Lady of Power

Wedding Feast of King Therin and Queen Réalta. Greyscalde Palace: Spring, 286

The wedding day dawned warm, unusual for 4th moon. But it was thanks to those who still had magic, mainly the priests and priestess of the Gods that gave the weather announcement. False Spring they called it, when for a few days in fourth moon the rain would stop, the warm days would be luxurious and the flowers to bloom. Then the rains would come again with a vengeance until the end of fourth moon going into fifth moon.
They dressed her in that gown of heavy white silk after bathing her and styling her hair. She then went to her shrine.
Set up for her once they realized what Gods and spirits she honored it was small enough for her to enter and pray, bending the knee. They had also consulted a mage of some skill and created for her a room for such things. Lighting incense she knelt to gaze at the statues and tapestries representing the faith she had. Then taking out her crystal she held it to the light, setting it down on its stand once more. Breathing deeply she breathed on the stone and watched as the crystal went foggy, then cleared to show a Faerie, her Faerie she called on. Next to him stood a female Faerie. "Sister." He said through the crystal in a soft whisper.
"I have to wed the king today." She said, "The female Faerie nodded seriously. "We have others of your kind in the capitol." "they don't possess-the magic you have, but they have enough Fae power to open pathways to travel. "They have shown us the way." "You must accept this sister." Said the male Faerie, "But why?" "I don't love him, I don't know him, he's old, and why me?" Asked Réalta, "Because of who you are." Said the Female, "Look sister we cannot tell you anymore." "All we can say, is that you will know why you were chosen once you accept this."
"Your Royal Highness its almost time to go." Called one of the Ladies. The two Faeries began to vanish, "Wait." Said Réalta, "How do I accept it?" "Open yourself to the magic within, that's why you have been chosen after all." Said the male before they vanished leaving the stone clear once more. "Your Royal Highness I thought." Said the Marchioness entering. Réalta rose and the Marchioness straightened the gown for her. "Is this not a sacred place?" Asked Réalta, "Yes it is Highness but." Said the Marchioness Belina, ""If it is why disturb my prayers?" "Its time Highness."
The wedding procession had begun. The palace, in fact all palaces had a temple royal but the high temple was where all the great ceremonies were performed. People thronged the streets calling out greetings of, "Gods bless your Majesty!"
The temple itself was enormous with the double doors thrown open. The floors were done in gold, aqua, jet, and sea green mosaic tiles. the stain glass windows depicting great Gods and Goddesses and  heroes. The altar mounted on a dais of seven steps was carved of several woods  into the ever spiraling-pathway that was the main symbol of the faith.
Large choir loft and minstrel box sat to either side of the altar. Réalta walked in a cloud of woe and misery toward the altar, mounting it after the King. He had to be assisted up the altar by a gentleman of the Privy chamber.
Again she recoiled inside. She should be wedding a man of her dreams, someone she was in love with, someone who didn't need help getting up the stairs. "Accept this." The voice of the male Faerie's voice chimed in her ear as she stood facing the priest, away from the crowd that was listening to some of the most beautiful music she'd ever heard. Then their hands were entwined and they had to kneel.
She had to psh away the tears as the priest talked about love and duty, honor and joy, fidelity and truth, and the sacred union and power of that sacred union. Not to mention the high calling she was undertaking. She grasped the sweaty, slightly hairy hand of the king but her left hand was clenched so tightly the nails were digging into her palm. She had to swallow several times to say the vows. After all, these wouldn't be happy tears. The king would know that they weren't, and if she did cry she wouldn't be surprised if something inside her didn't break.
Finally they were asked to rise, the marital kiss given and the chaplet removed. She came back to herself then as the High priest called, "Hail Queen Réalta, Princess of Thuna, Duchess of Kelenmark, and Lady of Visorine." "Wait." She thought, "He replaced the old house with Tuna." "That was the house of the Dorthogg forest." "Thuna bordered Dorthrogg." "It was part of that land." Tenants-had been paying their rents to Thuna for some time, even without an overlord. Thuna was by contrast a quite prosperous house. The royal steward who managed that land would often send moneys to help in times of famine or fire.
She smiled at the king for the first time, openly and willingly. He smiled back as he offered his arm to take her out of the temple. "I thought you might like that house my Queen." He said simply, "I cannot convey my thanks enough Majesty." She said, "No Réalta, you and I are wed." "Please call me Tharin." "All right Tharin." She said, "The guardians called me Rea in short." "I hope then Rea that even though we don't love each other we might be friends." Said the king. She swallowed hard biting the inside of her mouth to keep from crying. "Tharin I hope we might be friends as well." "It is hard for me." His face darkened as they entered the palace. "Come with me." He said, "My wife and I need a moment alone." He said as he dragged her away. "Unhand me." She said loudly, "You listen to me." He said fiercely slamming the door behind him and pushing her against a wall.
"You think its hard for you?" "My wife died." "The woman i loved." "The woman who I hoped I'd spend the last days of my life with." The king said angrily, "Instead she died in childbirth and lost the baby." "My son who would succeed me." "She died and I had nothing." ""For this I must take a little girl who cares nothing for me, who's more interested in her forest lands, and her guardians, and whines because sh's called to a palace where she gets whatever her desires are." She paled at his speech, "Not to mention I'm dying." "I won't live very long, perhaps five years at the most."
He backed away wheezing and coughing. She stared at him, silent tears falling. "You are my only hope Rea, my only hope." "A fifteen year old girl who I don't know." "We are both in pain." Said the king. "I thought that you would at least see that." "But then I remembered how foolish and idiotic young people can be." "But don't worry my love." He said acidly, "The only times we need be together are to get heirs."
