Golden Prophecy

X I I

BACK AT Hornwell Academy, Andorra sunk under the covers in her bed. She was trying, so desperately, to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach that was telling her to turn around and go back to the human realm. It would be so, so easy.

She could do it right then, and no one would know where to find her. No one would even be able to find her. And she could return back to normal with her parents.

Coralia sat on her bed with a loud sigh. "Andorra, you're moping. I think. It's not too bad that you have guards now. I mean yeah, the choice in guards absolutely sucks, but there could be worse things."

Andorra pushed her face into her pillow. "Doubtful."

"Okay, yeah, kinda doubtful. But think about it. Soon we'll be able to get you some new guards and they'll be out of your hair. And we can ignore Aihfie as usual."

Ignoring Aihfie didn't seem to be the issue. Andorra hadn't seen her once since that moment in the square with her father.

Andorra pulled her face away from the pillow, eyeing Coralia. "Do you really think that it'll work? That the guards will agree?" She was having doubts - major doubts. Why would anyone want to secure themselves to her when it was becoming clear that people in Anlithamy didn't even seem to care about her? It was becoming increasingly obvious that very few people actually thought she could do this.

"I think the guards would be foolish not to protect the future queen. Andorra, you're forgetting that whether or not people like you, you're going to be queen regardless. You are where the power lies, and whether or not it's for good reason, everyone wants to control a piece of the power."

Like Prince Puck wanting to spy on her. Like the shopkeeper trying to bind her. "I need to do something. To prove that I'm more than this little girl."

"So, let's start here at Hornwell. A lot of the students that go here are affluent and are connected to people with scraps of power. Get the children to like you and it won't really matter much what the parents think. We are the future, Andorra. Not my mother, not Aihfie's father. Us. And the kids here know it."

Andorra sat up, smoothing down her hair so it wasn't in her face. "Okay, so I become popular. Not really sure how to do that when it's pretty obvious that Anders is the golden child here."

Coralia leaned back on her hands, her face pensive. "Not the golden child. People don't really like Anders and the rest. They look up to him because they understand that one day he'll be king."

"Is this where we throw in the loser-turns-into-the-pretty-girl montage?"

Coralia stood up, laughing. "Human movies aren't really a thing here, Andorra. And neither is that weird trope of high school teen movies. But, we could work on your confidence."

Confidence. Yeah, Andorra could use a little bit of that, if nothing else.

Coralia stood up, reaching a hand down to Andorra. If anything, the red head didn't seem deterred at all by the events that occurred in the square. "C'mon. We won't make any new friends laying here in bed. We should get some air. Or at least explore Hornwell. You've never even seen all there is to see here!"

Andorra stood from the bed. "Okay, you're right. Let's do some exploring. Maybe take my mind off of things." She glanced in the mirror at her outfit as they both walked out of the room. Andorra tried to remind herself that Cornomous believed in her. He wouldn't have made her Princess otherwise.

And, hard as it was to remember, Andorra knew she had to be talented in some aspect. There was something special about her and only her that had made her part of the prophecy. What that was, Andorra wasn't entirely sure.