A Wise Man
Triton Summers had always been clever.
He was patient and clever with how he swung his spear, and he was even more patient and careful with how he fell in love.
First, he traveled all over the heart river, which literally is the life blood of Rohan and all surrounding states.
He compared local legends to various recorded history, and subsequent harvest in produce, then determined the three possible families with water witch bloodlines.
Thankfully, all young ladies resided in the city of Lights, which is called so for the number of lanterns that illuminated the dark night in the city.
After the ladies were identified, he hosted and toasted them slowly, then coaxed each of them gently and sensually, matching each young lady, and her family's taste.
Finally, when he saw the irrefutable proof of his wife being a waterwitch, he refused the other two women, and proposed to his wife grandly.
It was a marriage of true love, everyone said.
It is a story for eons, the romanticists sighed.
The dashing prince from foreignland seduces the light of their city, the apple of their eyes. His wife's family is more than rich from the trade, and the merchant's daughter married into the family of a prince.
Just in a day, she graduated from being a girl into a princess.
Nora Hizraf was the most beautiful woman on the banks of the heart river, but in the land of Dunes, she is not beautiful, but exotic.
While she married up in social status, she married down in availability of funds.
More than that, she realized only after birthing her third child, she did not marry for love, but was wooed carefully for her bloodline.
All of Triton's family, save for Triton, think the reason Nora left him is because she was unable to fit into the culture of Summer family, and she is far too unaccustomed to being a royal.
Only Triton knew she left because he had shown her their drying out underground river network.
He never asked her to fix the network, only shew it to her, and told her it's the greatest secret of the summer family.
In other words, he had waited for any of their children to show the signs of being a water witch or wizard, but none did.
He determined he should ask Nora for help only after that.
She frowned upon seeing the dying out river network.
" Have you ever loved me? " She asked him that night, holding his hand.
Her question startled him.
"Yes." he answered, only to feel a sting on his arm.
"Liar." his wife sneered at him in disgust.
She paced in the room like a caged Lion.
"They told me. Oh ! how they begged me to see the truth. I was blind. I was far too blind to see your treachery. Oh! So blind I was." She lamented in the tongue of Valhalla, as she paced the room.
" The crier in the night ! The shadow child ! That was your work, wasn't it? " Nora accused.
It was indeed.
Triton had not expected her to be this sharp.
Nora has never been quite intelligent till now.
Her intelligence quotient improved all of a sudden, so Triton was thrown for a loop .
How did she remember all of this .. it was but for a moment.
His silence was an agreement.
As she digested the situation, she leered at him.
"You thought the pure born of light would let a water witch marry a dirty blood like you ? " she sneered at him.
" Nysha of Rohan might be a savior to you, she is nothing but a half blood get of a lowly one. She is a mistress and she ran. You thought you could marry a true born of heart river, a Tal Izarra of the tower just with some tricks ! " Nora said condescendingly, as her original temperament of too much sarcasm came back to her.
She reverted to her mother tongue for this part of the speech.
"How dare you ?! " Triton snapped at her demeaning words.
" Why do I not dare ? You are descendent of a coward, came to play thief, a toad coveting swan meat. You think you were the first to come to great Rohan with such aim? You are but one of the many dirty bloods that swarm banks of the heart river. Izarra en Deisa are bold, brave, and not given to dishonor. One must be at least a winter king for them to marry and leave. " Nora sneered back at him.
Triton's expression soured at that. Lydia Wiinterchild famously seduced Rykor Drakon, his sister Erena's husband.
"Ah... ! I forgot. You are still insisting that your sister is a queen. You must be either dumb or blind not to know your sister is nothing but a bed warmer. To be eastern queen from Thousand Kingdoms, you have to live through a trial of fire. You have no legal status if the queen has not done her trial of fire." Nora informed, feeling pleasure in Triton's humiliation.
Even at this moment, she had not informed him of what matters for her own country, and gave out information that could definitely cause political strife for the Drakon kingdom in the future.
The water witches of Rohan are protected tighter than their gold by the secret society of stars.
They were the descendants of Gavin the last, as he selected twenty one women and impregnated them in order to carry on his talent.
The women were voluntary, and a matrilineal system runs in these twenty one families, with the women only ever marrying in husbands.
Even when they choose husbands, the prospective grooms must take a test that shows their magic quotient. Unless there is a tie, the man with the highest magic quotient is chosen, no matter the love of the witch.
However, for taking away this freedom, the women of the tower are given the option to separate love from childbearing.
Her twin sister Yuvanne is the waterwitch with highest talent, while Nora was born with no talent.
She was jealous of her sister when young, thus, when she was playing around with Triton, Nora decided to steal a man from her sister's clutches.
She hoped to prove to her sister despite the lack of magical powers, as long as Nora wants something, she could accomplish it all the same.
However, there was no loss on Yuvanne's face on the day Triton proposed to her.
That is when Nora understood.
Her sister is like the very magic she represented.
Her heart is like deep water, and it moves for no man.
All men are only ornaments, and she used one, thrown away one. It had been Nora who treated the trash thrown away by her sister as a jewel.
In her sister's defense, she tried to stop her.
When her sister realized she couldn't stop Nora, she bet with her.
Nora put all the books carrying knowledge, their clan's most prized possession, and her dowry's most prized option in the watch of her sister.
If Yuvanne was wrong, she would carry all the remnants of Nora's dowry, break the tower's rules and will be Nora's slave, for life.
If Nora was wrong, she would leave her husband immediately, no matter the children, and return to the fold of her family.
The next day, Nora Hizraf packed all her luggage, and set off on her journey towards Rohan.
From that day onwards, Triton disliked the Winterchild family.
Over time, his dislike turned into hatred.
What do those northern savages have over them for his wife to humiliate him so?
It is not her words that hurt him, for more than enough people in Dunes itself mock their family as mixed blood.
For they are descendants of Nysha, and the stone tribe, who used to make up the bottom of the social ladder of Dunes.
A drakon married into their family in the first year dragons perished, allowing them to have even Drakon bloodline.
By the time The mad emperor took hold of the throne, he began a collection of sorts with any and all dragon rider blood.
It seems in the end only Dahlia Drakon survived.
After the Emperor, Dowager Empress Rhea, Dahlia's mother, continued the same, till Dahlia came back with three dragons and called herself the Empress of the land, co-ruler with her brother Visor.
Empress Dowager forged peace between Visor and Dahlia, thus Visor kept civil authority, while Dahlia kept military authority, which suited both fine.
One rebel state after another was burned into ashes as Dahlia started her conquest of the east once more.
On top of it, Dahlia Drakon liberated the slaves everywhere in the continent. Given they were the major workforce in any state of the east, a great confusion settled over east after Dahlia's conquest.
According to Dahlia's words, there's only one person above all, that is herself, the dragoness. She is the mother of the world. All people in the east are her children. Thus, there are no classes among them at all.
Triton initially agreed to provide her with armies, despite knowing she is half mad, because he wanted to wipe out the winter child family and their legacy from Thousand kingdoms.
However, when he read the letter from Sera, he gave up the conquest immediately.
He has always been clever, and with age, he has grown wise. Petty revenge must be had with other people's army and money for it to feel great.
Now that he has known what they are fighting is not a pup but a wolf, there's no need for him to be the stone in mad woman's hand. After all, he is a wiseman.