The Queen's Wife (girlxgirl)

32. White flowers and invitations

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"How do you feel?"

Maud sits down next to her husband, in the beautiful inner court garden. The pink, white and red flowers are covered in shadows, joined by more yellow and green colors. The sun has already fallen behind the palace walls, only the darker blue sky showing them light. Maud feels the grass from underneath the white stone bench tickle the part where her white shoes don't cover. She puts a hand on Adelio's, and lets him sit in silence while she waits for an answer.

His gaze is set on the tree in front of him, large and beautifully lush. The green leaves of the tree are almost completely hidden by the white flowers that always appear at the beginning of spring. Some of the white flower petals have fallen to the green grass below, laying like a pile of snow, reminding Maud of her home. She stares at the tree just as he does, and tries to figure out what it is that he sees in the majestic thing. Why is his gaze so unfocused and tired? While she waits, Maud listens to the birds sing from the trees and bushes around them. A comforting reminder that life always continues, even after the loss of another.

"This tree was planted when my father was born, it is his tree of life"

Maud looks at it. The white flowers suddenly seem even more special, as she understands the melancholy in her husband's gaze. White in this kingdom is the color of death. It is the reason why she is now dressed from head to toe in white, a simple white dress matched with the same coloured shoes. Adelio matches her too, a long white shirt matched with white pants and shoes. This is the only day where the servants and the royals dress the same, where everyone looks equal from the outside. To think that it would happen in spring...

She first arrived to this palace in early summer, and after going on her long royal tour she returned in late winter. Now it is spring, the flowers of the late king's tree bloom in white. The entire court blooms in white, from head to toe.

"These trees along this road were all planted in the honor of the birth of a king. Mine is right there, next to his"

Adelio doesn't even need to point, Maud can see where it is. A tree that seems much different from his father's, with bigger leaves and no flowers, grows next to the big one covered in white. It is smaller, younger, the exact same age as Adelio is. And Maud sees something small carved into the tree, the letters of her husband's name, just as the late king's name is carved into the tree with white flowers. She glances to the other side, where a variety of trees stand next to each other, each one older and taller than the last. For how many generations does this kingdom go?

"Is that small one Alaric's?"

Right next to Adelio's tree, there is a newly planted one. So young that a name cannot be carved into it yet. Adelio nods after a short while of silence. Maud lets him sit in silence after that, not wanting to upset him in any way.

Adelio never seemed to have any feelings for his father, but now that he has died Maud is surprised at the amount of sorrow and shock that oozes from her husband. They sit there in the garden, their first silent moment in what feels like a long while. Their days as crown prince and crown princess seemed to be over after lunch today, when the sick king began to die. It took him a while, the man is stubborn and refused to die without a long talk with his son, most of it in private. In the end Adelio was in the room alone with him when he died, the door closed. Once the crown prince emerged from the king's bedchamber, eyes tired but haunted, and slowly closed the door behind him, everyone on the other side of the door knew what it meant. Even Maud, who had stood there all day waiting for him without food or rest, knew the moment she saw that look in his eye.