The Queen of Smoke and Storm

1.

I am not pretty.

Princess Ajaya's breath caught as she stared in the mirror. It wasn't so much her reflection as the one behind it, small hands pulling her hair back into an intricate knot at the back of her head. 

"A summons to the room," Sara Gillespie mused from behind her, finishing off the Princess' hairdo. "And when you're supposed to be going to bed too. Now what did you do this time?" Sara fixed Ajaya, or 'Jay', with a disapproving look that quickly broke into a smile.

"Nothing! Not recently." Jay flashed a sheepish grin at her girlfriend and lady-in-waiting. Sara sighed affectionately and patted Jay on the head, despite being several inches shorter than her. "Maybe it's about my coronation, because I'm going to be Queen of Haythe soon–"

"You're going to be Queen of Haythe when your father dies," Sara interrupted. "And we should pray that doesn't happen soon."

Jay glanced at her collection of bottles lining the back of the room. A tsunami, a tornado, an assortment of things. "Yes, let's pray."

Sara followed the Princess' gaze and laughed. "We're not going storm-catching tonight. Not when you evidently got a summons to the throne room for something important," she sang.

The Storm-Bottler was what Jay was known as. She could capture natural disasters with a simple touch or by meditating. It was fun occasionally but was really more of a burden. Especially with how fragile jars were...  

"Maybe it's about the war," Sara suggested, and Jay started in surprise. "You know... there's got to have been some progress made. Can't just fight forever, right?"

Jay scowled. "As if. The Haythe-Lumen war's been going on for years. If it's ending now I'll be shocked." 

Lumen, a bordering kingdom, had declared war on Haythe five years ago. The royal family of Haythe, the Arjuna-Korrapatis, weren't interested in a stalemate. Therefore, the war hadn't ended yet.

Sara spun Jay around and pushed her towards the door. "You go have fun, then," she smiled, and Jay's heart nearly gave out. "I'll wait up for you. If anyone catches me, I'll just say I'm... you know... cleaning." 

"Are you not coming?" Jay asked disappointedly. "You accompany me, right?"

"Oh, that's true." Sara squeezed Jay's hand and then opened the door, starting off down the hallway, half-dragging the reluctant princess behind her. 

They soon reached the tall brown doors of the throne room and the two stopped immediately. Neither one wanted to go in, but neither wanted to back down. It wasn't like them to step down from something newly discovered, but the throne room was just so big and... not fun. 

So she opened the door. Jay couldn't show what people deemed as "weakness", right? Sara followed behind her to see her parents on the throne. Jay immediately shivered from the tension in the room and the graveness in her parents' cold faces. 

"Ajaya," her father said finally, cutting through the silence.

"Sir," Jay replied, biting back the urge to correct her name to 'Jay'. 

"Ajaya, you know the war between our kingdom and Lumen," her mother said kindly. To Jay, kind words were scarier than harsh ones– kind ones meant something terrible was to happen. She glanced over to see a triumphant Sara, evidently feeling righteous for her correct prediction.

"I do."

"Well–" Her father cleared his throat. "Well, you see, we've made some progress. It seems that Haythe and Lumen have been receiving mysterious threats. With a bit of diplomacy, we decided that the best thing to do would be to unite the kingdoms."

"That- well, that's great!" she stammered out. "How... exactly do we plan to do that?"

"The Prince of Lumen is going to be King soon– he's nineteen, almost twenty, just like you, so we thought... your younger brother will take over Haythe and you'll marry the Prince in an arranged marriage," her mother said quickly. 

"An– excuse me, a what?" Jay said politely. An arranged marriage? That... no.

"An arranged marriage!" the Queen repeated. "They're arriving tomorrow and you'll meet them in two days' time." 

"But– but–"

"Now Jay," her father said sternly. "I know you're close with Lyson, and I know it might be hard to–" 

"Lyson– no, this isn't about Lyson–" Lyson. Her best friend for years. But this wasn't about him, she didn't like him like that, it was about her and Sara, who she did like like that. "So I'll never become Queen of Haythe?" Jay drew in a shaky breath and looked at Sara. Her girlfriend was staring straight ahead, blonde hair combed in front of her face as not to show her expression.

"Well– no, but you'll become Queen of Lumen, yes? That's even better, you'll be helping your family," her mother said fondly. 

"But what about Sara?" Ajaya burst. "Will I have a new lady-in-waiting?"

"I'd assume so– Sara will be reassigned, and of course–"

"Thank you, sir, and ma'am," Sara said tightly. "If you're finished here, we'll head... out..."

"Yes, you are dismissed," the king of Haythe said with a dismissive tone.

So Jay and Sara left the throne room. 

***

"Jay... this isn't going to work."

"No, Sara– I know it can, it has to–" 

"It isn't going to work, Jay, you know this! I'm being reassigned, you'll have children with him, it won't work." 

Jay spent most of that night crying. 

And that, dear reader, may have been where the story ended. Princess Ajaya of Haythe would have gotten married and lived without any clue of what her future should've held. That could've been the end of her tale. 

If not for the boy who knocked on her door that night. 

***

A/N

Hi guys! Sorry about the short and slightly dragging chapter, I promise it'll pick up again in the next chapter!

~Author

Notes/Clarification:

- The Arjuna-Korrapatis are the royal family of Haythe (yes, they are Indian). 

- Sara and Jay were dating secretly.

- Lyson is Jay's current best friend, who's dating the chef's son (also secretly). 

If there's anything else you have questions about, just ask!