Of The Rose

One

Jason

Jason never imagined this would be how he'd get married. Sure, he was willing to go to extreme lengths for his kingdom but he always expected that he would actually fall in love before being compromised to someone. Except life is complicated, and it likes to stray away from plans. But when you're tied to the throne, duty comes before your personal life, your people need to be your top priority, and right now they are Jason's.

Jason's kingdom has a long history of rivalry with the Eastern empire of Codivia. There are history books filled with bloodshed and torment both kingdoms have caused each other, whole wars. But that was from a long time ago, both kingdoms have grown and look for a new era of tranquility. Even though it's been decades since the last war, many people hold resentment against the opposing kingdom, so as a resolution both kingdoms agreed to a treaty, one that is sure to establish peace.

A merger of both kingdoms, the king has an eligible daughter, she's next in line for the throne, she would have been the next ruling empress of her empire. She is to be Jason's wife, he doesn't think he's even seen the woman in person before, the closest he's gotten to seeing her is portraits. He keeps stumbling around this very distinctive one, it's one of her alone, dressed in ornate luxurious clothes, no smile, just a stone-cold face with a bone-chilling gaze. She looks so . . . regal. She arrives today, it's the first time Jason will meet the bride-to-be, Jason wonders what she'll be like, will her personality be as cold as her eyes?

And here Jason finds himself, staring at this same portrait, it wouldn't make a difference, ever since he learned of the engagement he's found himself staring at this portrait more and more, observing every detail, trying to read some emotion on her face, memorizing the red lace pattern on her gown.

Jason's just waiting for her to arrive, he told someone to notify him as soon as her carriage turns the corner. It should be any moment now.

This is somewhat nerve-racking to Jason, this should all go smoothly, what's the worst that could happen? Actually, hold that thought there are an unlimited amount of things that could go wrong today but Jason tried to not focus on that but instead distract his mind with the portrait of her, he's noticed that he can not find a single portrait of her smiling, trust him, he's tried but in all of them she stares with a ruthless glare.

He's done his research on her, trying to gather intel, at first it was just mere curiosity, you know, a simple skim through some of her files but then the realization dawned upon him. Jason is marrying someone who he knows nothing about. Yes, he had to learn about the Codvia due to their history but he literally knows nothing about her personally. From her files, he's learned that she excelled in political affairs and public speaking/debate. From her teacher's and tutors' notes, she is known to take quite an interest in psychology and botany. That's all he could find on her, that, and a couple of impressive test scores.

She's moving into the castle today, she was supposed to say goodbye to her family before she left so she could arrive early this morning. She's still on her way. Jason didn't realize the severity of this, he knew she was going to marry him but he didn't hit him how fast everything was going. One minute he's signing the treaty, putting his name next to her's on the paper, and next thing you know she's on her way here.

Jason hears somebody rapidly burst through the doors. "She's here! Her carriage is turning the corner right now as we speak, you need to get out there to welcome her." 

"Of course!" Jason swiftly moves to the steps where we can see the carriage pulling up to the front steps of the palace before coming to a stop.

Jason sees a footman approaching the side door where I assume she's sitting. As he opened the carriage she slowly walked out of the carriage, holding her dress in one hand and being assisted out of the carriage with the other.

Jason bowed in front of her as proper etiquette taught him to, "Welcome to my home your majesty, I hope to be able to make it yours too." Jason said.

She curtsied, giving a brief nod.

"We will give you a slight tour of the palace to help you adjust." Jason's head servant, Isobelle said. "Of course we can't show you all of it right now, it would take too long and you've had a long journey so we'll try not to take too much of your time. And then we'll show you to your room, we're sure you're tired from being cooped up in that carriage for so long."

She gave another brief nod towards Isobelle. She looked the same as she did in the portrait. She's beautiful, to Jason it looks as though she's glowing. Except, the thing that most caught his eye was hers. In the painting, he's stared into her eyes what feels to be thousands of times. As cold as they looked they always ignited something in him. He can't tell if it was fear or excitement. In person, her gaze seemed intense and dead yet so full of life at the same time. 

"Well," Isobelle looked back at Jason with a bit of widened eyes towards Jason then back at her. "His highness will be joining us for this tour too since he knows this castle better than most of the people that work here." That was true, Jason was raised in this palace, he has wandered these halls endless times, it takes a while to get the directions engraved in your mind.

Complete silence filled the room. "Is she not going to say anything?" Jason thought.

"Okay then," Isobelle cleared the silence by clearing her throat. "Let's get on with the tour. Here we have the grand-" 

(A/N: Hello my precious readers, so I wrote this because I could not find a single mediocrely written Jiper story that hasn't been updated like 4 years ago. I'm sure there are some good ones out there, I probably haven't searched hard enough. But Jiper is so underrated, I just find them very interesting. I also needed to write something to fuel my flames of need and love for royalty AUs and the Victorian era. I'm also publishing this as a celebration for soulmates hitting #1 on Jiper. Just a reminder, I DON'T OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS.)