When Summer Princess Lumikki is offered to the Winter King as payment for a debt, the Winter court is dragged into chaos. Alone in a foreign land, with no one but herself to rely upon, Lumi is quick to adapt in order to survive.
But the longer the...
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She had been confined to her room.
The lack of her presence was obvious and easy to recognize. It felt as if the small warmth that had been able to gather in the throne room suddenly vanished.
The guards had not even realized until several days passed without her, how much they had all found entertainment in watching her.
She seemed like a miniature sun, the embodiment of the warmth that she had been born into from her place of birth, wrapped securely and personified.
There were endless hours of silence, nothing but the small noise of paper as the King read through documents and consulted quietly with members of his council.
Even those who came to the throne room were subdued, as if they were unconsciously aware that something was wrong, and voices should not be raised.
They had been standing in silence. It was a silence that made Marcos want to inhale deeply, but the cold bit into his lungs sharply, causing pain every time he looked at the lonely figure of his king.
It was in this silence, several days in, when her voice could be heard.
Her song was faint...distant.
Marcos was sure she wasn't even aware of just how far the sound was actually carrying. Maybe she was in her room and had left the balcony doors open.
Several minutes of this passed, a stiffness coming over everyone as the song surrounded them and the melody continued.
Wilmot hesitantly approached the King, "My King should I-,"
"Ignore it."
That was all he said.
And for another hour they could hear her. She would stop and then suddenly start, pause halfway or at random change into a different song.
Marcos never was able to recognize the language of her songs. They were all foreign, but at times, he thought he could identify what the songs might be about.
There was one song- just one- that made him almost stop breathing as the pure sorrow etched in every line, filtered through his awareness.
He dared not turn to fully look at the King, but in this song, from the corner of his eye, he watched as the head dropped in emotion that matched with her words.
It did not rise until the last few notes drifted into the silence.
That had been her closing song.
* * *
Lumi knew there were many reasons why they were not letting her out.
At first she thought it was because of her actions from the hunt, but as the days passed, she realized something else was occurring within the palace.
