Facades [work in progress]

Prologue

The King and Queen sit alone at the long dining table, the King at the head and the Queen seated to the right of him, formalities aside due to the lack of other presences. The clinking of cutlery against plates fills the air, the silence comfortable.

The Queen sets down her knife and fork, only crumbs littering the gold plates and the many dishes placed in front them half empty. She sets her hands in her lap, and stares at them, examining the growing wrinkles that are appearing on the back. The arising problem grows in her mind. We need an heir.

She lifts her eyes, only to meet the soft brown gaze of the King's. Taking a breath, she begins to speak.

"Honey, we need an heir. I know it feels early to address these things, but you know the problem will arise eventually. If we continue to rule at such an old age, our people will begin to doubt us, and you know that neither of us wants that," she finishes with a final breath and watches the King slowly shut his eyes, sighing. He brings his hands up, resting his elbows on the table, linking his fingers and resting his chin upon them. As his eyes open, they rest upon the Queen's.

"I know. It's been nagging at me for a while now, but how do we do that? We don't have any heirs," he said. No matter how much the couple had tried, they weren't able to have any children, meaning no heirs.

The room fills with silence yet again, only tenser due to the thoughts of the current situation. Both the members of the family rack their brains for any ideas. Minutes pass, and the large chamber stays silent, neither mouth moving.

The rest of the breakfast stays this way, and the first real sound that the couple hears is the scraping of a chair against the tiled floor.

---

Only when the is over and both adults lay in their soft bed, do they resume the topic of the next heir.

Little to the King's knowledge, his wife had been thinking the whole day, the thought never really leaving her head, always resurfacing when she least expected it. Even though it caused her trouble, the fact that she wasn't able to think straight for the other tasks she had to attend to in the duration of the day, some good had come out of it.

"Honey I was thinking-" the Queen began.

"Not right now," the King cut her off, "I've had enough of everything today. We can speak about whatever you need tomorrow."

"no listen to me," the Queen responded, sitting up in their bed and leaning against the bed head, "if I don't tell you now then we might not be able to speak tomorrow," she lied. She knew that no matter when she spoke about this, she would never forget unless their problem was resolved.

The King sighed next to her and pushed himself up to sit next to the Queen, mirroring her position. He looked to her expectantly.

The Queen took a breath, readying herself for any reaction the King had. "A couple of generations ago, the children of the royal family were lost in that war," the queen said, reciting a portion of history that had been drilled into their heads, "they must have had children. Their line must have continued. What if, what if we found the youngest of their line and made them a ruler. The line would never have ended, and they would have been put into their rightful place on the throne."

Silence hung in the air for a minute, neither ruler saying a word. The Queen began to lose hope every second that passed, until the King finally spoke a word.

"I understand where you are coming from, and I think that putting a lost prince or princess on the throne is a decent idea, but how would you plan on finding these children?"

The Queen sighed and wondered how the King could be so clueless sometimes. She put it down to his tiredness. "Since at least a 2 centuries ago we have placed trackers in the newborns' arms, even those of the highest of statuses, so if we can go through the systems that hold the records, we can use the profiles of those late members of royalty and find if they had children. From there, we can find the newest generation of them and have one of them become the new heir to the throne."

The King opened his mouth to counter what she had said, but the queen never let him say anything. "if this fails, then it's easy enough to go the old-fashioned way and just go through the old record. You know we chose to keep those as backups if the system failed."

The King looked at her, and no words came out of his open mouth.

"It's decided then. Beginning tomorrow we start looking for the heirs. When we find them, I shall deem if they are suitable for leadership and bring them back to the palace. This responsibility falls on me and if there are too many, you can look at the young men and I shall take the ladies," the Queen ended the conversation and lay down on her back, closing her eyes to sleep. The king continued to look at her for a moment before realising that there would be no point in arguing. He of all people should know how stubborn his queen was.

---

A few months later, three girls had arrived at the palace, each coming at a different time. Unexpected. The King knew the plan, and he had followed through, except it was with males. Little did these young teenagers know the hardships they would be put through, and the challenges they would have to face, as they came upon their destiny.