WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 25

As I'm sure many of you know, school has started back up this week! For all you guys who are just starting up again, I hope you've had a good first week! This is my first year of high school, meaning I'm a freshman, or, "freshmeat," as I like to say. It gets particularly busy for me in the fall, with dance and cross country, so my updates are going to be less frequent and more sporadic, but I enjoy writing them all the same! Today, if you're reading this and are enduring the constant pain of school, give this a big old star and comment to me what your favorite subject is! Surprise, surprise, my favorite is English.

Enjoy! "You aren't alone." The hope in his eyes cuts deeply. "You have your crown."

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Iris

"What's the verdict?"

"Your city isn't too shabby, Princess," Bart tells me, hands in his pockets.

"Well, you better think so. Because I'll order your death if you say otherwise." My threat ends in a chuckle, low and joking.

He grins, and I return the gesture, though I have nothing to be pleased for. My announcement was made throughout the continent, anywhere reachable and applicable receiving it. Maven, good old Maven, had a prerecorded speech to release to the people. It had an impact, but that damned boy placated it.

Mostly.

But the morning's disappointing news is hardly remembered here, only a couple of hours later. I've been too preoccupied with walking Bart through points of interest in the city, learning about him, and in turn telling the Swift about myself.

Laude, the temple, looms ahead in all its glory. The gleaming brown pyramid is two blocks away, and usually, I'd get an urge deep in my chest to run until I reach the courtyard gates. But today is not usual. My Gods won't be pleased with me, not after what I've done, for the manslaughter of a hundred Whitefire guards, for neglecting my duty to my kingdom. My duty, to sit still and grow crazy in Archeon, to maintain peace between our countries.

I don't deserve to seek the Gods' help, shouldn't even go and sniff my favorite flowers outside of the doors.

On cue, Bart asks, "Do you want to go and pray?"

My eyes splay wide, caught off guard by his question. Nortans aren't religious, it's been explained time and time again. Churches and spirituality aren't forbidden there, but not advocated either. The Calore royal family doesn't practice, otherwise I imagine numerous noblemen would follow suit, if only for appearances.

Yet there's more that surprises me. Praying. When did I last pray? I haven't just avoided visiting Laude, but contacting my Gods, my protectors altogether. The temple is one thing, where I feel closest to my creaters, but I haven't thanked them for the most basic of my blessings for days.

And I... I can't. It's too raw and painful, everything I've done is. Seeing no other way, acting on survivor's instincts, I up and killed those Sentinels, without a thought. Sure, some of them recovered, and I had to get Mare and her sister out of there, but that doesn't justify the sins. The Gods shouldn't, won't condone my behaviors, princess or not. Rather, I'll simmer in my guilt for awhile... before I deserve to pray, to be listened to.

"What?" I say absentmindedly, hoping he'll ask something else, or at least change his phrasing.

"Do you wish to go there, Princess?"

I scoff, shake my head, and roll a pair of eyes. My ex-Sentinel cannot conduct a five-minute conversation that isn't full of satire. I suppose it isn't a bad quality, but it gets on my nerves nonetheless. Constantly throwing in harmless jabs at somebody or other, for the purpose of no reason. Bart calls me "Princess" at least once per minute, and if it were Maven, or that tragic Volo Samos, I'd slap their smirks right off their faces. With Bart, it's something different. At first, it was condescending, as if to replace Princess with "You're the reason my life's gone to shit." Now, he says it like a nickname, something said absentmindedly from years of knowing me.