Chapter Text
Kit Tanthalos was not okay.
It was one thing to impose on her a billion royal duties that she couldn’t care less about. Sure, she will sit through a three-hour banquet with some ambassador from Cashmere. Yes, she can show the best of Tir Asleen to some old queen from a nearby kingdom. She can even go to war, what the hell. But this? This she absolutely will not do.
“No”, said Kit, “no fucking way.”
“Language”, warned Sorsha.
They were all in the throne room, which was a pretty intimidating place for a family meeting. But Queen Sorsha was just like this. She made her children bow to her ever since they were two, for crying out loud.
Airk didn’t seem to mind the formal set-up of the conversation. He held his stance, as he usually did when he wanted something from Sorsha. Kit, on the other hand, was slouching next to her brother, her shoulders low and eyes wild. She hated that subject — now more than ever.
“It’s a pretty reasonable request, sister”, said Airk. “If you wait any longer to get married, you might end up a spinster.”
“I’m 21!”
“Exactly.”
“Surprisingly, your brother has a point”, said Sorsha, her voice echoing though the throne room like a thunder. “You must get married as soon as possible to secure your position. A queen that rules alone—"
“Is vulnerable”, said Kit. She had heard her mother’s words so many times that she knew that line by heart. “I know, I know.”
“I made a list of appropriate suitors for your consideration.”
“You should have a contest”, said Airk, finding this whole situation amusing. “Poetry reading? Dance moves?”
“What?” Kit couldn’t believe her future was getting decided by some list her mother made and her brother’s idiotic suggestions. “When did I agree to this? I didn’t say I was going to get married.”
“Kit, please.” Airk was starting to get anxious. “I really, really need you to do this. For me?”
He made those cute pleading eyes that sometimes worked when they were kids, but now it wasn’t gonna happen. There was too much on stake for Kit — and absolutely nothing for Airk. As usual.
“Let me see the list”, said Kit, defeated. And regretted immediately.
Sorsha signaled to one of the guards. His face was entirely covered by an iron mask. He took a piece of parchment from his belt and gave it to Kit. She wondered if that guy wrote the list himself. Her mom was so weird.
As soon as her eyes landed on the names, Kit snickered. She raised her head and glared at her mother. Was this some kind of joke?
“These are all male names.”
“Yes”, said Sorsha, as if it was perfectly normal to present a list of male suitors to her lesbian daughter.
“Mother…” Kit took a deep breath. Not this conversation again. “We talked about this.”
“You talked, I listened. And disagreed.”
Airk approached Kit and read the list over her shoulder. Eve though he was resolute to marry off his sister, she knew he would never force her into a relationship with a man.
“There’s a girl here”, he pointed out. Kit followed his finger and landed on a name. “Mildred Fremont”.
“Mildred the Third”, explained Sorsha, “is a guy. His great-grandfather named his son Mildred as a dare and it stuck with the family. It’s a long story.”
“Great, seems like I’m not marrying Mildred any time soon”, said Kit, throwing the list away. The guard hurried to rescue the piece of paper and put it back into his belt.
“You know I have nothing against you liking women, Kit”, said Sorsha, “but you need to produce heirs. You are the eldest of my children, it’s your responsibility.”
“Have you ever heard of adoption?” Kit talked about this a million times, but her mother was so stubborn. It was always about the blood line, as if anyone cared about this anymore. Every other day you hear a story about a kingdom rescued by a bastard who was better at leading an army than the legitimate king. Or it could’ve been a book she read. Anyway.
“If there was a girl on this list, would you consider her?” Airk had his hopes up. Sorsha wanted to protest, but he looked at her, pleading. Leave this to me.
“I…” Kit thought about it. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in love — she did. She honestly thought about falling in love a million times. It just never happened. Nonetheless, love and marriage were two completely different things. She saw how her father left her mother, left his kids, his entire family behind. Many other families in the kingdom had a similar story. She was scared of becoming one of those wives with a bunch of (adopted) kids and no one by her side to help raising them.
Or even worse: she was afraid of becoming her father and leaving everyone behind. “I don’t know.”
“Let's make a compromise here”, said Airk, looking between his mother and sister. “Mother wants you to get married—"
“You want me to get married.”
“Yeah, that too. But only because I really want to marry Elora and mother will only allow it if you go first. You know it’s coming, Kit, sooner or later. Don’t you want it to be sooner, when you get to have a say?”
Kit stared at her mother. Sorsha looked back, her head high, unwilling to change her mind. Airk walked between them as if he was in the courtroom trying to win a case. Then, he turned to Kit.
