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Border Banners

Malina’s people live in a comfortable kingdom that has not seen real war in generations.  They have a thriving craft-person economy, they have a comfortable relationship with the one nation they share a border with, and they have a very nice monarchy – although, as the monarchs are Malina’s parents, she may be biased.

Their other border is a desert that nobody really thinks about, nobody really… even considers…

Until Malina is too bored at a party and goes walking.. into the desert.

Linguistics

    Desert World Building

    A Matter of State

    Malina & Matters of State

    This comes after the current story as of today in Malina & the Border Banners, assume it’s a side story.

    This was prompted in my Bisexual Visibility Day prompt call.

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    “There are things you will need to consider as the Queen of this place.”

    The sand-cat paced on the desk, lecturing the girl, who had been named Malina Serafina Anastazja Dominika Naveed Jeleń nic Cecília O Alexandre, but who we will call Malina for the purposes of this story. “There are many things about which you will need to learn,” the cat continued. 

    “The borders.”  Malina nodded slowly.  “Yes.  And war.  And the magic, right? I don’t know anything about the magic yet.  And – and the – how these worlds are connected and -“

    She felt like she was just beginning her studies again, like everything was strange and nothing made sense and she was running just to try to keep up. 

    “No, important things.”  The cat huffed.  “Well, other important things.”

    “Other important things?  Cat, if I have to worry about one more thing, I might just walk back into the desert and hug a cactus.”

    “Not a cactus.”  The cat jumped up onto her shoulder in one leap.  “Not a cactus, no.  You will be Ruler here.  You will need a Consort.  Or several.  You will need a lineage, and you will need to share the weight of the crown and the scepter and all they mean.”

    “Consorts. Consorts.  You want me to think about consorts?”

    “I don’t want you to think about them in the specific yet, no.  I want you to consider, for a moment – let us call it as a break between everything else that you are worried about – things that you would be interested in, things that a consort ought to show.  For instance, a smooth, shiny coat of fur, an upright tail, ears that aren’t too bitten by fights, a good run-“

    Malina laughed.  “I think the ears are the least – well, all right, I have seen a few people who’ve lost a little bit of ear in a fight, people who stand on two legs like me, that is.  So you want me to write down what I think Royal Consorts ought to be like.”  She paused, halfway to picking up her pen.  “You said more than one.  One ought to be able to help me with an heir, of course – but do they all need to be male?”

    “I can’t see why.”  The cat sat down on the desk and stared at her.  “I can’t see any reason why you can’t think about everything that would please you.  You are – or will be – queen, after all.”

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    Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 19 (A Story for B)

    Began here.
    Landing page here.

    “Wait. Wait.”  Malina stared at the cat.  “Wait, some people think that Dominika – the one I’m named after, my ancestor- that she came from another world?”

    “Well, many people did.  Right up until the Final Treaty was ratified.”

    “Right up until – Wait.  People thought that, or – or people came from another world?” She was trying to remain calm.  She was mostly managing not to shout. “People were coming from another world?” Continue reading

    Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 18 (A Story for B)

    Began here.
    Landing page here.

    In a castle that shouldn’t be, in a place that wasn’t, a girl named after too many things ran her hands over the carvings in the sandstone and tried to read them. 

    She could tell they meant something, but what they meant – that was beyond her.  Wait. 

    “Wait.”

    She ran her fingers over it again.  “It’s – Oh, I can almost read it,” she murmured.  “I can almost feel the weave in it.  The – oh.”  She pulled her fingers away.  “It’s like reading a language that is close to one you know, but is just different enough to be obnoxious.” Continue reading

    Federated Worlds – Worldbuilding for Border Banner

    Written in February 2020, posted at https://ping.the-planet.space/notes/846zh97210 (and other posts), but I cannot find it posted here, so here it is!

    Malina’s Border Banners World – Worldbuilding.

    🚩

    Greetings, I’m Lyn, and I thought up #FediWorlds. 

    And that being said, I’m not even sure how to answer this question. 

    I did a poll as to what world I’d work on, and “Story for B” won.  This story, appropriately begun on this account, involves a princess of a very long name becoming lost in the desert. 

    I think Rick and Evie from The Mummy (1990s) – early in the movie when they spend a lot of the time arguing – fit my feel for this story so far. 

