Chapter Text
Daisy was not having a good day.
“C’mon, Mack…just sneak me into the back of the throne room,” she entreated. “I’ll hide behind the curtains or something. They’ll never know I was there.”
“You know I can’t do that,” the man replied from where he stood by the door, arms folded respectfully behind his back. The black mark designating him as Fleimkepa was clear on the front of his gray robes.
“Then let me train with the new Nightblood initiates. Please?”
“You know that would not be appropriate, Daisy.”
“Fine.” She crossed the room with a huff, going to stand on the balcony. Her room was located on the sixtieth floor of the tower at the center of Polis and overlooked the side facing Trikru’s woodlands. Before she’d even stood there a minute, Mack was ushering her away from the open air.
“Daisy, you know what the head of the Commander’s army said about standing too close to the side,” the Flamekeeper admonished.
“Yeah, and next I won’t be able to go to the bathroom by myself either,” Daisy said. “The Commander of Death’s getting a little paranoid, if you ask me.”
“Don’t call her that,” Mack said. “There is only one Commander.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Daisy said, relenting and flopping down on her bed. She was nearly enveloped by the amount of furs covering it. “Fine, Seda is getting paranoid. Just…tell Coulson after the meeting is done that I want to speak with him.”
The doors to the throne room closed after the last of the clan ambassadors, and Coulson relaxed his posture and let out a deep breath. “Well, that went horribly, didn’t it?”
“Azgeda making trouble, as usual,” the head of his army said, stepping forward from her customary place at the base of his throne to face him. As usual, her hand was on the hilt of her sword. “They are only getting more bold. And more dangerous.”
“Enemies on all sides, then,” Coulson said. “Maunon to the west, Azgeda to the north, Podakru to the east refusing to join the Coalition…”
“It has always been like this,” May assured him.
“Doesn’t feel like it. When I was just a novitiate, watching Fury as Commander… It came easy to him.”
“Fury is dead,” May said dismissively. “That was a long time ago. You are the Commander now. The Spirit of the Commanders chose you.” She crossed the room, selecting a scroll off the wall and unfurling it, taking stock of what she found there. “I will take care of Podakru. Their ambassador can be made to…reconsider…his decision.”
An immediate feeling of relief flooded through him at the sight of May, calm and unshaken and offering a path forward as she always did. “Good thing I have the Commander of Death on my side, then,” Coulson tried to joke.
The woman affixed him with a cold stare. “Don’t ever call me that.”
“May…”
“I am not the Commander of Death,” the head of his army hissed, throwing the scroll back in its cubby and stalking toward him. “I may have agreed to allow you to spread that rumor in Polis to shore up Trikru’s place in the Coalition, but I am not—”
“May,” Coulson said. “May, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to offend.”
“The real Wanheda is still out there,” she told him.
“Whoever they are, they haven’t killed anyone in two full seasons.”
“Don’t underestimate Wanheda.”
“I’m not.” He held up his hands. “I’m not. But we could really use a few less enemies right now.”
May snorted. “Should’ve lost the Conclave then. You’d have fewer enemies if you were dead.”
It was Coulson’s turn to be angry, although with May for some reason said anger always came out as more exasperated. “That’s not what I…”
“Heda.” Mack, the Flamekeeper, stood at the door. Coulson sat up a little straighter as May turned away from him to face him. “Daisy wishes to speak with you.”
“Of course she does,” Coulson said, exchanging a glance with May. That girl was going to be the death of him, and with the Mountain Men, Azgeda, Podakru, and the Commander of Death all gunning for him, that was saying a lot. “Send her in.”
Mack inclined his head and retreated from view. Less than five seconds later, Daisy walked in, dressed her usual Trikru garb and with an incensed expression on her face. “Finally!”
“Daisy!” May said. “Some respect, for the Commander.”
Coulson hid his smile; he didn’t think that was likely. Daisy was as good as a daughter to him, and the young woman knew it. “Sorry, Seda,” Daisy said, addressing her mentor with at least some decorum. She turned back to him. “Sorry. I’ve been waiting to speak with you for hours.”
“Council meetings can go long,” he said. “What did you need, Daisy?”
“I wanted to start working on that gun we recovered from the Mountain Men again,” she said.
“No.”
“No? You said after your emissary to Podakru had come back, and they did. You can’t just—”
“He is the Commander,” May reminded her again. “He can just. You are the Commander’s ward; you cannot be seen working with the tools, the tech, of our enemies. What you do reflects on him, and the Coalition is fragile enough as it is.”
“I’ll be discreet!”