“If mother allows you to marry a woman, would you at least consider a suitor?”
Kit was angry, but she was also so very tired of this discussion. If she said no, it would go on forever, and eventually she would be faced with two options: marry the damn suitor her mother picked or leave the kingdom forever. The thing is, she actually wanted to be queen. She had nice ideas for Tir Asleen — definitely more including policies than the ones of her mother — and she wanted to make a change eventually. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity because of something as shallow as marriage. And Airk would make a terrible king, they can all agree on that.
“Yes”, she said, finally. Both Airk and Sorsha stared at her in shock. It was the first time Kit agreed to anything about marriage. “I would consider. I’m not saying I will marry her, whomever she is.”
“Perfect!” Airk then turned to Sorsha, smiling broadly. “Do we have a deal, mother?”
Sorsha looked like she had just smelled a fart. But she was cornered. Finally, the queen agreed.
“I would be able to tolerate an infertile marriage and even adopted kids. It’s better than nothing.”
Kit rolled her eyes. Anyway, it was too early to be having this conversation — she wasn’t planning on being a mother for the next ten years or so.
“This matter is settled, then.” Airk seemed on the verge of breaking out a song any minute now. He was so freaking happy. Damn, he must love Elora so much. Kit wondered what would be like to feel this way. “We just have to find you a nice female suitor”, he concluded, looking back at Kit.
“Good luck on that”, she said. And then, before turning her back to him, “I won’t make it easy for her.”
******
Elora laid on Airk’s bed as her lover worked furiously on his desk. He’d been looking through volumes and volumes of royal family books trying to find possible female suitors for her sister. It seems like every girl around Kit’s age was already married, deceased or too much of a close cousin to be considered.
“Does she really have to be noble?”, asked Elora after yawning for the third time. She went to Airk’s room to have a good time and now she was missing precious sleeping hours. It wouldn’t be long before she had to get up to work in the kitchens.
“I thought it would be easier for mother to accept”, said Airk, “but it’s an impossible task. Heavens, these people marry off their daughters really fast.”
“It's common for women in other kingdoms to marry when they first bleed. If you think about it, Tir Asleen is very progressive.”
“And it’s about to become even more”, said Airk. “We're going to have two queens. Three, if my mother lives through this marriage.”
Elora laughed and rolled on the bed, sitting near the edge to get closer to Airk. “I think it’s nice that you’re being so picky about Kit’s future wife. It’s really cute.”
“I feel kinda bad for her”, he replied while sitting close to his girlfriend. “I’m the reason she has to get married.”
“That's not true, Airk”. She combed his long hair with her fingers. “Sorsha was going to force her into marriage. As you said, you’re giving her a chance to choose.”
“I just wanted her to fall in love. The same way we did.”
They shared a brief and sweet kiss. Then, something lit up inside Elora’s head. “The same way we did… That’s it! Kit’s so much like you, even if she doesn’t let it show. She would probably be attracted by the same type of women you like.”
Airk got up the bed and stared at Elora in disbelief. “Are you suggesting that you wanna court my sister!?”
“No! Of course not. Even though she is kinda hot…” She laughed and brought Airk back to the bed by her side. “You two are royalty, but you don’t act like it. You like simplicity, authenticity… Regular people. Workers like me.”
Airk thought about it. This could work. He couldn’t imagine Kit marrying some noble woman wearing a dress made of gold, but he could see his sister rolling around with a regular girl on the training grounds. Actually… He had seen this before.
He jolted out of bed, startling Elora. “That’s it!”
Airk crossed the room, grabbed his coat and opened the door. Elora didn’t follow.
“Where the hell are you going? It’s the middle of the night!”
“I know where to find Kit’s suitor.”
“Can't you wait until tomorrow?”
“Can our love?”
Elora sighed. He was so dramatic.
“Fine”, she said. “But I’m staying in.”
Airk blew a kiss to his lover and left the room into the darkness of the castle hallways.
*****
“Don’t move.”
Jade opened her eyes at once. Before she could even register who was on top of her, she turned the body around and slammed the person against her bed, switching their positions with ease. She grabbed the knife that always stood on her nightstand and put it against the attacker’s throat. God help her if today was the day of her first kill.
“It's me, Airk”, said the muffled voice. Jade recognized the prince behind her blade and relaxed a little. Just a little. She was not angry anymore, but really, really annoyed.
“What are you doing here, your highness?”, she asked with fake politeness. “Attacking me in my sleep like a thieve or worse?”
“I wasn’t attacking you”, he said, “I was just trying to talk to you.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“I swear I can explain. It’s an urgent matter.”
