Skylar Velcourt was sat in her chambers, surrounded by her handmaidens. She shifted in her seat, and fiddled with her fingers. She stood up, paced around her room, then sat down again. Her mind was full of questions, and although she knew the answers, she asked anyway.
"Vera. How many days are left?"
"I believe you have but a fortnight, my Lady."
"And my dress?"
"Her Ladyship has ordered the most beautiful dress for you from Madame Seraphia. No doubt you will look as beautiful as an Astros sunset!"
With a sharp sigh, Skylar glared down at her hands. Those words should have made her happy, but they only filled her with a restless dread.
"Beauty will not save me, Vera," she said, keeping her voice level. She did not wish to burden Vera or her other handmaidens with her anger. It was not their fault. They weren't the ones forcing her out of Astros. "I would willingly turn myself into a vile beast if it meant that I could stop all this from happening."
Skylar cradled her face into her hands. She whined, like a trapped animal with nowhere to go. "I can't believe the King and Queen have agreed to attend. I mean, I expected it, but I hoped they would decline. Now, the whole Kingdom will be there. Hundreds of eyes will witness the death of Skylar Velcourt and her pointless sacrifice."
The doors to her chambers burst open. Skylar stood immediately. Her temples pulsed with an inevitable headache as there was only one person who would ever barge into her chambers unannounced; her Ladyship of Astros, Saira Velcourt, who also happened to be Skylar's mother.
Saira sauntered into the room. She was already dressed for the evening's ball. Gold jewels flashed at her throat and her fingers, and her dress resembled a waterfall of overlapping blue silks. The skirt flowed elegantly down her form, and a dark blue cape, embroidered with golden thread, fluttered behind her.
"How many times must I tell you to stop calling it a sacrifice?" Saira said, her voice tight with warning.
"What else would you call it?"
"It is a blessing." Saira's shoes clicked against the polished floor, and she did not stop until she stood before her daughter. "It is a union of our two great houses. A chance to help Astros and its people."
Skylar said nothing. Even her father, Lord Cardinal of Astros, Alfred Velcourt, would have been humble enough to knock, or one of his servants would have declared his arrival.
But Saira did not believe Skylar had much use for privacy.
Skylar had seen more of her mother in the past three months than she had in the entire year before. She was always close by, her presence, inescapable. It started with Skylar's proposal, and it would not end until Skylar was sat in her wedding carriage and taken away.
She saw very little of her father. Alfred hadn't visited her very much in the last three months. And it was Skylar who was responsible for that; she was refusing to talk to him.
It was her own vow of silence, one she had failed to extend to her mother. It was like muscle memory with her; speak when spoken to, sit up straight, or smile despite the heartbreak, especially when the courtiers cheer upon hearing the fate of their young Lady Skylar.
"I believe there is no other word that fits my woes more perfectly, Mother," Skylar said quietly.
Saira's eyes narrowed. "King Iramund has abandoned Astros, Skylar. He has forgotten your father, the Champion who helped him win the Long war. If this union helps him regain the influence he once had, Astros will surely prosper again."
The tone of her voice, each syllable, each reprimand, felt like the sting of a whip that had struck Skylar many times before. Skylar wanted to get away, but only her mind could flee, while her body fell behind. Her mind escaped to the glass doors that led to her gardens. There, her fruit trees and flowerbeds awaited. And the giant fountain, home to a dragon carved from jade and marble, spilled water from its mouth.
In spring and summer, she picked the fruit herself. Pears and peaches. Lemons and figs. Sweet cherries that stained her hand red.
She'd wash and sort the fruit, and collect it all in a big basket. Then, she'd walk through the castle, sharing with anyone who crossed her path. From servants, guards and stablemen, to the gardeners, cooks and even her tutors. Visiting courtiers who looked at her like she was wonderful, and surely whispered once she turned her back. And of course, her parents.
Saira would frown at the unseemly sight of Skylar's stained hands, at the giant basket lying in the middle of the Great Hall like common produce. She'd say that Skylar should let servants handle such things, or allow the cooks to serve them properly. And yet, she never declined the sweet cherries and the figs from her daughter's garden.
And her father...
Skylar's eyes watered and her chest tightened. Alfred enjoyed the peaches the best. The two of them would sit together, juice running down their mouths and wrists with each bite. The memory made their separation that more painful. Skylar had never gone this long without talking to him. Even when Alfred was away, travelling across roads and oceans to faraway lands, she wrote him a letter every single day. He always sent a letter back, each one addressed to his "Sunrise". Skylar could not remember the last time she'd heard him call her that name. Alfred had given it to her the moment she was born, at dawn, of the first day of the new year.
"Skylar, are you listening to me?"
Saira's voice snapped her back to the present. Two handmaidens presented a necklace each to her Ladyship. Saira took one, a silver necklace embedded with glimmering blue sapphires, and held it up to the light.
Skylar stayed silent and waited. There was no need to answer; her mother was far too busy to actually listen. It was then that Skylar realised she had yet to see the dress that had been picked out for her for the evening.
She did not spend too long thinking about it, as the thought of her father consumed her with guilt. It rushed through her and weighed down upon her chest. It tried to warm the ice of betrayal around her heart but Skylar pushed it away. She refused to let the guilt excuse her father's crime. After all, it was he who had condemned her to the cruellest fate of all; to never matter.
When Cario Everus had proposed a union between their Houses, Alfred did not take long to accept. Soon, she was betrothed to marry his son, Lord Caspian Everus, who at such a young age, had already taken his father's place. Once Skylar married, she would rule by his side as Ladyship of Xoras, and be known as Lady Everus, and not by choice.
Her future, hers to shape and build, had been ripped away from her. It was a betrayal. Alfred had raised her to dream, to believe she would do great things to rebuild Astros. Skylar dreamed of returning her homeland to the mighty realm it once used to be. Now, with but a fortnight to go, it would no longer be her home. She was sentenced to move across its border, to Xoras.
A cold and stern nation. A prison. And yet, Skylar had committed no crime. She was simply born a Lord's daughter, with no control over her own fate or the politics of realms.