“Your time would be better spent training,” May said. She frowned. “Daisy, where is your sword?”
For once, the young woman looked guilty, shifting from foot to foot. Coulson leaned forward, equally concerned. “I left it in my room.”
“Bronwoda!” May swore at her. Fool! “These are dangerous times, and you don’t even take your weapon?”
“I’m in the tower…and there are Trikru guards everywhere,” Daisy said.
“She’s right, Daisy. We can’t afford to be anything but cautious,” Coulson said. May shot him a furious look but he beckoned to her anyway, continuing his calm tone. “It’s just a delicate time right now, and it can’t hurt to be too careful. All right?”
“All right,” Daisy said, approaching the base of his throne. He stood from the seat, wrapping his arms around her frame for a rare hug.
“Ai hod yu in, Daisy kom Trikru,” he whispered in her ear.
She stepped away slightly when he released her, but she was smiling. “I love you too.”
“Training tomorrow. Dawn,” May told her, unrelenting. “Bring your sword.”
“Fine. I’ll be there,” Daisy assented before turning around and marching out of the throne room again. The room seemed darker without her fiery presence.
May looked sideways at him where he stood on the small dais. “You didn’t tell her.”
“What, that we have intel that Azgeda is trying to kill me? Their novitiate is entering adulthood and is the oldest and strongest of the group. And they’re Azgeda; it’s not exactly new.”
“That word of Daisy’s existence in Polis and importance to you has reached the Queen, and she may try to get to you through her. Hodnes laik kwelnes, Heda.”
Coulson looked at the only other woman he loved and was forcibly reminded why he could never tell her. “I know, May. We’ll figure something out. We always do.”
Daisy had the urge to throw her sword across the room and only just stopped herself from doing so, knowing that explaining the large hole in her wall to Coulson later would only cause him to trust her even less than he did now. She was sixteen, not five, damn it, and not the lost little girl he’d taken in all those years ago when he’d been newly installed as Commander. Back then she’d had to be raised and trained in secret, of course, so as not to become a liability for him, but after she’d become May’s second it had gotten somewhat easier to explain her presence in the tower. She’d gotten breathing room, at least, which was more than she could say for her position currently. Now that she was older, the scrutiny had increased again, and Coulson and May had only gotten more paranoid.
She looked up at the knock at the door, but it was only one of the Trikru guards bringing dinner. Well, then. She wasn’t expected to join Coulson tonight. Maybe being seen with her was too much of a liability.
The guard set the wooden plate on the table near the door. “Thank you,” Daisy said, giving him a nod. She didn’t recognize him, but that was common enough as the guard rotated in and out of Polis to give them equal time with their families back in Tondc or one of the other villages.
He nodded stiffly back. “Daisy kom Nokru.” She blinked, jaw hardening, but he was gone again before he could think of a response. Even after ten years not all of Trikru accepted her of one of their own, not that they would ever call her such a thing in front of the Commander. Nokru, Frikdreina, she’d heard it all and more. It didn’t help that the highest calling within Trikru was that of a warrior, and Daisy… Well, it wasn’t that she didn’t like fighting. Defeating your opponent was a thrill, and she enjoyed the burn in her muscles, but it was still… She liked tech more, and tech was forbidden, lest they bring the wrath of the Mountain Men down on all of Trikru and the Coalition as a whole.
Yet another way she was a liability to Coulson.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t grateful, Daisy thought obstinately. She was. Who knows where she could have ended up if he hadn’t taken her in all those years ago, forced the clan to accept her though nothing was known of her origin. He and May, she loved them, almost like parents if she even knew what that was like. But they also treated her like a child. She wanted to help. Figuring out the Mountain Men tech—that would be helpful, if only they could see it. Or, if they didn’t let her help, she at least didn’t want to be a liability anymore. To get to live her own life. Not to be a shadow in Polis anymore, hiding lest someone figure out exactly how much she meant to the Commander. Not to be Daisy kom Nokru.
She wanted to be someone else.
Anyone else.
Anywhere else.
And why couldn’t she? May had taught her well enough to slip out of Polis unnoticed, and she could survive fine in the woods on her own. She had another identity out there, one unused and unknown since she was five years old and stumbling into Tondc. Somewhere out there, she had parents, parents who weren’t plagued by the political schemes of twelve clans constantly edging toward war and parents whose lives would not be put in jeopardy every day by her choices, much less by her very existence. The best way to keep Coulson safe, and to get to live her own life, was to find them.
Daisy stood up, giddy exhilaration burning through every one of her muscles and tingling the tips of her fingers and toes. She was leaving Polis. Tonight.