Gold

Dining With Royalty

Dinner, in Aurelia's opinion was awkward. It was much smaller than she expected. There was the king, some unknown noblemen and women- unknown only to her of course- , and Lucas. When she saw the familiar face she was a little curious. Who exactly was he?

She took the only empty spot at the table, on the right of Lucas and to the left of the king. On Lucas' other side was a girl about their age.

"Hello, again." Lucas whispered to her.

"Hi," She said, somewhat shyly. She felt out of place.

"I never did catch your name." Lucas stated.

"I guess I never gave it. I'm Aurelia." Aurelia told him. He smiled awkwardly. His smile vanished quite quickly as he remembered something.

"Aurelia Miller? As in the girl who can spin straw into gold?" Lucas whispered. He didn't believe it. There actually was a person who could do such a task?

"Lucas!" The girl on his left drew his attention. Aurelia noted that she was quite pretty with brown hair that fell around her face in big ringlets and sapphire blue eyes. She looked rather kind.

"Listen up, everyone!" King Letholdus exclaimed to the table. "Tonight is the last night Princess Serenity will be visiting us. I hope you all treat her well as we celebrate her company one final time."

The girl blushed, sweetly, at the attention the king had brought upon her. She nodded in gratitude at the king.

"At least until the wedding!" One of the noble's shouted. Serenity blushed even pinker and Lucas faked a smile as his face turned beet red.

"Well, of course. Tonight we dine to the kingdom of Zerawyn, as one of our most faithful allies." The King stated.

Aurelia heard Lucas mumble to himself. "One of our only allies..."

"I hope that the marriage of Prince Lucas and Princess Serenity further cements our strong alliance." Letholdus toasted, raising his glass.

Aurelia glanced at Lucas. He was a prince? He didn't seem like she imagined that the son of Letholdus would be. He seemed smart and kind, unlike the impression she had gotten from his father. She shrugged it off. It wasn't like she truly knew Lucas. She didn't. She had had only a few conversations with him.

Conversation continued, mostly ignoring Aurelia. She kept her head down, ate, and listened until her name came up in conversation towards the end of dinner. She looked up.

"Lucas, Serenity, have either of you met Aurelia? She's the maiden I told you about. She can spin straw into gold." King Letholdus said. He seemed to converse the most with those two, paying little attention to most of the other nobles.

Lucas gave Aurelia a small nod and slight smile. "We've met." He thought the poor girl would be dead by morning. Such a shame.

Serenity shook her head no and looked across Lucas to Aurelia. She smiled, genuinely sweet and extended her hand.

"I don't believe we've been cordially introduced. I'm Serenity of Zerawyn. It's lovely to meet you, Aurelia." Serenity didn't treat Aurelia as if she were a commoner in anyway, surprising the miller's daughter. She hadn't expected a princess to ignore status like that. Aurelia nodded, faking a smile.

"It's nice to meet you too." It was the truth.

The night seemed to drag on, being a bit awkward still for Aurelia as she felt very out of place, but otherwise nice. She rather liked Lucas and Serenity's company and she believed that if Letholdus wasn't the king she probably would have liked him too. 

Aurelia hoped the night would never end, mainly because when dinner did she would have the rest of the night to waste in agony as she could not do the task she was assigned.

And the clock struck eight.