Princess Sybil Venla Reynalda Dux was late. For what? She wasn't sure. All she knew was that her lady in waiting had stuffed her in a dress and heels, applied thick coats of make-up, and put her hair up with what she thought was every pin in the castle. The Princess's golden hair was thick and unruly and needed many pins to keep it in place, so the hair abuse was necessary. But the tight dress that kept her from breathing was not. Granted, it was beautiful with its off-the-shoulder cyan tulle sleeves that matched its floor-length layered skirts. It had a basque styled waist where the skirts began to flare out. The bodice of the dress was embroidered with a floral design that was incredibly intricate.
So, with her hair up in a styled messy bun, her lips painted red, and a beautiful tight dress on, the Princess made her way to the ballroom where a large mass of nobles had gathered for something unknown to her. Marie practically skipped alongside her, causing her thick brown curls to bounce. She was definitely happy about something as it shone in her emerald eyes that were normally filled with only mischief. Marie and the Princess had been best friends since they were little and had caused more trouble together than anybody expected from two ladies of the court.
It was always enjoyable to see fine ladies and lords with their powdered faces and wigs screech in horror when a pie flew out of nowhere into their faces. Or when a bucket of water doused them causing their makeup to run or when they found little fake spiders on their food platters. Just thinking about all the trouble that the two of them got away with made the princess smile, but it quickly turned into a breathy laugh, and then into a giggle. Marie gave her a worried look.
"What are you laughing at?" She asked, her accent combining the first three words. It only made the princess giggle more before breaking into a roar. Eventually, Marie joined in even though she had no idea what they were laughing about. It was the kind of laugh that was contagious and uncontrollable.
Soon enough, the two ladies were gasping for breath. The princess wiped her eyes and stood trying to regain whatever composure she could muster. "I was just thinking about all the trouble we've caused." Marie's eyes twinkled in remembrance. "All the nobles we've harassed over the years." Her lady in waiting chuckled just at the mention.
"Yes, we certainly were the cause of many nightmares." While the princess kept smiling, Marie let a solemn look fall over her features. The two walked in silence until they could hear the sounds of festivities. "It's too bad that I'll have to stop after tonight." Her voice was barely audible, and it made a frown cross the princess's face.
"What do you mean by that?" Marie didn't answer. She looked a bit pale, like a secret was just revealed that was not supposed to be. "Marie? What is it?" Still, she didn't answer. "Marie?" At this point, both ladies had stopped and the princess grabbed her lady in waiting's shoulder.
"I'm so sorry Reyna," Marie whispered, using the princess's preferred nickname, even though everybody called her Sybil. She wiped tears away and walked into the ballroom without another word.
At first Reyna didn't move, the halls around her filled with the echoes of nobles and the flicker of candlelight. It seemed that everybody but her knew what was going on. That wasn't usually the case as Marie was an infamous gossiper who supplied her with things that others might not know until months later.
Reyna realized that Marie hadn't given her anything new since the light festival two weeks ago. The light festival was a celebration on the longest day of the year. It symbolized the people's gratitude for the long days behind them and the shorter ones in front. Every year, on the summer solstice the citizens of Craylith gathered together as cities, towns, and villages to let lanterns drift off into the sky. If you believed superstition, then those lanterns were supposed to ward off magical beings from the north.
The magical beings in question stayed to the north because they didn't care enough about humans to cross the sea known as the Impassable Tides. It wasn't actually impassable, though nobody had tried, it was more that people didn't want to go across or maybe they were too afraid. The Impassable Tides were made thousands of years ago by two gods, Eteus and Lubus, when a war between humans and magic waged across the whole continent.
According to legend, those who had magic worshipped Eteus, the god of the sea, and the humans worshipped Lubus, the god of the earth. Why? Nobody knew for sure. One day both gods went missing; they just vanished in thin air. The seas became raged, and the earth no longer delivered crops. Both sides blamed the other. A war began, taking many lives, but mostly human.
