It had taken Nadja a while to work herself up to this point, where she was willing to challenge another priestess for her position in the pride, but with her mother stubbornly not dying like she was supposed to, and Nadja unwilling to wait too much longer, the young priestess-in-training felt that she was out of options. "Priestess Azurine," she said, speaking calmly and politely after approaching the brightly colored lioness. "In this season of breytast vindar, I challenge you for the position of priestess."
She had nothing against Azurine personally, and that was why she had chosen her. Other priestesses, like Saraneth, she disliked and would have either hated more if she lost or been unable to resist gloating over if she won. Since she had no feelings about Azurine one way or the other, she figured that she would take either victory or defeat against her better. She also did not think Azurine was the type to be unpleasant about it afterward. Not that she feared repercussions, but a lioness could only deal with so much unpleasantness in one day, and Nadja knew she would get more than enough of that from her mother for what she was doing.
Although she did rather hope to be wrong about that. Nadja knew that one way or another she would be a priestess one day, and that meant that she would have to work with these lionesses. It would be better if she kept the number of priestesses, and lionesses with the training to become priestesses, who disliked her to a minimum. Of course, if she couldn't manage that, she supposed it would not be too difficult for her to poison them all, or at least drug them into docility. It wouldn't be very good for the pride if she did that, though, and despite her many failings and her selfishness, Nadja would not have done anything to jeopardize the well being of the Myrsky Syntynyt.
From Azurine there came no response. It was as if the aquamarine colored lioness was carved out of stone, or perhaps more appropriately out of ice, given her coloration. Whether this was because Nadja's announcement had shocked her or she was furious or some other reason, the would be priestess had no idea, but it did not really matter to her. There were forms to be followed and Nadja had done so thus far. She had informed her intended opponent of the challenge, issuing it in clear language and in a public place so that it could not later be denied. Now the onus lay with Azurine, who must either accept it or relinquish her position without fighting for it.
If Azurine accepted, she would be the one to name the form the challenge would take, which could be a cause for concern since Nadja knew dismayingly little about what the soon-to-be-ex-priestess considered herself skilled at, but Nadja was confident enough in her own abilities that she did not allow herself to become actually distressed worrying about maybes and what-ifs. Of course, there was a third option for Azurine, but it had the same outcome as if the priestess simply gave up her position. Azurine could ignore the challenge, say nothing, and if no further action was taken after three days she would no longer be a priestess in the pride. In her place, Nadja would be one of the pride's spiritual leaders.
It would have appealed to Nadja to become a priestess through winning a proper challenge, but after the first day passed with neither reaction nor response from Azurine, the dark furred lioness was forced to acknowledge that she might ascend to the priestesshood through less impressive means. She just had little wish to listen to her mother's criticisms on the subject. She was breaking generations of family tradition by failing to kill her mother with poisons the better to take her place, and was instead pitting herself against a priestess from outside the family. Her mother would have a great deal to say about that, and Nadja knew that none of it would be pleasant, and all of it would be true. Or at least rooted in the truth.
The second day passed with more nerves and anxiety on Nadja's part. Some of her friends, knowing about her plan, had taken it upon themselves to tail Azurine and see if she was making any preparations for a challenge. According to their reports, the aquamarine priestess was not acting any differently to how she usually acted. At least as far as they knew. Admittedly, none of them knew Azurine very well, but Nadja was at least passingly familiar with her, and from what her friends described it was the truth: Azurine did not seem to have any intention of doing anything about having been challenged for her position in the pride.
Nevertheless, Nadja could not help fretting privately as the second day gave way to the third. By the end of the day she would be a priestess or she would have engaged in and lost a challenge. It bothered her that she might win without having done anything to prove her worthiness for the post, but it would bother her far more to lose. By the time the third day dawned Nadja had begun to feel confident that she would win without a struggle. A smug smile had begun to pull at the corners of her mouth as she anticipated her victory, hollow and empty though some might call it. The manner of victory was important in the Stormborn, naturally, but of greater importance was the victory itself.
The sun rose, reached its zenith, and began to set and confidence filled Nadja. The sun sank below the horizon and darkness filled the sky. Azurine did not come to her or send her any sort of message. That was insulting, somewhat, but Nadja would let that pass. Come midnight it would make absolutely no difference. Azurine would be out and Nadja would finally be in. Everything else would fall into place eventually, the lioness thought as she watched the moon rise, reach its peak, and set. At dawn the next morning she went to seek out the high priestess to inform her of the improvement in her colleagues.
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