viceofvoices (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
viceofvoices) wrote2017-10-01 12:49 pm
viceofvoices) wrote2017-10-01 12:49 pm
The Iron Princess and the King of Shadow
Once upon a time, in the beautiful kingdom of Higalla, the king was having some trouble. Thanks to his foolhardy love of opulence and excess, he had drained the royal coffers dry and taxed his people to near starvation. Thinking himself superior to his advisors and even his own mother, the king refused all advice and help, continuing his hedonism until the people rallied and revolted.
In order to save his own head, the king of Higalla called upon an ancient, nearly forgotten tradition. The royal family had long ties to the old days of magic and mystery, the first king of Higalla being the favored friend of the fair folk. In times of trouble, the kings could always offer up one of their own in exchange for favor and riches.
Thus the king's only daughter was sent to the edge of the Crystal Grove, the ancient forest in the east with trees so big and old that the bark had turned to rock that glimmered like crystal in the strange lights that floated through the shadows. Everyone knew not to go into those woods -- no one who did was ever seen again.
Princess Elodie knew her duty. She had done her duty all her life, trying in vain to make up for not being born a boy as her father had clearly wished. It was never enough. Though she hungered to learn and grow as the boys in the castle did, she was constrained by her sex, learning decorum and embroidery when she could be learning arithmetic and fencing. Still, she was compelled to excel, even in these narrow margins: if she must be only a gentlewoman, she would be the best.
And so when her father the king told her she must go with these men to the woods for the good of the people, she didn't even bat an eye. She shed no tears, made no pleas. Her handmaidens wept for her, but Elodie was a lady of iron.
What else could she do?
Night fell dark and quiet, the moonless sky fathomless, the shadows so deep and rich that one almost expected to reach out and touch something solid within them. Dressed in a mauve and purple gown and protected by the chill with an ermine cloak, the princess rode to the forest on a white steed, guided by a trio of knights. The Crystal Grove was eerily silent in a way no forest should be, but still the princess was silent, chin stubbornly lifted as if to dare the darkness to find her lacking in anyway.
The horse reared a bit and one knight murmured, "My lady, we must venture here by foot." He held his hand out for her to help her down, and as Elodie slid to the ground on slippered feet, she could feel the knight's fingers shake around her delicate hand.
"You may stay out here if you wish," she said breezily, taking her hand away and squaring her shoulders to face the woods. "I know what I must do."
"Your Majesty..."
She turned back the knights, expression cool, grey-blue eyes like steel. "Be wary, gentlemen, of my father. Loyalty is admirable, but loyalty to the wrong man is destructive." Leaving the knights wordless in conflicted shock, Princess Elodie turned and walked boldly into the ancient copse of trees and into the darkness that swallowed her in seconds.
In order to save his own head, the king of Higalla called upon an ancient, nearly forgotten tradition. The royal family had long ties to the old days of magic and mystery, the first king of Higalla being the favored friend of the fair folk. In times of trouble, the kings could always offer up one of their own in exchange for favor and riches.
Thus the king's only daughter was sent to the edge of the Crystal Grove, the ancient forest in the east with trees so big and old that the bark had turned to rock that glimmered like crystal in the strange lights that floated through the shadows. Everyone knew not to go into those woods -- no one who did was ever seen again.
Princess Elodie knew her duty. She had done her duty all her life, trying in vain to make up for not being born a boy as her father had clearly wished. It was never enough. Though she hungered to learn and grow as the boys in the castle did, she was constrained by her sex, learning decorum and embroidery when she could be learning arithmetic and fencing. Still, she was compelled to excel, even in these narrow margins: if she must be only a gentlewoman, she would be the best.
And so when her father the king told her she must go with these men to the woods for the good of the people, she didn't even bat an eye. She shed no tears, made no pleas. Her handmaidens wept for her, but Elodie was a lady of iron.
What else could she do?
Night fell dark and quiet, the moonless sky fathomless, the shadows so deep and rich that one almost expected to reach out and touch something solid within them. Dressed in a mauve and purple gown and protected by the chill with an ermine cloak, the princess rode to the forest on a white steed, guided by a trio of knights. The Crystal Grove was eerily silent in a way no forest should be, but still the princess was silent, chin stubbornly lifted as if to dare the darkness to find her lacking in anyway.
The horse reared a bit and one knight murmured, "My lady, we must venture here by foot." He held his hand out for her to help her down, and as Elodie slid to the ground on slippered feet, she could feel the knight's fingers shake around her delicate hand.
"You may stay out here if you wish," she said breezily, taking her hand away and squaring her shoulders to face the woods. "I know what I must do."
"Your Majesty..."
She turned back the knights, expression cool, grey-blue eyes like steel. "Be wary, gentlemen, of my father. Loyalty is admirable, but loyalty to the wrong man is destructive." Leaving the knights wordless in conflicted shock, Princess Elodie turned and walked boldly into the ancient copse of trees and into the darkness that swallowed her in seconds.