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It was the third time he’d traced this particular grain of wood on the arm of his chair, Amon just tracing a finger along it while his cheek rested in the palm of his opposite hand, that elbow resting on the same arm he was tracing. It was always rather neat how the wood seemed to form these unique little patterns in the way it grew, weaving alongside its fellow grains yet very few, if any, seemed to touch one another. They simply flowed alongside one another, almost flowing like the wind itself.
He smiled at the thought, his eyes turning now to the window nearby as he watched outside. He could see from the nearby tree that the wind was blowing in a nice, calm breeze, causing the branches to sway slightly, their green leaves rustling against one another. He could also see grey clouds working their way towards the palace, a sign of some rain to come. He sat up a bit, mostly because he felt a little surge of energy go through him at the thought of getting out there and enjoying the cool rains that often made their way through the lands of the Air Kingdom.
“Something you wish to say, your majesty?” Amon blinked, looking out into the council room he was sitting within. It was the voice of Councilor Ilder, who was standing up in front of his seat, as the councilors would when speaking. His chair was located in the first row of three rows that formed a semi-circle around the walls of the room. The rows were split down the middle along the wall opposite of the chair in which Amon sat, the councilor chairs all pointing towards the king’s chair due to the semi-circle they were situated in. Each chair has space between the next, leading to small stairs to allow the councilors to move about as was needed; the finely crafted chairs were each made of a dark wood, each one sanded and buffed to be as smooth as they could be, and the back and seats were padded for comfort. They even had a small desk attached to them to allow councilors to place whatever they might bring or to allow them to write if they needed too. The king’s own chair was a bit larger and was situated on the floor against the wall, and it too had similar accommodations as the chairs of the councilors, just with a bit more of an upgrade with him being the king and all; not that Amon had made the request, he hadn’t had much say in the design of this room to be honest.
Looking to the other councilors, Amon shifted again in his seat, this time because he was a bit uncomfortable with all the eyes on him. He flashed one of his smiles, pulling the staff he always carried across the arms of his chair and letting it rest there as he spoke. “No, no. Was just getting a bit more comfortable is all.” Amon had nothing to add to this conversation, as it was more administrative business he wasn’t very adept with. It was something about taxation on the local merchants or…something along those lines, the kind of things that Amon would willingly go to Minnow for some injury rather than listen to. “Forgive me if I interrupted you, councilor.”
The Ilder shook his head some, out of annoyance Amon figured, the older man’s short grey hair swaying slightly as he did so. Amon just held his smile, though he did want to stick his tongue out at the councilor regardless of how childish it might seem. He stopped himself however, but not without a struggle. This is what you people are hired for, don’t get mad at me.
“It is ok, King Amon. I was actually finishing up on the matter; it is why I asked when I saw you move.” Ilder responded before he continued, “I think we can move ourselves onto the next matter I think needs to be discussed, about the issues Prince Valrien has…brought up to us. Regarding the issue of those ruins you all have opened up between Reimrand and Iveir.” Ilder said as he watched the Air King.
Another councilor stood up, looking to Amon as well as he spoke. “Your majesty, some of us ask you that you please heed our desire to close off the ruins entirely. They are extremely dangerous, and not to mention we’ve only been dealing with more and more issues since they were opened and people of Reimrand began to move into our kingdoms.” the councilor, Ordel, said. He too was close in age to Ilder, if a little bit younger. “People are becoming paranoid about these Reimrands, and we are not sure how long we can keep things from getting out of hands in the lands.”
Amon groaned as his smile faded away. He brought up his hands up to his face, hiding it for a moment as he took a deep breath before looking out at the councilors. As he began, he let his staff slide off the arms of the chair and come to a stop, resting against the chair. “Councilors, I told you before, we cannot close off those ruins of the passage to Reimrand. Not unless dooming our world is what you are hoping to accomplish.” The king said, drawing an eye roll from Ordel.
“Yes, your majesty, you’ve told us multiple times about this whole elemental orb business and their importance to our world and Reimrand and things like that-“
“Then why do I have to keep repeating myself?” Amon asked, trying to keep his tone under control. He was beginning to become frustrated in having to tell these councilors of this matter over and over again.
