The Royal Thief Unbound

     Veifira watched the changing scenery as she and her sister, Astael, made their way over to Tyrannia. The summit was to begin tomorrow, so they had the rest of the day to arrive, settle in, and mingle. Veifira shuddered at the thought of the last part – if nothing else, she hated the small talk at these functions. Socializing with others was always so dull, peppered with constant judging and assessing from the other representatives. And since Veifira and Astael were always the youngest in any political setting, they always got more attention than usual.

     Sitting next to Veifira, Astael was studiously looking over notecards. To prepare, she had made profiles of all the representatives. This included names, photos, past and present policies, connections, and even hobbies and interests. Astael was diligent as ever, ready to engage anyone with any level of conversation. She was born for the diplomatic life.

     Struck with inspiration, Veifira spoke up. “Astael, do you mind if I look over those?” she asked, gesturing to the notecards.

     Astael smiled widely. “Of course! I’m so happy that you’re willing to put work into this, Vei.” She split the pile of notecards and handed her sister half. “Let me know when you’re done, and we can switch.”

     Veifira took her half and started from the top. Each card had information on each Neopian land, with one representative on each side. Although she was looking for a specific notecard, she didn’t want to raise suspicion from her sister by flipping through them mindlessly. Trying to focus, she tried to study the faces in the photos and match them to the names. Some noted hobbies and interests made her chuckle, like that the King of Maraqua, King Kelpbeard, enjoyed smooth jazz and a representative from Mystery Island, the Techo Master, was able to levitate.

     Veifira was so distracted by thinking about that, she hadn’t realized that she had reached Vatalyn’s notecard. It was relatively blank, compared to the other cards, which wasn’t surprising at all. Even as the son of the Krawk Island governor, Vatalyn managed to keep his life relatively under wraps. There were only a few notes about his boating hobby and merchant relations, and nothing about his policies. That made sense, as Vatalyn never spoke about politics, in public or private. Flipping the card over, it was none other than Vatalyn’s father, Governor Gavril McGill. He had basically become governor out of sheer luck, being the only inhabitant left after the whole island had vanished for some time. He was known to be stern, serious, and very overprotective of his position. So, when his only son, Vatalyn, had chosen not to pursue politics, he was furious. Governor McGill had fought for Krawk Island from the ground up to keep the governor position that he was fortunate enough to come upon, only to have his own heir disinterested in following his footsteps. But now, with the governess ill, Vatalyn was to be by his side for this event. There was no doubt that the governor was pleased by this turn of events and hoped to change Vatalyn’s mind about taking over the governor position in the future.

     Veifira pulled her eyes away from the Krawk Island card and continued to the next.

     After she had finished her stack, she looked over at Astael, who was silently practising to herself.

     “Astael?” Veifira asked tentatively, holding out her notecards to swap.

     Astael snapped out of her reverie. “Oh, yes,” she said, swapping cards with Veifira. “Were these helpful at all?”

     “They were, thanks…” Veifira replied, trailing off. The profile she was looking for was in this new stack, and she was itching to find it.

     It was harder to focus now, and Veifira couldn’t help but skim through the cards until she got to the one for Tyrannia. The first side was that of Kyruggi, the Grand Elder of all six Tyrannian elders. She was more than met the eye, being both the prime councillor and the Tyrannian army’s first in command. But Veifira was mainly here for…

     She flipped the card over, expecting to see a surly photo of Thalse and a vague description. But it was blank. What was going on?

     Veifira looked over to her sister for an answer, holding up the blank side for Astael to see, in place of asking a verbal question.

     Astael shrugged. “Tyrannia didn’t register another representative. I’m not sure what’s going on, especially since they are the hosts this year as well. The second person is usually one of the other elders, and I know quite a bit about all of them, so I’m not too concerned.”

     “Hmm,” was all that Veifira said in return.

     Of course, she knew that the other representative was Thalse, but she didn’t know if telling Astael that would be the right course of action. There must be a reason why Thalse’s involvement was being kept secret, but what could it be? And what business would he have there anyway?

