A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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Princess Alana brushed back the carriage's curtains to look at the outside. Catching a glimpse of the beautiful princess, the peasants on the streets gasped and pointed like the uneducated filth they were. Thankfully none of them dared approach the carriage due to the armed knights around the carriage.
When the curtains closed again, Alana's pleasant smile dropped. Somehow the Eldoris peasants were even filthier and uglier than the Kiran ones. It reminded her of how she hated to be outside the Kiran royal palace. Were it not for the Kiran king commanding her to go to attend the Eldoris king's wedding, she would not even be outside right now. Even worse was that her husband, now her father, was so spineless that he had decreed not to do anything drastic in the wedding.
Coward. If she could, Alana would have usurped the throne or Kiran directly had not there been political enemies lurking in the shadows like Prime Minister Alexander, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. Despite the prime minister's gaffe of failing to kill Princess Annabeth, the prime minister was still powerful enough to minimalize the damage to his reputation and influence.
Her personal escort knight, Sir Luke, pulled his horse up to the carriage to whisper through the window.
"Princess, should we not speed up? We will hardly be on time for the wedding ceremony to start." He said.
"No, this pace is good. If we go any faster, my stomach won't feel so good." Alana made a pitiful expression. "My powers don't seem to heal me as much as I thought it would."
Sir Luke peered at his princess. She did indeed seem frail and paler than usual, like a delicate flower waning in the sun.
"I will have the procession stop to get some more medicine. The last town's medicine didn't seem to be effective. As expected of Eldoris' inferior quality of goods compared to Kiran's."
Alana hid a smile.
"Thank you, Sir Luke. You have my eternal gratitude." Alana lowered her eyes so she could peek out shyly from underneath her golden eyelashes. "You're always so good to me."
"It is my duty, Princess."
As Sir Luke turned away to get some more medicine, Alana spotted the back of his neck which had turned red in embarrassment. With sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, the knight was revered as one of the most handsome men in Kiran. It was a pity that his status was only a knight, and he came from the commoner class.
Still, how easy to handle, Alana thought. But she needed to attract people with power and status. It was a good thing that the wedding of her brainless half-sister also created the perfect meeting to socialize with foreign sovereigns who could help her achieve her goals. One of the most important persons was the crown prince of Tynan.
It was Tynan and Kiran that bordered Eldoris. It wasn't as if Alana hadn't thought about marrying the Eldoris king and then eventually taking over Tynan, but Alana had heard how the Eldoris king was embroiled with internal strife over the throne. Alana was far too lazy to deal with handling the Eldoris dowager queen at the moment. So if she could marry Tynan's prince and then invade and conquer Eldoris, then Alana could create an even bigger kingdom encompassing all three nations. And then after that, through several generations of transplanting her soul into her future daughters' bodies, then she, Circe, would eventually rule over all the lands. She would no longer need to bow to anyone else.
Besides, she had brought some amusement along for this trip. Alana's eyes shifted to Luke who was on his way back with the medicine. Years ago, Alana had caught her elder sister with a flushed and bowed face towards Luke. Mistaking Annabeth for a maid, the knight had merely helped Annabeth up after she had tripped and given his handkerchief for her cut knee.
Alana sneered. Just with that small gesture of chivalry and that stupid girl had fallen in love with Luke. Back when Circe hadn't yet replaced her soul in her daughter's body, she had gotten reports that her half-wit stepdaughter often secretly looked at Alana's escort knight with stars in her eyes.
Alana made sure that Annabeth could never approach Luke again but also ensured that if Annabeth did see Luke, Luke would be with Alana at all times just so she could see the light dim in Annabeth's eyes. When Annabeth was told that she would have to marry the Eldoris king, someone reported to Alana that her half-sister had tried to approach Luke to save her. Alana had sent down orders to beat Annabeth after that. Yet, even after all these years, Luke never knew about the true circumstances of Princess Annabeth.
