In the Name of a Queen

[Falcon]

Nicoli was relieved to find that much of the awkwardness from the night before was gone. Perhaps it was because he had a goal, perhaps it was because he knew what was expected of him, or perhaps it was because his queen couldn't easily see his face and he didn't have to worry about what expression he was wearing and how it might be interpreted. He found that once they got going, conversation was easy. He also found that not only did they have a great deal in common, but where they differed such differences could usually be chalked up to the different manners of their up bringing. He was pleasantly surprised to find that she was not only willing to listen to his perspective, but when she pointed out the flaws in his logic it was in a way that made it very easy to learn. He had half though that a woman raised with the best education possible to obtain could find little in the words of a grown up stable-boy, even if his father had taught him his letters and the knights instructed him in proper court manners. If only she'd been born a farmer's daughter, or I the son of a noble . . . he hastily shook the thought from his head.

When they finally fell to silence it was an easy and comfortable one. The silence of two people who didn't believe any words needed to be said just then. It wasn't until Ann fell against his chest that Nicoli realized she was asleep, and even then he found he was unusually comfortable with it. After a moment or two the gentle rocking of the horse began to cause her to slide, and Nicoli unconsciously switched the reigns to one had and wrapped the now free arm around her waist.

A moment later he realized he probably should have found another way. Not only did it feel incredibly nice to have the weight of her body nestled against him, but the pleasant scent rising from her breeze swept hair was enough to take his mind down the path of "What ifs". It was light, something he couldn't quite place, but it brought back a memory of the palace chefs working on a cake. He didn't know what what it was. Vanilla maybe? Perhaps he could ask . . . No! That was out of line as well.

But the fact was Anastasia di ReValya had not been born a farmer's daughter, not even the child of a minor noble, and he had no business even beginning to think of her that way, no business musing over he scent, no place to enjoy her mere presence just because she was there. That had to be it. He had been so long out of the company of any woman of marriageable age that he had begun to read to much into any sort of contact from one. Even that from one so completely out of his league as the queen. He knew better. He knew he knew better.

It had been easier when they were talking.

"You are a fool, Nicoli," he whispered to himself, but he left things as they were as the sun waned towards afternoon and Anne slept, safe against him.

There were other women at the palace, closer to his age, some that might even be interested in him if he could drag himself away from his work long enough to take the time. If a morning's talk with Anne had done this to him, then what might happen in a relationship with a woman he could openly pursue? Perhaps it was time he actually made an attempt to find out.

 

[moffnat]

Such a pleasant dream came to an abrupt end as Nicoli's gentle voice, soft and sweet, woke her from her slumber. The sleepy queen raised her head from his chest and yawned, opening her eyes to drink in the view before her. The mountains towered over them and the trees began to bend in ways that formed an entrance of sorts, undoubtedly to the Quelara tribe they had been searching for. When Anne craned her neck, the sun could be seen lowering itself to hide behind the shadow of the mountain. I must have been asleep for hours, she thought with a small smile. And he let me.

She squeezed his hand, now noticing that she had been holding it in her sleep.

"Here," she told him with a second yawn, gesturing to the ground next to them. "We should stop here and walk into their kingdom, leading the horse. They are small people. I don't want them to think that I intend to stand above them, if that makes any sense."

Anne reached forward and stroked the top of Red's mane, chuckling as he shook his head back and forth in reply. "You did good," she told him happily. "Thank you. I'll give you two apples when we get back home, hm? Would you like that?"

The horse only snickered.​

 

[Falcon]

Nicoli agreed readily to her advice, finding now that he missed both the feel of her weight against him and her hand over his own, and wishing to hide it if he could. He gave his queen the reigns and dismounted first, staggering slightly as his injured knee wavered in holding him up. Fortunately the rest he had taken had been enough to ensure he could hold his own weight and a moment was all he needed to recover. A few seconds later he had taken the reigns back, dropping them to the ground to soft tie Red, and feeling proud of the animal when it remained perfectly still.

He held his arms up then, as an offer to help his queen down, his eyes meeting hers for a brief moment. Only when she had safely dismounted did he take up Red's reigns again, letting one had hold the underside of the noble animal's jaw as he followed her, exactly two steps behind. His limp was noticeable now. Partly because his injured knee made it temporarily strong, but also partly because he was not currently trying to hide the injury. Anne already knew. There was no point in pretending. As for the Faeries, perhaps the knowledge that the Queen had brought only a cripple with her might make them more welcoming.

