No Crown, No Glory

Chapter V

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."_Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's fan).

It was like Arielle's own mind travelled years before. The days when her innocent was intact, her heart whole and skin unscathed. Scars were a funny thing. It reminds you of the experiences you've been through; But you don't want to remove them, for they make you who you are. After a while, skin grows, replacing the dead one that was there before. So, not only the reminder, but they actually make part of you. Arielle smiled at that. Even if her brother came with them, they are him. No matter how much she wanted it to stay the same, another skin would grow to replace it.
The Night Market was the Aeronia's worst hidden secret. It supposedly started as a smuggling facade, but it actually evolved. Of course, everything she knew came from what the Scribes wrote down. But she had seen it firsthand ten years ago. The rushing up and down in the center of Alexandryn's city, the tents that held precious products at toned prices, with hints of a little fun. Elijah took her once, when she was a kid. Although he was only three years older, he had much more freedom than she had. At night...when everybody was already asleep, two siblings snuck out at night...
"So?" Came her brother's excited whisper. "Are you in or not?"
"Move your butt, we shall go!" Arielle didn't care the way she was acting, but she did feel like the child she was when she was only eight years old. So much so, that she practically shoved Elijah off the stairs.
The prince chuckled, amused by his little sister's antics. Perhaps, though, the things between them had change, but it would never affect their relationship again. He would make sure of it.
As they reached the Throne Room, it was deadly silent. Only maids were working to tidy up the place, but the parents were nowhere to be seen. Maids, on the other hand, kept themselves quiet, and Aideen, who was stuck in the middle, winked at her friend as she hurried to leave. Arielle, cluelessly, approached a painting that drew her attention on. Behind her, she felt her brother stand.
A beautiful painting that was. Her father stood, poised and tall, wearing his long, red cape and his heavy crown. His beard shown through, as caramel-brown as his hair, a trait that he shared with his children, two young girl and boy, almost a match to him except for their mother's silver eyes, who was hugging them, smiling. She didn't smile so genuinely in a decade. It was almost painful to watch.
Young Arielle was smiling broadly, slightly bored, but happy nonetheless. Her brother stood by her side, just a couple of years old, but almost ready to be king. He, contrary to his sister, had a serious face on. Much like his father's. From anyone's point of view, it was like they were a happy, small family.
Arielle, however, knew better now that the years passed. Nothing lasts forever.
"Two days before I left," Elijah spoke, unadvertedly spooking the princess, enough to make her jump. His voice was deep, with meaning to it, but it wasn't as if it was the first time he spoke. "I was so scared," He admitted. It was, to say the least, the worst day of his life. The days after that were harder, but there was no coming back. In ways, it made him strong and forced him to survive in unpleasent circumstances. In others, it was harsher than punishment done to outlaws.
"Me too," Arielle smiled sadly. She turned to him, "Shall we go?" The prince nodded.

After they exited the castle, Arielle and her brother walked side by side. Through the thick sands of their kingdom, the way to the Village was a long one to go. The Kingdom was not a small one, but not very large either. So, the Castle they called their home was at its nearest center, surrounded by the houses of the people they ruled upon. It was a massive fortress of stone, its towers cutting the sky above. At night, its vision wasn't as brightly, but the princess could still look back at smile at it. That moment, they were only illuminated by the stars that spread over the night, the siblings waiting awkwardly in the silence that fell over them.
"We haven't been there in years," Arielle tried to make a conversation. The peak of the night was deadly silent, the cold of the wind threatening to rip the flesh off her bones. It was weird, the way the gusts wrapped themselves around Arielle's limbs, the feeling of freedom finally sinking in. "Do you think much have changed?"
The Night Market was done every night, reuniting all merchants and people who were coinless. To the Royalty, it wasn't that much of a bother, but to the princess it was the source of her curiosity. There was something weirdly attractive in the mystery behind the Market's essence, and it had been years--like the princess said,--that they visited Alexandryn's Village.
To Elijah, though, it didn't hold as much excitement, but if it made his little sister happier...
"No," He went with a direct answer. "It's the same market they hold every year."
She pouted. "I thought you said every night"
"We have only been there once, and the stories around it make up most of it" Elijah explained, albeit a bit harsh, but went straigth to the point. There was no sense in lying anymore.
There would go there to enjoy it anyway.
"Really?" She wondered, looking up at the stars as they made the way straight to the Village.
Their Castle was big. Huge. A structure that was built to use only as a shield, a fortress. The books had it as the Royal House for centuries, but, in times of war, it protected as many people as it could. Surrounded by the enormous wall, it painted a beautiful view. Of course, the desert wasn't more than simply a mass of sand. But that was what she thought until she heard about the plantations near the river, the once-a-year floods and some other buildings people invented to make products. Those would later be transformed into other products. Apart from the nobelty, there a farmers, merchants, healers, scribes, forgers... but she hadn't seen any of those. Only heard in Books. It was sort of sad, in her opinion.
That day though...she'd see everything again in the blinker of the night.