Here’s a story idea. Premise is something like this:
It’s a mercenary world out there for vesperbanes. Elizi will do whatever it takes to put food on her plate — well, almost anything. She still has a heart. But if it takes a little finesse to get her fair share? Sometimes you gotta play a little dirty to stay in the game. Elizi does the best she can, and maybe one day, that’ll be enough. Till then, honor is a luxury.
Once, a euvespid queen’s heir was chosen by the point of a knife. Born in court of scorpions, the mandate of survival was all a queen needed. Today, the Pantheca insists queens be chosen democratically, and murder is a crime, even between competing princesses. It’s an enlightened age.
Silátil is the queen’s fifth princess, the youngest. Her sisters have had their whole lives to gain popular favor, and Silátil’s genius was fit only for the blade, not for politics. She has no chance to rule — well, almost no chance. When three of her sisters are struck dead in the night, there’s only two candidates left.
Then her mother is found dead, apparent suicide. Silátil’s last living sister assumes power, and declares her mother’s death an assassination. It’s clear the colony is under threat, a foe their defenses cannot withstand.
So her sister hires vespers with a mission: protect Silátil and escort her to one of her mother’s safehouses until the regent’s administration can determine the truth. As a euvespid princess, Silátil’s life can only be trusted to the most qualified vesperbanes, the best of the best.
Are Elizi and her team qualified? When a euvespid queen-regent is paying the bill, who can afford to tell the truth?
I also thought of a prologue sequence to characterize the both of them.
Elizi’s would start with her in the middle of a mission, and she’d have a few saving the cat moments where she puts her life on the line to protect her clients from direbeasts or fungus’d bugs.
Then when they get back, Elizi might guilt trip or double charge her clients to get a few extra bones. (One of Elizi’s teammates might be a new recruit, and feel what they’re doing is a bit… unethical. But Elizi’s explains that low ranking vesperbanes like us gotta hustle, it’s just the nature of the game.)
Anyway, with her new payout she goes out to eat a meal fit for a vesperbane. In the process, probably encounters some poor nymphs starving on the street, and spares a little bit of her food to give them something to chew on.
While eating her own food, another vesperbane comes and sits beside her. They couldn’t help but overhear what Elizi said about the hustle, and they think the two of them might be like-minded individuals. How does she feel about a partnership?
Elizi, of course, is always open to opportunity. She doesn’t say yes, she’s not stupid, but she leaves the door open.
After that, she’s on the lookout for a new mission, finding some bee merchants about to leave town and she’s explains how dangerous the roads around her can be, and insists they hire some vesperbanes to protect them.
Vesperbane from earlier shows up to coaborate / help her sell, and in the end, the merchants hire Elizi’s team, including the new guy.
They travel down the road for a bit, then along the road, some bandits drop down from the trees, and the new guy reveals their plan: they’re gonna kill the merchants, grab all their money, and sell the rest of the goods for a nice chunk of profit
Elizi is like what the fuck, no. The new guy is confused. I thought you understood how this world works. You do whatever you can to get whatever you can. That’s what it means to be a vesperbane
But it’s obvious that Elizi’s not on board with it, so they start backpedaling.
For Elizi, it’s simple: being a vesperbane means getting the mission done, and Elizi’s mission is to protect the merchants.
But the guy’s like what’s the point? We negotiated that you be paid half upfront. Missions fail sometimes, and you already got paid something. Maybe the killing’s too much for you, but why get in our way? It’ll be better for us both if you just run back to town, tell em you failed.
All of this building to Elizi’s big character moment where she’s like no. I dont cut corners, I dont let anyone go hungry, and I dont take anyone else out of the game. That it is what it means to grind.
Then she kicks their ass and takes them back to town to be tried as defects.
Silátil’s characterization is much simpler. We’d see her being a prodigy with seals and fighting, a few glimpses of euvespid formalities, Silátil interacting with her personal servants. The point established, she doesn’t get along with anyone well, but when it comes to skills and knowledge, Silátil is just better than everyone. Better than her instructors, better than her sisters. Even her mother recognizes this.
Then we’d have some intercut signs of the killing starting. One sister dying, then the next. We’d see each one from the killed’s pov, and the killer would be relentless and anonymous, but there’d be calling cards.
Silátil has an alibi for all of them, but the next sister suspects something up anyway; she never liked or trusted Silátil.
But circumstances are arranged so that when they’re having a conversation/argument in broad daylight, one of the calling cards comes, and the first attack comes for Silátil’s head, and she narrowly dodges.
It seems like the killer is going to come for them both at once, so the sister takes Silátil and runs for safety.
This all builds to the expected twist that yup, the killer is Silátil, and she strikes when her sister’s guard is finally down
I think I had thought of a line/emotional point to make here but it’s been a while and I’m tired, but suffice it to say that Silátil’s motivation is “Y’all are weak, I’d be a better queen”
Anyway, as Silátil is plotting how to take out her last sister, that’s when she’s informed that the queen is dead and the colony is in a kind of lockdown (and mourning, but that can wait).
Now here’s the thing: killing her mother was not Silátil’s plan at all; her mom is a good queen, Silátil wants to be like her. She’s devastated at the news, and then she has to face her last sister.
And there’s a hilarious dynamic here because how do you convince them you’re innocent when you definitely did some murder — just not this one? It’s a tricky line to walk, and Silátil is pretty sus but the sister can’t prove what’s up yet.
So obviously, hiring the vesperbanes is both for her protection, but also to protect people from her, and this would probably clear/hinted at in the mission brief. (Might be funny if the regent is like “vesperbanes look underneath the underneath right? I’ll carefully imply all of my suspicions” and Elizi just. doesn’t pick up on any of it)
Anyway, all of that, is set up for the meet-cute between Elizi and Silátil being the latter attacking and trying to kill the former.
With a knife to her throat, she’s like: you’re weak and I don’t need anyone to protect me, least of all a vesperbane.
And will they fall in love?
Of course they will.