Mrs. Aquian
This is old.
Like, circa 2002 old. But I just spent the last half hour trying to find it, so I'm putting it here so that I don't lose it again. ^^;
It's something that I wrote for a friend of mine, and takes place in a world she created. This is a world I will likely revisit again some day, as I enjoy playing in it. Pretty much all that you really need to know is that it's more or less modern day, with three main races. Humans, Elves, and Wings. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, the latter physically looking like angels, but without the religious connotations.
The religion of the world is somewhat complicated, and not relevant to this story, so I'll not get into that now.
But just for amusement's sake,
Mrs. Aquian
"And furthermore, you pompous, arrogant peabrain, if you bothered to THINK about what you were saying for two seconds..."
"Who are you calling a peabrain, grouchy old hen?"
"WHAT did you just call me?"
Council was in session, and it was not going well. The North-Eastern Seat had just changed hands, bringing in the person of Lady Alexia el Gabrar to fill the vacancy. While the Lady was quite capable in all the required skills, she did have a... regrettable tendency for voicing her opinions. Loudly.
"...rude, unsophisticated, ignorant, empty-headed..."
Chairman Rivva Tol sighed quietly and covered his face with his hands. Lady Alexia's domineering nature was leading to such constant arguing that nothing was getting done anymore. They were falling behind in their work, rather than being ahead of it as Rivva preferred. It was rather maddening; the Council was supposed to be a cool, professional team, and here they were arguing like children.
Like children...
The Chairman lifted his head, blinking. It was a truly frightening idea, but it just might work. Certainly something had to be done, or things would start to fall apart. And they were supposed to be an elite body of intellectuals... It was time he started using his brain.
Rivva called an early end to the session, as nothing was getting done that day anyway, and turned his car in a much different direction than that which he normally took. This led him to the very edge of town, into a quiet upper-class neighborhood with manicured lawns, painted shutters, and quaint little white picket fences.
His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard as to turn white, his body tensed, his breathing shortened. There was really nothing at all about the area that called for such a state of nervousness. Children could be seen playing in yards, a businessman came home early from work, the mailman delivered the day's mail. All perfectly normal.
Except that the police never patrolled this neighborhood. They were never called here, and the crime rate was exactly zero. Few of the residents even bothered to lock their doors. Some of it could be accounted, perhaps, to the fact that the area had the feel to it of a twilight zone flashback to the fifties when people felt secure in their homes, but the majority of it was due to one simple reason.
A perfectly ordinary, perfectly kept, perfectly tidy home sitting halfway down the block between two other perfect homes, all of them framed by perfect rectangles of lush green grass, flower beds, and dwarf trees. This particular home, however, was different than all the others it was bordered by. This particular home belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Aquian.
Mr. Aquian was a corporate executive, one of the rare types that did what he did because he enjoyed his job, rather than simply to pay the bills. Most people who met him found him cheerful and pleasant, and his business thrived.
Rivva was not there to pay a visit to Mr. Aquian, however.
He carefully parked the car, taking a deep breath before slowly opening the door and getting out. The casual person wandering by might have wondered what could possibly be inside that could reduce the single most powerful man in the world to a nervous, trembling wreck. The casual person had never met Mrs. Aquian.
Hair neatly combed, suit straight and unwrinkled, back rigid, shoulders squared, Rivva walked up the perfect little path to the front door and rang the bell. The fifteen seconds it took for the door to open did not help soothe his state of mind in the least.
"Mr. Tol, good afternoon."
The woman was attractive, but not overly so, slender, but not model status, and did nothing at all to enhance her physical appearance. She wore her darkened blond hair in a bun at the nape of her neck, had on no makeup that Rivva could see, and was attired in a loose gingham dress and apron. All in all, quite ordinary. Until you looked at her eyes.
"Ah, good afternoon, Mrs. Aquian," the Chairman stammered, trying to cover for his flustered state by bowing low, "I hope I am not interrupting anything."