"That's not fair." Said Rea angrily,"I didn't know about all this until a moon ago." "How should I have known this would happen I ask you?" "We both grieve." She touched the king's shoulder. "Tharin I'm sorry." She said brushing the tears away. His shoulders slumped as-he dashed tears away with the back of his hand. "Mayhap we can be friends." She said which made him nod, a small smile watery crept at the corners of his mouth. "I am sorry too Rea." "I should have realized you were also suffering." "We both suffer." She said taking his arm once more. "Grief is a powerful thing." He only said as they both wiped tears away and he led her out. "Can you find it in your power to at least respect the calling you hold?" He asked, "With all that is entailed?" "You mean the bedding?" She asked. His mouth twitched at that, "Come now Tharin I may be naive and untried, but I lived in a forester clan where there were farms with new young every Spring and killing in the fall."
"Perhaps I was unkind." He said somberly, "I was also unkind." "Lets leave it though, for our own private talks though." He nodded as they ascended the stairs of a balcony after a face wash for both of them, and a reapplication of rouge to her face again. The crowd roared to see them standing there, her arm entwined with his. He grasped her other arm and they kissed again for the crowd. She smiled at him then and he smiled again. they stood letting the noise pour over them. Another two kisses given a few moments apart before they went inside and the balcony doors closed on them.
They sat at the table side by side as the wedding feast was presented. "Tomorrow there will be a joust." Said the king, "What is that?" She asked over the dessert and fine wines. So he told her about the knights on horseback charging toward each other. "You won't be jousting?" She asked, trying to be sensitive. He laughed, "I did in my younger days." "But no, I will be sitting in the king's box with my men, as you will take the Queen's box." Said the king.
The next day proved to be another great but hot day. The crowd  roared as she ascended the stairs into the Queen's box hung round with deep blue and white curtains. Ladies from her house joined her. the marchioness and Duchess among them. "That is my husband." Said the Marchioness, "He is one of the best knights in the realm." She nodded toward the first two knights, "He'll be challenging sir Neverton."
She saw as the king entered his box with his men. They both were served pastry and fruit and spiced wine as they watched the jousting. One of the youngest knights clattered up to the Queen's box. "Oh bright one, jewel of my heart." "May I have your favor today" He asked. "What?" She asked the Marchioness, "Knights like to have favors from the ladies they choose to fight for." "Its believed that favor will grant them luck." She fished out a bit of lace from a pocket as the Duchess Linerva explained as Réalta bent forward and tied it on his lance. "Majesty you do me well." "For this I shall fight for the victory."
The crowd went silent for a long moment, "They are waiting on you to open the joust." Said the Marchioness. "Drop a handkerchief to the ground, they won't fight without your approval."
She rose as the crowd stilled. A handkerchief in her hand. She opened herself to the magic. She watched as the bit of cloth floated from her hand then fell in the center of the challenge ground. The crowd roared as she sat down, watching as the first two knights rushed toward each other, lances upraised. The first pass went well with one of the knights hitting squarely the center of the older man's shield unhorsing him.
The scone round the younger knight was unhorsed. The crowd went wild as after a check by the monitors they charged again. "The visor!" Cried the Marchioness, "The visor is up!" Several of the ladies screamed. "By the gods his visor!" Screamed one of the king's men. They collided and the man went down. "No!" Cried the Marchioness as his head was turned, "Redolfo!" Everyone looked tensely on as one of the men from the king's box aid loud enough for Réalta to hear, "A direct hit, please Gods not the eyes." The Marquess rose a bit unsteady on his feet. Wavering he swayed then fell to the ground. "No!" Cried the Marchioness as men swarmed the grounds. The Marchioness was sobbing now, hand over her mouth. Réalta felt her power seeking a thread of it that she'd used as often as the more flashy power. Healing green light poured down that thread into her hands. She pulled another cord of power, this one of air and she went floating toward the fallen man. She was of course unconscious of the fact that she'd floated right out of her seat to rest near the fallen Marquess. She slid a hand on him, diagnosing a concussed skull. "His eyes are fine, there's no damage." She said. She did not realize that her voice sounded over the tense mutters of the crowd. She placed her healing hand on him healing the head instantly. She then spent another moment chasing out anything that might offer him bad health. She looked up then only to notice every man and woman staring at her.
She rose tottering a bit before she grounded all that magic back into the ground, through her own wells of power.
The Marquess rose and bowed to-her, "Majesty was that you?" "yes Lord." She said softly, "Then I owe you my life." He said before he remounted his horse.
She went back to the Queen's box not noticing the dirt that clung to her gown. "Majesty." Said the Marchioness kneeling, "I thank you, what would you have in return?" "I need nothing, it is what I do." "I'm good at what I do." Said Réalta as she returned to her small throne, one less ostentatious than the others in the palace.
Still more days passed in balls and parties, more jousting tournaments, hunts and gatherings. The day after the feast officially ended one of the king's men entered the chambers and bowed deeply. "The king is ill Majesty." "I must go to him, what is ailing him?" She asked, "His legs pain him, and he is fevered with a rasping chest." The summer hadn't arrived but a week of rain and damp had the whole palace coming down with colds. The king was too ill to have a cold, it could kill him.
She entered the sick room amid murmurs of "She shouldn't be here." But she went to the bed and saw him tossing and turning. She placed a cool hand on his forehead willing the fever out of him in a hot rush of heat that swamped her. She cleared the infections in his chest and then his joint pains.  He sat up at once well, "Its like Redolpho said." He said marveling at his health, "Like a rush of fine warm wine that goes through you and fills you with health." He rose from his bed and said smiling, "Thank you my dear." "You have saved this old man from the realms of death."