Now, Alana brought Luke to the trip to Eldroris so she couldn't wait to see what sort of foolish reaction her dim witted sister would make. This was why Alana was pretending to be more ill than she was so they would arrive late to the Eldoris palace and miss the wedding in the morning. At this rate, they should arrive just in time for the crowning ceremony in the afternoon.
If Annabeth, who always had such a severe reaction to seeing Luke, saw Luke in the crowning ceremony, it would humiliate the Eldoris king at seeing his wife look longingly at another man. But what could the Eldoris king do? He had already married her in the morning. If this was before the wedding, then the king might simply just annul the marriage and pull out of the affair with some tattered dignity left.
Alana smiled. Everything was in her control except for...
"Keuk, keuk!" Alana coughed into her handkerchief.
In the white cloth were splotches of blood. Alana frowned. She thought that after time had passed, she would adjust easily into this body. Even with the help of tonics and medicine, Alana still felt ill. Her original body was also showing signs of ill health, which helped with the excuse that the Kiran queen was sick and needed to be confined to her bedroom. But Alana had to be careful not to let either body decay.
Not to mention, the more one used their powers, the more backlash their body would face. Depending on the person, sometimes the overuse of powers would make one more bloodthirsty. Other times, the magic user would feel extremely fatigued and fall into a coma for a few days. Alana had used a large reserve of her powers to switch souls and fell ill overnight.
No matter, Alana thought. She just needed more time for her soul to adjust.
In the town that the Kiran delegation was resting in, an Eldoris shadow guard spied on them through a window. He turned away and swiftly sent a letter through messenger hawk.
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Even back in the modern days, Annabeth wasn't sure what her wedding would be like. When she was young, she had thought she would marry someone who was intelligent and kind. Her mother would joke that she would marry a prince one day. Her mother had been mostly right in her prediction, except that Annabeth was marrying a king, not a prince.
It hadn't really dawned onto her that she was now part of this world whether she liked it or not until she was wearing her wedding dress made of red silk, organza, and lace. Annabeth's curly hair was tamed with delicate gold hairpins and pearl strands. Looking at herself in the mirror, Annabeth suddenly felt sad that in this world, she had no one from her real family to attend her wedding. Instead, the family that was attached to this character wanted to kill her. Who did she have by her side in this world?
"You look beautiful."
Annabeth turned around to see Percy leaning against the doorway with a smile on his face. He was wearing a matching red jacket with gold embellishments. Weddings were different here. In this world, the color red symbolized fortune and good wishes. The groom and bride also walked out together. Even if parents were to give them away at the wedding, neither of them had parents in this world.
"You look handsome, too."
His usually unruly hair was slicked into a proper hairstyle with gel. The Eldoris king looked even more like a king somehow to Annabeth. Perhaps it was the ceremonial crown atop of his head.
He reached out and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"You're wearing the earrings and hairpin I sent you," he noted. "They suit you."
"I'm surprised you remember these." Annabeth said. "You gifted me a lot."
In the first few days of being at the royal palace, the king had sent over crates of jewelry that Annabeth had nearly gone blind, though she did consider taking a ring or two back to the modern world to pay off her student loans. She only remembered this pearl and emerald hairpin and earrings set from the other luxurious jewels because it had been sent over in its own private sandalwood box.
"Of course." His eyes slid to the delicate hairpin now inserted in her golden hair. "The earrings are what my father gifted my mother, and his father to the queen before him. The dowager queen has been trying to get her claws on these for a very long time. I hope you can safeguard these."
Perhaps he meant to assure her that she was his only queen for now until the divorce, but those words sounded ominous. If she wasn't able to safeguard that jewelry, wasn't it akin to losing her life?
Just before they were to enter the Grand Hall for the wedding, a knight came up and whispered into Percy's ear.
The gentle smile on Percy's lips turned just a bit derisive.
