Kiudein

. . .

Beautiful like her mother, intelligent like her father, and just as cunning as them both, Kiudein has no problem fitting in with the Court of Thorns. She enjoys the somewhat chaotic meetings with her fellow members, and when she's back at home, she delves into the politics of her clan along with her father. It's much more simple than her mother's side of the family, but it is quite fun.

When there's time away from her busy life, Kiudein keeps a keen eye on the three other Thornlings she shares her home with. While she first considered them a threat, she's come to realize that they're much too focused on other things to try and gain control over her, and she's come to enjoy their company from time to time (an unfortunate trait she got from her father, that softie). Now she mostly has to make sure they attend to their duties instead of wasting away in that lab of theirs.

She doesn't share the hope of becoming the next ruler of the court like many of her siblings do, and has made that perfectly clear to them all. While it's unclear whether any of them truly believe that, Kiudein hopes that it will make her less of a target incase one gets violent. She's perfectly happy to serve right next to the throne, and as long as that spot is secured, she doesn't really care who's on it.

---

Many things intrigued Kiudein, recently her attention had been focused on two newcomers, Vega and Irga. Clearly they were working for someone very powerful, but who? What did they want? The questions swallowed what small amount of space there was in her head that wasn't occupied by politics, and it threatened to pick away at that, too.

Those questions all grew in intensity when another newcomer arrived, Vega's younger brother. Deimos, perhaps the strangest dragon she'd ever met. Vega had introduced them, and the second they began speaking, he changed. It wasn't much, but Kiudein could see his face shrink closer to his skull, his eyes growing darker. She'd expected him to be somehow upset, but instead she found pure joy shining in the light that remained in his eyes.

Clearly Vega saw the change, too, and quickly pulled him away. That look in his eyes had been permanently ingrained in Kiudein's mind, though, and she found that she couldn't focus on anything else the rest of the day. Normally anyone with that sort of power would've made her worried, but that wasn't the case at all.

Anyone with eyes like that could never scare her, no matter how much they tried.

. . .

The next time she saw Deimos, just a few hours after their initial meeting, a heavy cloak covered his face. She'd been on her way to the lab to deliver some news to Fingunt, Elderberry, and Morada, and it appeared that he was just leaving.

"Deimos," she said, just a simple acknowledgement. She'd expected his eyes to widen, the way most dragons' did, but instead they stayed blank, almost looking fake.

"Kiudein!" he said, his voice muffled by the thick fabric of his hood. "Are you headed for the lab?"