Mrs. Aquian shook her head. "I just put Jake down for his nap. Please, come in."
Rivva followed the woman into her home, feeling like a rabbit walking into a dragon's lair. But he was here for a reason and, lair of the beast or not, he was going to follow through to the end.
"Some tea, Mr. Tol?"
Rivva shook his head. "Ah, no thank you. I can't stay long, I came to ask a favor..."
One eyebrow lifted slightly as the winged woman regarded him. "A favor?"
"I would be most grateful if you would please find time to sit in on the next Council session," he explained, perfectly polite. You could be nothing else in this house.
The eyebrow rose further. "I see..." she murmured, then glanced behind her at the victorian-style calendar hanging on the wall. "Wait here a moment, Mr. Tol."
The winged woman stepped into the kitchen, picked up a phone of the sort that hadn't been in use for at least a good forty years, and dialed a number.
An insistent ringing sound brought the elf known as Jin Kel out of a very comfortable and satisfying state of sleep and grope blindly for the cordless phone that he just knew was over that direction... somewhere... His bed partner for the day murmured a sleepy question, but he didn't catch it. He did, however, finally find the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Kel?" a calm female voice asked on the other side of the line, not really asking at all, more reaffirming that he was actually awake and paying attention.
It took about six seconds for the voice to get through the sleepy sated fuzz of his mind and work its way to his brain.
"Gack! Ack!"
There was a thud as two bodies fell, first the phone colliding with the floor and followed shortly by the nude elven owner of that poor abused phone. He scrambled madly to get free of the sheets and snatch the phone back up off the floor.
"Eh heh... uhm, ah, Hi, Mrs. Aquian..." he said sheepishly.
"I have an errand to run tomorrow, so you will need to pick up Vale from school at three-thirty," she told him. "Do not be late."
The woman in his bed gave Jin a rather quizzical look as he hung up the phone breathing a sigh of relief. He grinned a little, climbing back up off the floor.
"Er, yeah, that's Vale's mom..."
He spent the next half hour trying to explain why Jin Kel, Summoner, Chosen, fearless, had been on his knees bowing to the phone.
The sun was shining bright and warm the next afternoon as Mrs. Aquian packed a shoulder bag with baby supplies, strapped the five-month-old Jake into his carrier, and took off for downtown. She did not fly often, being otherwise occupied with domestic chores most of the day, and quite enjoyed the feel of the wind beneath her wings.
Jake cooed and giggled to himself, reaching out his arms in an effort to catch the wind as it blew by. Out on the edges of the city there were few other Wings in the air, but the concentration grew the closer they got to their destination. Mrs. Aquian flew low, as the rules dictated for slower-moving gliders, being in no hurry. As always, Mrs. Aquian was exactly on time.
She drifted into a slow descent as the tall Council building came into view, landing lightly on the sidewalk and adjusting Jake in her arms. She'd chosen to land half a block from her destination so as to avoid other traffic, but neither she nor her son minded. It was a nice day for a walk.
The gold and glass doors opened silently under her hand, admitting her into the cooler interior of the building. People walked back and forth across the lobby on their various tasks, none of them paying her any attention. A reception desk awaited visitors at the far wall, but the Wing woman had been here before and knew exactly where she was going.
A swift elevator carried mother and child up to the floor where only a handful of people ever went, the doors opening with a soft ping to let them depart. Two guards, stationed a few feet into the hallway, blinked at her as she emerged.
Casual visitors were deterred from visiting, sending them through various lesser officiaries rather than overwhelming the eleven Council members with the many requests. The guards were there to prevent anyone from bypassing the standard process and sneaking into the Council room; had they been new, they might have mistaken the woman with her infant for one of these supplicants. Neither man was new.
Both guards stiffened, holding themselves rigidly at attention as Mrs. Aquian walked calmly past with baby Jake snug in her arms. It had been a while since she had been seen in this place, but no one who had met her ever forgot her.
