Ch. 1

The room was warm, and comfortable. Verging on the edge of too warm, but she kept the blankets just the same, using them as a barrier from the sunlight that had just started streaming in from the now open curtains. Who had opened the blinds? And for the love of god, why had they opened them?

Groaning, she rolled onto her side, her back to the window, and closed her eyes to the light, trying to grasp at the dream. Trying to remember it, to bring back the sweetness of it. No doubt the dream was inspired by her own wedding planning, which was finally to come to an end in just a few short hours.

At the thought, Raven sat straight up. The light streamed in, unfriendly and harsh as it illuminated her reality. Someone shuffled from near the window, and Raven turned her head straight into the sunlight, the light bouncing off the waves in the ocean outside of the window, seemingly just to make the sun seem all the more bright to her unadjusted eyes.

"Sorry to wake you, but it is time to start getting ready." The handmaid moved toward the chair in the corner of the room, throwing some garments over the back of it. Raven couldn't help but notice the dress, shimmering in white, cast over the simple chair. Too simple for this dress.

Raven Kamonas, princess of Eanneomund, first of her name, sat up straight in bed then, fully remembering. Today, she was supposed to get married, married to a king from a faraway land. A man with piercing blue eyes and muscular arms, tanned and beautiful. Why wasn't she excited?

It could be that one thing. That might have something to do with it, she thought.

Dismissing any negative thoughts, Raven forced a smile and replied "Trying to get my beauty sleep. Can't look anything less than my best today." Tapping the mattress a couple of times nervously before she got up off the bed, Raven sighed and pushed herself up.

The handmaid looked relieved, as if someone had told her she was going to have to pry the princess out of the bed and sew her into the wedding dress. Maybe she had heard about the royal fit that Raven had thrown when she learned that she was to be wed.

She should have known, known that it was coming. The nation was constantly at war, they needed allies. Specifically, they needed Mecealion as an ally, after their loyalties were thrown into chaos with the death of Mecealion's current king. In come Zophos, the former prince, thrust into leadership by his father's death.

What a glorious opportunity it was, to hear her father tell it. But, after all, what was a princess but a commodity to be sold off, Raven thought bitterly. Sons are for leadership, for continuation of their good name. Princesses were for alliances and breeding.

The handmaid was still looking at her feet, Raven had been silently thinking and scowling for far too long. She had to get that under wraps. Kings like a lady who smiles, Raven's mom had been quick to remind her, minutes before she met Zophos for the first time.

"Alllllrriiiiiiiggghhhhhttttt. Let's do this." Raven finally addressed the handmaid, whose name she could not remember. They switched them out so often, there was no point. Her fault, Raven thought with a twang of guilt.

Standing, Raven could feel the cold tiles on her bare feet, the white marble sparkling with the sunlight.

The getting ready seemed to pass by in a blur. Soon she was fed, bathed, and her undergarments were on as they started buttoning her into the dress. It really was elegant, even if she didn't want to be in it. The top was framed by a tight corset, far too restrictive. Cutting low across her chest, teasing at what she wished the king, her king, she supposed, would never see.

Billowing out around her, and supporting a train that had to be ten feet long, and patterned with an elegant flowering of lace, it truly was something to be marveled at.

Her mother had worn it before her, some 25 years prior, although adjustments had to be made for the length of her legs, always too tall, and taken out for her hips, which she considered to be too wide. Her mother would say they were perfect for child rearing, a thought that made Raven nauseous.

Almost there, almost there. No butterflies. Weren't there supposed to be butterflies. Someone was doing her hair, the black of disappearing from the edges of her vision as the elegant braid her mother had planned was made, lock by lock.

Somewhere behind her, her mother twittered behind her, oh-ing and aweing at the smallest things. "Mom, please. Calm down."

She heard her sigh. "You could feign excitement. When Rachel got married she was absolutely glowing. Just embrace the process."

Raven just shook her head, which was met with disappointment by her hairdresser, who snapped her head back into place, along with some tutting noises that, combined with her mother's frequent sighs, made her feel slightly ashamed.

Taking as deep of a breath as she could in the corset, she tried. She really did, to imagine a life in which she was happy with some man she hardly knew. Imagine kissing the man with the bright blue eyes, being held in his strong arms.

She felt slightly sick. While her sister Rachel planned her wedding from childhood, Raven planned sword fights with the boys in the courtyard. She planned games of hide and go seek, emerging soot covered from fireplaces and dust covered from long forgotten passages, as Rachel played with dolls. As Rachel learned needlework, Raven ran from all that she should be.

You would think her mother would have ceased to have any hope for her youngest daughter, long before the incident.

Not today, Raven thought. Forget it, just for today. Be happy, just for today. Be the daughter they want.

Putting on her smile, remembering that she could only take it off when she wasn't in front of her soon to be husband, Raven pretended. "Of course I am excited. I am just nervous. He is sooo handsome." Hopefully that was the right thing to say.

This time, her mother's sigh was one of relief. "He really is! Oh, I wish your father had been that handsome. That face…" Her mother said, staring off in some sort of daydream.

Raven let her go, but kept her smile. Her parents had hardly known each other before and they got along well to this day. Surely that is what she could hope for.

She wasn't quite sure how she got there, but Raven was standing there, at the end of the aisle. She could smell the ocean salt, could hear the waves distantly hit the rocks. If she looked past her fiance, she could see the waves lapping at the shore. The sun was less blinding as it reflected across the waves and hit her face.

The carpet leading up to him was rolled over the sand. White painted chairs lined either side of the carpet. The guests were standing, the piano was playing. Raven's father, Aleander Joseph, King of Eanneomund, had his arm looped through hers, ready to escort her down the aisle. His brown hair was thinning at the top, which is why he had it cut short. The light made his trimmed beard look almost red. His eyes were soft with sentiment as he looked at her, almost proud.

Was that pride? She couldn't tell. He nodded at her and she nodded back. In unison, they took the first step together, leading his daughter to her new life. Why did it feel like the end, not the beginning of something new?