chapter seventeen

─── strategists 

{ Azriel }

         𝔚hen I left Maiya three hours later, I was more content. Despite the tiredness in my mate's eyes, she had looked slightly happier. I had managed to see Firoh and Isaak as I was leaving, and they'd promised to check in more often when I was not there, which left me feeling more at ease. As long as she had friends around her who could support her, I was content.

Tightening the final strap of my armour, I shook the last remnants of flour from my hair and brushed the icing from my mouth. As soon as I entered the house, I was met with multiple nervous faces as they watched me.

"Did you get it?" I held the orb up from behind my back for the others in the Inner Circle to see, and it was like a cloud had dispelled from overhead. They all looked relieved.

"How did you get it?" Mor asked, taking it from my hands and placing it onto the table for the others to examine.

"I asked nicely." I shrugged, before turning to where Rhysand sat. "We can take one of the rogue Illyrian encampments in the south off of our list to track down. Carasai, there are going to be women and children heading to Faldrow."

"I'll head up there after this meeting then, see if they need another healer present." Carasai nodded her head, brushing past me to sit beside Rhysand, who looked confused.

"Why do I need to take it from the list?"

"I think that you might find that it has been destroyed," I sat down beside Feyre, drawing my wings into me once more. When I looked up, they were watching me again. My shadows curled, flickering gently at the stares. I had never truly liked a lot of eyes on me.

"What did you say?"

"I think Maiya has destroyed the encampment." I muttered. I knew that I was ratting my mate out, but if I could prove that she was helping Rhysand, then it would make my next request seem more reasonable.

"Did she tell you that?" Cassian asked.

"She never confirmed it, but she was covered in blood." I told them, as Feyre turned to look at me in horror. "Apparently they were clipping girls wings and they were one of the camps that betrayed you."

"How did she know that?" Rhysand hissed and I didn't have the guts to tell him that I gave her a list a year or so earlier, thinking that she might be able to help us. "She shouldn't be doing that."

"That's helpful." I pointed out. "She's helping us here, otherwise Cassian and I would have done the same thing."

"She's banished to Hewn."

"Then un-banish her." I challenged as Rhysand turned to me, eyes narrowed. It was one of the few things that he and I constantly butted heads over. "She's a strategist, the best that the Night Court has. She'd be useful."

"Absolutely not."

"Rhys-" Carasai murmured, turning to him with narrowed eyes.

"No."

"Rhysand," I cocked an eyebrow, continuing regardless of his words. "Even your father acknowledged that she was the best that the court had. To not use her brains would be a fatal error on our behalf."

"To use her would also lead to a larger amount of death." Rhysand countered as I sighed. I could not argue that point. "You know what she did on the battlefield, how many she butchered and hung from trees as a warning. She would rather kill us."

"She wouldn't." I protested, straightening up as he spoke about my mate in such a way. I tried to remain calm, though it was proving hard. "The only reason she's been threatening to is because she's annoyed that you haven't apologised."

"I haven't apologised?" Rhysand looked offended at the thought as Feyre looked between the pair of us.

"Why won't you ask your sister? It sounds like she'd be helpful." This caused Rhysand to sigh and take his glare off of me.

"Maiya and I have a complicated history." He muttered as I rolled my eyes and fought back a scoff. It wasn't that complicated. "She is not truly sound of mind, far too like our father."

"Maiya is perfectly sound of mind." I protested, not liking the way he was talking about my mate. "She is like your father because you keep treating her like your father."

"She carved liar into Tamlin's cheek and removed his fingers..." Recognition flashed across Feyre's face as Rhysand countered my point.

"He'd forced her to watch as your mother was beheaded in front of her." I pointed out.

"...she butchers those around her with no mercy, tortures others, removes fingers and let's not to forget the host of rotting skulls outside of the Hewn City." Rhysand listed off, shaking his head. "Aramantha once told me that she saw Maiya fighting on the battlefield and had never been so in awe of someone her entire life. Maiya is my sister, I know what she's like and I have little doubt that she would sell us out if she thought it would satisfy her need for revenge."

"Maiya also controls the entire legion of Darkbringers, who we need in the upcoming war," I reminded him, "as well as controlling the Hewn City. She's the best strategist that we've got, a talented fighter with both magic and weapons, not to mention she was trained under your father for nineteen years, which you weren't. Should we go into negotiation with the other Courts then she is the person that I would feel most comfortable letting negotiate for us. The other High Lords respect her, they know who she is, what she's capable of and her battle knowledge. I was there when the strategies were discussed with her and the High Lords. I know this for a fact."

"Rhysand is right though." Cassian pointed out. "How do we know that she won't stab us when our backs are turned? If she is as good a fighter as you say, then it could be a struggle for us. I don't want to risk that chance."

