The Inheritance

Chapter 7: The Stages of Grief

Chapter 7: The Stages of Grief

I'm back. I'll try to update as much as possible so we can get to the action as soon as possible.

Shock
No matter how much he pushed his horse on to gallop, the capital city seemed like it was years away.

"Your Highness, I'm coming," he thought.

It wouldn't escape him. A little over a month ago, he received an order from the king that the small country of Cann on the borders was attacking one of the kingdom's border towns and had taken over. The king sent him instead of anyone else because he was the only person who could end the war before it got out of control. But ten days ago, he received word that the king had died after someone infiltrated the palace on the princess' birthday.

Denial
That time he immediately became distraught and more motivated to finish the war. He couldn't help but think that the invasion from Cann was a diversion to take him away from the king. If he was by the king side, the king wouldn't have died. But there's still no way the king would simply die with the queen and the princess by his side. Something must've happened that night. A handicap or something. Maybe hey were taken by surprised. Could the person who attacked have been stronger than the queen.

But, even if the person was a sorcerer, if he was there, the king wouldn't even have to lift a finger and he'd take down the enemy without remorse.

Now that the king was gone, he had to get back to the capital and stay by the queen and the princess' side. He had to go to protect them and support them.

"Hya, hya," he said as he snapped the reigns again to make the horse go faster. He had to get to the capital sooner than possible.

***

Sophia continued to attend Court in her mother's place. When court was over, she was planning on silently making her way to the library to read some books or her room to study or her private courtyard to practice some spells.

She could even hide in the throne room if she wanted to but security was too lacking there.

There were only so many places she could hide from roaming suitors in the palace.

For some reason, after Lord Charles announced that it would be better to gain suitors for the princess, nobles had their sons gathering in the palace as suitors for the princess. In order to try to avoid them, she was taking every chance she could to stay out of any public settings around the palace.

As she snuck to the main ballroom, she went to the third floor of the palace. She stood in front of the crack in the floor and looked down.

The image of when Kairi threw her through the ceiling flashed in her head. She looked up, where they're was a hole in the roof and the sun was shining through to the ballroom's first and second floors. She studied a spell to repair it but it was too advanced. The spell would have to turn back time on the object, to make it as it was before but she didn't have the strength to cast a spell like that.

There was also her mother. When she thought more about it, she felt that repairing the ballroom would be a job for her mother to do. It would be something that would help her move on.

Sophia went and stood on the edge of the hole in the floor. She stood on a loose stone that wobbled as she opened her arms out and closed her eyes. The rock crumbled and collapsed under her weight and Sophia fell down, through the air, past all the floors beneath and landed gracefully on her feet on the main floor.