Jade sighed and let him go. Airk massaged his throat, happy to not find a cut there. He then sat on the edge of the bed, as far as possible from Jade, who was still glaring.
“I’m sorry if I scared you”, he said.
“If?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be a fearless knight or something?”
“I am fearless, that’s why I defended myself. And I’m almost a knight.”
The last sentence picked Airk’s attention. “Almost?”
Jade wasn’t really in the mood for this conversation, specially in the middle of the night with some prince she barely knew. But she had no choice, he was her boss or something like that.
“I’m training to become one. But… Some things are getting in the way.”
“Such as…”
“Is this a bonding moment, or…?”
“Don't you think it’s strange that we live in the same place since we were little and we barely know each other?”
Jade looked at Airk with disbelief. He was smiling like if this was a slumber party. That family was so weird. Luckily they are good looking, otherwise nobody would take them seriously.
“I have to join the Shining Legion in Galladoorn to complete my training. Only then I’ll be a real knight.”
“Oh.” Airk seem disappointed. Why, Jade didn’t have the slightest idea. “So you’re leaving soon?”
She wishes.
“No”, she said. “I don’t have money for enrolling. And it’s a pretty expensive trip, let alone the housing costs. So I might stay a little longer, unless some rich guy starts feeling generous and helps me out.”
She eyed Airk significantly. It was a joke, but he couldn’t be more thrilled.
“Actually, I might be just that guy.”
Jade wasn’t expecting that. Even Sorsha didn’t want to pay for her training because it was so expensive. “Really?”
“Yes, but you have to do something for me in return.”
“Gross.” Jade slid away from him on the bed.
“No, nothing like that! I want you to woo my sister.”
This conversation was going to places Jade never imagined. What the hell was going on? First the fucking prince wakes her up in the middle of the night, then he asks about her life for the first time in 20 years, and now he wants her to woo his sister? Her, Jade Claymore, a nobody?
“You want to pay me to date Kit?”
“Ha! As if it’s that easy”, he said. “You’ll have to fight a real battle before getting her to date you.”
“Well, I could. If I wanted to.” Jade wasn’t close to Kit. They trained together sometimes, mostly when they were younger, before responsibilities washed over them as adulthood came. But she had eyes. Kit was beautiful and attractive. And Jade had her way with ladies. Or she thought so.
“Nice, I like your confidence”, said Airk. “Chicks dig that.”
“You haven’t said why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you want some regular girl who’s not even a knight to woo your princess sister.”
“Oh, right. Well, she will consider to marry only if it’s a woman. And I don’t think Kit’s into posh women from royal families. If she’s anything like me, she likes to get her hands dirty, if you know what I mean.”
“I don’t and I don’t want to.”
Airk ignored her and continued:
“Think about it: you get to have some fun, take her on dates, maybe attend balls and important banquets as her consort. You could meet some hot shot knights, even from that Shining place you were talking about.”
“Shining Legion.”
“Whatever. Anything you want. If you manage for her to say yes to a marriage proposal, mother will be so thrilled that she will allow me to marry as well. We could even have a double marriage on the same day!”
Jade got up so fast that her vision blurred. She raised her hands to make Airk shut up.
“Wow, wow, wait. Marriage? I’m not marrying anyone. I barely know her.”
“But you will. Besides, you don’t have to actually tie the knot. I can marry Elora first, like an opening number to the main event, which would be you and Kit. Then you can say no.”
“Wouldn’t that hurt your sister’s feelings?”
“Only if she actually falls for you. But that’s unlikely. If Kit ever agrees to marry, it’s for duty, not love. So chill.”
That was a lot to take in. Jade started pacing around her room. She glanced at the window and noticed that the sun was starting to rise. How long had this guy been talking?
“If I agree to this”, she said, “will you pay for my enrollment at the Shining Legion?”
Airk got up and stood next to her. He was dead serious.
“I'll pay for everything. Starting with the enrollment. After each date, each time you attend an event together, I’ll give you some money. Then, the largest sum on the wedding day. My mother is going to give me a preposterously expensive gift and I’ll give it to you. It will be more than enough to cover your travel expenses.”
Jade stared out the window. She could see the outlines of the training field shining up. She saw herself as a little kid, sparring with the princess, letting her win every battle. Then, she had another vision: herself a few years older, standing tall in a knight’s armor. The real deal. It was a dream she desperately wanted to make real. And now she had a way.
Without thinking twice, Jade turned to the prince and gave her hand for him to shake.
“I already regret this”, she said, “but I’m in.”
Beaming, Airk shook Jade’s hand. The plan was on.