There was a heated argument in progress as she arrived, audible even through the heavy soundproofed doors from the hallway into the Council Chamber. The nonplussed Wing woman walked right in anyway, a sudden silence making her arrival all the more portentous. The silence continued as she calmly made her way to a chair that had been set out expressly for her use, seated herself, and proceeded to fuss with the fastenings on Jake's jumper.
Chairman Rivva Tol smiled tiredly. "Thank you for coming, Mrs. Aquian," he said.
Mrs. Aquian nodded, Jake's jumper finally fixed, and arranged the baby on her lap where he proceeded to see how much of his fist would fit in his mouth.
The Chairman coughed nervously, watching everyone take their seats, and the Council session began.
As anticipated, the bizarre presence of a woman and her baby only kept the boisterous Lady Alexia off-guard until the first item on the agenda was brought up. Though it was a simple problem in most of their minds, the good Lady seemed determined to make it otherwise. The man reading the item itself did not even have a chance to make it to the end of the sentence before she interrupted him.
"You really think they would change willingly? I say the idiot who wrote that report..."
Whatever else she was going to say died on her lips as Mrs. Aquian lifted her head, turned in the direction of the offending woman, and gave her a Look. One did not interrupt in Mrs. Aquian's presence. Ever.
The Lady Alexia stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, at the calm gaze fixed upon her. Not a single word was said in that time, not a single sound made. It was a good possibility that the rest of the Council was collectively holding their breath.
Finally, after an eternity of nothing, time resumed. Mrs. Aquian looked down at the squirming baby in her arms, retrieved a bottle from her shoulder bag, and proceeded to feed Jake.
The Council resumed.
The miraculous silencing of Lady Alexia lasted only through two more items of agenda before once again she burst out her opinion in the middle of another's speech. There was instant silence, all eyes turning to where Mrs. Aquian was sitting.
The Wing woman was dangling a little stuffed toy over Jake's nose, watching as the baby boy reached for it.
There were a number of relieved sighs, then the Council picked up where they left off. Several more times the Lady Alexia would open her mouth to interrupt, glance quickly at Mrs. Aquian (playing with Jake, feeding Jake, in the other room changing Jake's diaper, or, once, listening calmly to the conversation while Jake napped) and save whatever she had been going to say for after her fellow Council member was done.
It had to have been the most productive and least stressful Council session in the last month. When it ended and everyone rose, Chairman Rivva approached Mrs. Aquian and smiled. "Thank you for coming, Mrs. Aquian. You're more than welcome to sit in whenever you like."
Into the startled and apprehensive silence that followed that statement, the winged woman nodded serenely. "Thank you, Mr. Tol. Jake does like the flight over."
Eleven pairs of eyes belonging to the eleven most powerful people in the world watched in complete and utter silence as the woman and child left the room. The silence stretched on for nearly an entire minute before finally the Lady Alexia turned to her fellow Council members with the most dumbfounded expression she had ever worn in her life.
".... who WAS that?!" she exclaimed.
"Mrs. Aquian," Rivva explained slowly, "Is the Chosen, Vale's, mother."
There was complete and utter silence as he spoke, the lingering effect of Mrs. Aquian's presence spilling over into the story about her.
"Several years ago, she was on the Council for about two months..."
Now Lady Alexia spoke up, startled. "Two months? What happened?"
Rivva smiled wanly. "She got more done in those two months than most full Councils manage to accomplish in a year. However, no one else could get any work done when she was present, so she respectfully resigned. Shortly thereafter she got married and became a housewife."
There were a few odd looks exchanged amongst members of the Council, but not a word further was said. The end of that story was to stick in the back of their minds, bothering them for a very long time.
How could a woman like THAT possibly be a mere housewife?
The Council had no further problems after that, as the mere threat of Mrs. Aquian returning to sit in on another Council session was more than enough to keep even the Lady Alexia on her best behavior. Jin Kel, on the other hand...
He spent the next week, and then some, hiding from Mrs. Aquian after being thirty-five minutes late to pick up Vale from grade school.