"So they plan on being late? No matter. Just hold the crowning ceremony as soon as we're married." Percy ordered. "It'll surprise some people, but they won't mind since all the important guests are all here."
"Is something wrong?" The princess asked, noting Percy's subtle change in expression.
"No," Percy smiled. "Just that the plans we made in backup are going to be implemented. The crowning ceremony will be moved up right after the wedding instead of being in the afternoon."
"Oh," the princess said. "So my dear sister intends on missing the wedding? It's strange that she would embarrass Kiran."
"But it wouldn't embarrass Eldoris," Percy said resolutely. "And it shouldn't bother you. As of today, you're no longer Kiranian but the Eldorisian queen."
The princess laughed. "That's true. What she does has no bearing on us."
The music started, the cue for the wedding to begin. The Grand Hall's doors were pushed open by uniformed footmen.
"Entering His Majesty, King Perseus Jackson, Sovereign of the Eldoris kingdom, and Her Highness, Princess Annabeth Chase!"
The princess had asked them to omit her title of being the first princess of Kiran. It was the first sign that she was shedding all ties to Kiran who had abandoned their own.
Percy walked in escorting the princess by his side. Ambassadors and nobles from all over Eldoris started clapping and cheering. He glanced at the woman he would be promising to stand by forever until the ridiculous condition she had added of divorce came up. She looked happy and jubilant, as though today truly was the happiest day of her life.
And perhaps it was, unless it was the best acting he had seen in his life. She no longer needed to submit to anyone, nor would she ever be harmed in her life again. So he just couldn't understand why she was willing to walk away from all that power and influence being a queen would hold. Maybe Percy couldn't understand it because he had been trained to be king from his childhood, unwilling to bow down to those who had harmed his family.
Soon the pair had walked across the red carpet spread across the length of the Grand Hall before the official who would officiate the wedding. Percy and the princess bowed to each other, then fed each other diluted wine with their wrists crossed. Then the last step of the wedding approached.
The princess closed her grey eyes so reminiscent of stormy skies as he leaned in. His warm but soft lips pressed against hers, tasting of bittersweet wine. She was now his queen.
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The assassin was perched up on one of the Grand Hall's empty balconies. He had been ordered to kill the bride before the wedding was over. Unfortunately, because of the tight security in the royal palace, it had been hard to approach the princess. Only now because of the large number of guests in the wedding, the assassin received the chance to get in close proximity to the princess.
The man stalked closer, hiding behind a large vase of peonies. He raised his arms and aimed his crossbow at the red clothed princess. Perhaps when the arrow flew loose, the people might not even notice the blood blending in with the red cloth until it was too late.
But before he could release the arrow, the killer suddenly felt a warm stinging pain in his neck. Warmth spurted out. The man collapsed to the floor.
Sir Rachel frowned as a spot of blood dripped onto her shoe. The body was quickly hauled away and the wedding went undisturbed.
Despite the beautiful atmosphere, Sir Rachel's expression was stony. Her father had gone too far, hiring an assassin. If she hadn't found him in time, the princess would be dead and the king would have been out for blood. Rachel had no choice but to search out the killer on her own when she discovered what her father had done.
Her father had no idea what kind of person Percy truly was. Sooner or later, the king would find out what Marquis Dare had done. The whole Dare family would be exterminated without a second thought. So she had to dispose of the body of the killer quickly before anything could be traced back to her father.
Sir Rachel unclenched her hand. For a split second there, she had almost hesitated. Then, the arrow would have flown loose from the bow, hitting its intended mark.
Rachel sighed and slowly slid against the wall, suddenly feeling exhausted. She had nearly lost against her principle as a knight. As much as she was jealous, an innocent life would be taken. The princess had been nothing but kind to her. Then what kind of knight would she be?
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A/N: Alana showing up bringing Luke is like your sister/brother bringing your ex to your wedding to start drama. Ugh.
As always, see you all next chapter!