Snow White Queen [NaNoWriMo 2018]

Chapter Six

Someone knocked on the door to Lilia's room. She hesitated for a moment, then figured there would be no harm in answering the door.

She opened the door to see the young princess standing in the doorway.

"Hello."

The princess waved shyly. "Hi."

What are you supposed to do in this situation?

"Um, would you like to come in?" Lilia stepped aside and let the princess enter.

Neva hesitated for a moment before she said something. "I heard you're from the country?"

"Yeah, kind of. It's not as country as other places, but it's definitely not like this."

"What's it like?"

Lilia moved to sit down on her bed, then patted the blankets next to her to invite Neva to sit beside her; the princess accepted and jumped up next to Lilia.

"It's never boring, there's always something to do. Sometimes it's planting seeds, other times it might be chasing down a cat that got into the streets and is trying to steal everyone's food." Neva giggled at that - a detail Lilia remembered from her own childhood. "The scenery is beautiful, too. In the summer the green fields stretch for miles, and the trees provide great shade. In the fall, the leaves turn all sorts of bright colors. And in winter, the snow covers everything and it just looks so peaceful."

Neva's eyes were wide with wonder. "I wish I lived there."

"I'm sure it's great here."

Neva shrugged. "It gets boring sometimes. My parents never really let me play with other kids often, unless it's Dorian."

"Who's Dorian?"

"My friend from another kingdom. Mama said he's my suitor, but she never really explained what that means."

"What's he like?"

"He's really cool. He comes over here sometimes to hang out."

Neva and Lilia talked for a while, getting to know each other better. As time went on, Neva seemed to become more relaxed, and Lilia felt herself relaxing as well.

Before long they were being called to dinner.

Well, at least she had one friend in the castle.

~~~

It was the night before the wedding. Lilia was alone in her room, trying to distract herself from reality. A knock came on her door. Lilia went to open it and was faced with her mother.

"Mother! I wasn't expecting you."

"Well, of course I had to come and wish you good luck on you big day." Her mother stepped through the door without invitation. "How are you feeling?"

"Well, you know how it is right before big events."

"You'll be fine."

Lilia debated whether or not she wanted to get into a confrontation with her mother. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you do this to me?"

"Do what? Give you an amazing opportunity that most girls could only dream of?"

"Marry me to someone I don't even know? Shove me into a life that I don't want?"

"How could you not want all of this? When I was your age I would have killed to have half of this."

"I'm not you, Mother. I don't want fancy gowns and jewels and all this- this..."

"Count your blessings. You have no idea what I'm doing for you. You'll thank me eventually."

"You don't understand, I don't want to be queen! Believe it or not, I actually want to live on a farm and actually work for my money and be married to someone I actually love. But not that you've ever cared what I want."

"Well, we can't always have what we want, now can we?"

"Oh, now just because your life was hell, you're going to make mine hell too?"

"You're being ungrateful. Look around: you'll never have to work a day in your life, and you're going to have a husband that can actually take care of you and your children will be well cared for and well educated."

"You know, I could have had that without all this. I could have worked my way to a comfortable life and lived happy knowing I actually earned it. But no, you just had to take that away from me, didn't you."

"That's enough, Lilia. You're doing this whether you want it or not. You can't back out now-"

"Like I could back out in the first place."

Lilia's mother struck her across the face; she recoiled at the impact. She flounced out without another word, leaving her daughter to nurse a burning cheek. Lilia was glad her mother had left. What would she have said if she had seen the tears streaming down her face?

~~~

The next morning. Lilia's face looked the same as it always had, though she could still feel the phantom sting of her mother's palm.

She was wearing yet another extravagant gown, this one ivory white. By her request, there were far fewer layers, though the skirt was just as frilly as ever. The bodice was lined with jewels that caught the light and sparkled like untouched snow on a bright day. Similar gems hung from her ears and around her neck.

None of that, however, was what was going to catch people's eyes.

The headpiece was the staple of the entire thing. A silver crown laid with blue gems, and a lace trail that was the same length as the gown, with a design of roses accented with even more gems.

The traditional ensemble of an Erythrodis bride.

Lilia wasn't a huge fan of dressing up like this, but she had to admit... she had never looked this stunning in her life.

The ceremony went by in a blur. She mostly just focused on doing what she was told and not letting her emotions show on her face, and before she knew it she was kissing the king and the ceremony was over.

Following the ceremony was a ball to celebrate that lasted till sunrise. Lilia tried to stay out of the way as much as she could. She spent most of the night talking to Neva off to one side.

By the end of the night, she was exhausted, though she couldn't seem to fall asleep. Not while she was in the same bed as someone she hardly knew.

I'm back.
So I was listening to various opera songs while writing this, and if you don't know the Queen of the Night aria, which is the song in the media section, is basically an angry queen threatening to disown her daughter, and, yeah...
I'm kind of tired and I should probably go to bed but I only have a thousand more words to write until I'm on par.
Hope you're enjoying. Leave your thoughts in the comments. I'll see you next time.
~Patchesmimi

Day six
Words written: 1321
Total: 8978