Even though rulers must rule, as rulers do, sometimes ones duty required more than politics and warfare. For Edana, it meant that her time was nigh to create an successor to her throne. The thought had been on her mind for quite a while. Other things always seemed to take precedence though. The Northspring Flock required much of her and her sisters to keep things in order.
Over the year, she had found herself a suitor. Yes, stallions in the flock were rare. Most Sisters were sent out to find a breeding partner, and only returned with the young they carried. They thrived on being a sisterhood. Things weren't exactly normal for her suitor. Originally, his presence had been foretold by a seer. Edana knew that she didn't have the time to abandon her roost to go hunt down a mate. She had gone to the head seer, to try and see a solution. In a vision, vonCoren was seen not as a Soquili, but as a small rabbit with wings of a hawk, horns of a stag, and fangs of a wolf, curled in the claw of a pregnant Edana. This was perceived to mean that he would bring all the elements of the wild into her young. The small creature was mislabeled a totem of fertility. They thought it would be that this critter would help her get pregnant in the wild, without the worry of timing of the moon. This would fix her problem of not having the time to devote a few days, or even a week, to getting pregnant. Perhaps it would make finding a suitor a quick and easy process too. He was deemed to be a prize for the Queen, before they even knew he existed as a Soquili.
When Edana met Heinrich, bigger things were understood in the vision. Fate had brought her a sire. He even told stories of a previous life as the critter the seer had seen in her vision. A wolpertinger. That's what he claimed he was, and that he didn't ask to be a Soquili. To her, he seemed discontented and troubled with existing as a Soquili. His life surely didn't get any easier after falling into mix with a harpy flock.
Heinrich was kept as a prisoner in the beginning. He was promised freedom when her produced female offspring for Edana. Add Edana's schedule into the mix, and well, baby making magic didn't seem to happen enough. The attempts were few and far between, and lacked the finesse the Queen desired to keep her attentions. There was at least a few months, where she didn't visit him at all. Nobody stated the obvious, that she had near abandoned the notion of producing an aire to the throne. She wasn't immortal. A few brave sisters discussed options to help their Queen. Which was a dangerous topic, and could be considered hierarchy if not handled with the utmost care. No one dare mentioned that she might be barren, even if they thought so. It was also no secret that the Queen preferred sisters over strange males.
One night, Edana returned from a battle, covered in blood, to find the Wolpertinger in her nest. The lead guard had brought him there, for untold reasons. A deep gaze was exchanged between the two harpies. The Queen had given her a slow blink, showing her approval. At this point, she could of killed him, as the forgotten mate. He smelled of herbs and oils, and had been bathed. He looked like he would take flight if he could. Even though he didn't have the flight of a bird, he was still bound to prevent an attempt at her life. She accepted the gift. Walking over, she unexpectedly, reached down and loosed his bondage. "If you leave this nest, you will be killed on site." Her guard bowed her head, and stepped out. Edana then told him to lay down, with a stern command in her voice. She was exhausted, and ready to get some rest.
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