Mystery? In a Royal Court?
What price do you pay to protect someone? What cost to yourself do you pay to make sure tender dreams are not crushed?
There are no dragons (not on this planet, everyone is glad about that). Dungeons are generally fo...
Yva collects herself off the floor and gives herself a quick brush of her clothes.
She goes out the same wide tall hallway the princesses and princes went through.
Finding the dining hall, the Queen motions Yva to come to by her.
There is a discussion. "I am going to marry her" says the youngest prince. The Queen says "No. No, you are not." The King's mother, consoling the child and then adding "A prophecy need not be forced and is not generally be avoided by decree." The Queen says "A long-haired girl of nobility shall marry into the house, oh please! The sun rises in the morning, any morning. It gives no specific information."
Many are seated on simple stools and they guide Yva to a stool next to the Queen.
The Queen drops a piece of cooked meat on a bone on her plate. The table is filled with meat cooked on bone. Based on the cleaned bones on plates, Yva thinks the pile started very tall.
She takes few bites and does not much like the taste. Better than the food in the cells she had all those years.
The family is very active. Bites of meat taken off the backside of bone being held by another. An occasional lick on the face of another to remove a smear. Quite pleasing.
Calling Yva out of her thoughts, both the King and Queen are telling her to eat up.
Yva breathes in fully and lifts the bone. Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp. She cleans the bone of meat. Yva takes it all down in a gulp.
The King approves in a nod, and the Queen gives her a pat on the head.
She looks around. They left no meat at all.
The two princesses that slept with Yva grab her and the meal ends. Most of the others seem to find fireplaces. Either in dozy slumber or reading.
Yva reads just loud enough from a book the princesses like. She is pretty sure this is a book with happy ending. It had sad parts, but it reunites the main character with her parents.
She finished the book, and princesses say "Wooh, you finished it. Our voices would have given out."
The princesses give Yva a set of bedclothes. It covers everything except the face (hood for head, feet, mittens for hands). The ones they bought are for trips. When at home everyone wears these.
Nighttime comes and seven climb onto the bed. Being tall and thin, they accommodate Yva (but her being here is a disturbance to the natural bear hug sleeping style they usually have).
In the night, the quick meal of meat gives her reason the find a convenience room. She hopes to find one down the hall and not use the one in this room. The hall is very dark.
When Yva hears breathing and shuffle, it unsettles her. A large shape in the hallway. She lets out a whimper.
The thing moves quickly and her face reacts to pull away. Something tears the hood of the sleepwear, her hair blows as the claws pass by. An odd guttural sound 's.stay out of my bedroom.m.m'.
Yva runs back to the bedroom and goes into the convenience room. Magic light, mirror. No marks on her face. No scratches. The hood and hair protected her. Maybe, like Emme says. There is no real intent to harm.
In minutes, the King and Queen come to see what happened and inspect Yva. They send the delirious prince out of the hall and back to his bedroom. There they find the walls deeply marked.
In the morning, the King and Queen again ask for Yva thoughts. Yva is just glad it had meant no harm or wounds that would need to be explained. Such a lovely visit overall. Yva is sent back home.
As a non-royal carriage of Ursua takes her away, the King and Queen exchange whispers 'At least we know what this all is not in aim of. This girl and the society to protect her, do not appear to mean to harm the reputations of were-beings.'
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