Like, circa 2002 old. But I just spent the last half hour trying to find it, so I'm putting it here so that I don't lose it again. ^^;
It's something that I wrote for a friend of mine, and takes place in a world she created. This is a world I will likely revisit again some day, as I enjoy playing in it. Pretty much all that you really need to know is that it's more or less modern day, with three main races. Humans, Elves, and Wings. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, the latter physically looking like angels, but without the religious connotations.
The religion of the world is somewhat complicated, and not relevant to this story, so I'll not get into that now.
But just for amusement's sake,
Mrs. Aquian
"And furthermore, you pompous, arrogant peabrain, if you bothered to THINK about what you were saying for two seconds..."
"Who are you calling a peabrain, grouchy old hen?"
"WHAT did you just call me?"
Council was in session, and it was not going well. The North-Eastern Seat had just changed hands, bringing in the person of Lady Alexia el Gabrar to fill the vacancy. While the Lady was quite capable in all the required skills, she did have a... regrettable tendency for voicing her opinions. Loudly.
"...rude, unsophisticated, ignorant, empty-headed..."
Chairman Rivva Tol sighed quietly and covered his face with his hands. Lady Alexia's domineering nature was leading to such constant arguing that nothing was getting done anymore. They were falling behind in their work, rather than being ahead of it as Rivva preferred. It was rather maddening; the Council was supposed to be a cool, professional team, and here they were arguing like children.
Like children...
The Chairman lifted his head, blinking. It was a truly frightening idea, but it just might work. Certainly something had to be done, or things would start to fall apart. And they were supposed to be an elite body of intellectuals... It was time he started using his brain.
Rivva called an early end to the session, as nothing was getting done that day anyway, and turned his car in a much different direction than that which he normally took. This led him to the very edge of town, into a quiet upper-class neighborhood with manicured lawns, painted shutters, and quaint little white picket fences.
His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard as to turn white, his body tensed, his breathing shortened. There was really nothing at all about the area that called for such a state of nervousness. Children could be seen playing in yards, a businessman came home early from work, the mailman delivered the day's mail. All perfectly normal.
Except that the police never patrolled this neighborhood. They were never called here, and the crime rate was exactly zero. Few of the residents even bothered to lock their doors. Some of it could be accounted, perhaps, to the fact that the area had the feel to it of a twilight zone flashback to the fifties when people felt secure in their homes, but the majority of it was due to one simple reason.
A perfectly ordinary, perfectly kept, perfectly tidy home sitting halfway down the block between two other perfect homes, all of them framed by perfect rectangles of lush green grass, flower beds, and dwarf trees. This particular home, however, was different than all the others it was bordered by. This particular home belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Aquian.
Mr. Aquian was a corporate executive, one of the rare types that did what he did because he enjoyed his job, rather than simply to pay the bills. Most people who met him found him cheerful and pleasant, and his business thrived.
Rivva was not there to pay a visit to Mr. Aquian, however.
He carefully parked the car, taking a deep breath before slowly opening the door and getting out. The casual person wandering by might have wondered what could possibly be inside that could reduce the single most powerful man in the world to a nervous, trembling wreck. The casual person had never met Mrs. Aquian.
Hair neatly combed, suit straight and unwrinkled, back rigid, shoulders squared, Rivva walked up the perfect little path to the front door and rang the bell. The fifteen seconds it took for the door to open did not help soothe his state of mind in the least.
"Mr. Tol, good afternoon."
The woman was attractive, but not overly so, slender, but not model status, and did nothing at all to enhance her physical appearance. She wore her darkened blond hair in a bun at the nape of her neck, had on no makeup that Rivva could see, and was attired in a loose gingham dress and apron. All in all, quite ordinary. Until you looked at her eyes.
"Ah, good afternoon, Mrs. Aquian," the Chairman stammered, trying to cover for his flustered state by bowing low, "I hope I am not interrupting anything."
