Queen Raevan

The celebration

                The sun was rising at last; just a brush of amber on the horizon at the moment. Raevan had ordered there to be nothing in the way of her view of the sunrise, hence the wide green path that stretched from her castle all the way to the horizon. It had been a long night, but at least the sight of the sky bursting with colours reminded her that she could find peace. There was some beauty left in the world.

Don't get me wrong, today was a wonderful day that she looked forward to every year, but the preparations for the event had kept her up all night. It was heart-warming to see the excitement of the girls as they meet all sorts of people from over the kingdom, from the Lords and Ladies of nearby castles who presented the children with gifts, to the beggars on the streets who came for the bread that Raevan offered on this day to anyone who was in need, in a celebration of the memory of the girls' birth. Thinking about that day, her heart suddenly felt cold. That day was the day she gained two of the most important people in her life, the twins of course, but it was also the day that she lost someone who had been so very dear to her. Perhaps the extravagant celebrations she held today were to cover up the grief and rage about him.

Raevan needed to take a bath. She would be on show today, and she did not look at all presentable after the night spent running around chasing chefs and decorators and so many more people in order to get things ready. She called her maid ask her to tell the seamstresses to hurry up on her dress that had been fitted incorrectly and needed to be shortened by two inches which they had irresponsibly neglected to check. I suppose she shouldn't have slapped and banished her old seamstress from the kingdom after she had poked Raecan accidentally with a needle, causing a white dress to gain a spot of red. The old seamstress had always been much more careful with measurements and was always on time whenever she did have to make changes to a dress.

Sinking into the bath, Raevan decided to let her emotions out for Yanos. Nobody would disturb her while she was bathing so she would save the embarrassment of being seen crying. Four people had seen her crying in her life. One was her mother when she had been born, then the twins as she had cried when they were born. Another was a new maid she had been gifted by the King of a neighbouring land in an attempt to please her so that she would take his daughter, Aryana's hand in marriage. The maid was untrained and wild and had walked in on Raevan when she had been told she wanted to be left alone. Needless to say, the King's attempt to please her was not adequate. Of course, Raevan had still bed his daughter as she was very beautiful after all. But the whole family irritated her as they were far too amiable and gracious so Aryana had remained unmarried.

As Raevan returned to her bedroom, she was pleased to see the dress finished and laying ready on her bed. It was a gorgeous red velvet dress edged with black lace with a wide, open back. She called for maids to work on her hair as she knew that would take a while and she was very particular about it. The maids made sure that her hair fell in tumbling silver waves and carefully tucked the strip of black hair behind one of her ears. The crown was placed on her forehead, a simple spirally silver crown which curved down to between her eyebrows where a glittering red ruby was placed.

As she made her way to the twin's bedroom she suddenly stopped as she realised she had left her gift to the girls hidden under her bed. She could have called a maid to bring it to them later but she wanted to give it to them in person so she headed back to her room. She sighed as she remembered how little time she managed to spend with them these days because of the present negotiations. A distant relative of hers was to be wed to Queen Stephanie of Solomon, and now it came to the matter of negotiating an amendment to the borders between their kingdoms. Raevan had always had a rivalry between her kingdom and Solomon although it was never spoken out loud. They would meet every few months to have afternoon tea which was very polite on the surface but to anyone who knew them, they would know they were both struggling to make the other feel jealous. Now they would have to properly decide to get along since a marriage meant that they would have to be seeing each other a lot more. Raevan supposed it would be good though, especially for the girls, since they were extremely fond of Tamar, Stephanie's uncle who always brought them strange exciting gifts from his journeys to foreign lands.

She reached their bedroom and paused outside their open door for a moment to watch them playing with their expertly carved wooden swords (very blunt of course) that Tamar had brought from southern Azrafael. Felice was clearly destined to become an excellent swordsman and although Freya was clumsy, she did put an enormous amount of effort into trying to defeat her sister. Raevan smiled at how happy they looked. It would be hard to watch them grow up and realise that the how cruel and harsh the world was. When she stepped inside, they both came rushing to hug her and feel the soft velvet of her dress. She smiled and bent down to hug them back but they were already pulling away trying to show her the new moves they had learnt with their swords.

'Girls I have a present for my two beautiful princesses!' she called in an attempt to distract them from their swordfight. Eventually, they calmed down and came over to see what she had got them. They opened the simple wooden boxes to reveal crowns, both identical to the crown she was currently wearing although much smaller and lighter. They squealed with delight and boasted about they would make every other princess in other lands envious.

The first half of the celebration was a blur. She met a lot of old dukes and knights of whom she had known a long time ago and pretended to remember who they were. She shook hands with many beggars who were all pretending to be eager to meet her although were actually here for the bread. She was not a hated queen but she was certainly not loved by all with her changeable temper and her fierce protectiveness. She was, however, generous and did her best to make sure there were houses with basic food set up for the beggars to stay when they needed to, particularly during the winter months when the frost would chill everyone right to the bones.

'Oh darling you must journey to Antiqua it is truly a gorgeous place and the food, oh my, is the most exquisite food that has ever been in my mouth. Really you must go.' Raevan was only half listening to the Lord of somewhere or the other as he irritated her severely especially as he called everyone 'darling'. She was scanning the hall for any signs of people who were known enemies trying to ruin an enjoyable afternoon. Raevan had made a lot of enemies over the years, usually, some servant she had dismissed for incompetence, showed up trying to cause a scene. They were usually dealt with swiftly by the guards but this year, there were some new guards who she knew would not recognise the faces of those who were there to make trouble.

As she was looking around at the hundreds of faces, suddenly the face of a beggar caught her eye. At first, she dismissed it as just a peculiarly handsome beggar but she suddenly had a feeling build up inside her, as though black tar was seeping through her veins. She knew that face. Could it be? After all these years, he has the nerve to show up dressed as a beggar thinking that she would not recognise him? Oh, she was going to have fun with him tonight.