When I wrote Stormsinger, I was actually surprised to realize Prince Vistaren of Amethir was betrothed to Princess Azmei of Tamnen. It was a political alliance, and not the easiest alliance to make, because Amethirian privateers have been known to attack Tamnese ships on occasion.
Since I already knew Vistaren is gay, I knew that being presented with a potential wife would be problematic for him. There would be issues to work out, and I know enough about Vistaren to know he could never take the easy way out of something.
I wanted to explore the relationship between Azmei and Vistaren, and there’s no place for it in The Weather War, so almost as soon as I finished Stormsinger I began working on a sequel.
In this scene, Azmei is on a ship, en route to her first meeting with Vistaren.
“You are chewing your thumbnail again,” said Guira’s voice from behind her. “You dwell too much on your anxiety.”
“I want his present to be right.”
“It will be.” Guira gathered the books, papers, and pens and swept them all into a tidy stack without even glancing at them. “Your dinner guest will be arriving in fifteen minutes. Please allow me to wash the ink from your fingers.”
Azmei rolled her eyes but extended her fingers to be scrubbed with the perfumed solution that always removed the faintest trace of ink stains from her fingers. Azmei always meant to ask about the solution, but she wasn’t the one who cared about ink stains. Left to herself, she would probably never bother getting all the ink off, because she knew she would just get more on her later.
Some of my characters are definitely people I wouldn’t want to spend much time with personally. Azmei is definitely someone I would like hanging out with though. I hope you feel the same!
ooh, this will be interesting…. the other side of Stormsinger.