The Offering

Chapter Seventeen - Alvaryn

"Why is it so important to you?" She questions.

I hesitate for a moment, considering her question. "You are important to the Kingdom and the royal court, therefore important to me. If something or someone has you so completely terrified that you reek of fear like you did just now and it is inside this palace then I need to know." I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees.

"Well this something or someone that terrifies me isn't anything that I need to tell you about, because you already know and it isn't anything hiding in the palace walls it is living at it's very core. And if I happen to feel and react a certain way when I am alone because of it then it is my right to do so, you cannot convince me any different." Her words rush out in a bitter whisper. "Excuse me your Highness, I should be leaving now." She stands and curtsies.

"Wait" I call out and she stops. "Sit back down, please."

She obeys looking at me with defiance and a hint of anger and still that swirling tendril of fear around her.

"If you believe I was trying to suggest you did not have the right to your own feelings then I apologize, that was not my intent. You were genuinely scared and seeing that you are within the safety of the palace walls it made me wonder what it could be. I'm sorry for ordering you to sit back down but I feel like there is more we should discuss while in the privacy of the library and while you have every right to keep your thoughts to yourself as a free person in our court I still hope that you will trust me enough to speak with me honestly." I didn't enjoy the fact that I had ordered her to sit back down but there was something going on and I wanted to know what it is.

"Free Person?" She snorts.

"You are a free person." I say leaning back into the chair.

"I am not free, I am a prisoner. A well-dressed, well fed and well treated prisoner to some extent, but prisoner all the same." She snaps back.

"Is that why you scream into cushions and run terrified down halls?" I ask carefully.

She only nods, rubbing at her eyes and staring at the fire place.

"You don't want to be here, even though compared to your old life, you would be living a much nicer life here with us."

"You know nothing about my old life." She snaps back quickly. "Just because I would be given nice things and surrounded by wealth you think it would be better. None of it would truly be mine and it wouldn't guarantee I would be happy. I would still be married to someone I didn't choose and be made to have children every year until I'm too old to do so, or I die along the way." Her words like an angry stream, like she has been holding back these thoughts for some time and can't hold them back any longer,

"You're right. I don't know anything about your old life. I have seen human villages and cities and seen how they live. And you're right that having all of those things wouldn't guarantee your happiness, but you're not right about the last thing, you wouldn't be forced to have a child every year or until you die. I'm not sure why you think that." I reply, trying to make sense of where all of her anger is pointed.

"That is why we are here, isn't it, to breed children for you because your fae females can't. I just assumed it would be much like it was at home."

"They make the females have children every year where you are from?" I ask in disbelief. I had known they had large families which I assumed was to compensate for the offering. Or to make sure they had women to offer when the time came.

"No, you're just expected to have at least four, but even more is encouraged." She answers quietly, turning to the flames.

"And would you have had a choice in who you marry?" I ask, genuinely interested.