"Give her a reason not to fight, a bargaining chip." I replied. They had to see sense, that Maiya was useful.

"Rhysand, Azriel might be right." Carasai spoke up, nodding her head slowly. She had liked Maiya, that I knew, or at the very least understood where Maiya was coming from. "None of us are battle tested strategists, nor politicians. She's been helping us out with the rogue Illyrians, what makes it so difficult to think that she could help us out?"

"The heads she's been sending to me would do it." Maiya was not doing herself any favours here.

"She'll help. Apologise and let the entire business be put to rest." I huffed, growing frustrated with how little they listened to me. "Trust me on this, please. I've been your advisor for five hundred years, but I was your father's advisor first. I worked with Maiya, more so than you, or anyone else, did. I know her and I trust her."

"She'll ask for concessions," Mor pointed out.

"She'll ask for an apology." I countered. "If something goes wrong, I'll place my life on the line for it but I trust her."

Rhysand grew tense, looking down as various emotions passed through his eyes. He sighed, before locking eyes with me.

"Fine, then we leave to the Hewn City tomorrow." Now I just had to hope that my mate didn't laugh in all of our faces at the request.

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{ Maiya }

"Your brother's here." I looked up, cracking my eyes open from a fitful sleep as Firoh appeared in my bedroom. I huffed in annoyance at the lack of knocking that went on in my house. "With the rest of his 'Inner Circle'."

"What?"

"Get up." Firoh slapped my leg, as I hissed and tried to kick him. "You've got to meet with him."

"He can wait until it's less of an annoying time for me." I huffed, before a tug at the mate bond caused me to sit up. "You never said Azriel was here?"

"Oh, should I have mentioned that your mate was here as well?" Firoh sent me a teasing grin, before disappearing from my room as I stood and pulled a dress from my wardrobe. I pulled it up my body, shifting the fabric around so that it would not press against my scars, before shuffling around as I located my heels and brushed through my hair. "Are you ready?"

"Give me a moment!" I pulled necklaces and rings on, sliding earrings in as I added makeup. "Why did I let you have a key to my home?"

"Because you love me dearly. I'm your favourite brother." Firoh was dressed in his armour, his golden eyes wide and a grin across his face. "You almost done?"

"Mother above, stop being so impatient." I swiped a blood red shade of lipstick on, before turning to him. "How do I look?"

"Just as intimidating as normal." He helped me straighten out my dress as I made sure that it sat perfectly across my shoulders. "Isaak is fetching the rest of the advisors now. They'll join us in the throne room."

"Good." I smirked at him, before finding my crown in the wardrobe attached to my room. The siphons glimmered in the light, as I held onto it gently. "Then, let us go and greet them."

"Of course, my Lady." Firoh smiled, extending an arm for me. I wrapped my own around his, as he squeezed gently. "You can do this."

"Thank you." He nodded, before we hurried up and into the corridors that would take us to the throne room. We joined the rest of my advisors in the antechamber to the throne room, where I knew my soldiers would have put them. "Good morning."

They bowed their heads. Firoh stood to the right of me, as the second of Hewn, and the person I trusted the most with decisions when I did not trust my own mind. Beside him stood Keir, who after years of punishment, had worked his way back up to become one of my councillors, though he was still on probation. He knew the politics of the city better than I did, and he challenged my decisions when needed. 

Beside him was Aralya, one of the first female politicians that Hewn had ever had. She was the first to step forward, despite the backlash that the elders gave her, helping me to create laws that protected those who could not protect themselves. Maybe in time there'd be more advisors, but for now, this comprised my circle.

"I don't want all of you in there at the start. I want you listening and coming up with ideas so that we can talk together about what is to be done." I commanded, as the trio nodded their heads. "I don't know what it is that they want."

"Is that wise?" Aralya spoke first, her head tilted to the side as she drummed her hand against the chair. She was in a orange dress, gold jewellery across her hands, neck and face. "It would make the most sense to have us there as well." 

I shook my head.

"Morrigan, my cousin, will most likely be joining them." All three of us turned to look at Keir.

"My daughter can be in the same room as me, but if she does not want to, then I will not enter."

"Good." I sighed, before smoothing my dress out as Aralya nodded her head. 

"Do you need a guard?" Firoh questioned.

"No, I am a weapon enough on my own. If I need help, I shall call." I patted his arm, before looking around them. With one final nod, I turned and opened the door, stepping into the Throne Room. I settled my crown in my head, looking across from the raised dais to see my city, and remind myself of what I needed to be thinking of. My people came first.

My heels clicked across the floor as I felt eyes on me, but I ignored them to brush my throne off and sit down on the cold obsidian. Finally, I looked up at the motley crew in front of me.

