Story Starters

Captivity

          The royal handmaidens bustle around me, smoothing and folding my dress. For most women this would be a time of laughter and pre-wedding jitters. For me it is a time of solitary silence before I sign my freedom away and become a member of the Ankhan Royal family. 

          The two women engage in a hushed conversation, slipping into their native language. I can't distinguish what they are referring to with their short hand gestures. I try to pick out some of the words but I can't place any of them with what little the royal tutor had taught me in the past week. 

          I look forward out of the lone window in my room. Through it I can see the dark orange and purple of the shifting sands. In the distance a voyage space craft takes off, what I would do to be on that ship.

          I turn back towards the mirror that they had rolled into my room this morning. The girl inside of it looks nothing like me. I never wear dresses, especially ones with this sheer of fabric. The dark gray material was made up of almost microscopic metal links woven together, it fell long past my feet, the train decorated with a scattering of glittering red and gold gems. The sides of the dress clinging to my skin revealing curves that I didn't know were there. 

          I self consciously pull on the small chains holding up the staggeringly deep plunging collar. I was afraid one of them was going to snap at any moment and turn my dress into a sad excuse for a skirt. 

          The two ladies have finished their conversation and move back over to me, re-arranging the skirt and brushing out wrinkles that I can't see. After a moment, when they both seem satisfied, they gently guide me over to vanity that sits past the foot of my bed. It's been bare for the majority of my stay, but now it is laden with an army of hair clips, jewelry, and about one hundred different colorful bottles filled with perfumes, lip colors, and a bunch of others substances that I have no idea how to use. 

          One of the women takes a brush off the counter and begins to gather my hair behind my shoulders. The other one opens one of the bottles and begins to rub the substance on her hands. The two work together as they begin to twirl and weave strands of my hair together, pinning one to another creating a labyrinth with my hair. Gold metal leaves are strategically tucked in, making an informal gold circlet around my head. Red gems are hung from my ears, and they attach gold chains between my earlobe and the cartilage at the top of my ear. 

          The last touch is the royal family seal traced in black at the nape of my neck, it's barely visible underneath my hair, but I still feel sick as they draw it on. 

          The door swings open and the King's Advisor strides through, his dark green robes sweeping the floor as he comes towards me. The two handmaidens back away from me and sink into a bow. He dismisses them with a quick flick of his hand and they silently slip out into the hallway. 

         Take me with you, I think as the heavy door slams shut behind them. 

          The advisor, or Zacar as he told me to call him, circles me once before stopping in front of me again.

          "They did a good job. You look like a true Ankhan bride."

          I bow my head, "Thank you Zacar."

          He turns his nose up and lets out a dramatic sigh, "It's always a happy day when there's a royal wedding to attend." he glances down at me, "Yours should be no different, despite your little. . . agreement with the royal family." A smirk forms on his lips, "Once you and Prince Lycin are wed, your friend Kalasar will be pardoned of all crimes and given free passage on a trading ship off Verena."