Lucien's Despair

POV: Lucien

It had been about a day since Alexandra left for Seely on her diplomatic mission. It was strange to me that Elder Edgar didn’t leave with them since he had to observe how well she was doing. I wondered how they would assess how she did. I found myself stopping my work every once in a while thinking about it. I was spacing out like that when Malinus walked in, “Are you okay, Your Majesty?” I snapped out of it, “What do you mean?” He shrugged, “You looked like you were somewhere else just now.” I dropped the document on the desk and sighed, “I find myself just thinking about how Alexandra is doing over there. She didn’t get much rest coming back from the Glades and they sent her off to another realm. They should have given her at least a week to rest.” Malinus nodded, “I imagine that she’s probably tired and homesick. Not to mention with Darren being sick, she probably wants to be around to spend time with him and keeps getting pulled away.” I sighed, “Exactly. I don’t even know how they are going to assess how she is doing. It isn’t like Elder Edgar went with them.” Malinus suppressed a chuckle, “The looks on their faces when you summoned them to the castle to berate them. Anyhow, you have a letter from Queen Reina.” I took the letter from Malinus and immediately recognized the purple seal and hummingbird. I opened the letter and read it:

“Dear Lucien,

I must thank you for letting us host one of your potential future brides. We met her tonight and she was very gracious. I have been asked by your elders to assess her performance from my point of view. I understand they have asked the same of the King. I don’t know how he will assess her but I do know that she is doing a wonderful job adhering to our customs and traditions with no complaint whatsoever. She was also gracious enough to dance with my husband and son. She could have easily turned them down but she decided it would be best to accommodate. It showed that you could send her, as Queen, to deal with any other realm and you would have no worries about her coming away with a peace deal and new friendship. I can understand why my daughters would write me glowing reviews of her. It also shows how she has become fast friends with both of my daughters. As you know Sylphia doesn’t make friends easily so her becoming friends with Lady Alexandra so easily was already impressive. I will write again to send my assessment when she meets the nobility but so far she has been great with the common folk and royalty. You need not worry about her, she is in good hands here. I will ensure she returns to you safely.

Sincerely,
Reina
Queen of the Seely”

I nodded and looked up at Malinus, “Looks like the council is having the King and Queen assess her. The Queen so far has glowing reviews of her. I do wonder why we haven’t heard from the King but it's not too shocking that he would take the time to write to me.” Malinus started looking through his stack of papers and pulled out an envelope with a dark blue seal and the snake emblem on it. I knew this was the seal of the King of Seely. He handed it to me, “I meant to give this to you also but figured the Queen’s letter was better first. Who knew what this person had to say to you.” I sighed, “Yeah, nothing good usually comes when he writes to us. Usually, it is to ask for some scheme he has against the Queen.” I opened this letter and read it:

“Dear Lucien,

Your silly elders have asked me to assess your lovely Alexandra. I will say that you are one lucky man to have such a lady as your potential Queen. Were I a younger man, I would have been tempted to seduce her away from you. I don’t believe in robbing the cradle so you need not worry. She was gracious enough to welcome my son to the Seely Queen’s court. She accepted a gift from my court with such grace that I found myself wondering if she could give lessons to my youngest daughter Nystasia. It was also very lovely of her to accept my offer of the second dance, she turned about the room with my son first. That all being said that she was so lovely, we here in Seely might want to keep her as our charming diplomat to Vellum. She’s very much popular here amongst the common folk. We shall see how she is received by the nobility but I have no doubts that she will charm them as well. I can name one person in particular who has especially become taken with her. I cannot wait to write to you again to give you an update. Hope all is well in Vellum.

Dutifully,
Renier
King of the Seely”

I grunted and crumpled his letter, “What does he mean by someone is especially taken with Alexandra? Who is he referring to?” Malinus sighed, “I imagine he means the prince. He is not much older than Alexandra and she is a beauty.” I looked down at the crumpled paper and remembered who it was that sent the letter. King Renier was always a controversial figure and was likely saying this to get under my skin. I think since the Queen had not mentioned her son being taken by Alexandra that it likely was a ploy to get at me. I almost fell for it too. I closed my eyes and did some centering breaths before I opened them again. I relaxed and looked up at Malinus, “I almost forgot who wrote that letter and let it get to me.” Malinus nodded, “Yes, that is likely the case. I do believe he means his praise of my cousin though. She has the ability to get people on her side more often than not. I have no doubts she is winning them over, especially given the Queen’s account of her as well.”

A knock sounded on the door, Malinus walked over to the door and opened it to reveal my mother’s secretary Tish. She whispered something in Malinus’ ear and he looked at the book in his hand and nodded at her. She then whispered something else in his and he looked at her with a furrowed brow, “Alright, I will make sure he is there. Thank you for letting me know.” He walked back over to me, “Your Majesty, Her Majesty has asked to meet with you for tea.” I looked at the small stack of papers on my desk, “Will I have time?” He nodded, “Yes, most of that isn’t urgent. You can work on that later.” I leaned back in my chair and looked up at him, “Very well. Do you know what this is about?” He shifted on his feet uncomfortably, “Well, she told me but I was told that it would be best if you heard this news from Her Majesty.” I tapped my desk with my pen then nodded, “Alright, is she expecting me now?” Malinus nodded, “Yes, Your Majesty. I believe Elders Edgar and Enzo are there as well.” I rose from my seat, “So this is about Xan then.” He looked at his feet, “Brilliant deduction, Your Majesty. That is all I can confirm at this point.” His confirmation made my heart sink into my stomach. If those three were involved this might affect Alexandra’s candidacy for Queen.