     Veifira went back to review the other cards, trying to commit details to memory but finding it difficult to focus, until they finally arrived in Tyrannia. The NeoLodge had set up a temporary housing structure for the event. Astael went over to the receptionist's desk to get checked in, but Veifira lingered behind, looking around. In the lobby, diplomats were already mingling amongst each other, but there were no signs of Thalse or Vatalyn. When Astael returned, Veifira insisted they go to their room before anyone could try to engage them in conversation as well.

     As they settled into their quarters, Astael turned to her sister. “Veifira,” she said, “thank you again for accompanying me here.”

     “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now,” Veifira replied, and much to her own surprise, she meant it. As much as she despised the formality of politics, she would gladly shoulder this burden to support her sister.

     Astael smoothed out the outfit she would be wearing to the welcome reception and dinner, a flowing white chiffon dress with navy and gold, the colours of Lost Desert, accents by the neckline and woven into the skirt. She paired the gorgeous dress with heeled, straw sandals that were bejewelled with dark blue sapphires and yellow quartz. To finish her look, Astael piled her chestnut-coloured hair atop her head, curling strands of hair to frame her face beautifully. She always wore a fresh laurel, this time woven tastefully into her hairstyle and pinned with glittering stones. The Ring of the Lost Desert shone brilliantly on her hand.

     Of course, Veifira had no interest in looking anything like that. Although the two were twins, they had only dressed similarly when they were younger, when Veifira hadn’t yet realized she could just pick her own attire and hairstyles. Immediately after, she ditched the gowns and complicated hairstyles for pants and a messy braid. She quickly changed into a tan coloured linen pantsuit and flat, leather espadrilles.

     Astael smiled at her. “Ready?” she asked.

     “As I’ll ever be,” Veifira replied, only half-jokingly.

     As they went down to the lobby, where the reception was being held, Veifira felt a light, almost imperceptible tap on her shoulder. If she wasn’t on constant alert, she might not have felt it at all. She whipped around.

     “Hello, princess,” came a familiar voice behind her. It was Vatalyn, who was dressed in a stiff, white high-collared shirt, dark buccaneer pants, and a long tailcoat with gold tasselled shoulders. He looked every bit the Krawk Island nobility he was born as, the birthright he rejected at every turn.

     “Vat – I mean, Lord Vatalyn,” Veifira said. “It’s a pleasure to see you here.” She tried to keep a straight face as she spoke to him. After all, their personal lives as thieves had no place at the Leaders Summit.

     “Same to you,” Vatalyn responded with a slight smirk. He turned to Astael. “Princess Astael,” he said, bowing slightly. “Always an honour to be in the presence of your beautiful grace.”

     Astael smiled at him. “Thank you, Lord Vatalyn. I am deeply sorry to hear about the governess, and I pray for a quick recovery. Please let Veifira or me know if we can do anything to help.”

     Vatalyn nodded. “Thank you for your concern. You are ever so tactful, Astael.”

     Before leaving to pursue her life as a thief, Veifira had gotten Astael’s approval, not wanting to leave without an explanation. In doing so, Astael had become aware of Vatalyn’s role in Veifira’s life, but she was committed to secrecy.

     “Lost Desert and Krawk Island representatives don’t usually have anything to do with each other, do they?” Vatalyn asked them lightheartedly.

     “Not at all,” Veifira answered. “But it’s nice to see a friendly face.”

     “I’m guessing you don’t see those around too often,” Vatalyn said with a chuckle.

     Veifira wasn’t known for being very social in the political scene. She glared at him in response.

     The three of them reached the reception area, right before the dining hall. With a wave goodbye, Astael peeled away from the other two to greet other representatives.

     “Where’s your father, the governor?” Veifira asked.

     “Probably doing the same thing your sister is, schmoozing,” Vatalyn replied, shrugging. “I’m just a placeholder, I’ll be doing the bare minimum here.”

     “Absolutely same,” Veifira said.

     She was about to say something more, but she stopped dead in her tracks. On the stage, the two representatives of the host land Tyrannia had taken the stage. On the right was Grand Elder Kyruggi, who was expected, but on the left was Thalse, just as he had said. Veifira had more questions than answers, but all she could do for now is just stare, stunned, and wait until they spoke.

To be continued…