On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Two: Wilting Flowers

                Shadows haunted the throne room.

Sprawling shadows whose darkness crawled over every mandala on the floor and ruffled every tapestry like a cursed Shiruban breeze.

They were shadow hearts lining shadowed eyes that shifted left and right, left and right. Eyes that peered jealously out from behind the throne and up at the crown gleaming just beyond their shadow's reach.

They were eyes that loved the shadows. Loved to lurk and scheme and watch and sneer as a young girl shivered beneath plush furs and firelight.

Those shadowed eyes should have made her weary. Should have made her put down the ancient crown forged from death that felt so warm, so right in her hands.

But they did not.

The shadows made her bold.

The shadows made her angry.

They made her put on her father's crown and smile brilliantly enough to banish the shadows. To drive the envy from those cold, cruel eyes. She was powerful. But she was not powerful enough to cast away the darkness completely.

Not yet.

For now, she could only smile.

"Hello, uncle," she said, and she embraced the man who beat her cousin. Whose hands moved too far below her waist. Stayed there as her smile twitched. As her eyes screamed at him to remove them. She smiled, and she burned her revulsion away, letting the ashes simmer in her soul. Soon, she told herself, soon.

Today, Yuina Mongonai would smile.

Tomorrow, she would rule.

And she would rid her country of men like these.

"Aren't you a little old to be playing dress up, Yuaa?" he asked- challenged. It was a challenge and a threat. Timur's voice lacked any trace of warmth, but that didn't matter. Yuina was fire inside.

"You don't like my dress, uncle?" She smoothed the patterned skirts of her deel, catching herself stopping to admire it for the billionth time. It wasn't her fault. It was a better dress than she usually wore- finer: white silk accented with silver to match the coverings guarding her twin braids. Today was a special day.

"I was referring to this," he said, reaching for the crown. For her crown. Yuina stepped back. "It's not yours."

"Not yet."

Timur clucked his tongue and advanced on her again, trapping her in his unwelcome embrace. His lips pressed into her hair, rattled her earrings. "You're a woman now. Old enough to marry."

Four hours. Yuina still had four hours until the completion of her sixteenth year. She'd been counting since the moon had changed for the day she'd come of age- not for marriage, of course, but-

"Few husbands are pleased to learn they have a thief for a wife. I'm sure the Blue Prince of Bei isn't one of them."

Yuina's answering huff carried the scent of makeup to her nostrils- something else she wasn't used to. Yuina still startled at the sight of herself with a streaked lip, dot on each cheek, and eyes lined with winged-kohl. "Aav will call off my engagement to Prince Osamu."

"Oh? Now why would he do that?"

"I am needed here." Her brothers were dead. Her aging parents couldn't provide another male heir. Yuina hadn't been alive to grieve them, but she couldn't help but feel guilty that their gruesome ends had become a cause for celebration.

"Hmmm. We shall see," hummed Timur, and Yuina prayed to their excommunicated deities that he would turn and leave her alone. Her shoulders fell when he didn't. When he rummaged through his robes and produced a beaded-headdress instead.