Black Storm - Red Queen Fan Fiction

Chapter 6 - The Rose part 1

set before Red Queen, in July

Evangeline had made a bet with herself that she would make Prince Cal smile at her.

That was what a wife was supposed to do, after all? Among ... the other duties. She couldn't escape those, but getting along with her future husband, as she had no doubt about becoming the chosen at Queenstrial, was simply reasonable. What was she to accomplish if her king consort regarded as a mere necessity?

O, she fully expected he might seek his pleasure elsewhere, as she would herself. But Evangeline wanted to be the queen that Norta adored; she wouldn't be like those pitiful women predecessing her, unloved or disrespected or both.

Evangeline would get what she wanted.

So, she wound up in the prince's workshop one day. She'd bribed a servant to tell her its location, and about the hours when the prince usually stole time to retreat there. The servant had offered her the key, too, but she snorted at this. A magnetron of House Samos didn't need a key to open a simple lock. The servant, embarrassed by having implied an insult, had assessed he should rather waive the promised money and dashed off.

Thus Evangeline sneaked into the workshop and waited, about half an hour before the prince was to come there. She immediately regretted arriving so early, alone, but she couldn't be sure the prince wouldn't come sooner than that servant had told her, and the idea of waylaying the prince in his private place was just too alluring to her.

She searched the room for anything interesting to kill time. She'd known about the prince's weird hobby for a while as he himself had mentioned it, quite enthusiastically. Evangeline's impression had swayed between boredom and awe at this. How strange that a prince was spending his spare time on such menial, Red work.

Yet he apparently knew what he was doing. He kept his tools and materials in good order, with some of of the things spread on his worktable where he was currently working on something. It seemed like some kind of motor. Evangeline didn't bother to understand the machine, it was enough if she appeared interested in this to the prince.

Eventually, she felt the tempation of all the metal around her, so she started to playfully throw some screws and nuts into the air, letting them swirl and spin, in smaller and wider circles. It made her smile, as always. What was she without her ability? Strength comes from the heart, as her father kept on saying, but without mastery over your ability, daughter, a Silver is nothing.

The door was slammed open, and Evangeline turned to beam at the startled prince, who was dressed in a plain shirt and cargo trousers.

"Lady Evangeline?" he asked, bewildered.

"Your Highness," she answered, walking to him, the screws still spinning around her. "I'd like to learn about your works as your descriptions have made me so very curious." She gathered the metal to her hand, making it take on the shape of a laurel crown that she offered to him.

"Oh, wow," the prince murmured, gripping the crown like he didn't knew what to do with it. "Um, did you use the screws on the table?? I have need of those ..."

Evangeline gaped at the way he disregarded her efforts. How could he? She was the daughter of House Samos, as good as his betrothed, and he treated her like furniture. She collected all politeness remaining in her.

"Your Highness, would you please -"

"What? Excuse me, but I need to settle this first ..."

Evangeline threw a screw nut at him. He barely dodged her attack, but she had the next one ready. It flied the other way and, as he wasn't so quick for another time, it sliced his cheek and drew some blood. For a moment, Evangeline was afraid of her own courage, but the spirit of battle flared in her already. Another dozen of screws started to spin around her, about to become missiles.

The prince frowned, but his instincts took over soon enough. The soldier prince didn't hesitate at a challenge. He used fire and pace to push Evangeline's shots away, but the surroundings weren't in his favour. He didn't want to set his room ablaze, while Evangeline had a nearly endless supply of metal objects. She estimated this was the moment to test her newest technique, invented by herself: moving metal creatures, encircling her opponent. She had just enough material in the workshop to build such a spider creature in the corner while she continued to shoot at the prince.

But suddenly, a flock of little flames raced in her direction. She flinched, holding up her arms in defense, thus forcing her to stop her own attacks. When she looked up again, the prince stood directly in front of her, grapping her arms and pushing her against the shelf behind her. Evangeline managed to pull her metal spider closer, but as it tried to jump at the prince, its structure disintegrated, showering both of them with numerous metal pieces.

"My lady," the prince said moodily after a few seconds, "would you be so kind to pick up those ... screws?"

She was about to obey, but she chafed at doing the work of a Red servant. Yet the frown of the prince allowed no objection. She sighed as he let go of her and she lifted the mess onto the table with a jerk of her hand.

"Thank you, Lady Evangeline," the prince said with a polite, joyless smile. Was this what she had been looking for?

"Your Highness, " she replied with a curtsey, and left him alone to his hobby.

Commentary:

Okay, probably you have quite wtf? faces now. This is very different from the previous chapters. But I decided I would rather post a short chapter, with a complete storyline, quickly, instead of making you wait for a long one with a lot a stuff mashed together.

I like to explore Evangeline trying to win Cal over without being that interested in him. That, and the idea of the workshop fight. I can barely walk across a box of screws without imagining what lethal things Evie (or Vin Venture *cough*) would do with them ;-)