Ch. 3 I'll Still Belong to the King

I stood on the balcony of the Southern edge of the Villa, my hands resting on an intricately carved banister. The wood slid smoothly across my palms as I comforted myself with its familiar surface. I had just arrived a few minutes ago, having sent one of the other mages to fetch my mother while the wind I was heating up whipped through my hair.

"Lyra," my mother greeted, and I turned my head to the side, offering Sylvren, the Queen Mage a nod and a small smile. The events of last night still lingered in her eyes, and my heart clenched.

"Good morning, Mother," I replied softly. The Queen Mage came to stand beside me, joining me in looking out over the expanse of swirling mist that separated Keystone Island from the mainland.

"I've received a reply from the kingdom of Scepterfall," my mother began, getting straight to business as always. There was no need for small talk whenever Sylvren Belle was involved. 

"Kingdom?" I asked, shooting her a glance. "I didn't even know that you had reached out to any of the kingdoms."

"I reached out to every kingdom, duke-dom, lord-dom, and every other family of power that our couriers could reach. I only sent word to the Lords and Dukes as a fallback and to see where they stood in this war. Their responses are my answers to whether or not they’ll pose a danger to our people or if they could potentially be allies someday. My plan has always been to create an alliance with a king or queen, somebody who could actually get us results." The Mage Queen said matter-of-factly.

I was stunned and continued to stare at my mother. "So what are the terms of this alliance then? What do we have to offer a King? Surely my hand in marriage isn't worth as much to a king as it would have been to a lord or lesser noble."

"It's not," my mother replied bluntly, and I felt a small surge of hope that I had dodged that path. I had been prepared to fill the role of a dutiful wife if necessary to secure the future of my people, but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t been hoping to avoid such an outcome. "He also requires loyal fighters to help secure his own lands. We create an alliance through a marriage; our royal blood joins with his bloodline as a symbolic gesture to the people that mages and humans can coexist." 

My shoulders drooped slightly, the faint whisper of hope flickering out once more. I had always known my life would never belong to me; my people were my life.Over the last two years, I had come to terms with the fact that I would probably end up marrying a stranger to secure their futures. But now, facing the reality of it becoming real felt so much more daunting, as if I had been watching a far-off predator stalking prey from the safety of a cliff, and just now realizing that it was actually right beside me—and I was the prey.

"The King will be sending a representative to speak with us. They should be arriving late tonight or tomorrow morning to go over the contract between our peoples. Once that is signed, we'll make the announcement to our people."

"Today? How long have you known that the King was interested?" I asked, trying to keep my temper in check. I didn't like being left out of these schemes.

"I just got word from their messenger this morning. I believe it was the King's way of ensuring that we didn't have time to prepare a trap for his people. He's still not entirely sure we're trustworthy and won't trust us until we hold up our side of the contract," she said. 

"I see," I sighed, looking back out over the abyss. 

"Lyra, our people need this. We're too secluded out here. This island was only made to support around 50 or 60 mages; it's not large enough to support the few hundred we have living here. With not enough nature elementals left to speed up the growth of plants and food, we can't continue to support such numbers. As it stands, we only have about 20 strong elemental mages left in our ranks, only four of whom are nature-based. They're running themselves ragged to keep the rest of us alive. Aside from our twenty generals, the rest are all mediocre. I hate to say it, but it's true— we cannot rely on them to keep us alive. We, as the leaders, need to do what must be done to ensure our people have a future, that their children have a future.

"This king—he isn't as conservative in his beliefs as the other kingdoms. He's willing to work with us. Hells, he’s even willing to have a mage marry into his family... into his bloodline. There aren't many humans who would even consider allowing us a place in their court, let alone their royal line these days." My mother’s voice softened as she placed a hand on my shoulder.

"But he's only willing to do so as long as we pay with our lives," I shot back. I wasn't sure I wanted to send any of my people, let alone my best soldiers, into a war waged by humans for humans.

"Have you seen the state of our isle? Lyra, have you really gone out and seen the condition of our people? I'm sure going to war to secure a better life for their families, for their children, is a price any of them would be willing to pay. There's nowhere else for us to turn. There is war and bias on all sides of us. King Turrent is offering food, medicine, and any other supplies our people will need to survive throughout the war. Until we can reclaim our lands on the mainland—which he also mentioned he would be willing to help with once the wars on his borders are taken care of—we're lost. This is our answer, and it's a better offer than I was expecting."

"So, this is a goodbye to the way of our lives, then," I said, my voice quiet.

"You'll still be queen, I'm sure you'll be able to—"

"Mother, I know you're not that naive. Even though I'll be queen, I'll still belong to the King. We all will."

"You, my daughter, have never and will never belong to anyone but your people," my mother said, holding out the letter to me.