The King of Saminu

Chapter 14

It was easy to say yes to a marriage I had already accepted. Brann knew this as well as I did. But, with the ring on my finger publicly claiming me as his fiancee, he seemed ecstatic. The beautiful ring, while heavy, looked like it truly belonged to be on my finger.
"I have to get back to work soon. Can I walk you back inside?" Brann questioned, and I nodded. He took my left hand in his, brushing his finger against the newly placed ring, and I could feel him shudder with the giddy excitement that he displayed.

    It was a peaceful silence as we made our way back through the castle. As soon as we got to the doors of the larger part of the royal wing, Brann let me go.
"I'll see you tonight for dinner?" I nodded once more, and Brann left with a bounce in his step. Every king needed a counterpart, and Brann had found his. He had a reason to be excited. The guards opened the doorway, as was their job, and I walked back to my room in a daze.

    I was supposed to feel happy. Everything I wanted was standing ahead of me, and I should be grateful. When I get around to thinking about Brann being my husband in the very near future, I can feel the butterflies bouncing in my stomach, the excitement and nerves in the back of my throat, and the heat of my cheeks as I think about what is to come. Brann wants a child, and I am very much prepared to give him one, as our arrangement made very clear. When I think about the details, I am happy and content with the decision I had made.

    Brann was gentle. There was a kindness in his I had never seen before, especially for someone as rich and powerful as he was. He seemed genuinely concerned for my well being, and seemed to want to get to know me in a way most husbands now a days didn't. In Slifni, a relationship was mostly about prestige and power. Even Mams and Pappy, who actually loved each other and wanted to be monogamous, had never shown the same curiosity as Brann showed for me. They showed affection to each other occasionally, but they weren't ever as interested in each other. Perhaps it was the age of their relationship. But, Brann seemed different.

    He had his answer the day I met him. I was going to marry him, whether I liked it or not. I had no other option. If I had said no to the King of Spenn, I would have gotten into trouble. But, Brann let me feel as if I were having options. He actually proposed to me, something that was a dead gesture in Slifni. Pappy had barely even met my fiance, surely not even enough to have known that Brann was going to marry me. A proposal was supposed to be to the father, where they worked out how much the girl was worth. But, the fact that Brann had given me all of the false choices still brought a smile to my face. I had been raised differently than the other Slifnians, and I was able to see the flaws in our system the way most people couldn't. Mams and Pappy cared for their children more than anyone, and because of this care, they had seen through the fog of wrong doings, and changed the way they raised their children.

    I was treated with some form of respect here too. Everyone seemed to genuinely want to help me, and while some people, like Sæoa and Gozst, were intimidating, they still got the job done. Mams used to tell stories of her chambermaids back when she lived in Kaztelu, all of whom would do whatever they could to sabotage Mams. There was no care in the job. According to Mams, they all wanted to move up in the world and marry my father, a young and rich nobleman who was close with the king and ever closer with the prince. She was harshly judged, and any little thing that was deemed wrong was whispered along to my father. He told us that he didn't care back then, because he was in love with Mams and nothing was going to change that. But, this ideology was what brought them to realize that they needed to raise their children to be better.

    When Mams and Pappy were 18 and 25, they got married after having known each other for two entire years. A rare marriage of the liking. Pappy paid a steep price for my mother's hand, and he had told Mams that his biggest dream was to fall in love and raise a family with that love. They waited for those two years, married, and then waited another seven before finally having me. But, the king, Prince Xeoys at the time, had grown angry. Pappy had said he had always seen Xeoys as a younger brother, and had tried to teach him about love and the betterment of their children's generation. During this period of time, Xeoys told his father, King Nederatzi, that my parents were trying to corrupt the crown, and they had gotten into a lot of trouble. Pappy and Xeoys got into arguments about love and marriage, even raising children, and Xeoys, who was barely even fifteen at the time, argued against everything Pappy said.