It quickly became clear to him they they were entering a place unlike any he had ever been before. Stories from his childhood came flooding back to him, and the wonder that had filled him as a boy was beginning to reform. Colors seemed brighter here, the foliage greener, flowers more vibrantly hued. He thought he heard the trickle of a stream near by and the sound of the water was almost song like. The places where the lowering sun shone through the branches even seemed warmer. Yet through it all was a sort of ominous feeling, as if someone was watching every step they took, waiting for them to make a single mistake. Every sense he had was on full alert, though he tried to do nothing that might alarm Anne.

 

[moffnat]

With each step they took, the pair delved deeper and deeper into the entrance to the faerie's dominion. The trees arched to cover their pathway, leaving them shaded from the setting sun, until the dirt broke off and stretched into the mouth of a great lake surrounded by trees the color of violet and flowers the color of brilliant sapphire and ruby. If she looked hard enough, Anne could swear that they glittered under the light of the golden sun. Little lights flickered and floated across the surface of the water that giggled and waved toward the newcomers, and Anne immediately recognized them as pixies.

"Hello," she greeted them amiably, to which they replied with a greeting in their own language. Anne's face brightened as more little faces peered from the bushes to investigate who had come into their lands, curious and suspicious yet filled with a joyful disposition. The queen looked back to Nicoli and flashed him a bright smile before continuing onward, stopping just before the lakeside and folding her arms politely before her.

"Queen Anastasia di Revalya," called a voice from the trees, a small one that belonged to a girl no older than thirteen, or so it appeared to the eye. She was a short little thing with fiery red hair and a dress made of flowers and vines, with a crown of similar make stop her head. When she appeared from the brush, Anne bowed her head respectfully and silently admired the silky pinks and silvers that attributed to the beauty of her wings. If only I were born a faerie, Anne thought for a moment. Then I could fly wherever I desired.

"Queen Lyanna," Anne replied with a gentle smile. "What a pleasure it is to finally meet you. I have looked forward to this moment for quite some time."

"Have you?" the girl chuckled. "I appreciate it. I admit that I, too, have been curious about this meeting and all it will bring." Her eyes shifted from Anne to the tall gentleman in the back near the horse. "And who is this?"

"Nicoil de'Arbolshire," Anne said without hiding a single drop of pride. "He is the head of my Queensguard, and a very dear friend. I chose him personally to accompany me on my journey here."

"A man you trust, then. I'm flattered you would honor us with a presence so important to you." The faerie queen flapped her shimmering wings and floated to just before where Nicoli stood. "It is an honor to meet you Ser Nicoli, friend of Queen Anne." She extended a little hand to be kissed. "You and your horse as well. Here, we welcome animals as much as we do humans. But I do not expect you to understand the supposed strangeness of our ways."​

 

[Falcon]

He could look at that smile forever, Nicoli mused as he waited on the fringe of the woods with Red and watched his Queen sail forward to exchange proper greetings. The way it lit up her face, a man would be a fool not to want to make her happy.

He watched in curiosity as the pixies floated above the lake, and had to refrain from staring when the queen appeared. This truly was the faerie queen? She looked but a girl and yet there was something that said she knew far more than he could ever imagine, a wisdom in her eyes that put his fears at rest. When she greeted Anastasia he knew that this negotiation would be far different than those with Leondeal, and that filled him with relief. Whether they agreed to his queen's request or not, some part of him felt sure they would at least treat her with respect.

Then the Faerie Queen turned her attention to him.

He was already slightly taken aback by his Queen's use of the term "dear friend." Hearing those words raised from her lips had done something to his heart he didn't quite know how to describe, something he found unexpected. Had anyone asked he would only have been able to say he was pleased, but even that did not come close. So when the Faerie Queen addressed him he was already at a loss for words.

He bowed low and kissed the proffered fingers, finding the situation all too surreal, though he did manage a low, "Thank you," in return for her kind greeting. Nicoli's eyes were wide with obvious amazement and admiration for all he saw. Like a boy allowed to ride a horse for the first time. He had devoured the faerie stories as a child but none could even compare to the reality surrounding them. The sheer wonder of it all had his mind scrambling.

Red, however, had other ideas. The buckskin lowered his head as well, but a moment later his nose was buried in Nicoli's cloak, nudging at his pockets, in obvious search for more apples. Finding none, the horse raised his head, tossed his dark mane, and nickered at Anne.

 

[moffnat]

The faerie queen, Lyanna, chuckled at Red before twirling her hands in fluid and unbreaking motions. In a flurry of sparkled magic the color of the faerie's wings, a perfectly ripe apple appeared in her open palm and she offered it to the horse, who whinnied before accepting the gift. Anne tried not to openly marvel at the ability she had just witnessed--if this faeire queen could create food with her bare hands, surely ReValya would never go hungry again. But that was the precise mindset that Anton surely had when he enslaved the other tribes of faeries, and with that knowledge close to her heart Anne shut away such thoughts of exploitation, hoping none would have seen the desperation flash in her eyes.