I quickly walked out of the room, desperate to understand what it was that they had to tell me yet not wanting to know. I wanted to be blissfully unaware. I made my way to the garden as directed by Malinus who had followed behind. The three older people were whispering amongst themselves until my mother noticed me. She tried her best to smile, “There you are my son. Please have a seat. Let’s talk.” I took a seat as directed and they waited until I completely settled in my seat. My mother sighed, “I called you out here today because we’ve had a troubling request from the Seely Realm.” Elder Enzo spoke, “The Elder Council, Her Majesty and I suspect Reginald Batiste have all received a formal request to engage His Highness, Prince Calypso to Her Grace Lady Alexandra of House Batiste. The Seely realm understands that she is currently in competition for your throne. The proposition has, understandably, been heavily looked upon favorably amongst the Elder Council. We have tempered this for now but we suspect that it could be bad for her votes here.” I clenched my fists under the table, “This must be a request from His Majesty King Renier. It’s so preposterous and what of Her Has it been made clear how she feels?” Edgar sighed, “I don’t know if anything was done to her but she does not seem to protest. This was a request from both the royal Seelies.” My fists clenched further and my heart felt like it was breaking. I didn’t want to think that Alexandra would encourage his affections toward her. Perhaps she found another that she loved. My mother spoke up, “We have been speaking strategy about this and possibly have a solution that will prevent this from interfering with our competition but we need to speak with the rest of the Queen competition panel. I will call an emergency meeting today. Fret not my son, we shall provide you with a proper solution so this competition completes with no further interference.”

I left the tea table while the others had decided they would call their own meeting to discuss later on today and would let me know their solution the next day. I didn’t want to eat dinner that night because I was a little depressed and I slept very little. I got up the next morning tired, hungry, and depressed when I heard a knock on the door. Malinus came in and stopped in his tracks at the sight of me, “You look awful, Your Majesty. Er, respectfully of course.” I shot a glare at him, “Tell me, Malinus. How would you feel if one day you found out your wife was encouraging the affection of another man?” He nodded, “I imagine I would look a lot like you. That being said, I have two letters from Alexandra here. The messenger said that you should read this one first.” I couldn’t imagine what she would want to tell me and I dreaded reading it but I did nonetheless:


“My beloved Lucien,

I am writing to you because I find myself in an impossible situation here in Seely. It appears that the King is scheming to have me marry his son and place me in his court due to my special dormant powers. Thanks to Loki, he has placed a much-unwanted target on my back. Unfortunately for me, this means that the King has sent his son to woo me. From my understanding from the princesses, he would be tortured and possibly killed if he doesn’t comply. You know that I really don’t want to be the cause of someone’s pain so I am in cahoots with the Prince to keep him from this hurt. No doubt by now, you will have been told of the King and Queen’s misguided intentions to have me betrothed to their son. I would imagine that this proposition is tempting to the Elder Council. I would only ask that you wait until I am out of Seely tomorrow before any of you act upon your greater instincts. Sylphia said if the leaders there were smart that they would declare an act of aggression for interfering with the Queen selection. Also, you will probably get another letter from me, it will either be fake or in my own hand with a bunch of lies in them. I suggest you cast the reveal spell on it to be sure. Just know that any rumors coming from Seely are only from the act I have to maintain here to save a most beloved brother for my friends. My heart will eternally belong to you.

Love,
Alexandra”

I sighed in relief as I finished reading the letter, “I cannot believe I doubted her for even a second.” Malinus nodded, “It seems her good heart has led her into this predicament, Your Majesty. What of this other letter? Do you care to read it?” I nodded, “I’m curious to see what this one says and if it is fake.” I took the letter from Malinus and began to read it too:


“Hello Your Majesty,

I am writing to tell you that I am well and having a great time here in Seely. I thought that I might want to stay here for longer because the Queen and King have both been so sweet to welcome me here. I especially have enjoyed the company of the Prince and had thought that if I do not get selected to be your Queen that I might aim my sights slightly lower and marry him. He is the sweetest person that I know and his father has been equally as sweet. I think it should be an honor to be the bridge of peace between the two realms with my marriage to the Prince. In fact, if I had the authority, I might have asked for my official withdrawal from the competition so that I may focus my attention on becoming the permanent envoy here. You might even consider this for the good of Vellum. I will leave you to this consideration and we can all discuss this when I return.

Your servant,
Alexandra”

Malinus chuckled, “I don’t even know if you need to cast that reveal magic on that. It sounded nothing like her.” I nodded, “Even so we might need this to keep it as evidence should we need it later.” He agreed with that assessment and I cast the magic on this letter and slowly the seal on the envelope turned purple with a hummingbird on it. It appeared the Queen was behind this fake letter this time and, that, I found quite disturbing. I looked up at Malinus, “Bring me my official letterhead, I have a letter to write.”