Glass

Chapter Five: Breakfast

I was awoken before I even realised I’d fallen asleep.

"Good morning, your highness." 

A maid whipped the curtain open, blinding me with migraine-inducing light. 

As tired as I was, the hunger came and could not be ignored. In a half-asleep daze, I searched around with a squint for the breakfast always handed to me at my bedside. 

"The king and queen insist you eat breakfast with them this morning, your highness."

I ducked back under the covers and laid to sleep or simply die - whichever came first. 

"I'm afraid I cannot let you sleep in." The maid tore the heavy covers off me as though it was no weight at all, exposing me to the brightness once again.

After getting ready in a series of daily rituals I was too tired to remember doing, I was already being rushed down the stairs and through the hallways towards the dining hall. Beside me, two guards, equal in height, were stationed to guide me as though I would get lost in my own home. No matter how much I stuttered and mumbled questions, neither one answered. 

The dining hall was grand, floored with shining mosaic tiles against walls painted with warm-coloured patterns. Portraits of my ancestors watched over me, framed in polished amber acacia and bathed in a golden light. Usually, the great, long table at the centre of the room was used for all the guards and the few maids we housed, but it was barren, with a crimson cloth draped over the ever-expanding miles of mahogany. At the end of it, far at the other end of the room, my mother sat in a grand seat, eyeing the plates of food being presented before her. Angled at her side, father sat already perfectly groomed for the day, just as mother was, despite how long they'd been awake overlooking the ball. They barely acknowledged me at first, but without even a glance, mother eventually spoke.

"Sit, my son."

Nerves and hunger fighting in my stomach, I took my seat opposite my father. The guards dispersed to the sides of the room, watching with envy as we began to pick at an assortment of local natural delicacies - ripe mangoes, vibrant papayas, juicy watermelon, and sweet pineapple. All of them glimmered under the daylight, stirring my hunger even more. It was definitely a welcome breakfast after a long night as opposed to tamales or spiced omelettes, which I could eat so much of it would draw me back to sleep.

I picked at my favourites, already sliced into neat pieces for my convenience, and for a moment, I almost forgot the conversation that was to follow.

"I trust you found a suitable bride last night?"

I should have expected mother to be so upfront, but mid-mango cube, I almost choked.

"Chew your food, Andres! You could choke to death!" Father reminded me as if it wasn't already too late. I cleared my throat.

"I... um... I believe I did."

Mother smiled.

"Ah. The mystery girl, I assume?"

I looked at them both.

"It's all that everyone has been talking about," mother said, cutting her watermelon into even tinier pieces and eating them off the end of her fork, "a nameless woman, entering with no introduction, dancing with the prince and briefly disappearing with him, only to promptly leave afterwards with no explanation."

I hung my head. I hoped she wouldn't blame me, even if it had been all my fault. Before she could begin to ask dreaded questions, I told her,

"I'm not sure what went wrong. One moment, I was getting to know her, and the next..."