"The horse is tired," Lyanna told them with a small sigh. "My people will take care of him while we talk. Come, Queen Anastasia di ReValya and Dear Friend." She waved a gentle hand, flapping her wings and fluttering to a small grove where two gates made of tree bark opened suddenly, granting her passage. Anne looked back to Nicoli and chuckled, waving him over to her. "Come on, Dear Friend!" she teased.

The room in which they entered must have been the queen's personal chambers. The entire area was a dome with walls of growing tree trunks and vines, littered with flowers and dripping dew with little windows as slits in the wood, purely natural in shape though perhaps encouraged by a bit of magic. Anne remained unsure even as she sat, allowing the wood that grew suddenly in the shape of a chair to seat her. The expression of utter bewilderment was only allowed a few moments in the sun, not wanting to seem too admirable of what she saw as unusual. Anne gestured for Nicoli to sit beside her in the chair that grew from the earth, just before a table with flower petal cups filled with tea and leaf plates smothered in faerie delicacies. Anne was completely flattered, thanking the faerie queen for her amiable hospitality before taking a sip of a delicious mint-flavored tea.

"So," Lyanna stated in her little voice as she sat across the table from the queen and her knight. "In your letter, you stated that you wished to discuss terms of friendship between the Quelara tribe and your ReValya kingdom. I like the idea. However, tell me why I should entertain this idea when Your Majesty intends to wed the king who has an iron grip on my families in the north?"

Ah. Anne steeled herself, knowing that she should have expected that sort of question. She set the flower petal cup down upon the table once more before folding her hands in her lap.

"I do not wish to marry King Anton," Anne said, "but I have to for the future of my kingdom. I...I have to." Her expression was sad and somber. "Unless, of course, you are well versed in the breaking of curses."

"The curse of hunger over your kingdom is one I can cure," Lyanna replied. "But any other curses require deep study and preparations...of which curse do you speak?"

Anne swallowed hard. "...well, either way. I was hoping that our alliance would convince King Anton, once he becomes my husband, to release your people. If he does not listen, then once I am certain to have an heir for ReValya, I will have no hesitations in launching a civil war to save them. Or, of course, to put Anton out of the picture. I don't like him in the slightest bit."​

 

[Falcon]

Nicoli clenched his jaw to keep from speaking when Anne mentioned her dislike for Anton and carrying the man's child in the same sentence. Some part of him felt disgust for the very concept that she might be forced to bed a man purely on political motivation. To be touched that way, with out love, even within the confines of a marriage bed . . . Neither did Anton seem the type to be satisfied with a single child and leave her alone. Nicoli found his heart ached at the very thought. And yet he had grown up knowing that arranged and political marriages were a necessity. Why now did it bother him?

The wonder that surrounded him, that he had so openly marveled at, seemed to fade slightly as he sipped at his tea and pondered all that was said. He had no wish to complicate things, to interrupt, or to push his nose in where it was not wanted, but as he pushed Anastasia's open deceleration that she would marry and bed a man for whom she held nothing but disdain aside, something else occurred to him. After a moment's thought he figured there could be no harm in a simple question so long as it related to the topic at hand.

"Forgive me if I speak out of turn," he asked, setting his flower cup down carefully, "but might I ask the nature of the trap that binds your kin to Leondeal? Perhaps there is a way to secure their release without Anton or war. If it were a magical contract there might be something in the wording . . ." he trailed off feeling suddenly very foolish and quickly busied himself with his cup again. "Forgive me."

 

[moffnat]

Anne could feel Nicoli tense at the mention of Anton and the inevitable child that would have to be conceived between them. It took all she had not to reach over and take his hand. You may dislike the idea, sweet knight, but you don't have to live it. The thought of Anton's hands on her skin and his seed in her womb left her the farthest from happy that could possibly exist, but it had to be done. The safety of her kingdom depended on it.

"There was no contract," Lyanna said, her face twisted suddenly with anger, though it was clear that such rage was not directed at Nicoli or his question. "Leondeal and the faeries were never friends, nor were we enemies until Anton's armies forced their way in and captured the queen who reigns there, forcing the faeries in her kingdom to work otherwise watch their queen be butchered. There are many faeries who don't believe in violence, Dear Friend. The Northern tribes are among those. They won't fight Anton or his laws despite how much they should. Fools, I think. Men like him can only be defeated by force." She looked at Anne suspiciously then, and the human queen shifted in her seat. "What is it that binds you to the King of Leondeal?"

