Cinders: An Intrulogical Story

Chapter 5

"Honestly Remus! An arranged marriage wouldn't be that bad!" The Queen reasoned, while Logan's family was squabbling and arguing about all sorts of menial tasks, Prince Remus and his parents were having their own, much more serious disagreements.
Remus was in a seriously tough situation, ever since he turned eighteen his parents had been breathing down his neck about taking responsibility and this arranged marriage was just their latest ploy.
Remus threw himself on his bed and let out a loud groan "no offense ma, but an arranged marriage never made anyone in this room very happy." Remus said, practically staring daggers into his father's soul as he stood sternly behind his wife.
The king crossed his arms and huffed "I don't know why you're so upset about one little ball!", Remus bolted up from his bed and got really close to his father.
"It's not about the ball, it's just the whole idea of me being in an arranged marriage at all! Marriage is for gross old people or people who are looking for some stupid political gain! I don't want to get married.".

The king was positively enraged with his son "Remus, you were born to a fabulously wealthy and powerful family with anything you could ever want and with that comes certain responsibilities!".
"Well if I knew it was gonna end like this I would of ran away ages ago." Remus retorted.
"If you don't get married I'm not giving you the throne!" "What if I don't want it?" the king was positively flabbergasted, he stood there for a few seconds dumb founded and trying to figure out a witty response before settling on "Then I will defy death and rule forever!".

Remus wasn't taking any of this seriously while the king was thoroughly fed up with his sons nonsense at this point "We're having that ball and that's it! We're going into town this afternoon to announce it and you're coming with us!".
Remus relaxed on his bed, giving up and deciding to just wallow in his own pity and anger while his parents went about their royal duties.
As he laid face down in his pillow his mind was filled with thoughts of his hypothetical spouse and all the negative qualities he would have.

These thoughts tended to come by frequently for Remus, not just about his future lover but about pretty much everything.
He remembered when he was little he would often tell his parents about them and they would respond in shock and horror, eventually Remus let these thoughts fade into the back ground as to not upset his folks but he still had them all the time.
He liked them, well at least he did until he started having these ones.
It didn't help his fears about the marriage to have his intrusive thoughts constantly spout hypotheticals about how toxic the marriage would be.
Suddenly, a knock was heard on his bedroom door "Go away!" he yelled.

It was probably his tutor or his parents here to yell at him again, last thing he needed was them to come in and make him feel even worse.
"It's me, Jan." Remus jumped up and opened the door "sorry! I thought you were some one else.".
"It's fine, her majesty wants you to know they are leaving for town square in an hour." Said Janus, making Remus cross his arms and huff.
"I don't wanna go." He mumbled, annoying Janus, "Come on Remus, I can understand you getting upset about the whole marriage thing but you're getting way too worked up over this.
What's the real reason you're upset?".
Remus contemplated for a second, "let me show you something." he said, grabbing Janus's hand and leading him out to the palace court yard and into the royal family crypt.

The crypt was massive and fairly creepy, if you ignored all the ruins and coffins though you'd realize it was all actually quite beautiful.
Stained glass windows, arched door ways, a tall ceiling and walls made out of the finest polished marble made it all oddly pretty given it was the final resting place for all members of the royal family.
Remus lead Janus over to one specific coffin in the middle of the room, it looked fancy and regal, perfect for any member of the monarchy.
Remus looked down at the inscription on the front of it, grinning a little.
It read "Here lies King Remus Leopold Charming III, beloved son, ruler, spouse and father, June 26th, 1722-" with a spot blank for Remus's future death date.

Janus looked up at remus confused "your middle name is Leopold?" Remus snickered a little.
"Isn't it funny, I'm only twenty one and I already have my own grave prepared for me." said Remus, gently placing a hand on the coffin, he continued speaking "I was about five years old when this thing was made, I remember my dad took me here and pointed to it, telling me "that's your future".".
Janus smirked "Well that's awfully cheery." He joked, making Remus chuckle.
Remus sighed and looked back down at the coffin again "I'm being serious though, even though it was meant to educate and terrify me I still felt comforted by it.
It being there was a way to say "no matter what kinda king you are, wether you're evil or good, your final appointment is here.".".

Janus lovingly put his arm around his shoulder, he was such a good friend to Remus, even if he thought his problems could be pretty petty and stupid sometimes.
Remus lowered his head in contemplation "I don't know what I want to do with my life, I don't know what I'll be like as king, I don't know what kinda husband I'll be.
It's all so heavy that I'm afraid I'm gonna collapse under the weight of it, my first big decision as royalty isn't even gonna be my decision.
It's just my dads way of making me useful for once, I'm not even opposed to getting married! It's just that I'm not gonna be able to choose who I want to marry and that makes me so frustrated!".
Janus listened very closely, remaining silent as Remus ranted about his parents.

"The thing is though that even if I was given the chance to choose who I wanted to marry- which would never happen, there's so many things to mess up! I mean if soulmates exist then how are you supposed to know who they are! How are we supposed to meet and what happens if we do meet but I'm too distracted to notice!? Or what if you do fall in love and he gets struck by lightning!? Is it just over from then on or do you get a second chance and if you get a second chance were they the person who you were always supposed to be with or was it just pure fate that you met the other one first!" Remus was starting to go off the deep end and ramble, it was a good thing Janus interrupted.
"Okay okay, calm down, you're gonna fry your brain." Janus said, grabbing Remus's shoulders and shaking some common sense into him.
Remus let out a deep sigh and stared at Janus pathetically, "I guess I need to mellow out a little, huh? But can you blame me? I'm going to be king one day and I don't even know anything about my kingdom!".
Remus thought about what could be done about his situation, he needed a way to really get to know his peasants, not in the plain filtered royal way like his parents did.
Really get to know what his people are like and what it's like to be one of them.
Suddenly, it hit him! "Wait! I got it!".
He turned to Janus "Jan!" Remus exclaimed, grabbing his best friend "I know what to do!".
Janus raised an eyebrow, obviously confused "okay, what?".
"I need you to get naked!".