Love at First Sight

Chapter Seventeen

Clarion finished unpacking all of her stuff and setting up her room. This ended up taking close to 30 minutes and then she made sure to lock up her diary with magic. She made her way down to one of the meeting rooms where Queen Raya had already set up her office.

"You wanted to see me, Your Majesty?"

"Yes. I wanted to go over the itinerary for our time here. So, this afternoon and evening will be used for you to settle in and I will be in meetings all afternoon. I know how important it is to you to have time to visit your family while you are here so you are welcome to do so tonight. Tomorrow morning, you are to be at breakfast by 8 AM. We will dine with Alya and Sage." Queen Raya went over the entire schedule for the week including one ball, three formal dinners with other dignitaries (one of which was on the night of the ball), and two days of public appearances. The rest of the week consisted of meetings for Queen Raya and plenty of free time for Clarion to do whatever she wanted and be a normal girl for once. By the time Queen Raya was done, she already had to go to another meeting.

"Please go find Sage and have her show you around the palace. She is most likely in the grand ballroom with Alya. You are free to do whatever you want for the rest of the day."

"Thank you, your majesty." Clarion started to leave but Queen Raya stopped her

"Oh and Clarion!"

"Yes, Majesty?"

"While we are here, you don't have to address me as Majesty or Queen. You may call me Raya."

"Can I call you Auntie?"

"I think that would be acceptable."

"Thank you, Auntie." Clarion took off to go find Jaina. It was already 1:00. Sure enough, Jaina was in the grand ballroom just as Clarion had expected. What she didn't expect was the busy hub of activity that was the ballroom.

"What's all this?" Clarion asked Jaina

"Oh, we're just decorating for the ball tomorrow. Did you need something?"

"Auntie asked me to come find you. She said something about you giving me a tour?"

"Auntie?"

"Queen Raya."

"Oh yeah. I do remember someone saying something about that. Alright, let's go." The girls walked out of the ballroom and Jaina asked Clarion

"So, you call your queen Auntie?"

"Yeah. Just while we're here. She told me to call her Raya but that felt too weird so I asked if I could call her Auntie and she said yes."

"It's cool. I'm not knocking it. I call Queen Alya Mom. " Jaina got a sad look on her face.

"I'm sorry. About the accident." Clarion said

"It's ok. I'm doing better now. Your parents are incredible. They took me in right after it happened and basically made me a part of the family." Jaina's parents had died in an accident about two months after they had moved to Angeles.

"When my mom called and told me what had happened, I went and sobbed to Milori at the border that night. I felt terrible. I wanted to say something to you but I had no way of contacting you and it was right around my coronation so I was really busy."

"It's ok. I felt your presence in the house when I was staying with your parents. I know you were thinking of me and that was a comforting thought. Tyler helped a lot too. We were just friends at the time but it brought us closer together."

"You're going to have to tell me the story of how you two got together anyway."

"Maybe I can get him to talk about it at dinner. You're going to have to tell me how you hooked up with Mr. Prince of Winter."