The cool spring morning chilled you in your fancy clothes as you made your way from your family's shack on the outskirts of the capital. You felt a tad silly in these puffy pantaloons, bright shirt, and feathered hat. These were the clothes of one who worked in the palace, which felt odd to be true of you.
Having grown up in the slums, it was still difficult to believe that you'd gotten the chance to work directly for the royal family. Of course, it was a dangerous job, no one who wasn't desperate would even consider it, but your prospects in life hadn't been great. An honorable life working for the Queen would be preferable to laboring in fields for pennies, even if the former might be cut short at any time.
As you approached the gates of the palace, you gave yourself one last check of your reflection in the mote. You looked dapper, even if the tights on your legs were a bit constrictive. You'd even bathed in the river the previous night, scrubbing off dirt with the sand from the bed. You gave every appearance of one who belonged inside, and the guards lowered the gates to let you in.
Once inside, the cold morning air immediately warmed up, though the comfort that gave was slightly offset by the stuffiness. The thick stone walls kept in heat by keeping in all the air. Still, you'd endured worse in your small home during winter with the smoke coming off your fireplace. Your father had generously called his domicile a "cottage".
Compared to that, this home that housed the heads of government was breathtaking. The floors were covered with rugs made of fine foreign fabrics. There were candles lighting the room from the chandeliers, amplified by glass ornaments dangling beneath to prismatically spread rays across the walls, and those walls were decorated with paintings and portraits of the royal family, past and present.
You weren't familiar with most of the faces you saw. Presumably, they were the fathers and grandfathers and aunts and uncles and distant cousins of King Randal, his being one of the only portraits you recognized. It had briefly been a spectacle for the entire city when the enormous painting had been finished.
It depicted the entire royal family at the time, the King himself and his Queen consort Teophania of Doggerland, with their three children. The family were adorned with the green robes of your nation, accented with purples from the Queen's home, known for its rare export of the dye. Their children were mostly stoic. Rodrick, the oldest son and heir, had clearly been coached in how to pose and carry himself in a princely manner, despite having only been 12 at the time. His black hair was cut short in a bowl style that was fashionable at the time.
The middle child, Elizabeth, was similarly prim and proper, though in a more traditionally feminine way. As a princess, she had been betrothed to a prince far away and would likely end up sitting to the left of the throne like her mother. With the rest of her family, she helped balance out the image of a perfect royal family.
But this image was spoiled slightly by the third child. William, "Billy", was well known to be spoiled and rebellious. The painter had done his best to smooth out his unkempt dark hair and bratty pout, but it was impossible to capture his essence without a hint of that sneaking through. If he had behaved during the painting sessions like he did during his father's speeches, then the painter must have deserved triple his payment to make him look as relatively civilized as he did.
"Lovely, isn't it?" You turned at the voice to find the Queen herself standing in your presence. You immediately bowed and apologized for not having noticed her already. She simply waved away your concerns.
"Oh no, it's no trouble at all. I find myself losing time to peering at this portrait." Her posh accent betrayed a slight hint of condescension. She knew that you were poor and had rightly assumed that you were enamored with art because you were so rarely exposed to such beauty. She glanced up at it once again, pointing to her youngest boy sitting in her lap. "He still makes that same face, my little Bi- I mean Prince William."
