Sun and Shadow

Royal guards

The sun beats down the whole city of Brighton piercing into the skin of every living thing outside, not excluding the royalties, Calah and Anne, the two daughters of King Hillary and Queen Brie, both sit under a huge Oak tree hiding their skins from the ravaging sun.
Calah sits upright on a rainbow-striped lounge chair leaning on the tree reading a poem out-loud, while Anne lies on another chair exactly the same as her sister's, perpendicularly placed together, with her red head rested on her sister's laps, lost in thoughts.

"You've been quiet all morning."

Calah interrupts her deep thought with a harsh pinch on her right hand.

"Ow!, And what was that for?"

Anne's pale face immediately turns red out of anger. She sits up right, adjusts herself and rests her back on a tree behind her.

"You've been quiet."

Knowing well how much of a blabber mouth Anne could be around her, this unusual silence disturbs her.

"And does that bother you?"

Calah knows her thoughts have been on Tommen of Miledale since both families have planned the wedding which is in days. She touches her legs in understanding.

"Tis about Tommen, isn't it?. You're becoming scared and worried."

Anne has never been the type to be scared or worried about anything, she was always ready for anything life had to throw at her , but not marriage or living somewhere other than Brighton, especially in a kingdom where they never practiced christianity. That reality was one she couldn't contend with.

"He clearly isn't like the other princes, he is a gentleman and you know it"

"You know nothing about him, we have barely met him"
oo
Anne replies in a vast and visibly tensed manner emanating a mixed feeling of fright, fear and doubt all still gazing into nothingness.

Calah tries to make a joke on the princes of Black coast who are popularly known for their hideous looks to lighten up Anne's mood.

"We know he isn't from black coast"

She lets out a loud laugh deeply aiming at making Anne laugh or at worse, smile. But Anne's humor is hidden and embedded deep within her thoughts and with uncertainty written all over her face, she slowly and emotionlessly sets her gaze at Calah as she continues laughing at her own joke.

"And that was meant to be funny?"

Anne eventually chimes a sentence not out of anger at this point but rather out of insipidity.

A young kitchen maid hurriedly approaches both sisters under the tree and greets the sisters with a bow.

"My ladies, your mother requests your presences in the great hall"

She hurries back into the palace immediately she delivers the message.

"Now what does she want"

Calah had always had a bit of unlikeliness for her own mother, hatred wasn't the exact word to describe her feelings towards her mother but she didn't have the type of love every daughter had for their mother, Anne, on the other hand had a casual relationship with her mother, wasn't intimate but was as bad as Calah's.

"We should get going"

They both help themselves been up, dusting away any particle or sand or dust away from their hair and dress to avoid any query from their perfectionist mother.

***
The large great hall consists of the Queen Brie, and the King Hillary and some members of the kings council sit on the right far end of the hall as they await the presence of the princesses