Tears of Raven

11

She had never seen salt statues, but somehow, she imagined if she did, they would look an awful lot like the Queen and King seated on their glass thrones completely immobilized on their readings. The king was lost on a large paper, going through the pages so fast, she doubts he was even reading it whilst the queen, was focused on a pamphlet and was attentively running her eyes on each word, so much so that the chamberlain was debating if it was the case to stop her.

This until the chamberlain called their attention announcing Raven and the Shadow Prince.

"Prince Vesperius Lucius Lycidas."

Raven bit her lip but her eyes found the princes too soon. He was so done with her that a small sight escaped his mouth before he could prevent it.

Vesperius. This made so much sense to Raven that he was named after the moment in the day where all the light got taken away from the world. After all, he was the shadow Prince for a reason.

Every pair of eyes lingered on Raven but she was lost, she didn't know what she needed to do. It was like time itself had stopped to see how she would react.

"A little hand?"

No answer.

So she fixed her chin up and stared ahead, trying to make a good impression on people she didn't really give a fuck about.

"Why is she not presentable? I made it perfectly clear she should be. I cannot present her to society looking like a wet mouse, Vesperius."

The prince's stare hardened but did not bite back a cleaver answer Raven was waiting for. It seemed to her, he was rather afraid of disappointing his parents and that was a weakness Raven could use.

"Surely, she looked better than when we found her. She'll adapt in no time, after all, they had very little to work with. The raw material is rather lacking." The king said, not daring to give a glance to the raw material at the bottom of the stairs.

Raven's hands fisted and her nose curled in disgust. If it was for her, she would burn them down on the stand. If it was for her, there would not be a royal family and especially not this one.

They were scum and trash did not belong on higher grounds.

"We have called upon you, lady..."

"C1613." The prince jumped in before Raven could answer, causing the queen to almost jump out of her chair as if he had personally offended her.

"Now, now. My dear, there's no need to be rude. She's a savage but she is to be your queen."

His queen?

Raven let out a long hysterical laugh that filled her lungs making them almost explode in the process. It took her a while to stop from hiccupping and she cleared her eyes not saying sorry for the small interlude.

"Oh, what makes you think I'm going to be his queen?"

""Well, the prophecy of course."

The Queen turned to the chamberlain and gestured him to take matters in his own hands. The poor short man stepped at the center of the room and clearing his throat begun to narrate what Raven hardly recognize as tale from her childhood.

"once upon a time, thousand years ago, dragons leaped and flew from every corner of the kingdom.

Roylat was prosper and well loved by every other land. No one dared to declare war when we had an army of spitting fire dragons whose hatchlings were almost larger than most castles around the entire world.

This until King Estrus was redeemed unworthy by his own dragon. It's not specified what he did to cause for every creature to flee from our lands, but it was so atrocious, that the emperor Dragon cursed the kingdom.