Princess of Flames

The Princess and the Court

          Crown Princess Taylor Whitethorn Galathynius walked down the hallways of Orynth's castle and into the Great Hall where her parents, Lorcan, Elide, Aedion, Lysandra, Evangeline, Ren, and Fenrys sat at the long table. None of her brothers or sisters insight. Or Darrow. Thank the gods. She took a seat next to Elide, the Lady of Perranth. And Lord Lorcan Lochan as she always referred to him as. This was her mother's court. And she was at a lot of the council meetings. They were never boring. Of course, there was hearing them talk about trade and courtly stuff, but then Aelin, her mother, got bored and decided to make a sarcastic comment that not everyone agreed on. And then the entire place was loud with arguing, shouting, and laughing. But her mother could always make people laugh, and always make people frustrated. "Taylor, I know you think this is just another council meeting," she said smiling,"but I brought you here so we can discuss training for you and your siblings," she said with a chirp. She had been begging her mother and father for training with her magic. She had fire magic like her mother and a small portion of her father's magic. "I and your father have decided to do training for four hours, four times a week." "Aelin." Rowan, her father warned as if that was not at all what they discussed. She gave him an exasperated sigh. "Fine three hours, three times a week." She schooled her face into neutrality, even though she was bursting with excitement she managed to do it. "Thank you. Can I go to barracks to train?" She needed to get this excitement out. Most likely by training until she was mentally and physically exhausted. "Yes," she said with the mischievous look in her eyes that Taylor tried not to notice. She stood up and was at the door when her mother said, "Can you tell your brothers and sisters?" That was a terrible idea. They were going to try to fling a dagger at her head or something. That's what she was smiling about. "Mom, they are going to threaten to stab me if they think I'm lying." It was true they might very well decide to kill her, well except one. Breanna. Breanna was a strong, quiet girl who wouldn't think twice to save somebody even if she didn't know them. "Well stab them back then." She heard huffs of laughter from the court but no disagreement, nobody wanted to deal with all four of them. And that was that.

           She walked out the door and into the wide hallway, she let out a breath. How was she supposed to tell them without them freaking out. Just before she got to the garden where the younger three were running around an idea popped into her head. The third oldest sibling and her favorite, Breanna walked up to her. She was like the picture of calm and steadiness. Probably the only sane one in the family. She trusted her the most. She loved Breanna, she was more than a sister to her, she was her friend. She loved her youngest sister Aellyra, but she was a little too wild for one person to contain. Breanna had golden hair and pine green eyes. All her siblings had golden or silver hair from both Whitethorn, and Ashryver lineages. While Taylor was special her mother said with hair and eyes that almost matched. She had long red hair and green brown eyes that looked almost red against her hair but they were just hazel, but enough people said they matched her hair. Her eyes were the one resemblance to the Whitethorn side of her family. She looked like Queen Ansel of the Wastes' twin only not wine red hair, people said it looked more like fire. Her mother said it might have been from Brannon himself. She asked Breanna, "Breanna I need you to go tell them," she pointed to the rest of her siblings "that all of you need to go to the Great Hall, because the court has a big surprise for you." Breanna nodded still calm and walked over to them. Taylor turned on her heel and ran before they could chase after her and interrogate her. She heard yelling behind her as she raced down the halls. When she burst into her room and locked the bedroom door. Just a precaution.

          She walked over to her closet and took out her training attire. Just black pants, a black shirt and some leather boots. She changed and then started putting on her dagger belt with two longer daggers, her Asterion made sword strapped to her back, and a knife in each of her boots. She went down to the barracks, humming. And on her way she poked her head into the Great Hall and found her siblings all except Breanna making their meeting torture. Her mother met her gaze and she just winked at the queen before shutting the doors.