clown x Queen (working title)

chapter 1

As the storm raged in the distance, Queen Mariska silently reflected on her new position, looking off at the storm currently decimating a nearby countryside. While her father passed away no more than a fortnight ago, she was already married away to some random royal to make sure the kingdom wouldn't fall in her hands. This would be her last night before she would Be sent off to some foreign land to live with a man with whom she had never met before this dawn.
As she watched, lightning struck a nearby strelitzia field. She observed as each flower caught ablaze, an aftershock from the initial strike, and she gazed off as the onslaught of rain and wind blew away the silently glowing fire well before it had a chance to turn into a raging inferno. Was that all her life was meant to be? The glowing embers of something marvelous, blown away by fear and prejudice well before there was a chance for her to do something more?
As she stood on her rain swept balcony, she realized she had 2 options. The first, was to just accept her fate and take on what was in effect a meaningless title, one that would only matter if the king were to die, and while she felt no love for the man that the world saw as her husband, she also couldn't bring herself to ever have blood on her hands. The second was to run away, an option that, while seemingly simple on the surface, also held nothing but hardships and pain for her, something that she was hoping to avoid wherever possible.
As rain beaded down her long ebony hair, she looked back at the one with whom she was wed, a tall man with bright blonde hair and, even though she couldn't see his eyes, she knew they were ruby red. She was not afraid of him, for all she saw him as an obstacle, something she needed to overcome to get her goals. She didn't want to hurt him, but she did know that as long as they were wed, she wouldn't have power over this land or the one she would soon have to call home, but it was likely closer to a prison for her, a gilded cage thrusted upon her by a single piece of paper signed mere days before the death of her father.