Ruthless

↠ Prologue II ↞

❝I will do what queens do, I will rule.❞

Daenerys Targaryen

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THE two days passed in a haze for Akira - a haze filled with sleepless nights, an uncertain dread which set her nerves on fire and a longing to talk to baba just one more time and ask him how was she supposed to take over after him, over after one of the most capable rulers of this generation.

She had caught herself doubting her abilities more times than she should have in these past two days. Even though a part of her knew she was raised to look after a kingdom without a drop of fear running through her veins and without letting her crown fall to the floor, the other part of her couldn't stand to bear the fact that the fate of a whole kingdom was atop her shoulders.

'Calm down Akira, you've got this.' She managed to sneak in a deep breath, 'you've got this.'

Again and again, she told herself to calm down, told herself that it will be alright but alas, things are much easier said than done.

Negative thoughts preyed the soon-to-be Maharani's mind like vultures circling on their prey, waiting for it to give up so that they can devour it. But she won't give up, she couldn't.

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Finally, came the day the rajkumari had grown to dread, the day which would change her destiny forever and the thought alone of it scared her beyond recognition.

Two of the handmaidens fussed over her once straight ebony hair - almost burning them in an attempt to curl them to perfection while another one of them was busy applying kohl to her doe shaped eyes causing them to slightly burn. The handmaidens kept on giving Akira compliments how she looked beautiful, that how men would fall to their knees when they see her, absolutely captured by her beauty and she just responded with cold, forced, fake smiles. Finally, the handmaidens were done and Akira dismissed them.

After they left, Akira sat as still as a statue in front of the beautifully crafted mirror, ignoring the priceless gold that was laced on its borders and just stared mindlessly at the reflection which stared back with the same intensity in its stone-cold gaze.

Her reflection looked perfect - with her ebony brown curled hair draping over her shoulder and extending till her waist, her mahogany rich doe eyes were lined with smoldering black kohl and pinkish hue tinted her lips. A stunning pale pink lehenga adorned her body and a matching gold jewellery set was draped over her skin like the first ray of the sun reaching the earth on a blissful day.

It looked almost flawless but Akira knew it was just an illusion because she was flawed - so very flawed but baba would have disagreed. He always told Akira that nobody was more perfect and flawless than his 'little princess'.

Before she could stop, a tear slipped past the threshold of her eyes, spilling onto the expanse of her cheek at the thought of her baba but she wiped before it went any further, making sure no one saw it.

Baba was gone and there was no changing that but one thing she could change was the fate of her kingdom. She could either sit down and cry about the past which she had no control over or she could take hold of the future in her hands and administer her kingdom as an able and just ruler like her baba.

The rajkumari decided that's what she was going to do, she was going to do what Queens did - she was going to rule.

"Rajkumari." Came the voice of a handmaiden as she bowed down, waking Akira from her trance and jolting her back into the harsh reality.