a day once dawned

Hotaru The tea in her cup is nearly depleted when he speaks, and she drains the rest before setting it back on its saucer on the table between them. Tongue flicking out to catch the last lingering taste on her lips as she settles against the arm of the couch beneath her. There are plans and motions here, moving swift and dark like an ocean beneath ice. Convoluted, callous, intentional. An entire war waged in the silence amidst their words, the tick of a brow or the cut of a gaze that they engage with more than terms and expressions. "Tell me of them. I don't want to be caught unaware. If she gets in my way, I would prefer the advantage." The gleam of her gaze, the sharpness of her features, is telling. Vowing that if Zariah intends to target her family, Hotaru would rip her asunder. Torture, maiming, and murder alike do not disgust her. Her hands are free to be bloodied if it ensures her family's are not, that their safety is assured. "I intend to go soon, as soon as I have a suitably large amount of clothing and food to offer. I want to endear myself to the people as quickly as I can." A king is no king if the sea of people they rule over revolts, topples, tears asunder the monarchy. Something previous leaders had never understood, that Hotaru had vowed to do the opposite of from when she was no more than a child, ignored and unwanted in the kingdom she'd been born to.