The Tower of Nearness

Chapter 10: What was True

"You don't have to say it like that." She grumbled and received a look of rebuke.

"What, then," he continued, "Is Ian exactly?"

She looked down and Lucian followed her gaze.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," he spluttered and looked from the duck to Seren to the duck again and then back to Seren. "No, no, no, no, you've got to be kidding me!"

She worried her lip but said nothing.

"Are you seriously trying to tell me that the powerful and mighty dragon that everyone fears is actually a duck?"

"Quack!" the duck ruffled. Their eyes meet and recognition shot through Lucian like an arrow.

"You!"

"Quack!"

"Well, actually.... yes," Seren answered his question.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his hand over his face. This couldn't be real. It was almost too much.

"That's it!" he shouted suddenly, surprising Seren.

"What?"

"I hit my head when we fell and this is all some feverish dream." He finished with a confident smile.

"No... I'm afraid you didn't." She sighed and sat down next to him.

He closed his eyes and took some deep restorative breaths. So he wasn't going crazy. Good. He hadn't hit his head and got a concussion. Also good. However, he still had questions. For instance, why? That seemed to be the most pertinent one.

"Seren?" He started slowly, keeping control over his voice, "why the lies?"

She stared intently at him, her head was in chaos. How could she explain it to him? She rubbed her temples slowly, more to try and focus than to get rid of the headache that simmered behind her eyes. She sat back and primly folded her hands in her lap. She smiled at herself, seems she couldn't escape all her princess training.

"My name is Seren, Princess of Vano, daughter of King Tate and Queen Aileen of Vano," She looked into his eyes, she refused to be a coward, "but I'm not, as people believed, cursed."

He made no response. He regarded her with interest.

She cleared her throat and continued, "I started the curse, myself."

She started walking. The easiest way for her to get through telling him, she decided, was to act as though she was talking to herself.

"You see," She said, "I've never been what a princess should be. I'm too loud, too distracting, and too quick to comment, just too much... according to my nursemaids and teachers. I liked to play the knight of the castle and hated embroidery. I spoke my mind, to everyone, adults included. I'll admit it, I was a bit of a brat who thought she knew better than everyone." She gave a small smile and shook her head.

"I just wasn't princess material. I didn't mind people thinking I wasn't behaving appropriately, I was happy to do as I wanted. Be as I wanted to be."

Her fingers found a single, white thread from the cuff of her shirt to idly play with. She hadn't realised that behaving and acting the proper way was more important to her family then being herself. After all, she was a princess, what right did she have to her own life?

"When I was sixteen..." she went on, "I was late to dinner so I thought I would cut through the hall and past my parents' chambers to save time. I had stopped to catch my breath. I could hear them through a crack in the door."

She glanced over her shoulder at Lucian, "It's true what they say, you know, about eavesdroppers..."

It had been ten years so the bitterness and hurt of the situation no longer hit her, but with some regret, she recalled those memories. It was unlikely she would ever forget what she'd heard. Even now, she could hear them with shocking clarity.