"The future of my kingdom," Anne said at once. "I need him."

"True. But why? I have told you that I can ease the starvation of ReValya, and yet you still insist on marrying a man who disgusts you?"

"It's...complicated," Anne responded with an exasperated sigh. "His gold will fund other things, his people will help my armies grow...it's all tied together."

Lyanna hesitated, sensing a lie. She looked between Anne and Nicoli a moment before taking in a breath to speak. "You are not telling me everything. How can I expect to be friends with a queen who withholds the truth?"

"I would tell you if it was a matter that concerned you," Anne replied uncomfortably. "I need King Anton and I will marry him. Unfortunately, that is all that can be said on the matter, though I do intend on casting him aside or convincing him to change his vile ways and--"

"Do you think that will be enough?" Lyanna scoffed. "You do not know him as the faeries do. You do not know who he keeps in his vile company, the things he says with that forked tongue of his to make even the proudest and best of creatures bend the knee to him. Frankly, I do not care why you need him. I will not offer my support to someone who would so willingly throw their life into the fire by allowing a snake such as King Anton in their bed, to father their children. You are a fool, Queen Anastasia di ReValya, and while I sympathize with you and appreciate that none of your people have ever intruded on our lands I would seek to help you from your plight instead of watch you bury yourself alive."

Lyanna's words stung. Anne could feel the tears well at the back of her throat and head, but she dared not let them fall. Instead, she gave Nicoli a nervous glance and Lyanna a stern gaze, opening her mouth to speak once more.

"Queen Lyanna," she stated, "I have to marry Anton if my kingdom is to stay on the map. The destruction of ReValya depends on this." Anne folded her hands in her lap and held her head high before saying the final sentence that would change everything for their friendship, both Lyanna's and Nicoli's.

The queen cleared her royal throat.

"I am cursed."​

 

[Falcon]

"So it's a hostage situation . . ." Nicoli had murmured softly to himself as the faerie Queen explained. He didn't blame her one bit for being so impassioned, or for being so demanding in knowing Queen Anne's reasoning for allowing Anton the place she had. Nicoli had begun to wonder the same thing, why she hadn't simply pursued a trade agreement instead. Such could easily gain her at least a large portion of what she wanted without having to compromise her happiness. She could do that, he decided, barter down to a trade treaty and then use the new friendship to slip a few knights across the border to seek out and rescue the northern Faerie queen. Yet Nicoli was not, and would probably never be, in a position to question Anastasia's choices, to ask her to reconsider. Queen Lyanna, however, held not only a crown, but the ability to procure the resources their kingdom so desperately needed.

He wondered as they talked why Anne was so resistant to the explanation all present wanted, and some demanded. What had happened to force her hand so? yet for every possibility he could think of, nothing came close to the truth he finally heard drop from her lips.

"Cursed?" he repeated, his gaze suddenly riveted on her. "What? How is it possible? I've been in service to the palace all your life, surly such an event would have been -- ?!"

He forced himself to stop speaking, the fact that he had suddenly blurted the words out a testament to his shock. It was not his place to question his queen. She would have, and keep still more, secrets from him and there was no reason for him to expect other wise. Yet his curiosity was rising, the protective feeling urging him to do all in his power to see her hurt remedied, and he knew that in the moment what he wanted to say, the questioned he wanted to ask might only make the situation worse. Now was not the time. It might never be.

 

[moffnat]

"Nicoli, please." Anne rubbed her arms, clearly uncomfortable with the topic and all that it would mean for her knight and the faerie queen, but she knew that an explanation was owed to the both of them. Lyanna seemed shocked, disturbed even, and folded her hands to listen to Queen Anne's story. Anne herself wished that there was some way around the telling of her terrible plight, but alas there was no way around it. She took a deep breath and released.

"When I was a little girl, a woman from Leondeal who claimed to be an ambassador came to ReValya to discuss new trade routes and terms of furthering the peace. She was tall, slender with long ebony hair...she was beautiful, really. I remember admiring her from a distance as she spoke with my father. During dinner one night, she mentioned Anton and how he was soon to be coronated despite how young he was. I blurted out that I wanted to be a queen, which charmed the dinner guests and all who heard the story of four-year-old Anne wishing she were a queen. But I didn't know the mistake I had made until much later on in life.

