The broken queen

4

****
Irisa and Ivanna made their way out of the room, the first set of guards standing by the door stood straighter as the princess passed them by. She looked elegant and beautiful, this was not the first time they were seeing her but this was the first time they were seeing her in her beauty, she looked magnificent.

"Good day your Highness," they bowed and she nodded at them, Ivanna led her away from the guard and they walked toward a flight of stairs where she was met by another set of guards surprised to see her.

News had travelled of the sudden change of power in Kaley's government surprising everyone, who would have thought the unfavoured prince of Kaley would be the future Emperor and the bastard child of a duke would be the future Empress. She nodded at the bowing guards again, watching them with caution, her heart could not rest after what had happened just a day before.

They finally arrived at the grand hall regarded as the royal dining hall, the guards bowed at her before one of them announced her arrival and to of them pulled the doors of the hall open. Irisa walked into the hall looking around, Viron, Eli, Isabelle, Raymond and Minister Thomas sat around. They stopped mid-conversation to pay attention to the princess that had just arrived.

Standing, they made a little bow, greeting her, she walked toward the other end of the table where Aaron was sitting, "your highness," she bowed greeting formally. He tore his eyes from a scroll in front of him and smiled softly at her. His chest swore in pride looking at her beautiful and bright looking she seemed. No longer would she have to suffer and scramble around for food that was not even fit for a beggar but she would have the best things, Kaley could offer.

"You are awake, come, sit, we have much to discuss," a guard that was standing next to Aaron pulled the chair out for her, Ivanna helped her to sit before stepping back and finally managing to look around the table to see four men and a woman sitting other the crown prince and princess who were discussing.

"You requested my presence as soon as possible, I had to honour it," Aaron waved her off, "I understand if you needed time to yourself after yesterday's ordeal, I am sorry I was not there to protect you," he took her hand and squeezed it.

"I do not fault you, your grace, not after everything you had to deal with, I hope you had a good night's sleep?" she asked looking at the circles underneath his eyes. Raymond scoffed before Aaron could say a word.

"You have not been testing, have you? Prince Aaron, you know that your duties require much rest for you to handle, you need a sound mind and a good body," Aaron sighed as she pulled the scroll from him, "you are here to eat Aaron not brood over matters that could be handled later, food should always come first," she said looking around a large table.

"Is this all for us?" she asked, her mouth agape, Aaron smirked and nodded, "It is," she frowned and looked around.

"We are just seven people, this is a whole feast," she said looking around, "I told the kitchen to send back some dishes, that it was too much I made sure they left all of your favourites."

True to his words, all the dishes on the table were Irisa's favourite dishes, she looked back at him, "This is too much we cannot constantly consume this kind of meal! We need to cut back on the palace's spending, some of them are unnecessary."

"Well, that is your duty Irisa, you have the power to do whatever you want with the palace's finance, I will support you regardless of what you want to do," Aaron said chewing his well-made fish.

"I do not feel comfortable having this amount of dishes here, send them away, will you?" she said and he nodded.

Aaron waved over the guard that ran toward the long end of the hall to bring the maids in, they were asked to return the dishes, causing fear to be etched on their faces. Soon a tall man entered the hall and took a ceremonious bow, greeting his betters.