Bonus 3

The Accidental Date

Acelin

My mother always told me I was never meant for politics. I was too much my father’s son; an artist, a dreamer and a creator. But not an adroit politician.

Queen Valleria Eustein had tried her best to groom me in her ways, so I could be ready to take the throne in case my younger half-brother, Lancelin Eustein, turned out to be too much like his father. But it was soon realized that it wasn’t necessary. Even though both of Queen Valleria’s sons looked just like our fathers, everything else came from our mother, and that was true especially in Lancelin’s case. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

But now, looking at the man sitting opposite to me, I was feeling at a loss for not having my mother’s keen outlook, her sly way of reading people just by looking into their eyes.