"When the next morning had come, I heard my mother crying. I asked her what was wrong and she told me to hide, to run from the clutches of the woman who had arrived, the beauty that I had admired from such a distance, but it was too late. My father found me in the closet and ordered me to the throne room, to be a part of some 'greater plan'. In hindsight, I think the woman was supposed to announce the betrothal of myself to Anton, but that wasn't what she had planned. None of the court showed for the announcement, and when my father was asking questions to the head of his guard, the woman grabbed me by the arms and the room became dark. She said something in another language, one I didn't understand, and then she...she..." Anne placed her hand over her lower abdomen, looking as if she were going to be sick. "She said before my father and mother, with her hands on my stomach; 'Let it be known that Anastasia di ReValya will know no children but those spawned by the King of Leondeal. None other will give her the gift of motherhood except him, not from this day until the end of days. Let it be known.'"

Anne kept her eyes fixed on the floor. "Don't you see? The ReValyan royal line will end unless I marry Anton. That was her plan, that had always been her plan, and now her wish is finally coming true."​

 

[Falcon]

Nicoli sat in silence for a moment just watching her. He opened his mouth to speak, once twice, and closed it again.

It wasn't that there were no words, he had plenty of words, he simply was unsure how to phrase them to avoid causing more pain. He had already been a big enough fool for one day. And yet some part of him had to know. He wasn't sure why the matter nagged at him, but it did, and he found the words tumbling from his lips before he had a chance to stop them.

"Is - is blood really so important?" he whispered almost too softly to hear. "Could you not simply name an heir, someone you thought worthy and capable of leading the country? Or there are children everywhere in need of a home, I don't see why one of them couldn't be taught and raised to be a kind and generous ruler as easily as one of your own natural born? And - forgive me, My Queen, for speaking so boldly, but that way would you not then have your own choice of husband? Someone better suited than King Anton who you have already admitted you do not like?"

Nicoli shifted uncomfortable in his seat, stealing a glance at Queen Lyanna and then back to Anne, before looking at his hands. He drew a deep breath, knowing he was walking a fine line, but he had already voiced the first half of his thoughts and so he might as well continue. When he looked back up his eyes were clear and honest. What he said he said because he was hoping she might find in it some hope, not because he was trying to manipulate her decision.

"And if what she said was "King of Leondeal" then it was a title, not a name. She may not have meant Anton at all, only whatever man sat on the throne at the time of -- " He coughed slightly his ears beginning to turn red, and he took a hasty drink of tea in an attempt to hide what had almost tumbled from his thoughtless tongue. "What I mean to say is that Anton might have lost his crown to civil war, or dies from illness, or been killed in a reckless joust, or any number of other things before now, and you might instead have found yourself having this same conversation about another . . ."

As he spoke Nicoli found himself wondering if he was trying to convince her, or himself, and if it truly mattered. In his opinion Anton made a hard king to serve no matter what land he ruled.

 

[moffnat]

"Perhaps, but in the time it would take to search for the true heir to the line of Leondeal I would have to marry Anton and bear a child with him. It's hopeless, Nicoli, I've already entertained all the options." Anne fumbled with her hands in her lap, sighing despite herself. "I could adopt, but I still need a legitimate heir. I can't risk having a hole in the family line, I won't allow my son or daughter to be ridiculed for not being born from my flesh. I have to marry Anton. I've accepted that. But I will not allow him to think that he can control me and my kingdom into submission. I would slit his throat in his sleep if it came to it." It was clear that neither Nicoli nor Lyanna believed such a claim, and the more Anne thought about the more she couldn't envision killing anyone, even Anton, but the threat remained lingering in the air until she spoke again. "Please understand, Queen Lyanna. I must have an heir. I will bring Anton to heel but I still need a child for the security of my throne and my kingdom."

Lyanna considered Anne's words a moment, folding her arms delicately across her chest before letting a smile break across her face. "I believe you to be a woman of your word, Queen Anastasia di ReValya. I wish nothing but peace between our countries. We will give you food and good harvests, as well as devote a good portion of our time towards lifting your curse or finding other options to assist you in Anton's fall. In return, promise us you will free our families in Leondeal and outlaw slavery of all my kind. Do you accept?"

"Gladly." Anne pushed out a sigh of relief. "Please, oh gods, please. Gladly. I...yes." She laughed then, a laughter that was stained by the potential of her own demise, but a thought that need not be expressed to her comrades. She rose from her seat and kissed the offered hand of Queen Lyanna, promising to write an official document of their bind together, and in a flurry of magenta and silver the faerie flew to her feet.

"Let us celebrate!" she declared, so loudly that Anne swore the other faeries must have heard her. "Let us celebrate Queen Anastasia di ReValya, Dear Friend, and our alliance together!"

