or no?

Most of the characters enjoy naps when they can get them. Usually in bright sunbeams or while under about five blankets.

37. Did any of your characters have a fever they almost died from as a child?

Riyaz did.

41. Do other people around your character dictate their life or do they get to choose for themselves?

It depends on the character. The most independent characters are Zahara, Khalil, and Fithrain, who follow their path and damn the consequences. Few people can claim to have a real hold on them unless they allow it.

Tirane is somewhere in the middle, choosing to seize control of her life at a vital moment.

The characters most likely to succumb to pressure from others are Alena, her cousins, and Riyaz.

And Naviyd is a character who went from one extreme to the other, and then to the middle.

45. Would your character kill someone to get what they want?

A lot of them would.

47. Has your character ever stolen anything?

Khalil ought to have been arrested many, many times for pickpocketing, carnie chicanery, and other little schemes.

Naviyd stole enemy intelligence, which officially makes him a spy and not a thief.

52. Would your character prefer to have history know the truth or have many different versions of their life?

Khalil wants as many wildly differing accounts as possible. He finds the idea hilarious.

Contrast, say, Luxana, who wants her rule correctly documented.

53. What if the furthest your character has ever walked in a given stretch of time?

Khalil has walked the width of the continent before!

54. Would your character prefer to visit a new city or stay at home?

Khalil wants to run around and visit the big city.

Naviyd would rather stay in Gabilan and retire there.

56. Do any of your characters have step-family?

Alena definitely does, though mainly in the form of her half-sister and her stepmother (and her children. She’s not met the latter.  

58. Does your character prefer the ocean or the mountains?

Everyone from Gabilan: Mountains.

Everyone not from Gabilan: Oceans.

With the exception of Riyaz, who would rather burrow into the mountains and not come out.

61. Have any of your characters struggled with addiction?

Not that I can recall offhand.

65. Is your characters energetic?

Of the main characters, Khalil and Tirane win this hands-down.

67. Would your character be willing to do something they consider morally wrong in order to achieve their goals?

Mitra would. She’s employed as a government assassin/enforcer/spy, so she kind of has to be willing to get her hands dirty.

And Luxana is a champ at this kind of behavior.

70.  Does your character have any guarded/secret guild knowledge or family recipe?

Naviyd knows a lot of Mishik-specific sciences as a result of growing up with one foot in his father’s scholarly world and the other in his mother’s nomadic one. He also knows all the Order signs from his days serving the Sky Mother’s Tears, which helps him keep track of potential assassination plots when and where they spring up.

After all, he was one.

Oceanus knows his mother’s cooking recipes, even if he has a hard time finding the correct ingredients in places without permafrost.

72. Would your character care for someone who needed it if it meant being ostracized from their society?

Lumina has, did, and got left to die for that exact choice.

73. Has your character been to/ ever explored any ruins?

Naviyd has. He was not impressed by the dust of ages.

So has Zahara, after which point she sneezed and stole every scrap of the burial goods that looked sellable.

Khalil almost fell off a giant statue once. It was awesome.

74.  Are any of your characters associated with flowers?

Zinnia! (Because I have been told that is a flower. In my defense, her name was originally Zina.)

76: Would your character like to live on a farm and raise sheep?

Riyaz would, right up until he realized that sheep swarm.

78. Have any of your characters been exiled from their society?

Lumina was, and didn’t regret her decision to follow her own path. She promptly clambered her way back in later.

Zahara was never formally exiled, but even government-sanctioned piracy is frowned upon, generally speaking.

81. Does your character look like what others think they should from their reputation?

Nobody has any idea that Naviyd likes wearing riding outfits if they know him first as Lumina’s spymaster. There’s an in-universe concept of a spymaster as a noble in a creepy hoods.

85. Has your character ever been led down the wrong path because of their anger?

Luxana and Lumina have, but before them Sinrajin was the sterling, shining example right before he got fully possessed and started turning everything into an epic winter wonderland nightmare.

87. What are your character’s nails like?

Oceanus’s are rough and a little warped, due to malnutrition and lack of care.

91. Does your character engage in gossip?

Naviyd has to. He’s so into listening in on other people’s business that his summon contract in another world is for messenger pigeons.

95. If given total rule over a country, would your character step aside to turn it into a democracy?

Luxana: No.

Lumina: Needs to be introduced to the concept.

Naviyd: Fucking abdicates to not be in the spotlight and runs.

97. Do any of your characters have a tendency to dislocate joints?

Not really.

100. Are any of your characters queer?

Baaaaasically everyone except Sinrajin, Stratus, and Luxana.

102. Are any of your characters d/Deaf or HoH?

Not that I know of. Tells me several someones ought to be.

102. What is your character’s greatest source of guilt?

Khalil left Oceanus alone during his manic phase in the hopes of keeping him out of the blast radius, and then things went horribly for him.

Luxana failed to protect her family from the outcomes of her imperial ambitions.

Oceanus ran when his mother told him to, leaving her alone during the raid on his village.

Lumina couldn’t stop the Scourge of the South from possessing one of her fellow soldiers and wiping out most life too close to the nightmare zone.

Naviyd couldn’t keep his marriage from falling apart or his children together.