I recognised Azriel immediately, for he was watching me with warm eyes and a small smile. He was in Illyrian fighting leathers, just like Cassian, who stood next to him. The Illyrian general was taller than I had imagined him to be, having grown in the five hundred years since I last saw him, and was not exactly as Azriel had described him. His hair was pulled off his face, dark eyes watching me closely. A large scar ran across his face, in the pattern of a claw mark, covering his nose and leading to his chin but it did not make him any less handsome.

That made Azriel shoot me an annoyed glare as I smirked.

To the right of them was Morrigan, who I found to be relatively unscathed since the last time I saw her centuries earlier when we were still in our teenage years. She was in a blood red dress, her eyes narrowed as she watched me, with what I supposed was hatred. I was used to that. Having ruled Hewn for so long, outsiders normally regarded me with anger for what the court had used to be years earlier. They did not know how long it had taken to change it.

My brother, Rhysand, was standing beside her, his arms folded across his chest. He had grown, his dark hair slightly longer than when I had last seen him, and he seemed stronger as well. I cocked an eyebrow at the frightened young girl behind him, forcing down my smirk. 

I didn't know this one.

"This is an unwanted surprise." I leant forward, running my tongue across my teeth. "I thought I warned you not to come here. So what do you want?"

"Maiya, there is another war coming, between Hybern and Prythian." Rhysand spoke softly, not looking at me directly as I hummed. "You're needed, for both your legions and your brain. You were father's top strategist during the war."

"You want my help?" I chuckled, shaking my head at the irony of it. "I will talk to my advisors."

"This isn't a time to talk about it, it's a time for you to help." Morrigan protested, as I turned to her with narrowed eyes.

"Maybe you blindly follow my brother, but here, I listen to my political advisors to make big decisions such as this." I explained slowly, as if speaking to a child. "Just because I lead Hewn and the Darkbringers does not mean that I have full control of them. This is not a dictatorship."

"Then talk to your advisors, but we need an answer." I nodded at Rhysand's words, before standing and stalking away. "They will not come here?"

"They have been told not to."

"By who?"

"By me." I rolled my eyes. "I will not bring an abuser into the same room as their victim, not without consulting them first."

I looked at Morrigan, who had paled as she looked up at me.

"My father is one of your advisors?"

"Yes, he is." I nodded. "It's a rather recent appointment, but his opinion is useful."

"He sold me to Eris, tortured me and-"

"-and he's been punished for it many times over." I countered, stopping her. "I am not asking you to forgive him, nor did I want you to see him which is why he is not here right now, but he is my advisor who's opinion I trust."

"You're trusting the opinion of an abuser. What does that make you?" Morrigan spat, as I tensed, before turning to look down at her. I took a deep breath, the scars on my back aching, before turning and walking back to the antechamber. Opening the door, I slipped in and closed it behind me.

I knew there would be backlash after appointing Keir as one of my advisors but he had served time and paid the fine for doing what he had done to Keir. It had taken near to a hundred and fifty years for me to ever consider trusting him again, let alone having him as an advisor, but he had been a vital part of the changes in Hewn. 

"That went well." Firoh muttered, as he, Keir and Aralya turned to face me. They had a page or so of notes in front of them already as I went to sit with them.

"So?" Aralya slid the piece of paper across to me. "You are going to agree."

"Not without concessions from them." Keir pointed to a note at the bottom of the page. "We've been on our own down here for five hundred years with little to no funding and no help from the outside court. The only reason that our economy is stable is due to Firoh, the only reason the women of Hewn have equal opportunities and rights is down to Aralya and the only reason the entire place is still running is down to you. They need to help now. We are still a part of their court though they have forgotten us."

I nodded, smiling at my trio of advisors.

"Thank you." They all waved it off as I stood once more, still reading through the sheet of paper. "If any of you wish to come with me, you can."

"Morrigan does not wish to see me." Keir shook his head, stepping away from the table. "I will wait here in case you have further use for me."

"I'll keep Keir company." Firoh grinned at the man, who rolled his eyes though I could see a slight smile playing on his lips. Aralya stood, smoothing her orange dress.

"I want to see the Inner Circle of advisors." She dusted her dress off, before looking at me, "and I wish to see Morrigan. I've heard too much about her now for me not to be curious."

"That is fair." I opened the door once more, waiting for Aralya to join my side as I led her to the dais. "The blonde woman is Morrigan. You know Azriel, Cassian is to his right and Rhysand is beside Mor. I don't know the girl."

"She looks like her mother." Aralya stated softly, watching Morrigan cautiously. "A more angry version. Poor girl."

I nodded my head, before sitting down.

"This is Aralya, one of my advisors." I motioned to the woman, who tilted her head up, making eye contact with all of them. "They've come to a decision about what should be done, and I agree. In the five hundred years that you have not been to Hewn, we have prospered without you. We have kept the economy running, the Darkbringers in fighting shape and taken back some of the more repressive laws of the old age. None of this has been easy, we have struggled and faced large amounts of backlash with no support from the court outside who seemed to forget about our existence so we want compensation."

