Sea of Glass ✔️

Chapter 11 - A Burdensome Birthright

I stared in the mirror, examining the maid's handiwork. She managed to wrangle my dark curly hair into an elegant braid that tapered off to one side of my shoulder. Pearls and blue flowers decorated the strands, making my hair sparkle in a certain light. My gown matched the flowers, the soft azure fabric giving my skin a luminous glow. The pearl beading on my bodice added to the effect, reminding me of the sea on a sunny day.

No expense was spared in making me look like my mother. Every part of me, from the shimmer on my eyelids to the jewels around my neck, was designed to convince the other royals of the court that I was Queen Alexandra reincarnated. But it was my father's eyes that stared back at me in the mirror, dark and angry.

The charade was Cordelia's idea. Days of holing up in my room with brief breaks to go hunting were not improving the court's opinion of me. My appearance needed to evoke the softness and grace my conduct lacked.

I wiped the blood off my hands with a nearby rag. My lust for violence was steadily growing insatiable, gnawing at my insides every second I spent not killing someone. Indulging in a small kill before attending the dinner my stepmother arranged would keep these dark impulses at bay.

If I had it my way, I wouldn't be in such a difficult situation. But the dinner with the other aristocrats on the island served a more important purpose than just showing off my new status as a Chosen One. Like all gatherings of Myranian royals, the social intricacies were really just tests of loyalty. Between the rumors questioning my sanity and my allegiance to a new God, the other aristocrats were starting to doubt the strength of the monarchy. They were toying with all sorts of inappropriate ideas about who should rule.

While we were far from expecting a violent coup to dethrone my father, I was already imagining the other families that would step forward to fight for the title. Currently, my family, the Kalili Dynasty, has maintained their grasp of power since the country's formation. We were supported by the Mahoes, my uncle's family from my fair cousins' side who had generously given us manpower for every previous Myranian conflict. It's thanks to them that we've avoided the civil wars that plagued Cinervel. With the Mahoes, we had respectability and a system where the children of the other families had to live in the palace to stay tethered to the royal court. Because of that, we maintained our control over the other major players on the island.

But given the recent developments, the Kekoa family has been stirring up trouble among the other aristocrats. Ordinarily, their complaints were minor, negligible enough that no one has taken a single word said by their patriarch seriously in five years. They managed the tobacco crop, a profitable but small part of Myranian exports. When my mother was alive, she would call them frogs for making themselves more important than they seemed. They would swell up and do a lot of croaking, but ultimately, all they did was make noise.

These days they seemed more like leeches, feeding off of the court's negativity. I always told my cousins they should have been actors because of how much they loved court drama, but they would always remind me that the Kekoas preferred real power to the symbolic status given to performers. After all, Myranian bards were important, but they didn't control daily politics. And that was what the Kekoas loved the most, being puppet masters of the court's emotions. The more unhappy the other families were, the more they thrived.

My stepmother has suggested that I get in their good graces. If I made the Kekoas happy, they were sure to sing my praises. But I knew it wasn't that easy.

Giving the Kekoas what they wanted meant sacrificing an advantage. They were obnoxious enough without royal approval. They would be positively insufferable if I were to prostrate myself before them.

No, I would never humiliate the Kalili Dynasty like that. The Kekoas would have to earn my goodwill before I even smiled in their direction. But I don't confide this to Cordelia. She wouldn't agree with my methods. However, I knew deep in my bones that it would be exactly how my late mother would have gone about it. That was how she made those in her circle feel special, by making them prove themselves to her.