Mrs. Aquian shook her head. "I just put Jake down for his nap. Please, come in."
Rivva followed the woman into her home, feeling like a rabbit walking into a dragon's lair. But he was here for a reason and, lair of the beast or not, he was going to follow through to the end.
"Some tea, Mr. Tol?"
Rivva shook his head. "Ah, no thank you. I can't stay long, I came to ask a favor..."
One eyebrow lifted slightly as the winged woman regarded him. "A favor?"
"I would be most grateful if you would please find time to sit in on the next Council session," he explained, perfectly polite. You could be nothing else in this house.
The eyebrow rose further. "I see..." she murmured, then glanced behind her at the victorian-style calendar hanging on the wall. "Wait here a moment, Mr. Tol."
The winged woman stepped into the kitchen, picked up a phone of the sort that hadn't been in use for at least a good forty years, and dialed a number.
An insistent ringing sound brought the elf known as Jin Kel out of a very comfortable and satisfying state of sleep and grope blindly for the cordless phone that he just knew was over that direction... somewhere... His bed partner for the day murmured a sleepy question, but he didn't catch it. He did, however, finally find the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Kel?" a calm female voice asked on the other side of the line, not really asking at all, more reaffirming that he was actually awake and paying attention.
It took about six seconds for the voice to get through the sleepy sated fuzz of his mind and work its way to his brain.
"Gack! Ack!"
There was a thud as two bodies fell, first the phone colliding with the floor and followed shortly by the nude elven owner of that poor abused phone. He scrambled madly to get free of the sheets and snatch the phone back up off the floor.
"Eh heh... uhm, ah, Hi, Mrs. Aquian..." he said sheepishly.
"I have an errand to run tomorrow, so you will need to pick up Vale from school at three-thirty," she told him. "Do not be late."
The woman in his bed gave Jin a rather quizzical look as he hung up the phone breathing a sigh of relief. He grinned a little, climbing back up off the floor.
"Er, yeah, that's Vale's mom..."
He spent the next half hour trying to explain why Jin Kel, Summoner, Chosen, fearless, had been on his knees bowing to the phone.
The sun was shining bright and warm the next afternoon as Mrs. Aquian packed a shoulder bag with baby supplies, strapped the five-month-old Jake into his carrier, and took off for downtown. She did not fly often, being otherwise occupied with domestic chores most of the day, and quite enjoyed the feel of the wind beneath her wings.
Jake cooed and giggled to himself, reaching out his arms in an effort to catch the wind as it blew by. Out on the edges of the city there were few other Wings in the air, but the concentration grew the closer they got to their destination. Mrs. Aquian flew low, as the rules dictated for slower-moving gliders, being in no hurry. As always, Mrs. Aquian was exactly on time.
She drifted into a slow descent as the tall Council building came into view, landing lightly on the sidewalk and adjusting Jake in her arms. She'd chosen to land half a block from her destination so as to avoid other traffic, but neither she nor her son minded. It was a nice day for a walk.
The gold and glass doors opened silently under her hand, admitting her into the cooler interior of the building. People walked back and forth across the lobby on their various tasks, none of them paying her any attention. A reception desk awaited visitors at the far wall, but the Wing woman had been here before and knew exactly where she was going.
A swift elevator carried mother and child up to the floor where only a handful of people ever went, the doors opening with a soft ping to let them depart. Two guards, stationed a few feet into the hallway, blinked at her as she emerged.
Casual visitors were deterred from visiting, sending them through various lesser officiaries rather than overwhelming the eleven Council members with the many requests. The guards were there to prevent anyone from bypassing the standard process and sneaking into the Council room; had they been new, they might have mistaken the woman with her infant for one of these supplicants. Neither man was new.
Both guards stiffened, holding themselves rigidly at attention as Mrs. Aquian walked calmly past with baby Jake snug in her arms. It had been a while since she had been seen in this place, but no one who had met her ever forgot her.
