Jewels of the Crown

♛ 11 ♛

The next couple of days are filled with preparations and is mostly a blur. I still can't get my head around it all. After fainting and running out on my mother, I faced them with my jaw gritted, determination spurring me on. After every day, I would retire to my rooms and sob into my pillows at the prospect of what was to come. No amount of writing in my diary helped. I barely saw Faron, and after seeing him almost every day, it felt weird. The day after he consoled me in my room, I realised that it would be nice to have someone with me who I trusted, and as a result, I stood by him the next day when my mother challenged Faron's part in the whole thing. Once he was confirmed to be going with me, he was whisked away to be taught some things that he wouldn't know already. Probably more about protecting me, than anything else. I had said that I didn't want to wait around too long, so we set the date of my departure four days from the day, and now we're on the third and penultimate day.

I'm currently sitting in my mother's chambers, trying to spend as much time with her before I leave. Over the last days, I did a refresher of all the things I was taught about fighting when I was a teenager, but I hadn't really learned much more about the prize we were getting. Robert was to come into my mother's room this evening to bring us up to speed, as Reginald ever since the announcement has been shunned by my mother. Unfortunately, he still works for the castle, and that would change if I had it my way.

I look down to my hand, where it is laying on my lap, and to the constant reminder of what is going to happen tomorrow, which has begun to fade into a scar. At my thought of Reginald, I bring it up to my mother.

"You're going to be alright living in the same castle as the person who is making me do this?" I ask, her health, and what this is going to do to her, a constant worry in my mind.

"I have to be," she answers, looking at me from where she is propped up in bed."You don't, you could banish him," I say, sitting forward in my seat.

"I wish I could, but when you're queen, you'll understand. Reginald may be a bit foolish sometimes, but some of the time, he comes out with pearls of wisdom. He is also a very good lawmaker." I make a noise as if to disagree with and dismiss, what she said. No matter how great they are, when I am queen if they disobey me, they will be gone. I also can't believe her use of the word 'sometimes'.

My mother smooths the silk bedsheets around her down, and I know she's thinking whether to say something or not.

"Adellia, please promise me that you will be careful, and that you don't do anything foolish, that you don't need to. Allow the men that are going with you to help you. Don't believe that because you are the one to be chosen, you have to do this by yourself."

Hurt blazes up inside me, at my mother believing that I'm a weak woman as well. I understand that my welfare is what is getting her to say it, but it only cushions the blow slightly.

"I promise, mother," I mumble.

The doors open, breaking the tension that has arisen in the room. I don't need to look up to see that Robert is standing there.

"Ladies," he says, and when I look up he has gone down into a slight bow. I see a flicker of apology and worry go over his face as he looks to my mother, but when he sees me, he gives me a big grin, albeit a bit forced.

"You ready?" he asks as if it's something I've done multiple times before, and was just going out into another kingdom tomorrow. That idea has helped me through from the beginning and I'm not entirely lying to myself. I'll be travelling through them, but not really stopping. I shift my weight in the seat but force a smile.

"As I'll ever be." Robert pulls up a chair to the bed, facing me and my mother. He looks like he's deciding whether to make more small talk or just get straight into it. With a look at my mother and then me, he decides to just crack on.