Temple Palace

Prolouge

The Princess entered the room in a swish of rich silk. She made her way around the great table carefully placing one painted foot in front of the other. The people eating stood at her entrance, and did not again rest until her entourage and her had sat. Bright sunlight streamed into the room through the low glass ceiling.

Rich pillows and carpets sourounded the low table. On the plates of the guest were fine foods expetly decorated and arranged. The party ate in silence, broken only by the royal family. 

"Your seventeenth year is approaching," the Queen said quietly. The Princess stared at her with blazing eyes.

"You need to announce your betrothed at the ceremony," the King added.

"I am betrothed already," she stated to her food. "I'll thank you to remember that." The other guests stared at her shocked. Perhaps because of the preposterousness of the words she had spoken, or maybe because of the surprising amount of emotion she had let out in that sentence.

"Dear, you have to let him go," her mother said softly, quietly for her ears only. But in the hollow room the word carried cruelly to everyone else. The others stared at her with pity in their eyes. Of course they all remembered the horrible thing that had happened to that boy. So sad, they whispered, no hope for him. The poor Princess.

She saw all these thoughts on their faces and her composure slipped. A glimmering tear escaped, leaving a line down her cheek, where it washed the blue paint off.

"Darling," King Herik said passionately, "your mother only wanted to point out that you could have any man in this Realm if you wanted. You are the most powerful person here."

The Princess stood up, suddenly. Gracefully. Leaving everyone else to scramble off their cushions to show her the proper respect as the highest status person in the room. "Well, I don't want anyone in this Realm."

She exited the hall, her twelve ladies following her out in two precise lines, their shoes clicking on the brightly polished tiles. 

That night her ladies washed the symbols and blue paint off of her body and laid out her night clothes, leaving the chamber with only Cassina, the most trusted.

Together they removed her painted on face. Under layers of dark kohl, rougue, and paste, slowly her image appeared in the mirror, puffy red eyes and trembling lips.

"Hush dear. You already cried all of your tears for him," Cassina said. She tucked the Princess under her covers and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Let him go."

That night the Princess ran through the hallways of the Temple Palace, chasing her quarry. Her bare feet smacked against the hard tiles. Her surroundings began to change, transforming into the alleway of a large dark city. 

The boy she was chasing weaved in and out of the empty streets, their breathing the only noise in the silent roads.

Up ahead the boy panicked and ducked into an alleyway, she followed him in a few seconds later. He stood trapped at the dead-end.

"What do you want? Stop following me!" He spat out angrily, one hand on the bricks as he moved as far away from her as possible.

"It's me Tracer," she said gasping. "I've been searching for you for so long."

He stared blankly at her, his eyes sliding to the gap between her and the street. He calculated how fast he would have to run to get by her.

"Please," she whispered desperately. "I just want you to come home."

He looked up at her. "This is my home," he stated, then launched himself off the wall and passed her. She turned to watch him go but made no move or to keep him within her grasp just a bit longer. She looked around the unfamiliar setting. Dirt coated the street, soot the buildings, and all the walls were plastered with illegible posters calling out for help.