The Truth Over The Wall

Chapter 5

*Sometimes your champion doesn't ride in on a horse. Sometimes SHE finds you at the other end of a story. This dedication is for such a champion. :)*

"She doesn't look like Claire." Jason's letter to Dominic read.

"That's what I thought when I first saw her. Thank God, was what I thought next when I realized she looked every bit Henry's daughter with dark hair and blue eyes. She was every bit the Tafahan princess."

It had been six months since King Henry's and Queen Claire's death. Dominic's Commanding Officer had led the fresh troops on a run through the woods to affiliate them to their new surroundings.

They had come back tired and hot and Dominic had found a messenger from the royal palace waiting at the camp; immediately shattering Dominic's illusion of belonging.

Dominic sighed once before continuing the letter, he had known why his uncle was bringing this up in his letter.

"Claire was the eldest in her family, did I ever tell you that? Although the laws of male primogeniture prohibited her from inheriting her father's throne; she thought it didn't excuse her from her responsibilities as the eldest daughter and first born.

"She was very dignified and poised. She carried the prestige of her house on her shoulders.

"And me? Well, you know me well enough Dominic.

"I'd been frightened the first time Claire had been introduced to me as my fiancée. She'd been so quiet and composed. She had seemed almost unreal.

"Fake in a sense or statuesque.

"The first time I heard her laugh it had come to the both of us as a surprise. I, because I hadn't intended to cause it and she, for her part, had not expected to laugh.

"I was in a bad mood over something Lord Ensley had said and wondered mostly to myself how his figure allowed him to see anyone outside of his own self and she'd laughed.

"I had turned to her surprised because I am still sure to this day that I had muttered it. Also, I hadn't realized she was capable of it. Laughter, I mean. And from the look on her face, she must have suspected the same.

"When Claire laughed, her eyes widened for a second before it burst from her throat. It was always a surprise for her, because she always sought to be serious and sophisticated. And there she was, laughing at my silly observations.

"I loved surprising the laugh right out of her. Because that was the day I'd realized she was being fake. And she was in fact hiding something.

"She was hiding her soul. And Hanalea is the same."

Dominic's eye brows had drawn together at this, intrigued. He read on,

"Along with having her mother's laugh; she always looks so surprised when a laugh bursts forth from her. It would be comical if I didn't know what it meant.

"Hanalea believes that as the last surviving heir of Leopold she must always be somber. She must always wear the losses of her people on her face and person. She does not feel it appropriate for her to act as a solitary person, she must always be Tafah. She must always be so much more grown up then she is.

"She was a child when her parents were taken from her. She is a child and I despise Fiona for taking that away from her, from Hanalea and countless other children.

"But Hanalea doesn't care for sympathy. If anything she loathes it. She doesn't want to be a picture princess that makes her appearance on a gallery every couple of years to boost her army's morale. She wants to fight with her people, for their freedom.