The Lost Selection

I.

Corlina had grown up behind the Palace walls, barely leaving the third floor of the Palace, where her chambers were all located. She had grown up lonely, Sir Julien Dagger, her Prime Minister and Regent, had instituted a Palace law where Queen Corlina couldn't be with other children, the only people she could be around were her maids and her governess. Her governess, Ms.Grace, tried her best to teach the growing little queen about what was happening around the kingdom, keep her updated on the situations around the provinces, without losing her head or her job.

The day Corlina turned 18 it seemed like the sun had risen a little bit earlier, especially considering it was the height of summer. She had asked her maids not to draw her curtains closed the previous night, so she could experience what it was like to wake up as an adult for the first time by herself.

When the sun hit her eyes and she turned around a few times in her enormous bed, the bedroom that had once been her parents, and grandparents, and every king and queen before her, she slowly opened her eyes to remember that summer's day was her birthday, and she was finally being crowned Queen, not needing Sir Julien on her side for everything anymore.

She had been reading up on the changes he had been making since her parents' passing, but nothing could have prepared her to find her kingdom in such a disarray. She didn't have a council, the country was in a 'state of emergency' for nearly seven years now, since he took over control of what was Parliament and the lack of any immediate family to act as her regent. She was apparently a 'one', royalty she already knew she was, but classify people by numbers? She had only heard of such things in her history lessons.

She walked into her bathroom, feeling the cold and refreshing stone under her feet as she opened the window and watched the white material flow with the wind of that important day.

Sir Julien had insisted that she be crowned as soon as she turned eighteen, so there would be no riots or opposers. From what her governess, sweet old Grace, had informed her, people were actually excited for the coronation, as they saw it as a chance of the new Queen of banishing the Prime Minister and undoing all his horrible messes. But Corlina was only eighteen, the sound of birds singing in the morning still excited her just as much as they did when she was a little girl, and she loved to run and hide in an abandoned garden between the big trees behind the vast Palace gardens, long abandoned by whomever ordered to built it. She was as ready to be Queen as to choose a dress to wear without the help of her maids; she was only eighteen, she had been left alone with Sir Julien in a Palace that was too big for her, she had no friends and she wasn't as prepared as Grace would have wanted her to be ahead of her big day.

If she could choose, if she could go back, she would have insisted harder for her parents to stay home and not go on that tour of the provinces. But ten year old Corlina didn't know any better, and 18 year old Corlina now had to face the reality of being Queen of a country in disrepair and crisis.

The knock at her door surprises her because it is still early and the preparations for the Coronation are only supposed to start in a few hours. She tells her maids to come in, but after a few minutes of no response Corlina goes and opens the door herself, the two guards standing ready at her door, and Sir Julien already dressed in his full military attire in front of her, while she was still in her pyjamas and robe.

"Sir Julien, good morning."

"A wonderful morning, ma'am. I was wondering if you would like company for breakfast this morning, ahead of the preparations."

"I wasn't planning on eating much, but..." She looks around, seeing that her guards are both looking down at their feet. "If you could ask for breakfast to be served in the Newsome Library, I'll meet you there in a few minutes."