The Princess and the Courtesan

Chapter 5

A messenger knocked on the doors of Aelin's room in the early hours of the morning to tell her that her parents wanted to meet with her in their own quarters.

She moved slowly towards her closet because she was unused to being woken up so early. At least, it was extremely early to her as she usually got up fairly late compared to everyone else's standards.

She was a princess but that didn't mean that she was allowed to slack off and not do any work despite what her morning routine would suggest. Aelin handled communications and helped organise events while spearheading the work of her charities as well as the ones the royal family endorsed.

Her late mornings just meant that she carried on working late at night.

She had a feeling that what her parents wanted to meet with her about though wasn't to do with the work she does.

Lately, every conversation she had with either of them would always end up steering towards the topic of marriage or one of her suitors.

Her feet dragged on the thick sheathed carpet which would be more comfortable to lie on than most beds, and trudged towards the door with the skirt of her dress she had donned flowing behind her. It was a white elegant dress with capped sleeves and cloth-covered buttons down the front that reached her navel. The top half was lace which abruptly ended at her waist and continued on to be a length of chiffon that reached the middle of her shins.

The dress was one that she and Lysandra had designed together and Aelin had commissioned a local, small tailor shop to create their vision. The princess had paid them handsomely for their work, even more than she had originally intended because she was so impressed.

The King and Queen of Terrasen were waiting for her in Rhoe's office. As soon as Aelin entered, she could see that something was troubling them. Their faces displayed sympathy, anger and sadness all at once and none of them gave Aelin any clues as to what they were going to say to her.

They said good morning to their daughter, albeit with stiff lips, and that was apparently as far as they would take pleasantries with her at this time.

Rhoe took the lead, no matter how hesitant he looked about having to do so, and said, "this is a terrible situation we are in at the moment and neither of us can blame you for not wanting to marry someone you don't love. We get that, we really do, Aelin, but you have to understand that we would never make you do this if it wasn't absolutely imperative for the future of Terrasen."

Aelin was confused. Why was it so important that it had to happen so soon?

Her father let out a long breath as though he had read the question on her features. "We didn't want to have to put this much pressure on you but... now it is our only option. Terrasen has been struggling financially for a while. We are forever trying to patch up disputes with Adarlan, the king of Eyllwe has not so subtly blackmailed us by implying he will no longer do business with us unless one of his sons marry you and that means we've had to inflate our prices and now nobody wants to trade with us!" As Rhoe had been speaking, his voice had increased in volume until he had been shouting. When he had stopped, he seemed shocked that he had been speaking so loud and the deafening silence resounded around the adequately sized room.

Her mother looked at Aelin imploringly and said with a calm tone, "we could do without Eyllwe's trade if we had strong ties with another royal family so we thought we would give you the choice."

Aelin was dumbfounded. She had nothing to say. There was nothing she could say.

Her people had been struggling all this time and she had been fussing over dresses, getting them custom made, and going to extravagant balls made to cover up the economic crisis that was happening just outside of the castle walls.