Sada’s face turned bright red as she heard the news. The crowd around the café looked shocked. The feelings were mixed. The king had not been well loved by his people. There had been talk of overthrow and bad management in the kingdom. There had been lots of talk. Sada had not listened to much of it, and she participated in even less of the gossip that went around the university and the neighborhoods around the university. To Tsomis, she seemed aloof about the monarchy. She would answer questions put to her during her university classes, but never went beyond what the professor or book would say. It was almost as if she did not have an opinion on it.

“Don’t you ever question the monarchy?” Tsomis asked Sada as they walked around campus on a surprisingly sunny day at the end of autumn.

“Question the monarchy?” Sada asked. She was a bit distracted as she was worrying over rumors she had been hearing in the streets about an uprising to overthrow the monarchy. “I do not even know where to start on questioning it. The elves play a large role in the monarchy, you know. We have firm beliefs about its value. I am not sure how to compare those beliefs with the wandering questions of you humans.”

“You know my background,” Tsomis said. “I do not question the office of the monarchy. Clearly the one that was chosen was not right for this time.”

Sada interrupted Tsomis before he continued. “You do not know what right is,” she said. “I have tried to explain this to you and the professors. The elves do not choose the perfect or best qualified monarch. It is not done that way. Our choices are always made based on our sight. We see things. We know how things will work out. And it is with that sight that we can choose the right monarch for the time. They are not the most qualified and certainly not the most liked. We do not take that into account.

“That you would overthrow him or the system may be the right approach. It is strange to say, but that may be the outcome of the prophet’s vision: to raise a monarch that the people overthrow to set up a more perfect system. I do not know what he was thinking. I have spent many hours studying with him, and he did not disclose his reasoning for his choice, nor did I push him on this question, as your kind is wont to do. Suffice to say that the choice was right for the time and the outcome is better than any other queen or king that might have been selected in her stead.”

Tsomis was never satisfied with this answer. He always thought that there must be more to it. The elves put the valley’s safety and prosperity in the hands of a gut feeling. The whole idea never sat well with him or the professors or other students that Sada had made this point to at other times. It was the magic angle. He was a rational, logical person. When Sada began speaking of magic and feelings and gut reactions, he had to resist the sarcastic remarks that bubbled up deep within his belly.

“The valley is changing,” Tsomis said, trying to guide the conversation in a direction that did not head into the magical territory. “The old ways are no longer the ways of today. We are moving into a place where we want govern ourselves, not be at the whim of a ruler who, as you point out, may not be selected for his ruling skills or for his decision making abilities.”

Sada did not answer. She was deep in thought and Tsomis did not interrupt her revelry. He saw big changes ahead for the valley. At the same time, he feared for some of those changes. He lived a comfortable life, and wondered whether his comforts would change along with the valley.

They watched as the crowds mulled around outside the café. There were many rumors that came into the café about how the queen had died. The most common was murder at the hand of the secret society that had been printing flyers about his monarchy and how terrible it was for the valley. Few people put much credence in the accounts, as the queen had been well protected by both human and elven guards.

The area around the palace was heavy with guards, and no news leaked out of it after the newsboys were sent out to report on the initial findings. They sat at a table near the glass windows and sipped small cups of coffee, waiting for further news on the events.

Sada seemed particularly worried about the occurrence.

“Do you have to go somewhere?” Tsomis asked, as for not the first time, Sada had gotten to get up only to sink back into her chair and nervously run her hand along the rim of her empty coffee cup.

“No,” Sada said, still distracted. “I just want to know what happened and what is going on with the selection process.”

Tsomis accepted the answer. Like the rest of the people had the café, he was interested as well. It might have been an academic interest, but it was there.

They went outside after they finished their coffee and mulled with the crowds. The crowd had grown since they had entered the café, and rumors were flying across the crowd. People were whispering to people they did not know about the latest rumor that floated from the front of the crowd. Tsomis wondered why the front of the crowd would have better information than the back when it was apparent that nobody was saying anything from the palace. It did not stop the spread of rumors.

There was some movement at the front of the palace, and a small contingent of guards was moving through the crowd. The crowds pushed to get closer to the guards, but they pushed back and slowly worked their way through. They did not say anything as they pushed the crowd past Tsomis and Sada and moved beyond the crowd, a few hundred feet beyond where Tsomis and Sada stood, where the crowd thinned and they could begin their fast march to wherever they were no stationed to protect the valley.

