Super Mario Bros.: A Force to Be Reckoned With

Chapter 6 - Queen of Queens

"What?" Kamek gasped. "Twin boys?!"

Queen Vesper nodded and set her tea on the coffee table.

"That's exactly what Kirsa said!" She chuckled. "Oh, Kamek, you should've seen the look on her face!"

"I can only imagine!" Kamek took a sip from his own cup of tea. "Lady Kamarys had her child's sex predicted by the Elder of the Celestial Council, and the Elder is rarely wrong."

Vesper played with one of her long blue curls.

"I-I'm sorry," She raised an eyebrow. "Celestial Council?"

"Yes. In Galdr, the golden city!" Kamek elaborated.

The queen cocked her head in confusion.

"The magikoopa capital of the Darklands?" Kamek set his cup of tea down next to Vesper's. "You have heard of it, right, Your Majesty?"

Vesper frowned and shook her head.

"I... suppose I shouldn't be surprised," Kamek sighed. "it took a lot of convincing for King Bowser to change his mind on reducing Galdr to ashes after he ascended the throne."

Vesper's eyes widened.

"Pardon?" She choked out.

Kamek snatched his cup of tea from the table and took a massive gulp.

"W-Will you look at that, I've finished my tea!" He shakily reached for Vesper's cup. "Would you like a refill, Your Maj—"

"Good Lord!"

Kamek's cup fell from his hand to the floor and shattered upon impact.

"How many times must I tell you all to just call me Vesper!?" The queen snapped.

Kamek stared at Vesper with wide eyes.

"I-I'm sorry—"

"What good am I as a queen if I can't even help my people?" Vesper stood from the sofa. "If my own husband and fellow monarch won't even listen to me when I beg him not to rip a child away from her family?!"

Tears formed in the queen's eyes as she paced back and forth beside the sofa.

"I hear the servants gossip in the halls," Vesper snapped. "Mora has despised me from the moment I walked through those doors,"

"They don't matter. What matters is—"

"I'm a joke to this kingdom." Vesper continued, ignoring Kamek. "A glorified circus freak!"

The queen clenched her fists. She stared down at the three round carnelians on her wedding ring and sighed.

"When you brought me here," Vesper glared at the older magikoopa, who now crouched behind the arm of the sofa at the opposite end of the room cowering in fear. "you told me I was to be the king's third and final wife."

"Vesper—"

"When we met, you promised me I'd be safer here than I was in Queens," She took a few steps closer to Kamek. "that my days of toiling and suffering would be over after the wedding!"

"Vesper, listen to m—"

"I wasn't supposed to become Queen of the Darklands!!"

Vesper dropped to the floor, the skirt of her gown pooling elegantly around her as she did. Tears fell from her eyes, staining the red and orange satin draped at the gown's front. She pulled the obsidian crown from atop her head and stared at her reflection in one of its shimmering sapphires.

"I n— I n-never wanted this," The queen sobbed, her teeth clenching so tight she felt pain shoot through her jaw. "I-I don't even—"

"Vesper—"