“Because we are trying to get you to understand the issue at hand, your majesty. Our people are becoming more and more apprehensive of these foreigners from Reimrand. These are people from a land nobody has heard of in many decades, and are suddenly moving in claiming to be here on peaceful terms. Not to mention, the citizens are left to rely upon the words of kings who have been hiding a secret from us that affected every single one of us regarding the orbs.” Amon frowned, but Ordel did not cease his speaking, rather he continued. “Not everyone is as trusting as you are, King Amon; and these people do not interact with you on a daily or even weekly basis, so they do not get the chance to truly know of you and your sincerity, my king.” Even someone who can be a bit thick headed such as Amon could tell how much sucking up the last bit of Ordel’s words had been, even if it was also a fair point.
Ordel cleared his throat, continuing on when Amon did not respond, “My king, you need to see this from the view of the ordinary citizen, the one who does not have stone walls and hundreds of guards to protect him. They have to watch as people from another land waltz into their homeland, led by a young ruler who seems to not know much in the way of sympathy or understanding.”
Amon shifted in his seat some, speaking up as Ordel finished his sentence, “If you had seen how bad Reimrand had been before we gave back the orbs, you might understand why Prince Valrien has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Not to mention he had a brother who happened to fall under the category of murderous-nut-case. I can understand why he might be a bit…rude and seemingly apathetic at times.”
It was Ordel’s turn to frown, the wrinkles on his face growing in numbers as his lips formed into a frown. “This is also the man who killed the king of the Water Kingdom, leaving it open for some other foreigner from a unknown land to come waltzing in with unknown soldiers and forcibly take the throne, which, I might add, is not doing any favors for this argument of trusting these people of Reimrand.”
“Wherever Vinter Raelthrone came from, Valrien has told us it was not Reimrand, councilor Ordel.”
Ordle sighed miserably, throwing his hands into the air as he sat back down in his seat. Ilder, who had remained standing the whole time, decided to speak up for the other exasperated councilor. “Your majesty, again this just circles back to the fact that we, as people who have not seen these things for our own eyes and have only had occasional interactions with the Prince, cannot place the same amount of trust in the words of Prince Valrien as you can.”
It was the Air King’s turn to sigh, in a similar fashion to how Ordel had. Amon ran a hand through his hair as he let his head fall back and thunk against the chair, doing it once more to express his frustration. His eyes closed as he tried to recollect his thoughts and calm himself down. This was an argument he was getting sick of by this point. Taking another deep breath, he leaned forwards as he opened his eyes once more. “Ok, well how about councilor Calo? She is a foreigner and yet you yourself vouched for her, as well as you Ordel!” Amon said as he indicated to the woman in question, who sat in the second row not far from Ilder seat. The middle-aged woman was not much older than Amon was, and the Nevarre native, despite being younger than most of the other councilors in the room, had proved herself to be very educated and helpful as a member of this council.
Ilder looked to Calo before back to Amon, “The difference between senator Calo and those of Reimrand is we know of Nevarre, your majesty, and it is not difficult to believe in Calo’s story as a refugee when we know of how turbulent Nevarre’s politics are. It is far easier to believe over the stories of a few dusty old tomes and from the mouths of kings who have been hiding important secrets for many, many years; your majesty.” The last part Amon could tell was added solely to keep things "respectful".
At this point Amon just sighed, standing up from his chair and grabbing the staff next to it. “We are not closing off the ruins, councilors! That’s final! This meeting is adjourned for today.” he said as he quickly began walking towards the entrance to the council room. He was beginning to lose his temper here, and Amon needed a break before he just snapped and started shouting. He ignored Ilder attempt to stop him by calling out to him, and just pushed open the double doors to the council room rather forcibly as he began heading down the hallway, his staff clanking loudly as it struck the floor alongside his footsteps. He needed to get some fresh air, and possibly some exercises would help him work off this growing frustration. He glanced out the windows as he walked, seeing the rain-clouds having arrived during his time within the council room. He felt some of the tension subside, even smiling slightly as he listened to the drops of rain as he continued down the hallway.