Cheers of the Quelara tribe roared from outside the chambers. Lyanna flew to Anne's side, taking her hand, and with a glance and a teary smile back to Nicoli the two presented their friendship to the entire tribe as one in amiable bonds.​

 

[Falcon]

"The true heir?"" Nicoli mouthed to himself his eyes filling with confusion. He vaguely remembered hearing something of it when he was a child, but it had been so long, and he had barely been paying attention the first time, that he could not longer remember the specifics. The knight started to ask, but by that time the conversation had moved forward and he knew that too would have to wait. In his musings Nicoli did not miss that she had threatened Anton's life, though he knew it was a threat he could never carry through.

He remained seated as the two Queens rose to announce their agreement. His eyes remaining on one in particular as the faerie folk cheered. He understood suddenly, why she had been so willing to forgive his unwillingness to speak of the condition of his leg. He wondered how she did it, believing each day that she was fated to spend her life beside someone she disliked, how she could be so willing to give up everything for her people including her own happiness. And suddenly he knew.

Nicoli groaned in irritation, covering by rising to his feet and pretending it was directly related to his aching knee. How could he not have seen this before, not have realized what was happening. It was not that he was simply beginning to desire female companionship; it was that he was beginning to desire her companionship. And he knew it was not all at once either. How many years had her watched her from a distance before being called into her service? How many times had he remarked upon her kindness and compassion? How long had he admired her love for her people? How many days had he longed to hear a kind word from her and taken pride from her praise. He wanted to ease her burden not because he was a knight doing his job, but because he truly desired to be of help. He disliked King Anton, not because the man was a manipulative scumbag undeserving of leading pigs to the wallow, but because some part of Nicoli had begun to feel a bit jealous. Not of her, but for her. He was fully convinced that had the King proved himself honorable things would be different. But Anne should not have to waste her time and affection because she felt obligated..

He took a moment to close his eyes and shove it all to the back of his mind. No matter what his feelings they could not be acted on and so were better off ignored. Besides, even if she did reciprocate his feelings he highly doubted she would act on it, not after what she had just said.

Nicoli followed an appropriate pace behind, limping, but trying to keep the trouble from his face when she looked back.

As he watched them make celebratory preparations a new thought occurred to him, one that gave him a shred of hope, at least for Anne's future. He waited only until the faeries had left her alone a moment, before slipping over and bending low to speak so only she could hear. What he was about to say might be considered incredibly rude if he were wrong, and Nicoli had no wish to offend.

"Highness, the old woman I met a few days ago, the one who vanished, do you think – perhaps – she might be one of their kin?" He said nothing of the promised wish, or his hope the crone might be hiding near by. He had no idea if what he was thinking might even be possible. Of if she would do it if it were.

 

[moffnat]

Without an explanation, not even a gesture to ask permission, Anne slipped her arm into his and held it tight against her. She wanted to be grounded, wanted something that would keep her in the present instead of remaining fixed on her fate. Anne could never kill Anton, kill anyone, but she hadn't the slightest shred of doubt that he would strangle her with his bare hands should just cause arise. That was not the kind of man she wanted to share nights of passion with or raise children beside. That was not the kind of man who deserved the crown of ReValya.

She sniffled, completely unable to hide the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I s-suppose," she stuttered, trembling. "She has been looking for someone. Perhaps she was looking for her whoever belongs on the throne of Leondeal or someone who would bring me to the faeries for peace...but please, Nicoli. If you bear any love for me at all, as your queen, I beg of you not to speak another word of Anton or Leondeal or anything of the sort for the rest of the night. I can't think about it. I mustn't, or else I will eat myself alive from the inside out." As if I haven't been doing so already.

The celebrating faeries were so overwhelmed with joy for their savior queens, so much that it was hard to remain teary for long despite the utterly crippling grief that Anne was experiencing. She smiled sadly as a group of pixies lifted a flower crown atop her head and cheered in little voices. Anne thanked them and wiped her tears, feeling more a queen in that moment than she ever had before. It was amazing how a few little acts of appreciation left her feeling better, though it remained painfully obvious that the dark cloud of Anton hung over her head.

"This is an historic moment!" Lyanna cried to her people, smiling brightly as the magical contract's final words were written. "For the first time in history, the faeries and the human race with join as friends. All hail Queen Anastasia di ReValya, Mother of Mercy!"

"All hail Queen Lyanna," Anne responded fondly, using her free hand to sign the contract with the end of a twig.