There was a heated argument in progress as she arrived, audible even through the heavy soundproofed doors from the hallway into the Council Chamber. The nonplussed Wing woman walked right in anyway, a sudden silence making her arrival all the more portentous. The silence continued as she calmly made her way to a chair that had been set out expressly for her use, seated herself, and proceeded to fuss with the fastenings on Jake's jumper.
Chairman Rivva Tol smiled tiredly. "Thank you for coming, Mrs. Aquian," he said.
Mrs. Aquian nodded, Jake's jumper finally fixed, and arranged the baby on her lap where he proceeded to see how much of his fist would fit in his mouth.
The Chairman coughed nervously, watching everyone take their seats, and the Council session began.
As anticipated, the bizarre presence of a woman and her baby only kept the boisterous Lady Alexia off-guard until the first item on the agenda was brought up. Though it was a simple problem in most of their minds, the good Lady seemed determined to make it otherwise. The man reading the item itself did not even have a chance to make it to the end of the sentence before she interrupted him.
"You really think they would change willingly? I say the idiot who wrote that report..."
Whatever else she was going to say died on her lips as Mrs. Aquian lifted her head, turned in the direction of the offending woman, and gave her a Look. One did not interrupt in Mrs. Aquian's presence. Ever.
The Lady Alexia stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, at the calm gaze fixed upon her. Not a single word was said in that time, not a single sound made. It was a good possibility that the rest of the Council was collectively holding their breath.
Finally, after an eternity of nothing, time resumed. Mrs. Aquian looked down at the squirming baby in her arms, retrieved a bottle from her shoulder bag, and proceeded to feed Jake.
The Council resumed.
The miraculous silencing of Lady Alexia lasted only through two more items of agenda before once again she burst out her opinion in the middle of another's speech. There was instant silence, all eyes turning to where Mrs. Aquian was sitting.
The Wing woman was dangling a little stuffed toy over Jake's nose, watching as the baby boy reached for it.
There were a number of relieved sighs, then the Council picked up where they left off. Several more times the Lady Alexia would open her mouth to interrupt, glance quickly at Mrs. Aquian (playing with Jake, feeding Jake, in the other room changing Jake's diaper, or, once, listening calmly to the conversation while Jake napped) and save whatever she had been going to say for after her fellow Council member was done.
It had to have been the most productive and least stressful Council session in the last month. When it ended and everyone rose, Chairman Rivva approached Mrs. Aquian and smiled. "Thank you for coming, Mrs. Aquian. You're more than welcome to sit in whenever you like."
Into the startled and apprehensive silence that followed that statement, the winged woman nodded serenely. "Thank you, Mr. Tol. Jake does like the flight over."
Eleven pairs of eyes belonging to the eleven most powerful people in the world watched in complete and utter silence as the woman and child left the room. The silence stretched on for nearly an entire minute before finally the Lady Alexia turned to her fellow Council members with the most dumbfounded expression she had ever worn in her life.
".... who WAS that?!" she exclaimed.
"Mrs. Aquian," Rivva explained slowly, "Is the Chosen, Vale's, mother."
There was complete and utter silence as he spoke, the lingering effect of Mrs. Aquian's presence spilling over into the story about her.
"Several years ago, she was on the Council for about two months..."
Now Lady Alexia spoke up, startled. "Two months? What happened?"
Rivva smiled wanly. "She got more done in those two months than most full Councils manage to accomplish in a year. However, no one else could get any work done when she was present, so she respectfully resigned. Shortly thereafter she got married and became a housewife."
There were a few odd looks exchanged amongst members of the Council, but not a word further was said. The end of that story was to stick in the back of their minds, bothering them for a very long time.
How could a woman like THAT possibly be a mere housewife?
The Council had no further problems after that, as the mere threat of Mrs. Aquian returning to sit in on another Council session was more than enough to keep even the Lady Alexia on her best behavior. Jin Kel, on the other hand...
He spent the next week, and then some, hiding from Mrs. Aquian after being thirty-five minutes late to pick up Vale from grade school.