Title: higher than soul can hope or mind can hide
Fandom: Royal Order, Iris/f!Aarya
Prompt: Ready (Amnesty)
Rating: T
Length: 794
Content notes: mention of past war crimes and prejudice
Author notes: Title from [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e. e. cummings
Summary: As they prepare for their journey to the Northern Continent, Aarya teaches Iris the Sval language and etiquette.


Iris was filled with questions as she and Aarya prepared to travel to the Northern Continent. How should she greet the Sval, when she stepped off the ship of the High Council that would bring them to the place that was Aarya's home and that she was determined would be her own? What customs should she know about, and how did the clans organize themselves? She asked her questions to Aarya in the Sval language she was learning, fumbling through the grammar that Aarya was teaching her. She often needed to return to her own language to ask Aarya how to say a word or to convey a concept. Aarya always answered her in simple Sval at first, speaking slowly, before switching languages to give her the more complete explanation Iris wanted.

"You don't have to try so hard to make a good impression." Aarya said one day. They had just spent two hours on language learning, working through the vocabulary and courtesies she needed to offer proper respect to the chieftains, and now, the two of them were on the bed, Iris leaning comfortably against Aarya.

"What do you mean?" Iris asked. Her brain felt a little fuzzy from all that studying. The grammatical patterns she was learning were entirely different from what she knew, which made sense, given the languages' entirely different origins.

"You don't need to work so hard on all those lessons and learning etiquette. You're my people's savior, and they'll welcome you no matter what." The look in Aarya's golden eyes held her own gratitude, mixed with a complicated sadness and regret at how her people had struggled in the past. The amount of suffering Aarya and her people had gone through still defied Iris's imagination; she felt a pang in her heart and was grateful herself that her alchemy skills had been of use.

"Besides, you'll be my wife," Aarya said. Her fingers brushed through Iris's hair with gentle, rhythmic motions. Anyone who doesn't respect you will answer to me." Her voice had turned firm, unconsciously arrogant.

This was a side of her lover that she rarely saw: the ruthless, prideful demon ruler who demanded obedience as her due. She had always known that Aarya held secrets, but the exact nature of those secrets was still something she was getting used to. In the Sval language, Aarya was called a word that Aarya translated as "sovereign", but Iris had concluded that there was no word in her language to encompass what Aarya was to her people. A sovereign among humans was powerful, but they were ephemeral, and if a ruler passed, then another could take their place. But there was no one who could take Aarya's place: all the Sval owed their lives to the magic she'd shared with them, and she'd led them ever since their ancestors had first set foot upon the Northern Continent. By virtue of her power and her sacrifice, she took authority as her right, and Iris knew that in the past she'd used her power in terrifying ways. It would have, in truth, been frightening, if Iris hadn't also known of her lover's kindness and she desired above all for everyone to live in peace.

Iris shook her head. "I don't want you to have to defend me. I don't want to cause conflict between you and your people." Some of that was inevitable; some of the clans still resented Aarya for leaving them, or felt it beneath their pride to make peace with those who had driven them to the Northern Continent, but that only meant it was up to Iris to avoid making things worse. She switched languages then, saying carefully, "I want being good to your people, Aarya. I love you."

She was wincing internally from realizing at the last minute she'd messed up what she wanted to say when Aarya kissed her, her hand cupped around Iris's cheek. Deep and tender, the kiss spoke in a language without words of Aarya's love and gratitude and Aarya's admiration that Iris was still not sure she deserved.

Neither of them was particularly composed after they pulled away. Iris was breathless; it took her a moment to remember what they'd been talking about. Then she protested. "I wasn't actually done. Aarya, how do I say, 'I'm committed to the peace as the representative of the High Council'?"

The light of fondness shone in Aarya's eyes as she laughed. She broke down the Sval sentence for Iris, speaking slowly and precisely so that Iris could understand and remember, and offered corrections as Iris repeated it, anchoring the words to  memory. Then, when Iris was satisfied she would remember, Aarya pulled her into her arms, ready to show her some more private things as well.