Tekina and Bellany had joined Illya for a drink. She was leaning against the banister, gazing over the balcony and towards the many cheerful people below. The idle chit chat that they enjoyed had somehow turned to a topic that they found themselves often discussing these days, that being the topic of marriage. For most of her life, Illya was against getting married. Even now while Bellany and Tekina mused about the future of their children, Illya found herself a little disheartened.
Illya was often the pawn of many political engagements but she didn't always despise the idea of sharing a future with someone. As a young girl, she dreamt of being able to marry the person she loved and start a family with them. But when Callisto's ship got lost at sea, leaving the world thinking that he was dead for 2 years, she vowed not to marry unless someone brought the father of her children back to her.
It can be said that her obsession with her work left her little time to be a mother even when she tried her best to, but then again, she never fathomed the possibility that she might one day have to raise biological children of her own. Whenever she did find the time to spend with her kids, she always made sure to make the most of it. She never saw herself as a good mother and often worried her kids would inherit her less desirable qualities. Unfortunately for her, children can be quite impressionable.
Astrid seemed to take after her in the worst ways, much to her dismay. Getting pregnant young, getting married young, running away to get married, all things Illya had done at some point. Never in a million years did she imagine Astrid would be the first one to give her a grandchild. Not even her eldest, a boy she had adopted many, many years ago, had any children. Whatever the case, she still wasn't about to force them to get on with their lives, but part of her knew that if she was to outlive them anyway, it would be nice to see them start families of their own while they still could. She was pulled from her thoughts when Seibel approached the group of ladies and with a bow, turned to face Illya.
"Your Majesty, there are guests from Visehr. They're here for the archery hunt."
"Perfect!" Chimed Illya.
"It's time for that already?" Said Tekina.
Bellany looked over at Illya, leaning in she whispered. "Should I go get Seimei? Or will you not be participating this year?"
Illya shook her head. "Hold off on calling him."
The archery hunt was a yearly hunt that used to be hosted by one of the five branch families of the Haan Empire. They would open a portal to the underworld and hunt the rogue spirits that came out. Each clan would then be ranked in the top five based on who scored the most points. It simultaneously worked as population control for sections of the underworld as well as a chance for young disciples of each clan to demonstrate their talents. Not to mention, it was one of many events that fostered a well meaning relationship between the Haan's and their branch families.
However, many years ago, one of the five branch families of the Haan, the Qishan clan, decided that they were stronger than the Haans and tried to overthrow them. Their treachery set into motion a chain of events that turned out to be a bloody mess. Since their extermination, the remaining four clans had managed to rebuild and restore themselves.
While the Qishan's had been exterminated and in the years that followed, order was restored to the other clans, bad blood had festered between them and in an effort to quell the bad blood that threatened to destroy what remained after the devastating Qishan uprising, events like the archery hunt were opened to many neighbouring countries so as to gain allies and build trust between nations as well as show good faith amongst the remaining family. This year, it was Solaria's turn to host the event. Of the countries sending forth their representatives were, Sindaria, Haan's branch families: Eryu, Fengyu, Hao and Zian, and of course Illya representing both Haan and Solaira.
Since Sindaria was the only foreign power in attendance, Illya supposed that the other countries were still a little shaken up after the battle between Sana and Illya got out and once they heard that Sindaria was attending, they chose not to, for fear of a battle breaking out and them getting caught in the crossfire. Illya couldn't blame them really, she knew that something was bound to happen but if she were to cancel the event then that would only incur the ire of the Haan clans and if she banned Sindaria from participating, it would result in the same criticism.
For the life of her she couldn't figure out why Sana hadn't come to finish them off within the six years since his last attack. It wasn't like she would have been able to kill him, since his alliance with Li made her unable to. If Li could kill her mother and destroy her homeland, Li was more than capable of snuffing her out if she made one wrong move. She knew that Sana's attack all those years ago was merely a show of power meant to scare them into submission but the simple fact that he didn't attack again for a whole 6 years made her question his motives of attacking in the first place if he wasn't willing to finish the job. Did he want to lull them into a false sense of security given the length of time that had passed without problems? It seemed too ineffective of a plan. Now that he was attending an event meant to foster peace and harmony she was most certainly on high alert.
Illya marched down to the hunting grounds where everyone was gathered. Amidst the buzz of excitement that rung clear in her head, a foreboding feeling pooled in her gut and by now, she had learned that said feeling was often always right. Her fingers itched to grab hold of her bow and let loose a fury of arrows. The anticipation was almost too much to bear, but the warrior blood that ran rampant in her veins was hushed by a malevolent strain that urged her not to summon her bow. So for once, she listened. By the time she arrived at the hunting grounds, she knew something was amiss inside of her, a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and the fact that she couldn't quite place what exactly was wrong made it all the more frustrating.
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