The rumors were interesting to watch, as they changed from murder to suicide to everything in between, including old age. The queen was not old, having just been appointed five years before. She was barely 40 years old, and in relatively good health. She had been rather quiet of late, with fewer announcements and she had not been seen in public for some time.

Tsomis always wondered why anyone would accept the role. The power, he admitted, would be awesome. But at the same time, not having a family or a legacy besides the valley itself was very limiting. The always being watchful and being seen as against the people was also troubling.

The rumors began to coalesce on one theory: disease. That she had not been seen lately, and that there were rumors of strange deaths that the doctors were unable to identify supported this theory the strongest. The disease started like a case of food poisoning, and slowly worked its way to a full blown cold. The victims ended up hiccupping uncontrollably until they could no longer breathe. Most died from asphyxiation. It was almost humorous to imagine the queen dying of hiccupping. It was less funny when it was someone you knew. The queen, for all of her powers, silently led the valley. Her edicts were sent out over paper and she never spoke to the people or even the council. Most people wondered whether it was her that wrote the edicts or if one of her many advisors penned it and had her sign her overly flowery but still beautiful signature at the bottom of the scroll.

Then the truth came. When the truth arrives, it comes with such force that rumors wither away around it. She had been assassinated. This was not the rumor of assassination that had spread earlier. This was factual. Tsomis could tell the difference by the small unimportant facts that followed the truth: the prophet had been with her and he had died as well. The assassin had been caught: Charlie Resonant. He was a member of the council, a quiet member who it turned out was heavily in league with the council’s more outspoken members against the monarchy.

While it was not said yet, it was clear he did not act alone. Such an act, such a breach of the security of the valley’s palace security would have taken more than one person. The queen and prophet had died by gunshots. There were few guns left in the valley, and all of them were controlled by the military. There was no explanation for this, but with the soldiers moving as rapidly as they did, there were strong talk that the military had played a large role in the coup, since clearly it was a coup now.

Upon hearing that the prophet had been killed, Sada sat on the ground, her eyes puffy and red. For all of their speed, the change in emotions was the fastest change they could affect. Sada was rarely emotional in her dealings with Tsomis or with the other students or professors, but when she was emotional, it was so sudden an unexpected as to be almost mystical in its appearance. This was the third time he had seen her like this, and when he saw her fall to the ground, he wanted to grab her and hold her and tell her it would be okay.

Sada had often talked about the prophet and what he had taught her. With so few elves left, the prophet spent much of his time with the younger elves, teaching them the ways of the human valley. Sada never shared that the prophet also spent time with her because she was his successor. She would take over when his job was finished. She just never expected his job to be finished so early.

“I have to return to the caves,” Sada said. Tsomis studied her large eyes. The skin around her eyes was a deep red that clashed with the orange of her skin, and puffy to the point that it appeared there was something beneath them puffing them up.

“It is going to be tough to get through the crowd,” Tsomis said.

Sandra was not listening. She started to move through the crowd, turning sideways as she moved through the crowd. Tsomis tried to keep up with her, but she moved quickly and the crowd around her seemed to move out of her way as she went.

Tsomis pushed his way out through the crowd until it thinned. There was still whispering around the crowd as the gossip turned to rumor which turned to fact. Tsomis ignored the people that tried to yell out to him. He was only paying attention to Sada as she moved through the crowd. He ignored the people around him.

When he pushed his way into the open, he saw Sada running down the block and disappearing down the side street. He slowed and watched as her tiny form blurred as it turned the corner. She seemed very upset by the news of the queen. Then he remembered that it was not just the queen that was killed; the queen’s prophet had also been killed. Tsomis remembered the stories that the Sada told about her studies with the prophet. Tsomis turned back and began walking toward campus and his apartment. There was much to catch up on, and he was sure the people that lived downstairs with him would have all of the latest news.

The crowd around the palace had thinned a bit as the news spread and it became apparent that there would be no further announcements. The rain had slowed to a drizzle during the night and no longer fell. It would be a long day on the morrow. The valley had changed this night, and Tsomis was not sure if that was a change for the better.

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