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Demitri’s pov
People have always assumed the worst of royals. That we’re ungrateful, that we lack any morals or self discipline, that we have no brains, and that we would be nothing without power, which we would pass down from ungrateful generation to ungrateful generation. And unfortunately, my history speaks in favor of their whispers, only broken by my grandmother.
The first mortal queen of Elfhame, the only warrior who was brave enough to fight for the throne, fight for herself, in a world that hated her. Her name today is still whispered in hushed voices outside the castle and even her name carried power and respect, because she was the only queen who I believe, actually deserved to sit on the throne.
All the others before her were as unremarkable as their names. They didn’t carry any weight, they didn’t deserve it like she and my grandfather did. She was just, had both brawn and brain, and was sly enough to trick the Faeries in our land who had lived for hundreds of years.
She wasn’t just a queen, she was a mother to my mother, a grandmother to me and my cousins, a symbol to our nation and land, and she was my idol in every way imaginable.
I aspired to be her, to hold the same respect and intelligence she did, the danger that danced in her eyes and how she stood at the very top of the pyramid and refused to fall even when everyone below her tried to pull her down.
When I tell people this, of course they have to think I’m trying to steal the throne, but in reality I want nothing to do with that golden chair. I have no reason to sit on it, or even think about it, I am not and will never be the next in line, and I have never been happier about it. I do not want to be queen, I refuse to be the kingdom's weapon.
Instead the throne will go to my eldest cousin, Everett, who’s the son of my oldest uncle. He is fit for the throne in ways none of my cousins will ever be, and everyone knew it, even us cousins did, so what was the point in fighting about it?,
Many people ask how many cousins I have, since all don’t want to appear in the public eye, so let me break it down,
My grandmother and grandfather, King Carden and Queen Jude had four children, the eldest two were twins, Caspian and Orion, the third was my mother Navire, and lastly was my mothers younger sister Merris.
Caspian was the older one of the twins, and current king, his son was Everett who was twenty two, and he also had a daughter, my elder cousin Meeka who was twenty . Kiyro had two twin girls, both younger than me by four years. My mother had me and me alone, and I’m eighteen this year, and finally my youngest aunt, Merris had three children, they had a one year age gap between them, the eldest was Iraia, who was two years younger than me, and then there was Angelo and Ashvin who were twins.
This was important for people to know mainly because of fear, if they speak or disrespect us there will be punishments.
So to me the crown nor the title mattered, when it came in necessary it was a usable thing, but I generally didn’t need it, and had always loved my free will. So with nothing to do today, and nowhere to be, I was determined to find out something new about my grandmother.
Every person who’s ever encountered the Queen would have a story to tell, and I wanted to hear them all, old Faeries and sometimes even places held memories I was was determined to find out about, and today's mission was to search Madoc’s stronghold, or better yet known as my grandmother's childhood home.
From what I had researched on the topic, the manor hadn’t been used since the battle in which King Carden, my grandfather, turned into a snake. And today the place has been shut down without any people there to clean it. It sounded like the ideal place to find something good.
I grabbed my bag and fixed up my black coloured locks, I had always been envious of Meeka, who had inherited our grandmother's hair, the only thing I had got was the skin tone, and nothing else.
My mother used to reassure me saying I had her face shape and structure, but I was slightly taller than my grandmother was, and a lot more lean. So in reality I looked very vaguely like my grandmother with wavy black locks that fell in loose waves behind my back, tanned skin, and unfortunately, my fathers gray eyes.
I looked duller, more unimportant than I wanted to be.
“I’m heading out” I said to the maid in my room, who just nodded in reply and continued cleaning. It wasn’t a very enthusiastic reply, but it wasn’t like they could give me a smile and tell me to have an amazing stroll in the woods either, so I simply grabbed my satchel and left.
On the way out I bumped into Angelo and Ashvin, who like usual looked like they were in search of trouble and mischief, when they saw my bag I saw their eyes light up,
“And where are you going” Angelo asked,
“Somewhere I do not need to see either of you” I said and strolled past them, over my dead and burnt corpse would they set foot into that manor with me, it was too important for them to even lay eyes on.
I continued my march straight out of the palace and into the market, where I slipped a cloak around my shoulders, not stopping my pace while I did so.
It took me a while, but eventually I did reach the manor, or what looked to be the pathway leading to the manor. I heard rustling in the bushes, probably an animal, and that’s when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
My dagger is out instantly, always up my sleeve when I’m out, and I come face to face to the boy I’m promised to. His name is Kairos.
He stands there grinning at me, book underneath his arm, and an annoying smile on his face. I've known him since childhood since our mothers were friends, and we were eventually promised to each other before either of us had a say in anything.
A lot of girls had crushes on him, and while he did look annoyingly good with light brown hair and fair skin, green eyes hidden behind gold framed glasses, and was taller than me by mere inches, I did not like him. It is what I have been telling myself since we were promised to each other, and it is what I will continue to tell myself when we get married.
The main difference between us was that he believed in love, and I didn’t. It was something from fairytales my mother told me when I was a child, love such as theirs didn’t exist, well not for me at least, even though I saw my mother and all her siblings have wonderful lives with their respective partners, and my grandparents too had a love filled marriage, but even they had to fight for every single moment they were together, meaning it could go away at any time.
I refused to let myself day dream and think a boy would come and steal my heart, and Kairos was the exact opposite, he read in piles, and believed true love did exist, that people in this world did fight for it. I’d told him that day itself that he was delusional.
“Funny seeing you here” was all he had to say, and I huffed taking multiple steps back as I slipped my dagger up my sleeve once more,
“It is funny seeing you hear, and I think I’ve seen enough of you for the whole week. I’ll be on my way” I said, and strolled past him, only to hear him shout,
“You’re going the wrong way, you’re looking for Madoc’s stronghold aren’t you?” it wasn’t a question, and both of us knew it, but I refused to be the one to cave, what would my grandmother think of me if I did.
