Down With The Bloody Big Head

Chapter 2

The palace of Marmoreal was quiet. The champion had moved in with Tarrant at his house after they got married, so they were no longer at the palace apart from when the Tarrant dropped off hats to the queens. The rest of the Hightopps already had homes for themselves or had rebuilt them. Thackeray lived with Mally at the mill and nobody quite knew where Chess lived. It was too quiet since the wedding, Iracebeth decided.

'Spending time with Mirana is great,' she thought. 'But it does get lonely when she's busy with being the Queen.'

So she spent an afternoon thinking about what be done about it. Her being lonely that is, not Mirana being the Queen. Her thoughts floated back to all those she loved throughout her life.

She thought of her parents, even after her mother blamed her for eating the tarts, even after her father gave the crown to Mirana, she loved them dearly because they were her parents and she missed them after they were gone and still does sometimes.

She thought of Mirana. She loved Mirana after everything, every fight, battle, argument and war. She only ever wanted to know if she truly was sorry about that night. Thanks to the love and support of Mirana and their friends, Iracebeth's head had shrunk down to a normal size. Her red hair wasn't becoming grey so quickly as she didn't have many stresses.

After Mirana, she thought of her dead husband. She regretted that she killed him. She regretted all of murders she committed but this one the most as he kept her on the edge and stopped her from plunging into madness. And after he was gone, Ilosovic Stayne came, dragging her further down the rabbit hole of insanity.

Stayne was the knave of hearts, chosen by the king himself. She didn't truly love him, but she was in love with the idea of being loved by someone who never would Mirana tell that she looked beautiful or that she was magnificent or intelligent, someone that would never love her, Mirana that is. He didn't love her either, judging by the amount of women she had killed for being seduced by him or was the fact that he hadn't needed to give killing her a second thought, when they were sentenced to live in the Outlands. Still he was there for her when no one else was and he didn't deserve to die.

Finally she thought about Time, she never knew if she loved him. Then again she never opened her heart to try to, it was too damaged and too fragile to even try. But it was healing now, and she was letting herself think if it was a possibility that she could love him. Despite what she felt her heart- if she loved him or not, she still abused his love and trust before and could not expect it again.

She thought more and more about other family members and her friends and settles herself into planning a tea party which she would invite all her friends and Mirana. And of course Time.