Emeralds For Trade // DNF Royalty AU

Chapter 1.2: Your Stars, But Different

(Art by @Fella2p on twitter)

The moonlight falling gently against the pristine quartz balcony served as a sharp contrast from the glaring ballroom with candle-lit chandeliers. In there, it felt cold; artificial, fake. Despite the unfamiliar late autumn breeze, the slits of light between the barrier of pillars felt warm and inviting, lined with rows of gold-stemmed roses. The designs on them were intricate, painstakingly hand-crafted, and the same can be said for the stone bench adorned with green gems. This prompted the young prince to take a rest on the cool seat.

He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and enjoyed the view. With the cool late autumn breeze mellowing his thoughts and sending a shiver down his spine, he glanced up.

Sometimes, when things seem uncertain, the stars can be your anchor. Always present in the night sky, if you were to just pay a little more attention. It takes a couple of moments for eyes to adjust to the darkness. But when it does, you'll see distant lanterns you would have otherwise never noticed, nestled far beyond the stratosphere.

To George's surprise, however, the freckles littering the vacuum above seemed to have tripled in number. Was it always like this here?

A dollop of envy was added to his plate, and along with it, awe.

He had always thought the stars were beautiful as they were but had never considered that they could look... different. If there was an option to move his home here to look at this version of the scene endlessly, he would take it in a heartbeat.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" A voice spoke from behind him.

He hadn't heard the door open. Or perhaps, it didn't open at all, and the stranger was already stood somewhere on the balcony, out of view of the young prince. George turned his head.

The moonlight didn't do much to illuminate him, so the prince could not quite see the colour of the man's suit, nor the colour of the gems on his crown. They almost seemed gold, but that surely couldn't be the case, else he would have recognised the voice behind it.

The quiet tread of the man's polished loafers followed around the bench before he sat next to the now dumbfounded George. He didn't even look at the young prince yet. In his hands twirled a rose that was suspiciously similar to the ones that lined the barriers of the balcony. Blooming red, with a golden stem that almost glistened in the moonlight.

"Did you just pick that?" George asked incredulously.

"I did."

"I don't think that's allowed..."

"Really?"

His accent, George noticed, was not southern, so he was definitely closer to central or northern territories.

"Yes, I doubt the King would be very happy with someone plucking his beautiful property."

The man turned his head.

Instead of eyes, staring back at George was two circles and a wide smile, carved into some kind of white convex disc. The aforementioned mask covered half his face, with a few tufts of (what he assumed to be) dirty blond hair just barely spilling over the top of it. The material seemed too matte to be metal but too smooth to just be wood. The indentations were emphasized with some sort of black stain, George guessed that it was probably ink. It stopped right around the man's nose, revealing the amused smirk on his lips.

He blinked a few times before what he was looking at finally registered in his mind.

Emerald. He was the king of Emerald.

"I think I'll be alright," the man said with a laugh.

The prince's cheeks turned pink. How embarrassing, speaking to a king that way. And worse, being laughed at for it. Though there seemed to be no malice behind his amused tone, the last thing he wanted was to be looked down on.