103. How well does your character deal with their anger?

Khalil starts messing with other people in small ways. Once, some of Lumina’s noble guests started making racist remarks toward his father, and he dumped the entire contents of her cosmetics drawers on them.

He was banned from using powders and the like afterwards.

Oceanus tends to sit and fume until he has more control.

Lumina beats up training dummies and occasionally sets them on fire.

104. Do any of your characters have pottery as a hobby?

Not that I can remember.

106. Do any of your characters have noticeable acne?

Not that I’ve mentioned.

108. Are any of your characters dogs?

Ash and his siblings! Sort of. They’re called bladewolves. Also, Hyung is a jindo dog and great at hunting foxes. He also hunts alongside a human partner who can understand him.

109. Would your character blackmail a god?

Most of them would if they had a chance! It’s kind of hard to pull that off, though.

120. Do any of your characters have PTSD?

Several! Among them, there’s Oceanus, Ismene, and Riyaz.

122. What is your character’s greatest secret?

123. Did any of you characters have nannies or governesses growing up?

Alena did.

124. Does your character workout?

Most of the characters with warrior training do so in their spare time. The noble children also practice, under the careful eyes of tutors.

126. Are any of your characters on good terms/still friends with an ex?

None of them besides Khalil.

128. Has your character’s home ever been destroyed?

Characters with flattened hometowns: Oceanus, Ismene, Sinrajin, Lumina, Luxana, and Tirane.

129. Has your character ever had to compromise on what they thought was right in order to maintain peace?

The noble-born characters often have.

Lumina’s most terrible one was letting Sirsha live past the end of the war.

130. Do you have any characters who are retired?

Some! Lumina is technically retired from soldiery, but she can still take up her weaponry again. Similarly, Naviyd is a retired assassin.

As for people who are just enjoying life after work, not so much.

132. Who is the precious cinnamon roll?

Alena! Also Serran, her cousin.

Khalil is a sinnamon roll.

133. Have any of your characters ever been caught in a fire or explosion?

Lumina! The fact that it didn’t burn her was a surprise for everyone.

Also, Khalil was banned from experimenting with flour at the age of twelve.

134. Has your character ever been alone in a hostile environment and been forced to travel a long way to reach a safety that wasn’t for sure?

Well, there was this one time that Khalil found Oceanus after a no-good very bad week and had a sudden feeling that Oltose Was Not Safe. So they trekked across the entire country to find Gabilan in the hopes that neither of them would die on the way.

Khalil’s main concern regarding Gabilan, though, was that his dad would assume he was dead.

136. Has your character ever been forced to deal with the ‘I want to speak to your manager” kind of person?

Lumina. A lot.

Being the Empress’s sister can suck sometimes.

138. How good is your character with money and accounting?

Lumina does her own finances and is teaching her kids and nieces how to do them too.

139. Has your character ever survived a fatal wound?

Naviyd has, through the power of Arno’s tremendous healing magic.

140. Can your character play an instruments?

Most of the nobles can.

142. Do any of your characters use wheelchairs, transportation devices, or mobility aids?

Nimbus actually has a prosthetic leg.

143. Has your character ever had some part of their culture made illegal?

It turns out that hunting without a royal decree in pre-Empire Kaltekas is illegal. Puts a real cramp in Naviyd’s trained hunter-gatherer style.

144. Are any of your characters adventurers by trade?

Khalil would raise his hand if asked. At least when left to his own devices and wandering the continent.

146. Were any of your characters disowned or abandoned by their parents?

Riyaz, Tirane, and Mitra were.

Oceanus was more like…lost.  

148. Do any of your characters have an eating disorder or food contamination phobia?

Not that I can recall.

149: How good is your character at lying?

Khalil and most of his family are highly talented liars, which can come down to unreadability or confidence on a case by case basis.

160: Do any of your characters have asthma?

Nimbus and Zinnia.

162: Has your character ever thrown a tantrum over things not going their way?

Oceanus, Alistair, Oriana, Nuri, Brigid, Sirsha, and a number of other characters have. Some are deadly.

163: Are any of your characters autistic? (If so, do they have special interests and what are they?)

Probably Alena and Serran.

Serran’s special interest is archery, followed by magic once he’s old enough that his reading lessons sink in and the theory starts to make more sense. Or he can just forge his own path—his empathic powers are different from the showy magic his family uses, so he may have to.  

Alena, meanwhile, is kind of like a tiny blonde Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She has a ravenous need to learn about any skill she sees others use to help people, from sewing to healing and agriculture. She exists in a particular hell where her social status is up in the air, which makes it very hard to tell what rules she ought to follow.

164: Are any of your characters tinkerers or inventors?

Copernicus and Gabilan’s blacksmiths and jewelers are.

166: Are any of your characters blind or visually impaired?

Riyaz and Oceanus both need sight-correcting lenses, though they’ve not been diagnosed for a decent chunk of time. I also can’t remember which one is far-sighted and which one is nearsighted.

Nimbus also wears spectacles,

168: Is your characters easily embarrassed?

Alena, Oceanus, and Mitra are.

Riyaz is oblivious or uncaring about most things that embarrass normal people, Tirane has precious little shame, and Khalil has none at all.

169: Are any of your characters married to the sea?

Nope.

175: Are any of your characters badass (lesbian) pirate queens?