AnotidaMandemwa

[WSA 2024 Entry]
Everyone is playing a regal game. Everyone except Lucia (who probably should).

After her father faced accusations of trying to seize the throne from his father and king, he was exiled along with his family. They were no longer royalty, but his wife would not have it. She was friends with the queen of Vershia and used that to her advantage. Her two older daughters were the right age to marry the two princes, and she would make that happen come what may.

That became a problem when the oldest daughter was ignored by the crown prince, who formed a friendship with the youngest of the girls. There was still hope; Lucia could become the future queen. But Lucia was not groomed for this role. She did not want to live for the type of marriage she could snag. She did not want to take the man who had been planned for her sister.

But that’s the thing with plans, isn’t it? She never planned to fall in love with the man, and there she was: an unwilling participant in the regal games. Would she capture the crown? How would everything affect her relationship with her sister? Was there ever pleasing her mother?

Regal Games

Adela was here. Caroline had dragged Lucia to Adela's suite and they were now sitting in her room and talking as she got dressed. This would be their first dinner in the palace, and Lucia was looking forward to seeing the Queen again.

She had seen the woman briefly when they had first arrived but not since then. She had grown up with the woman treating her like a favourite niece and she had adored her. She felt a little guilty that she had not considered her when she had been away and refused to come back home, or maybe she had been hiding from her.

The last time she had interacted with the queen, the older woman had proposed that she marry Prince Michael when she turned eighteen. She had just been sixteen and that was the first time she had gotten a glimpse of how desperate the woman was to marry off her oldest son. That desperation had scared her.

Too Much