Seven Sinful Crowns

Gillian

Gillian sat behind the oak desk waiting. Soon one of the servants would bring her a box of mail she would have to sort through and read, and another of papers to sign. It was exhausting work, really. Not the reading or the signing part, but everything else. The thinking part. The part where she had to make sense of these words and then pluck from the air a reasonable solution for each, and then play it out over and over from every angle in her mind, searching for faults and weaknesses. It was mental anguish, but it was her duty, and one that she took seriously.

"Your majesty." A young man said from the doorway, boxes held out in his arms. Gillin looked him over, her eyes moving along his boyish features in a way that was almost physical. He was handsome...or he would be soon. He was still to soft along the edges, his face still holding the roundness of a boys, and she sighed to herself, gesturing him forward silently. He wouldn't do.

"When you leave here, go directly the guardsmen, and send my captain. Tell him it is of upmost importance and he would not be wise to wait."

The boy simply nodded before slipping from the room.

Gillian pulled the first box forward, lifting the lid and pulling the first envelope from the stack. Taking the letter knife she broke the wax seal and read intently, one after the other. None of it was exciting in the least; minor robberies, claims to lands, tax pardons, appeals to prior convictions. She had seen it all before, unfortunately. It wasn't until she came to a rather plain envelope somewhere near the middle that her heartbeat quickened with excitement. It was nothing special by the outside, and if one were to open it and look within, there would be nothing exceptional there either...unless you knew the incantation to reveal its true contents, as Gillian and only one other did.

"Prying eyes slipping tongues

Reveal to me the words you've spun.

Cloaked in darkness, dead of night,

Reveal the truth by morning light."

And she watched as the words on the page broke apart into a thousand tiny fragments before reforming into something quite different, and she read.

Gillian,

I have read your counter, and I agree, on the following terms:

When father dies, we will join forces only in the defeat of our sisters, and 24 hours after the last one falls, all ties will be severed.

We will not conspire against one another for the duration of our truce.

We will not tell a soul of our alignment.

For the duration of our truce, your armies will be permitted to move to and from my kingdom, and mine yours.

The welfare of both our peoples will be held in the highest regard, and my resources are yours, and yours mine.

And finally, nothing will take place until father's passing.

Then, we kill them, and the war for the throne will begin.

Queen Savina.

Gillian's chest rose with excitement. This had been what she was waiting for, the first piece of her plan to take down her sisters one by one, and take her father's place as high ruler of the realm. She had knew Silvana would be the weakest link - she's always been a lazy child and a lazy queen, and having an alliance would make things easier on her part...for now. It would also allow Gillian to learn her ways in battle and better prepare for the final fight, but of Silvana she wasnt worried. Not in the least, and so she pulled the drawer open and pulled from inside an elaborate pheonix quill and old, yellow parchment, and began.

Silvana,

Then let us meet to sign our new truce as allies, and queens, and sisters this nightfall. You and your forces will now be permitted entrance into my kingdom, and as a show of good faith, my home, with the following enchantment.

Hush little sister,

Don't say a word.

One by one we pluck their tongues,

And one by one they burn.

I will wait for your arrival in the tearoom at ten.

Your Ally,

Queen Gillian

And Gillian sealed the plain envelope around the hidden words before placing it over the burning flame of her desk candle.

She watched as it seared along the edges and then turned to smoke before popping up kingdoms away on the desk of Queen Silvana, her head propped in her hands, fast asleep.