Apparently, the two gods had fallen in love and ran away to be together—nobody is sure why they had to run away—but once they heard of the destruction their absence caused, they came back to stop it. While some stopped fighting, many did not. The war no longer was about the gods. Many had used it to their advantage to gain land, power, and money, others wanted revenge for the lives already lost, and some just wanted the other side dead because of long-held prejudice.
If the humans died, so would Lubus, and if magic died, Eteus did as well. Both Lubus and Eteus loved their people and each other too much to watch the destruction any longer. So they came up with a plan to stop it all. They both invited their worshippers to a "war" meeting on opposite sides of the continent—humans in the south, magical beings in the north. When all were accounted for, the two gods left and met in the middle of the land. They planned to split the continent, to separate the two sides, and in doing so, separate themselves forever.
The earth rumbled and cracked in anger from Lubus, for he was being separated from his love because of human stupidity and magical beings' need for power. Once the land was separate, it was filled with Eteus' tears, for he was also being taken away from his true love.
When the two sides realized what had occurred, they were angry. They wanted the guilty punished, but there had been too many deaths on both sides to decide who was truly guilty. Such was the way of war. The gods were shunned for a long time. Eventually, the people took them back in when they realized how much they needed them. Lubus and Eteus were forever separated from each other and soon came to resent both kinds for it. But that's another story.
Anyways, the land was split in two, and Craylith, a.k.a. the human kingdom, was born. At first, there had been many lands under many different rules, but a young conqueror known as Cray managed to unite the land through forced means. He made Aleta his capital and built a beautiful kingdom. Legend says that one day the two lands will be united with a love just as strong as the two gods' love was. It sounded like a fairy tale for kids to Reyna, but she couldn't really question destiny.
The sound of approaching footsteps snapped Reyna out of her thoughts. She looked around to see an old lord and lady coming her way. "Congratulations, Princess Sybil." Both bowed and gave her wide smiles, as if they were genuinely happy for her. Reyna knew it was bullshit, but gave her own bullshit smile back, covering her confusion.
"Thank you." She replied giving no title because, as the princess, she didn't have to, and she didn't actually remember their names. The pair walked off into the throne room, still looking fake-happy. What the actual hell? Reyna really needed to find out what was going on. She tried to remember any major holidays but came up empty. For a second, she thought that it could've been her birthday. Quickly scratching that idea off of the list, Reyna just decided to go in and ask her father.
Music and laughter filled her ears. People were dancing all around her. Lights and colorful pieces of cloth were strewn all around. There were tables set up on the edges of the room, in front of the window, filled with dozens of different delicacies. Nobody paid Reyna much attention, as she had avoided the traditional announcement of the princess entering. Though when somebody recognized her, they instantly bowed and said something along the lines of "Congrats!"
Pushing through the thick crowd, Reyna finally saw her father, the King, sitting at a table, talking to the one man that she hated most of all. Lord James Smythe. She only knew him by reputation and a single dance at the light festival, but Reyna despised him. He was everything she hated about nobles: their selfishness, their pompous view of the world as if they were better than those that did the actual work, and their reaping of rewards for doing nothing but telling somebody else what to do.
Lord James Smythe was a "decorated" officer of the King's army, who was more or less born into it. He told other soldiers what to do, that was it. It pissed Reyna off that the Lord could sit behind a desk, send people to die without a blink of an eye, and then take all the credit for their actions. He also got all the ladies he wanted, not just because of his power, but his looks. Reyna had to give it to the lord, he was handsome. With thick black hair that was carefully styled into a messy look and sapphire eyes that twinkled, he was the man of many, many girls' dreams.
"Just don't scratch his eyes out, and everything will be fine," Reyna mumbled to herself, low enough that nobody would hear. Moving with the sway of the crowd, she tried observing those dancing. All of them moved in fluid, graceful movements, as they were taught to from birth, but the ones to really stick out were the women. Sure, guys had to dance in a suit, but the women danced in high heels, tight dresses that took up a lot of room, and hair that could be messed up with one wrong move. Plus, they were more aesthetically pleasing to Reyna, with their puffy colorful dresses, which were anything but simple.