The moment Anne lifted the makeshift pen from the paper, the faeries rejoiced. As if in the blink of an eye, a festival had risen from the dirt all around them with celebratory buffets and booths of entertainment, plays, contests and other festivities that Anne had never seen before. It was hard to resist a smile and even harder to resist leaning against Nicoli, both actions she gave into almost immediately. She clung to Nicoli despite herself, temporarily throwing away the rulebook on the appropriate lines between a queen and her knight. Anne was desperate for a sense of home and she found it in him.

"Mother of Mercy," said a faerie that approached them, with great orange wings and skin the color of ink. "Might you allow me to read the holy lines of you and Dear Friend? It would honor me greatly to provide this act of service for you, gentle queen."

Anne couldn't say no. To be offered such a request was something the faeries considered one of the holiest of actions, and they were gifting it to her to celebrate their terms of peace. "Of course," she replied with a small smile, hoping none of the faeries had taken offense at her tears. Under the light of the moon, the lake began to sparkle in a flurry of wings and magic. "I would be honored."​

 

[Falcon]

The sight of her falling tears did a number on his heart and Nicoli raised no objection when she latched onto his arm. He wished only that he could dare hold her, give her an excuse to hide her face, and he hated himself for having pushed on a topic that had led to her need to cry. At her request for silence on the matter he agreed readily saying only, "I have never seen a place like this. It makes me think all the stories are real," shifting to a subject he hoped she would find a great deal more comfortable.

The signing of the contract seemed to launch things into a full-scale festival, and for a moment Nicoli hoped the party would help to lighten the mood. He gave no resistance when she leaned against him, knowing that what she needed most at the moment was a friend and he had no motivation within himself not to let the lines blur a little. He held fast by her side though there were a number of interesting things he longed to go and explore, finding comfort in the knowledge that she did not seem angry with him, and believing that for a moment it was okay to pretend.

Neither did he complain when to orange winged faerie offered to read their "holy lines," though it took Nicoli a moment to remember that the faerie meant his palm. "I have no objection. It is indeed an honor," he replied with a smile nodding his head gratefully for he could not bow while Anne held onto him. But as he looked at his Queen it occurred to him that the topic might again turn painful for her in which case she might desire some privacy.

"My Lady, do you wish me to withdraw?"

 

[moffnat]

"Withdraw?" Anne looked to him, shocked. "No! I mean, not if you don't wish it. She offered to read for both of us after all." And I don't want you too far away from me. She would justify her need to be in Nicoli's presence as a matter of her own protection and the need to portray to the faeries that friendship is valued in the human world. But of course, while all true, it was not the reason for her declaration. Anne thought it might never be, where Nicoli was concerned.

The faerie led the pair to a series of stumps by the rippling lake, carved into chairs that were must too small for Nicoli or Anne to sit in. Instead, the queen sat on her knees beside the lake and admired the floating faerie and pixie lights dancing across the surface of the water.

"Your hand, Majesty?" the reader asked, and Anne obliged. The faerie hummed a tune with closed eyes before sliding her hands along the surface of Anne's palm, smiling a bit to herself, and the reading began.

"Anastasia di ReValya," the girl said in a little voice. "You have lived seventeen years. You were crowned when you were fifteen, I see. Very young. What a pity." She opened her eyes then, snapping her fingers. From the ground grew a great flower the bloomed almost immediately, and within it was a shining light that cast upon Anne's palm to light up the features more easily.

"You will be queen until the end of your days," she stated with a small nod. "Your people will never stop loving you. I see six children in the lines, two daughters and four sons, birthed from you by the King of Leondeal. You will only marry once. Your marriage will be endlessly happy and filled with love and joy, one that will inspire writers and singers and poets around the world for centuries to come. You people will never grow hungry again. But there are hard times on the immediate horizon, gentle queen. You will suffer an enormous betrayal, one that will effect you for the rest of your life and ultimately lead to your..."

Suddenly, the faerie stopped, her brows furrowed in confusion. "This doesn't make sense. I see all these things to happen in your life, but..."

"But what?"

"I...well." She looked nervously to Nicoli before leaning forward and whispering something in the queen's ear. When she withdrew, Anne's expression hadn't changed at all though her entire body felt paralyzed, distraught. And then, she understood.

"Thank you for your reading," Anne told her with a small smile. "Nicoli, you may...you may have your fortune read as well, if you wish."​

 

[Falcon]

Nicoli settled onto the ground beside his queen, though he was slow about it and found it necessary to keep his injured leg stretched out in front of him. He tried not to listen too closely to what she was told, yet he found relief, both in the fact that her marriage would be happy and that the title of king had been used and not Anton's name. Yet at the name time Nicoli could not help the spark of bitter disappointment that burned in his breast for in that moment he knew her happiness would never be with him. And then there was the idea that she would soon be betrayed and be betrayed in a way that would lead to . . . what? He greatly feared the end of that sentence was the word death and his only comfort was that there had to be room for a marriage and six children before that. The then there was the look the faeries had given him. Was it to be his fault then? whatever happened.

