𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐓 [a rina au]

༻ ONE

CAPITAL CASTLE
CAPITAL, REPUBLIC OF REEVES
July 10th, 3:18 pm

"no one has heard from him? are you serious?"

regardless of the occasion, tensions were always tragically high in the famous capital castle. but, twice a year, when the royal families gathered to speak to their country at the state of the republic address, the incomparable air could be cut with a knife in the bustling building. between the updates that needed to be relayed about government, economy, and infrastructure, it could never be anticipated how citizens would receive the abundance of new information being hurled at them. for that reason, every state of the republic address needed to go exactly according to plan – no slip ups, no misinformation, not one royal out of place.

ideally.

queen annlynn bowen of loughton despised the amount of faith she had in her son. she wished she could be as stern and rational as her husband, king michael, but a part of her desperately wished that maybe things would change. maybe she was justified in handing out her trust. she realized, though, that she had been proven wrong once again when she heard the frustrated voice of thornville's princess ringing down the main hallway.

"your majesty," princess nina roberts huffed as she smacked her arms at her side, unhelpful phone hitting her thigh angrily, "i cannot get a hold of richard and neither can elijah. we were supposed to be live over fifteen minutes ago!"

the queen's heart pumped a few times before it flatlined, accepting naive defeat. "i'm going to find my husband and try to get a hold of him," she pulled a chocolate curl from the back of nina's head and rested it gently over the girl's shoulder. "no need to worry, darling."

except queen bowen had all the reason to worry, and nina had to have known that despite the way she smiled with farewell and spun around to head back where she came from. the queen took a deep breath, fighting the steam crawling to fly out of her ears. she composed herself quickly and disappeared down another corridor, dialing her son's all too familiar phone number as she painfully walked.