Building a country is a slow process. Endlessly delicate and filled with intricate procedures and frustrating mandates.

Everything lacking in the war that it took to win it.

But she didn't win a war to hold Gaia.

No, Lysandra von Estriach Wilcke didn't have an army. There was no bloodshed, no clashing swords, no men dying when she took Gaia. Only herself, a cranky old man, the clothes off her back, and a fortune. And her mind.

"Haruka," she addresses the former Marquis sitting on the other side of the table, "Her Highness informed us that the royal family and the Estriach Clan would arrive through the Dead Sea passage to Kantha of Aether and then to Gaia. Why don't you greet them in the Aether capital alongside grandmother? I'll stay behind and finish the coronation documents."

Lysandra built a new country out of the ruins of the old Gaia. But Haiyana Estriach is the Queen Regent of Gaia instead. Her temperamental, hell-be-damned grandmother was the ruler while a nation that originally belonged to the Estriach Clan now flew the flags of Clarines and wore its colours instead.

There was certain irony in that fact.

"You won't go?" Haruka asked, visage wrinkled and time worn. He had worked hard for this country these past six years, she thinks.

"You deserve a break," she tells him, smiling gently.

Go greet our King. Go do the things a dead woman cannot.

A dead woman. A legend burned by fire.

His gaze is unreadable when he replied. "Thank you."

Her smile turns wry.

♛♛♛

The elder warrior princess of Aether sends Lysandra a letter a month before Izana Wistaria is set to arrive in Gaia.

Grandmaster of the Gaian Archives, Liyostoni von Paladizagaea,

It is my sincerest pleasure to announce to you the safe arrival of the Clarines liege and his court. However, it has been brought to my attention that there are talks among the court of Eradikegal that the second prince wishes to overthrow your grandmother's power in a coup-d'etat during this year's Summer Solstice, held in your lands.

Sincerely,
Enligeca Acelia, First Princess of Aether

Lysandra leans back in her chair, laughing, dark locks swishing.

There are only four nations on the continent beyond the Dead Sea. Aether, the nation of warriors, ruled by Acelia. Gaia, the nation of culture and scholars, ruled by Paladizagaea. Hamunet, the nation of craft, ruled by Ishtarya. And Eradikegal, the nation of trade and the mother of all the forgotten kingdoms, ruled by the capitalistic Wezstanza.

Capitalism breeds ambition. And ambitious people become cunning and jaded, and that was exactly what happened to the rulers of Gaia and the Wezstanza second prince.

She thinks of how she became the saviour of a land so big, and of people so hopeful. The simple gold of coins and the greed on greasy faces.

The royal registry in front of her and the five most recent names written in it.

Sitting down, she pens a letter quickly then sends her pigeon outside her window and glances at the worn leather of the book she died for, then at the names penned on the parchment, then closes it and walks over to her fireplace with the book clutched into her chest.

Settling the book onto the mantel, she pours sand onto the fire, and brushes away the hot embers from the fire using the metal poker. Using the poker to lift up the metal hatch underneath the ashes of the fireplace, she places the book into the dirt beneath the latch.

A double-edged knife. If a fire broke out, all remnants of her and her brother's birthright would be gone. But if a fire did break out, none else could sit on the throne without the consent of the people. A coin of two sides, like the fire set with the same intention in her study six years before.

Lysandra von Estriach Wilcke.

Liyostoni von Paladizagaea.

It was for the best, with a swish of green silk, the fire is relit and the Grandmaster of Gaia's famous Holy Cities sits back in her chair, unperturbed.

♛♛♛

The rule of succession is simple. Anyone who has more than half the blood to any royalty of any era has the right to claim the Gaian Throne.

{Izana Wistaria}

{Ikosandr von Paladizagaea}

{Karcalus Wezstanza}

{Kyeltos Wezstanza}

♛♛♛

"Why hello cousin, you're looking well."

Her ex-fiancee looks at her with the sea-green eyes that she traces memories back to their childhood.

The Estriach Clan is comprised of different family branches. Lysandra belonged in the Wilcke name, the current main branch, Ciairos belonged to the Corane. And Lysandra had always been smart, among the pureblood children of their family, Lysandra was the only one who saw the advantages of befriending the bastard child. But it was because Lysandra had been so smart that the Estriach family elders had seen Ciairos as a figurehead for Lysandra to marry to ensure their family's survival with her at its helm.

However, those eyes of his were what also marked him lowest even amongst the other bastard children. However different they may be, all of the Estriach Clan shared the infamous jade green eyes of a jaguar, and because Ciairos' eyes were only the slightest shade darker, it marked him... Wrong. Unequal. Unworthy.

Ironic, ironic. How very ironic.

The boy shunned because of a pair of eyes and a girl who should be a laughingstock in court because of her intelligence now here, one of most influential traders in the world and the ruler of one of the largest nations in the world.

Perhaps there was hope.

"Walk with me?" she asked, directing them towards the gardens as a silent invitation.

"Sure, your wish is my command." her childhood sweetheart agrees easily.

Lysandra laughs, "You never change, but you're lucky that flattery and beauty get you everywhere in court."

"My, my, are you perhaps flirting with me, Lyse?" Ciairos laughed with her, eyes twinkling.

They could've been in love. They've could've become the most perfect pair in all of the world. But they were too different; Lysandra full of loyalty for the family and the kingdom he cares nothing for, and their romance too light, too distant to matter. Perhaps it might've been so if they had been more than the girl and the boy with sunshine streaming through their hair and stealing kisses amidst the bookshelves in the abandoned library. Saccharine sweetness that was now too innocent for both of them to ever think of indulging again.

"You're handsome, I'm sure plenty of other conquests of your think so, too." she winked.

"Aww," he clutches his chest in mock surprise, "what if I have eyes for you only? What then?"

July peach blossoms flutter through the air as a sudden gust of wind sweeps through the courtyard and brush across the ground then come to a stop by their feet.

Lysandra thought he was beautiful, then. Thought he was someone else, too. And that beauty was a type of unattainable and nostalgia just like the past and what she was, what she had.

"Ciarios," her voice is no longer mischevious, he turns to look at her: back to the wind, hair rumpled. What struck her most was the fact his eyes were knowing.

"I kept my end of the deal we made six years ago," Lysandra von Estriach said. "Now it is time to keep yours."

"Keep my family safe. Protect them even if it costs your life."

♛♛♛

{Ciairos von Estriach Corane Wezstanza}

♛♛♛

i'm not ignoring my other books lol

i'm just trying to get an update to all of my books before i update the more popular ones. now that i have at least one chapter for every book, i'm gonna go back to writing for presto + summer winds, the two books whose updates are oldest by.

image credit to miho hirano

btw, WenSophie you mentioned that you read the old version of SOTC, what do you think of the new one?

Sophie xx

smh i want a prettier name