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January 17 - January 20, 2024
“It’s not illegal here,” Rhodin added, as if in reassurance. “I’m sure that’s not true.” “It’ll be better if you think it is.
Rhodin insisted they spend a portion of each day practising trotting, cantering, galloping, jumping, and ‘looking fantastic’.
“You think his Radiancy is the reincarnation of Aurelius Magnus? And I am … Elonoa’a?”
plsssssss
“Did I say that right, Uncle Kip? May I call you Uncle Kip? That’s how Dad always talks about you!”
tearing uppppp
We were all excited but then three hundred of them were for Basil.” “From his Cousin Kip,” the elder said.
INSANE (i giggled so hard)
“Three hundred and twenty-seven letters, really.”
(That was a lie. He had wanted to share his life with someone. It had just not been Ghilly.)
hm i wonder who!
I couldn’t see how I could go home if you weren’t there.”
:(((((
Basil pondered a moment. “Perhaps not exactly the same. I’ve read enough of your letters to know there’s someone else you’d rather be playing the role of Aurelius Magnus now!”
He was the (ex-)Viceroy of Zunidh. He was the tanà of the Mdangs. He held the fire. He was not blushing like a virginal teenager in the face of his first crush.
Cliopher was sure he himself had. (This was entirely a lie.)
yeah you were literally thinking it the other day
“I am sorry, Kip, but when I became close friends with Jullanar of the Sea I simply had to tell her how you taught me Shaian using Fitzroy Angursell’s songs about her because you were entirely convinced you would one day marry her.” Basil gave him a sly, laughing grin. “She’s recently divorced, you know. If your beloved lord isn’t quite enough—” “He’s Fitzroy Angursell,” Cliopher blurted, just as if he’d never been to court a day in his life.
the one who wrote all those letters,
He wished he could speak to his Radiancy.
well you will soon so
He watched Clio splashing with his oars, scuttling across the calm, still water, the foreign trees around him, the very earth a different colour, and could only think that being a Wide Seas Islander also had to include this.
every time a voyage was concluded, after the welcome feast the sailors would go off to mend their sails, prepare their boat for the next voyage.
ahhh i love when this part comes up later, it’s so sick
“I missed you,” he said. “I’m not entirely unaware,” Basil replied, grinning at him. “I started to have my suspicions after the second or third dozen letter.”
And if he were humming Aurora as he worked— Well. At least he had started to recognize when he did so.
He could almost hear his Radiancy’s voice, laughter barely suppressed: “Hard at work, Lord Mdang?” “Always, my lord,” he replied out loud, and then chuckled quietly at himself for his fancies.
UR SO SILLY. UNENDING SILLINESS
He looked up, pen forgotten mid-air.
hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
That word he had refused ever to utter, to write down, to think, seemed to echo in his head.
His fanoa, Basil’s laughing voice said in his ear.
oop first time articulated so clearly
He wanted his Radiancy to be his fanoa
OOP!!!!
He gazed at his Radiancy, his friend, Fitzroy Angursell, his fanoa (oh, if only) and did not know what to say.
But he was real. He was. And he was Cliopher’s dearest friend.
(His fanoa, and oh by the gods, now that he had thought it he could not unthink it, and yet he could not say it, either.
Then the guard said, with just the smallest hint of reproachfulness, “I had been given to understand that certain of my theories were incorrect, my lord.”
You have been taking good care of Cliopher for me, I can see.
tehehehe
“Certainly not,” Rhodin agreed, “if you consider causing the entire government to go into the protocol for the unexpected death of its acting head of state not all that serious.”
even as a wind out of nowhere whipped through the room and scattered all his careful piles.
noooooo not his piles!!!!
also magic boyfriend (/qpr) upset because his normie bureaucracy boyfriend (/qpr) was assumed dead while he was gone😫😫
“Pikabe lost his arm.” “Pikabe isn’t here,” his Radiancy said, his eyes nearly liquid gold. “Nor is he you.”
DAMN BRO
His Radiancy, Fitzroy, stepped forward, arms outstretched, and seized him in a fierce embrace.
baby girl who’s having a hard time with physical contact INITIATING IT. THEM!!!!
“We’re basically in-laws at this point, aren’t we?” His Radiancy held terrifically still.
oh my fucking god
second read: imagine what’s going through his head rn!!!
He had wanted to change the world. It had also taken a bare fortnight after his Radiancy left for him to begin planning how to hand everything over to Aioru.
“I’m not certain Kip’s ready to say that,” his Radiancy said,
OOOOOP
My magnificent former secretary! My friend! Basil’s Cousin Kip!
🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
The incomparable Cliopher Mdang, whom I’ve mentioned.” “Once or twice,” Pali Avramapul muttered, just loud enough for Cliopher to hear.
PLS it’s true he mentioned him A LOT
It meant that his Radiancy was pleased to see him, and pleased to have him beside him. Nothing more.
uh huh
who smiled back and actually nudged Cliopher’s knee with his own.
And Sardeet Avramapul was Rhodin’s secret penpal, and Masseo Umrit was Ludvic’s father.
Beneath the table his Radiancy nudged their knees together again.
“I have a penpal on Zunidh,” Sardeet Avramapul said happily. “He told me all about it.” Rhodin dropped his knife.
TEHEHEHEHEHE
Chapter Thirty-One Rhodin’s Correspondent, his Dear Friend, the Impostor Claiming to be Sardeet Avramapul
Cliopher knew his distress, and so with his knee pressed against his, offering that small consolation and comfort,
He also kept his knee pressed against Cliopher’s, who wished fruitlessly and furiously that he had been able to offer any such comfort in the past.
Cliopher admired her beauty, but he could not stop himself from thinking of the light in his Radiancy’s eyes when Cliopher had finally called him by his name.
fellas is it aroace to care more about the warmth in ur friends eyes than a beautiful woman?
“I’ll try,” he promised, with all the weight of a sacred oath, for he had never broken any of his to Basil, either.
Cliopher raised his eyebrows at him, which unexpectedly made Basil guffaw. “What?” “That was so much—I’ve only just met him but that’s one of his gestures, isn’t it? The way you held your head …” “We’ve worked together for many years,” Cliopher said, resolutely calm. “Ah, yes, that was definitely the look I’d expect to see on the face of a loyal colleague, when you looked up to see your lord standing there in all his Fitzroy Angursellian glory. Don’t splutter, you know it’s true.” “Basil!”
“He dressed up for you, you know. He came in with Jullanar and the others, and he came right up to me and said: ‘You’re Kip’s Cousin Basil! He’s told me so much about you!’ So I looked at him, and I said, right back, ‘You’re Kip’s dear friend! He’s told me so much about you!’ And then, while he was still spluttering a bit, I said: ‘He’s here.’”
“Now. I wasn’t sure, given your past … inclinations, or rather the scarcity thereof, but I do take pride in my vocation as an innkeeper—”
PLSSSSSS