“And how would you know that?” he simply tilted his head, and rolled his eyes behind that stupid gold frame,
“Because I know you. I could lead you there if you want” he offered, and while I didn’t say anything, he took my silence as a yes, and led me in the opposite directions of the woods, and deeply humiliated I followed him.
Neither of us talked, and after five minutes or so I realised we were going in the direction I had been headed before, he just took me on a longer route.
When we reached the gate I spun towards him, really hoping I looked as angry as I felt,
“You took me on a whole new detour on the way!” He just gave me that lazy grin, putting his hands up like in all those mortal books I’ve read where the police say ‘hands up’.
“Is it such a bad thing that I want to spend some time with you?” I nod my head,
“Well I have business to attend to, so I do not need you anymore” he stayed where he was, so I ignored him and swung the gate open, and to my utter irritation, he followed me,
“Can’t you wait at the gate?” I asked,
“There might be something dangerous here, I’d rather it be me dying than you” he told me, and he sounded more genuine than I did when I was lying.
“Fine, but you walk behind me” I snapped and he fell into line, strolling behind me, book swinging in his hand.
I checked every single room, from top to bottom and he just followed me around, though I paid him no mind. When we got to the upstairs I went to the first room. It was obviously the biggest and it was easy to assume this was Madoc’s room. First because of the size, and secondly because of the amount of weapons on the right side wall.
“I read that he used to be the general, before the current general obviously, so it makes sense that he had multiple weapons in his room” Kairos spoke up, I shot him a look but didn’t say anything, mostly because he was always spot on with observations like this.
“Do you know which room my grandmother was in?” I asked and he said it was the room that was probably the worst preserved, seeing as she moved out first. So that was what we searched for, an hour later and we found it,
I opened the door slowly, and the room smelled of dust, and something rustic. In the corner was a wooden cabinet and a mirror, the canopy bed had green drapes, and the bed and mirror frame were both a strange mix of gold and brown.
At the far side of the room was a big window, and a door next to it that obviously lead to the bathroom.
“Could you search that side of the room please” I ask Kairos and he gets to work immediately, I take the other side of the room opposite the drawers and mirror, searching the desk and bedside table.
“You know this mirror make me look good” he says, breaking our silence, I look over to the mirror in question,
“Of course you do, brown and gold both compliment your green, so it makes your eyes look nice, plus your eyes have these weird flecks on gold in them” I tell him, and when I don’t get a reply, I look over to see him grinning at me, a faint pink sprinkled along his cheeks, the dust must be getting to him,
“What?”
“Nothing, I-just, nevermind” he said, and we continued our work, as the sun started setting in the window, I finished my side of the room, and it seemed he nearly did too,
“Demitri!, I think I found something!” was all he needed to say before I crossed the room in seconds. We both stared into the drawer, and in it were a few useless items, and then there was this dress.
I pulled it out and it fell to exactly where my feet stopped, maybe mom was right when she said we shared the same body and face structure. The dress was beautiful, a dark blue staring at the bottom and fading to nearly a white at the top, branches spreading through the fabric, it was winter in a dress so beautiful it looked like it was a picture or painting.
“She must’ve wore this..” I said, I’d found many of my grandmothers things, some of her rowen berry necklaces, one of her daggers, which was sitting up my sleeve this very moment, a necklace, but never had I ever found something so valuable, something so tangible it felt like a memory encapsulated in time.
“You’ll look beautiful in this” Kairos said next to me, we were whispering for some reason, I got up and placed my new treasure in my satchel, and as we got up to leave I promised myself I’d come back and look at this place again, before we left the room though I wanted to do one thing,
“Thank you for finding it” I said, giving Kairos a hug, as much as I dislike him, he was very sweet and caring, two characteristics you would rarely find in Elfhame,
“Any time Demitri” he replied, arms finally hugging me back, when I felt my face heat up slightly, I quickly let go,
“You know, you don’t make a too bad fiance” I told him, and he replied with a grin,
“Neither do you princess” I rolled my eyes and told him off for calling me a princess, to which he argued he was just using my formal title, and the conversation carried on till we got back to the castle,
“I’ll see you tomorrow” he said, and before he could run away, I quickly asked,
“And why would I be seeing you tomorrow?” he turned back to me, glasses glinting slightly in the nearly set sun,
“Trust me, when you return to that mansion you’re going to need an extra hand” and then he disappeared as easily as he appeared in the forest, as silent and unnoticeable as he was back then, book still in hand.
I snuck back into the palace only to run straight into Iraia and Everett, who both gave me raised eyebrows and questioning looks, seeing my bag full and my chosen company.
“I didn’t know you two actually like each other” Everett said,
“Think of it more as friends” I offered and ignored whatever he was going to say, running into the castle, and in the process nearly knocking down my uncle Orion, giving vague apologies as I sprinted down the hallway without stopping.
Once I reached the safety of my room, I took out the dress once more, and laid it on my bed, locking the door and stripping to my undergarments, and very slowly and carefully putting the dress on myself. I didn’t care if it was dusty, and worn out.
I managed to zip it up all the way, and it was a perfect fit, the chest was slightly bigger than what I had to offer, so I clipped it at the back and turned towards the mirror. I stared at myself in the reflection, I have worn plenty of gowns and jewels in my life, but none would ever compare to how I felt in this dress.
And as I stared into the mirror, at the girl who was obsessed with her history and her past, determined to outlive the stereotypes of royalty just like her grandmother, I thought back to what Kairos said, and to my annoyance he was right again,
The dress did look good on me.