He wished more than anything he knew what had been whispered in her ear for she did not react as a woman who had just been told she would love and be loved in return, even if she did seem to accept it a moment later. Did that mean this was a conditional reading only? That something had to be achieve before it could be true? Nicoli knew better than to ask, and he knew better than to spend too much time dwelling on what he might never know.

He was hesitant to offer his hand then, wondering if there were somethings that would be better if he did not know. Yet there was the potential to learn something to give him hope, and he had heard his Queen's reading, it was only fair she should hear his.

He found the faerie's touch light and delicate as she ran her fingers over his calloused palm, and when she began to speak he knew immediately he had made a mistake though it was too late to back out.
"You have both known love and lost love, and fear it will happen again, or not at all," she began and Nicoli quickly forced his features blank, "yet love will find you whether you wish it or not. There will be trouble, a delay in acknowledgement, mostly due to your own stubbornness and inability to see what is plain before your eyes. She will love you in spite of your physical flaws and you will cherish her above all others. You will be happy together and your firstborn will be a son.

"You will serve your queen loyally and faithfully all your life, though before your marriage there will be a compromise to the honor you bind yourself to so tightly. It will not be counted against you and your name will go down in the history books. Yet not as a knight.

"Before this day next year you will lose your position in exchange for another. Trouble will find you shortly, and for a time death will stalk your footsteps. But it is not by the sword that you will die. Your life will end where your grandfather's began."

"Thank you." Nicoli murmured softly as he reclaimed his hand. He wished he had never asked, yet all the same it was good to know. Eventually he would find wife and child, though it would not be with the woman beside him. All the more reason to fight his affection, to try to see her once more as his queen as much as he longed to continue as her "dear friend." And he worried over the nature of this "compromise" and whether or not it might be one and the same as the betrayed foretold to the queen.

 

[moffnat]

"I sense I have troubled you. I am so terribly sorry."

"No," Anne said with a small smile. "You have told me good news and troubling news, surely, but that must come with the dangers of reading into the future. Thank you so much for your time. I am honored to have been read by the best." She leaned forward and kissed the cheek of the dark faerie, and the two exchanged amiable grins before the girl flew off to other business.

Anne, suddenly a different woman in heart and soul, stood from where she sat and took off the cloak from around her shoulders. The night was cool yet not entirely cold, and while she wished for the warmth of the cloth she'd just removed from her skin she tossed it aside all the same.

"Hey Nicoli," she said with a little giggle as she turned to him. "Wanna race to the other end of the lake? I should warn you that I'm an impeccable swimmer."​

 

[Falcon]

Nicoli was shaken from his musing by her voice and as he looked up into Anne's eyes he couldn't help but notice the change. He knew not how to place it, only that something in her seemed to be more at peace. For a moment he thought she meant a race by foot, which for him was doable as running was one of the first things he had been forced to relearn upon the gain of his false leg. It was also the area where he was likely to fail the most when it came to one of Oswin's test. But then his knee gave a twinge and he knew he would have to refuse the offer.

His face paled slightly when he understood she meant to swim.

"I fear, my lady, that I am not very good in the water at all. It is the one area in which my education has sorely been neglected." Not that he was afraid of the water, quite the contrary. He had often seen others floating about in a pond or calm area of river and wished to join them. There had simply been no one to teach him more than the basics of how to stay afloat. "I fear I will be able to give you little sport unless you wish to see who can hold their breath the longest."

 

[moffnat]

"Anne," she told him sternly. "My name is Anne."

Anne remembered when her mother was teaching her how to swim in the Golden Lake. She taught her how to breaststroke and swim on your back, how to tread water and float, how to dive properly and when to tell if you feel like you're struggling. There was always someone to watch and keep track of her during her regular swims, which she had done nearly every day since learning how up until the death of her family and she was crowned before her time. She hadn't swam in two years. She felt suddenly that now was the time.

Removing the crown of flowers and placing it gently beside the cloak, she took a deep breath and dove perfectly into the cool black waters. When she came up for air the woman was gasping, laughing, and perhaps crying all at once. It was difficult to tell in the gathering darkness but as various pixies flew by her to light up her face, there was only joy.

"Come on!" she called. "I will teach you. I promise I won't let you drown."

I will never let you drown.​