Breakfast with the King

After finishing my tea and dessert I went back outside, Arina close behind me, and found the snitch standing outside the front door. I had made sure to straighten my back before walking out.

"It's time you return to your chambers," he insisted, looking uncomfortable in the cold. 

I walked past without acknowledging him, my mind still grappling with the fact that Arina would be gone after the wedding. I had never liked the idea of the wedding but losing Arina would be the hardest thing of all. My head spun with questions as my heart ached with fear. What would my new Lady-in-Waiting be like? Who would I talk to about my life? Who would help me hide all my imperfection from my new husband? I often wanted to go to sleep and wake up hearing that the wedding was just a dream, but now more than ever I hoped I would wake from this nightmare. Arina was the only thing that had made this engagement bearable.

I was so lost in my own head that I didn't notice that we had arrived at my chambers in the palace. I said goodnight to Arina and put my face straight into my pillow, and hoped that when I woke up, all would be right with the world.

I woke up the next morning to the light of the lesser sun coming in the window. I looked down at my pillow that was covered in makeup and dirt. 

"Arina's gonna be mad that I didn't wash my face before bed," I thought to myself.

Thinking of Arina made my heart sink all over again. I got up from my bed and looked out the window to the river below. The river ran through the middle of the city, and alongside the canal people could be seen starting their days. They walked out of square, golden sandstone buildings with simple wooden roofs. Some carried tools, others carried baskets. I wondered if they had anything to worry about. I wondered if any of them were stuck doing something they hated. They seem to have such simple lives.

A knock on the door shattered my thoughts. "My Lady," Arina said, muffled through the door.

"Come in" I replied

Upon seeing my grizzly appearance she stifled a gasp. "My Lady, did you even change your clothes before bed?" 

I looked down at my sweat stained, green dress that was still colored yellow at the bottom from the sand of the dunes.

"I was tired," I replied plainly.

"Well come over here-" Arina said, beckoning me over to a large, wooden wardrobe. "-We'll put you in a ballroom dress then we must do something about your hair."

"Ballroom dress? We are heading back to Fairenhold today, right?"

"King Akoshi has summoned you for breakfast," Arina replied, pulling out the most uncomfortable dress in the wardrobe. A green and silver, sleeveless Victorian dress that was way too hard to walk in.

"If King Akoshi had called me for breakfast it probably had something to do with the upcoming wedding" I thought to myself. I had met King Akoshi before and he was likable enough, and probably talked to me more than Stewcan ever did. From what I could tell he was a kind man who liked to crack jokes, altho if he wore any more gold a dragon would pluck him off the street and take him to their hoard.

As soon as I was done putting on the dress Arina sat me down in front of a large mirror to brush my hair. "I know you don't like this dress and I promise to get you into your traveling clothes as soon as breakfast is done but can you at least try to care about your appearance I work hard to get you this pretty," Arina said, finishing with a huge gasp for air.

"You don't think I'm pretty without you," I replied playfully.

Arina turned me to face her and said, " No one is pretty without me."

"Guess I'm lucky" I responded with a smile.

Once Arina finished my hair she moved onto washing my face.

"You're going to have major acne from this," She said, scrubbing my face.

"Oh no-" I feigned "-can you still make me pretty?"

"My Lady, I could make a pig pretty." She replied with gusto.

"So I'm a pig now," I said, mocking annoyance.

"If you keep this behavior up you just might be one day. Now hush I need to do your makeup." 

Arina always made mornings enjoyable, but that just made the pain of losing her hurt more. I wished there was some way for her to come with me, but she had family and a home in Fairenhold. I couldn't force her to leave it all behind just to make me happy. 

Once my makeup was finished Arina rushed me out of the room with Bregan on her heels through hallways and to the dinning hall. The dining hall was a large rectangular room with many tall candelabras a-lit with mage lights around the edge of the room. There were large double doors in the center of every wall flanked by two golden banners emblazoned with the silver Akatoma emblem. The emblem was a camel pulling a wagon full of assorted goods. I found it strange that they chose a camel for the flag seeing as how they had never used camels to transport goods across the desert. Instead they had large insectoid creatures called antlions. I had had to ride on them before and they were horrifying, large mandibles that could crush stone, a square shaped head that hung right above the ground, and a long neck that went up to a sandy, curved, leaf shaped shell. I much preferred them after they had gone through their cocoon, and emerged into a giant dragonfly-like creature. 

Kng Akoshi was already seated at the head of the table. To his right was Queen Syllia an Akatary women who I think used to belong to one of the noble families. Seated next to the Queen was a girl around my age who sat slouched over playing with her long, black hair. As expected Stewcan was nowhere in sight.

"Good morning your grace" I said politely, with a curtsy to King Akoshi 

"Good morning," King Akoshi responded with a yawn.

As usual he was adorned with way too much golden jewelry. Each finger had a ring and some had two. Six bracelets went up either arm, and seven different amulets hung around his neck. One of his ears had four small rings around it, and the other had five. This man was wearing enough gold to buy a castle. Despite his elaborate finery I had never seen him be anything but kind to people. Most nobles who adorned themselves with that much finery thought that they were better than everyone else, and would stop at nothing to prove it.

"Will Stewcan be joining us," I said trying not to spit vile as I said his name.

"No," King Akoshi replied sleepily "Something about helping the city's finances. I'm glad he's finally taking an interest in running the kingdom."

I mentally added a point to the ignoring me category as I sat down across from the girl my age.

"Oh-" the King continued "-I wanted to personally congratulate you on the upcoming wedding."

"Thank you," I said through a mouth of lead. 

"What will be for breakfast this morning?" I continued, desperate to change the subject.

"It's antlion eggs, biscuits, and quake-snake bacon"

"Sounds great," I said, not thrilled at the idea of eating bug eggs.

"Why do you have a camel on your flag?" I asked, still trying to talk about anything but the wedding.

"Oh!" the King said, shifting to sitting upright. "We are traders as you know, and having a flag with an antlion on it made us seem like raiders. So, we instead put a camel on there to seem more friendly. You know this really goes back to the founding of our kingdom in the late 9th century when King …"

I stopped listening at this point, I was not in the mood for a history lesson. Also, I didn't know King Akoshi was this passionate about history. Still it was better than talking about the wedding. I looked over at the girl sitting across from me, who now had her leg up against the table with her heel on the chair, and she was leaning on her leg looking quite bored. I knew this was Princess Valaspier, and she was a common face I'd see around the palace, though I had only spoken to her a handful of times. All of which were awkward as she had always seemed desperate to get out of talking to me. She was the polar opposite of me, and I don't think she had even had to sit through an etiquette lesson. I wished I could put my leg up like she had, but Bregan would have a meltdown at that. Just then Valaspier caught my stare, blushed and slowly put her legs down. I didn't have time to wonder what that was about because several servants came bustling into the dinning hall with breakfast. 

"Oh story times over huh," King Akoshi said, seeming a little disappointed. "Well, to a happy marriage then." He continued taking a swig from his goblet, which of course was golden and bedazzled.

At least one of us was optimistic about the marriage.