    This may be influenced by the fact that they are wandering through the desert, of course, or that the cat, one of the main characters, is obstinate and difficult.  Continue reading

    Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 17 (A Story for B)

    Began here.
    Chapter 2 here
    Chapter 3 here.
    Chapter 4 here.
    Chapter 5 here.
    Chapter 6 here.
    Chapter 7 here.
    Chapter 8 here.
    Chapter 9 here.
    Chapter 10 here.
    Chapter 11 here.
    Chapter 12 here.
    Chapter 13 here.
    Chapter 14 here.
    Chapter 15 here.
    Chapter 16 here.

    In the middle of a land that did not exist, in the middle of a time that was, it seemed, all times and none, the woman named for her ancestors who had often found the names fit like someone else’s shoe put someone else’s crown on her head and found that both seemed to fit better than they ever had at home.

    “I am Malina Serafina Anastazja Dominika Naveed Jeleń nic Cecília O Alexandre.  I am the daughter of Cecília Portela Dominika, the daughter of Tiago Jeleń Alexandre, great-granddaughter to Serafina who brought home the sun.  I am she who wears the crown here.” She lifted her chin, aware she was speaking to the wall of an abandoned – or nearly-abandoned – castle.  “I am she who crossed the border lands.” Continue reading

    Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 16 (A Story for B)

    Began here.
    Chapter 2 here
    Chapter 3 here.
    Chapter 4 here.
    Chapter 5 here.
    Chapter 6 here.
    Chapter 7 here.
    Chapter 8 here.
    Chapter 9 here.
    Chapter 10 here.
    Chapter 11 here.
    Chapter 12 here.
    Chapter 13 here.
    Chapter 14 here.
    Chapter 15 here.

    I was supposed to see the oases?
    Of course.  You saw them, didn’t you?

    There was just a little too much to take in.  Malina put her head in her hands.  She wanted – 

    She wanted her tutor, Yethen, who would help her through these things.  She wanted her class-mates, especially Jaian, who knew what to do in situations where nothing made sense.  She wanted – 

    She chuckled ruefully.  She wanted people.  She had spent so much of her life looking for a quiet place away from people, a little moment to herself.  And here – 

    well, here, she had this cat, didn’t she?  Even here, she wasn’t actually alone Continue reading

    Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 15 (A Story for B)

    Began here.
    Chapter 2 here
    Chapter 3 here.
    Chapter 4 here.
    Chapter 5 here.
    Chapter 6 here.
    Chapter 7 here.
    Chapter 8 here.
    Chapter 9 here.
    Chapter 10 here.
    Chapter 11 here.
    Chapter 12 here.
    Chapter 13 here.
    Chapter 14 here.

     

    A sensation washed over her, a feeling like the whole land was laid out in front of her. 

    She’d thought of it like a big line, not all that wide, maybe the distance one could walk in a few minutes.

    In front of her, the land spread out for days in all directions. 

    Malina gasped.  “It’s huge.”  No, it was more than huge.  “It’s  – it’s impossible.  There’s not that much land on the whole continent.  There’s not that much land in one place in the whole world.”

    “There never was.”  The cat’s voice sounded as if it was coming from a very long way away.  “There never was, and yet there always has been.  Forever and ever, and never, that’s the way of this place.”   Continue reading

    Malina and the Border Banners, Chapter 14 (A Story for B)

    Began here.
    Chapter 2 here
    Chapter 3 here.
    Chapter 4 here.
    Chapter 5 here.
    Chapter 6 here.
    Chapter 7 here.
    Chapter 8 here.
    Chapter 9 here.
    Chapter 10 here.
    Chapter 11 here.
    Chapter 12 here.
    Chapter 13 here.

    Malina paced.  “This is – this is strange,” she complained. 

    The silks of her new clothing brushed across her legs with every step.  The sandals made shhussshing noises on the tile floor. 

    That in itself was strange. Everything was different from her normal clothing, from her normal floors, from her normal shoes.  The carved stone screens were like nothing she had at home. The bed, even, was made differently from any bed she’d ever slept in before last night.  Everything was like living in a storybook, which – 

    You were named to this position.  We have been waiting for you. Continue reading