The princess kept her eyes glued on them as she made her way over to the King's table. The sight somehow calmed Reyna enough to gracefully curtsy and sit down next to her father. "Princess Sybil, how nice of you to join us." Her father knew of Reyna's preferred name, but still called her Sybil, which made her angry for many reasons.
Reyna's eyes drifted lazily over the half-drunk nobles, before landing on her father. He had red hair that was graying—even though he was considerably young—that was pulled back into a simple tail. His face was covered from wrinkles that framed his gray eyes, which looked like a weathered rock, exactly like Reyna's. Atop his head sat a golden leafy crown that matched the rest of his suit.
"I apologize," Reyna said, trying to hide her annoyance. "I wasn't aware of this celebration until an hour ago." Her father only nodded and sipped his wine. He had definitely kept this party from her, for whatever reason. Looking over at Lord James for any answers, Reyna found his eyes on her, filled with something she couldn't quite identify. Desire or lust maybe? Attempting to ignore it, she turns her attention back to the king.
"What exactly is the reason for this party, anyway?" Reyna swore to all gods that if he ignored her, she'd go find Marie and leave this damned place. Or maybe she'd let Marie enjoy the night, and retire early by herself.
"Do you know Lord James, Sybil?" Sadly, yes, she did know him. Stuffing her annoyance down for the last time, Reyna glared at the Lord.
"Yes, only by reputation though." Most of it bad, she added to herself. He was an absolute tool and player, who did what he wanted and never got reprimanded for it. He was a spoilt brat, acting like a man child when he didn't get what he wanted. He was the reason Reyna hated nobility.
"He's your betrothed." The room seemed to still at his words. The candlelight no longer flickered, couples no longer danced, and the music quieted to a distant whisper.
"I'm sorry father, I think I misheard you." Reyna could've sworn he just said betrothed.
"You heard me, child." The King scolded. "He's to be your betrothed, husband, king, however, you want to put it." When the world finally came back to its normal dizzying speed, Reyna realized that she was the one that had frozen, not the room. The whole room once again faded from her senses as she looked over to Lord James. Everything clicked. The dance at the festival, the looks, all of it.
"You set all this up," Reyna took a deadly soft voice on, "just so you could ambush me in public?" The smile on the two men's faces told her enough. She laughed bitterly. "Of course you did. Why is that even a question?" If they'd done it in private Reyna would've yelled, argued, and done just about anything to get out of the situation, including stabbing the pompous lord to her left. But no, they were in public, where she wasn't willing to make a scene. Not yet, at least.
"Excuse me," She said, standing up, "I'm going to retire early." Backing away from the table, Reyna curtsied and turned to try to scurry away. She wasn't fleeing, just retreating to get her thoughts in order and come up with a plan. The world again came back into focus, and Reyna's mind became very aware of everything around her. All the bright colors became more vibrant and seemed to pop out, the laughter scratched her ears like nails on a chalkboard, and the smell of clashing perfumes dug into her nose, making her eyes water.
A sweaty hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her back. The touch sent shivers through her, but not in a good way. "Princess Sybil Venla Reynalda," Reyna turned to stare at the Lord. He had actually used her full name. How did he manage to remember all of that? Most days, Reyna couldn't even recite it without an error, but that was mostly because she didn't care. Why have multiple names, but only use one? It didn't make sense to Reyna unless your parents were really indecisive. "Won't you allow me this dance?" Lord James asked with a sickeningly sweet voice like honey. She was sure that many girls got caught in it, most willingly, but not her.
To hell with politeness, Reyna thought before slapping the hand away. "No, I will not." He was still a lord and she was a princess, so she didn't have to do anything for him unless the King commanded her. Which he hadn't, and before he could, Reyna left the deceivingly colorful room, which slowly began to spin, nobles giving their congratulations as she went. With the situation now known to Reyna, she would've preferred sympathies.