Chapter Text
Annabeth was woken by a firm knock on the wooden door that led to her chamber. She sat up in her bed and yawned. She shook her head a couple of times, trying to get rid of the sleepiness, and said with clear voice, "Come in." She had learned years ago that you had to sound professional at all times, no matter if it was awfully early in the morning or way too late in the evening. Right now it was definitely the earlier, Annabeth had not gotten many hours sleep. Maybe she shouldn’t have stayed up late finishing that book after all.
The door creaked open, and Queen Athena came in, already in a simple but beautiful day dress. She walked over to Annabeth and smiled so sweetly Annabeth knew she was about to ask for something. Annabeth didn't particularly like these 'favors' as Athena liked to call them, they usually involved acting like a princess, and Annabeth had never felt like one.
"Get dressed and come down to the dining room, will you?" Annabeth's mother asked and turned around to walk out. Before she reached the door she peeked over her shoulder too make sure Annabeth was getting out of bed, and said, "We have some things to discuss", in a tone that implied everything were already decided, but Annabeth needed to officially agree.
This was the point were Annabeth was supposed to (at least according to her mother) have maids so she didn't have to get dressed by herself, but she had always preferred doing thing on her own, so she picked out a dress and slid it over her head. She let her blonde curls be, she had finally started to like her hair now that it reached all way down to her waist. (And she had never been good at braiding anyways.)
***
Her mother was already waiting when Annabeth got to the dining room. She gestured for Annabeth to sit down in front of her, so she did. Athena began talking right away.
"Athens will need a new ruler some day. That will be you. And after that we will need another one. That means you'll have to marry, and it should be soon. I want our people to know your husband before he becomes king. We will make the marrige a public feast, to celebrate that you are an adult know. Your birthday will be your wedding day. All this is already decided, however, you will get to choose who you marry."
That was better than Annabeth could have hoped for, she supposed.
Then she realized it was less than a month until her seventeenth birthday, and she felt her shoulders slump. She didn't have anyone at all whom she could think to spend the rest of her life with. She didn't know many boys, she preferred to spend her free time reading. And other children had always acted strange around her since she was the princess, so she’d never really had friends.
Except for two years ago.
A boy named Luke Castellan used came by the library to see her. At first they liked to call it coincides when they ran in to each other, but after a while they learned exactly when the other was in the library every day and they began meeting. Often. Annabeth would've liked to marry Luke, even though the never did anything else but talk and discuss fighting strategics (just because Annabeth was a royalty and would never be going to war didn't mean she wasn't smart enough to plan one), but Luke was sent to war 18 months ago and she hadn't seen him since. She’d always suspected he saw her as a sister, so maybe that was for the best.
"Because you don't know anyone who would make a good prince, I have set up some dinners for you the upcoming days. Your first date is tonight," Athena continued, and before Annabeth had time to open her mouth to answer, she was out of the room.
Pleasant mother-daughter talk.
***
That evening maids came to Annabeth's chamber despite her protests. Apparently, the Queen had ordered that Annabeth should look as pretty as possible the upcoming days, and was not capable of making herself pretty enough, which meant she would not have any privacy at all. Lovely.
When she walked to the garden where she would be eating with the boy her mother had picked out, she tried think of as many excuses for leaving early as she could. Then she dismissed those thoughts, she was after all going to have to marry someone, so she might as well give everyone a proper chance. Not that she wanted to, she liked her life as it was, but in the end she would do anything that made her mother happy.
On second thought, maybe she wouldn't. The dinner was an absolute and total disaster. The boy she met with was a lord’s son, named Octavian Adela, and it took about 30 seconds for Annabeth to figure out that he was there for the mere possibility of getting to rule the Athens kingdom. Not that Annabeth thought anyone was going to show up with better intentions, but they could at least be smart enough to not be obvious about it. Besides, there was no way Annabeth would let go of control when she became queen, her mother had fought for this kingdom, and it was going to stay in the hands of the family.
She and Octavian exchanged some polite phrases and had some unpleasant small talk, but except for that they were mostly quiet for the rest of the evening. After dessert Annabeth came up with an excuse to leave, and hurried back to her room. She changed into her night gowns and went to bed. Before she fell asleep, she sighed. It was going to be a long couple of days.