"Compensation?" Rhysand cocked an eyebrow. "What do you need the money for if you are prospering?"

"Technological and medicinal advances." Aralya cut in, looking him up and down in a curious manner. "We need more funding to continue our exploration into runes and their more obscure uses, to be able to pay our workers a higher salary for a better quality of life, to help run the shelters for those who have suffered abuse or been forced into marriages, to create more prison cells for those that break the laws and the list goes on. Should this go through then we can discuss it with your financial advisor." 

"My father has let you destroy the laws that he himself abided by?" Morrigan shook her head. "That is something that I do not believe."

"Neither did I, until I met him." Aralya sighed, before shaking her head. "When your father joined the other advisors after one hundred and fifty years locked away, he congratulated me on my success."

"That's not po-"

"He has been fully supportive of all the changes we have put in place, helping us find the other females who had to leave Hewn so that we could check on them." Aralya shrugged her shoulders. "You may not believe me, but it is something that has happened. It is not my place to forgive him for what he has done to you, but I know that he is trying. That is all any of us can do."

Azriel was smiling gently, as the rest of the inner court looked shocked. He hadn't told them about Hewn, I realised, and that made me force a smile from my face, sending a teasing flick down the bond at him.

"We also want a formal apology and the end of my banishment to Hewn." I listed off, reading the piece of paper in my hand. "We ask for equal rights to be given to Hewn citizens, Velaris and the other cities are open for us to travel to, with no discrimination towards us, and we can keep the doors to the mountain open."

"I don't want Keir in Velaris." Morrigan protested as I sighed, and looked up at Aralya. She nodded, before turning and walking away to discuss with Firoh and Keir. I wanted all my citizens to have equal rights, but I would not allow an abuser to be in his victims safe space. I would not have wished for my father to be in Hewn, so I understood Morrigan's intentions.

"Keir agrees. He won't come to Velaris." Aralya told me, as I nodded at Rhysand.

"I also want full freedom in designing strategies and how I interact with the other courts, politically." 

"I can abide to all of them." I nodded my head, folding the paper and stalking down the steps, holding my hand out to Rhysand. He sighed, before reluctantly shaking my hand as I nodded.

"I expect a formal apology then." I turned, walking back up the stairs and away from them as Rhysand spluttered out a confused mutter. "What?"

"You are not coming with us?"

"No." I shook my head. "Why would I do that? You have not apologised, or even put down our deal in writing and until you do, I will not leave Hewn. When you do, I will make trips to help out."

"We need your help now."

"Your spymaster can tell me what you need and I will deliver strategies to him when you start to put the things we discussed into place."

"That could take months, years even, we do not have that sort of time!" Rhysand growled, growing closer to me.

"You should have thought of that then. I will not help you at the expense of my own home without securities in place." I shook my head at his ideas. My citizens were my priority, and I would not let them down. "It's been 500 years. That history is not going to be erased by me shaking your hand. Put the deal into writing, sign it, and then we can start making things happen."

"You are willing to let others-" He started up the stairs before he stopped at the sound of a door slamming. Firoh stood beside me, his sword drawn in warming, and Keir joined my other side, his sword on his back. Around the room, my sentries appeared, holding their hands out, more than ready to draw runes. They had been hidden at their posts, but revealed themselves as Rhysand put his feet onto the dais.

Cassian stepped forward, drawing his sword, but Firoh shook his head.

"Don't try that. You take another step forward and I will kill you for threatening our lady." Azriel and Cassian's wings flared up at Firoh's words, but they both backed off. Azriel was reaching down the bond, and I shot him a calming look. I did not want anyone dead.

"I am just as powerful as you are, Rhysand." I held a hand up, as my soldiers all relaxed. Firoh and Keir backed off, standing with Aralya as I spoke to my brother. "Ensure that my city is safe and provided for, and I will help. Until such time as you do, I won't."

"Maiya, I don't have enough time to do this." Rhysand ran a hand through his hair. "We are trying to plan an attack on Hybern now. I need you to help now."

"That is not my problem." I shook my head. "You did not punish the man who held me down and made me watch, as well as almost killing me. You banished me to Hewn, just like father did. You never made a move to apologise or even help out with Hewn in the five hundred years since. You betrayed my trust, and told my most trusted secret to the enemy."

"We're at war, Maiya."

"If this was the other way round, would you help without insurance?" I cocked an eyebrow. "I bet even coming here, you had put measures in place. So, do what I wished and then, we can work together."

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Hiya,

Azriel is just lovely, Maiya is actually being slightly mature at the moment but she is just *chefs kiss*. Idk what it is about her in full leader mode, but I love it to bits and she's just so cool. What do you think of Maiya's character?

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx