July 2, 1730

Entryway of the Nantuckett Palace

            “My brothers, it has been far too long since we have seen some lovely eligible bachelorettes, am I right?” Freshly turned teen Prince Jongdae boasted.

            “You’re correct, Chen.  But it’s not like you’re old enough to pursue any of them anyway,” Prince Minseok, more commonly referred to as Xiumin shot his brother down.

            Over the past five years, all of the princes adopted simplified names that everyone, excluding their father called them.

            “It’s never too early to pursue!” Chen shot back.  “Kris-ge has been pursuing Yuna since before he knew the word ‘pursue.’”

            The whole group of princes laughed at their oldest brother who scowled at them with a red face.

            “Shut up.”

            His brothers slowly calmed down and they began to cloud away from him, heading towards the entrance of the Nantuckett Mingle Ball.

            Most royal families believed in pure marriages, pure bloodlines, pure sugar, and basically pure anything that could be tacked behind the word ‘pure’.  They wanted to make sure that their children married other royal children.  Throughout every year, several royal families held what were called Mingle Balls, dances where adolescent royals could meet other adolescent royals and possibly fall in love or at least befriend each other.  The only requirements to attend a Mingle Ball were to be of royal birth and at least 13 years of age.

            Royals from all over the globe attended these balls in hopes that their children would find a suitable match.

            Even though in accordance to Exotopian Royal Marriage Law, the eldest child was the only one who had to marry pure, King Heechul thought it would be a good idea for Xiumin and Luhan to begin thinking about marriage.  And plus, two pure marriages never hurt anyone.

            Heechul of course always had several motives with all of his decisions.

            The decision to attend of course included one fear that was beginning to grow on him as time went by.  With the apathy from the Airdrethian crown, Heechul was wary that his eldest son’s fantasy of wedding the young Princess Yuna would fall threw.

            He was secretly hoping that Kris would find a new or back-up bride.

            Heechul looked back at his sons as they trailed behind him.  They were all good-looking young teenagers, catching other royal eyes would be no problem.  Other royals catching their eyes would be where the troubles would lie.

            “How long has it been since you last saw her?”

            15 year-old Kris shook himself from his thoughts and looked down at his younger brother, Prince Lay.

            “Five years.  Yet, no day goes by where she does not wander through my mind.”

            It had been five long years since he had seen his beloved green-eyed, black-haired, giggle –holding-grinned, Airdrethian Princess.  He had waited in anticipation to see her again, and to eventually marry her.  He had kept and framed the flower crown she had gifted him.  He hoarded the Airdrethian portraits delivered every year.  He wrote poems, sonnets, and songs about her.

            Kris was undeniably in love.

            “Are you excited to see her today, ge?”

            “Is that even a question?”

            Lay quietly chuckled at his older brother’s enthusiasm.

            “At least introduce us to her this time.  You hogged her at the Eclipse Festival.  Tao is still resentful over it.”  Kris smirked as Lay walked forward to join his younger brothers who were entering the ball.

            With each step Kris took, his heart pounded harder and harder in his ears.  Yuna was coming closer and closer to him, and that thought alone had him internally bursting at the seams.  He felt like a piñata filled with paint, on the verge of exploding into a colorful mess across the hall.

            And he loved every moment of it.

            The Nantuckett ballroom felt like a haze.  A beautiful haze.  Kris dodged dancing royal teens, eyes scanning for one coal-haired girl.

            His gaze landed upon the Airdrethian family’s table – Queen Amethyst’s iridescent hair made it easy to find.

            There’s Queen Amethyst…Princess Galleria…Princess Lorraine…King Ephraim…and…that’s it.

            That’s it?

            Y-yuna?

            He did a double take.

            Yuna was not at the table.

            He frantically looked at every corner of the room, not leaving one spot unseen.

            Yuna was nowhere.

            “Woah Kris, what’s with the face?  You look like you’ve just swallowed horse dung,” Luhan joked and clapped his brother on the back.  It took him a second to grow worried.  Kris was trembling.  In rage.

            “Yuna is not here.” His voice came out in a low growl.

            “What?”

            “She’s not here.” a deadly edge characterized his tone.

            “Woah, woah, let’s calm down and go talk to the Airdrethian court civilly.  Take a deep breath, your woman could have just run off to the loo.”

            Luhan led the still trembling Kris across the hall to the table with snow haired women and a tan and jolly king.  All were laughing with the royal court of the desert country Camano.

            “And I said tha- Oh, Kris and Luhan!  How nice to see you, where is your father?” King Ephraim immediately stood up and strongly shook the two Exotopian princes’ hands.

            “Flattering the hosts, as is his style,” the younger humored.  “So, introduce us to your family again, sir?  I’m really terrible with names.”

            The King let out a guffaw and to Kris’ short relief, fell for Luhan’s simple word play.  He pointed out the lovely Queen and Galleria and Lorraine, his smile never leaving his handsome face.

            Yuna was not mentioned.

            “Don’t you have another daughter?” Luhan asked, feigning ignorance.

            Kris could have sworn he heard Queen Amethyst mutter something that sounded a lot like “Unfortunately,” under her breath.

            “Ah yes!  Yuna!  She’s only twelve, so she could not come.  It is unfortunate that she stays in the castle by herself, but I’m sure she’ll fair well and hold down the fort,” Ephraim declared with a smile.

            “That’s strange,” Kris’ voice finally surfacing into the conversation.  “Our brother Tao is 12 and the Nantuckett court said it was fine he attended because the rest of the family was.”

            “We didn’t think to ask,” Queen Amethyst deadpanned.  Her expression was blank, but Kris could identify agitation in her eyes.  “Even so, I doubt that Yuna would be mature enough to handle sea travel, or balls, or adult things like this.  Despite it being acceptable for her to attend, it is evident to me that she was clearly not ready to handle this type of event.”

            Luhan put an arm on Kris’ shoulder to calm him down and hopefully hide the fact that Kris was shaking in fury.  The piñata had evolved to a bomb, still ready to burst, but now in a much more gruesome way.

            Pleasantries were exchanged between the younger prince and the Airdrethian king before the parties separated.

            Two things were now very clear to Kris.

            First, it was obvious to him that Yuna’s family was not suitable for her (especially her god-awful mother).  She needed him to marry her and rescue her from them.  Kris decided that he was the only solution to her apparent ‘cry for help.’

            Second, if he ever wanted to find a Queen who spouted pure bull , he knew exactly where to find her.

March 2, 1730

Waiting Room, Airdrethian Castle

            12 year-old Yuna shoveled her fingers through her long wavy coal hair as she paced up and down the waiting room.  She had been called by her parents for an appointment, and was currently being held in their waiting room, where guests and diplomats were usually sent to wait.

            She wanted to let out a sarcastic laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

            Had she been Galleria or Lorraine, none of this would be happening.  No appointments, no waiting rooms, no-

            Yuna shook her head, shaking the thoughts away.

            I can’t believe that I’m about to have a conversation with mother…this never happens…

            Within the past five years, Princess Yuna had only had one actual conversation with her mother, when she had reached a peak of desperation from the loneliness.

            Over the past five years, that was the only emotion Yuna ever really associated with herself.

            Loneliness.

            There was a deep disconnection between her and her sisters that she couldn’t figure out.  Even while being in the same room or conversation as them, Yuna felt like there was a screen in between her and Galleria and Lorraine.

            Her father was now always busy working out and preparing Galleria for a pure marriage.  Though Airdrethian laws stressed marriage strictly through love, the one overruling law was that an heir must be produced by two parents of royal blood.  As the oldest, the duty of royal marriage was passed to Galleria, who did not mind at all.  Ephraim was too busy with the beginnings of preparations and magically training his oldest two daughters to spend very much time with Yuna.

            Her mother blatantly avoided her.  If Yuna walked into the same room, Queen Amethyst would leave.  If Yuna tried to speak with her, she’d huff and walk away.

            As if this wasn’t bad enough, Queen Amethyst went out of her way to further isolate the youngest daughter from the rest of the family, and to non-presently reprimand her.

            Yuna was forced to have private lessons with Madame Blott for eight hours of the day instead of the previous four.  She had them alone because Galleria and Lorraine were permanently moved to the garden.  The lengthened time also seemed to run into family breakfast and Yuna’s usual lunchtime, and with the older royals always remaining outside until very late, she never had meals with the rest of her family.

            Yuna’s afternoons and evenings were spent wandering the castle alone, which seemed to grow even more boring as the days went by.  She would count floor tiles and rooms with the same color wallpaper, she had read over half of the family library, and she had even resorted on many days to simply sitting and looking out the window or at the ceiling.

            The effects of her lonesome were growing more obvious.  Her eyes had begun to dull down to an almost grey rather than a green.  The bags that decorated the skin underneath them grew larger than what was considered normal for a pre-teen girl.  She spoke so little that her voice had thinned out and could sometimes be comparable to a whisper.

            If Yuna had had any baby fat, it was long gone.  Over the course of five years, she steadily, and rather unhealthily, dropped weight.  She loved all of the castle food that was offered when she had someone to eat it with, but now that that no longer happened, it was just not the same.  While before she would happily consume two or three helpings of food, now she could rarely finish one.

            Whenever King Ephraim would see his youngest daughter, the first thing he would notice were how large her dresses seemed on the girl, how her sleeves fell past her fingers, and how she appeared to drowning in cloth.  He would always immediately order for new clothes for his daughter.

            As Queen Amethyst was in charge of her daughters’ wardrobes, the royal tailors always notified her when King Ephraim ordered a new wardrobe and new sizing for Yuna.  As if to further alienate or sadden her daughter, Amethyst only let the tailors use green, yellow, and brown cloth for Yuna’s clothes.  They were the three cheapest dyes, and the colors she despised the most.

            Queen Amethyst would turn her nose up in disgust (and secret pride) on portrait day, the only day she spent more than a few seconds around her daughter.

            Since her isolation began, portrait day became Yuna’s favorite day every year – it had officially beat out Christmas and her birthday.  It was the day the family posed for their annual portrait.  This required about three to four hours of standing still together, so the royal painter could finish his work perfectly.  Every year Yuna longed for the few hours she was rewarded around the family she had missed.

            The day after portrait day was always the worst.  Yuna’s isolation would return in full force, and she lost the urge to do anything.

            It took three years for Yuna to crack.

            She was ten at the time and on the verge of madness.

            Yuna just wanted some form of attention from her family, and had decided a scolding was as close as she would ever get to this.  It took her a couple of days to figure out just what act or rule to break would get her the longest telling-off.  A golden idea hit her like lightning.

            The garden.

            The garden was forbidden to Yuna, and her parents and sisters were always in there.  It was the perfect rule to break.

            With an open-mouthed smile, the ten year-old had laughed happily as she burst through the doors to the place she was never allowed to be.

            The sight before her made her stop cold.

            Galleria and Lorraine were in the midst of creating some sort of ice or snow fountain that was about twenty feet high.  King Ephraim and Queen Amethyst were smiling happily and cheering the two on.

            It took about thirty seconds for the family to recognize that the young princess had entered the area.  Yuna was immediately rushed out by her parents.

            This stunt was more than a success for Yuna: she got an explanation along with her scolding that lasted about an hour.

            The two monarchs explained to their young daughter the concept of powers and that several members of the household staff and everyone in the family had them, everyone except Yuna.

            It had been two years since that event.

            It had been two years since her mother had talked to her apart from minor orders when passing her by in the hall.

            The 12 year-old pushed the sleeves back on her dandelion yellow dress – her clothes were beginning to be too big again.

            Yuna’s heart seemed to jump from her body when the door to her parents’ parlor opened.

            “Their majesties are ready for you now,” her father’s personal butler notified before taking his leave from the room.  Yuna took a big gulp as her shaking feet seemed to move on their own accord into the parlor.

            Queen Amethyst and King Ephraim were up a quarter flight of stairs, sitting on their bejeweled silver thrones in the middle of the lavishly decorated room.  The latter was smiling warmly, while the former’s scowl appeared to lengthen with the arrival of their “guest.”

            Yuna did a curtsy to each before murmuring a hello.

            “Ay! What are you doing?  We’re your parents, not some foreign crown,” her father joked with a smile.

            “Sorry,” Yuna replied, her closed-mouthed grin alighting her face.  “What did you call me in for?”

            “In a couple of months the Nantuckett royal court will be holding a Mingle Ball.  It has been decided that Galleria will attend and begin looking for a husband.  The whole family will be going,” Queen Amethyst spoke, her bell-like voice chiming at her daughter.

            Am I dreaming?

            Yuna could hardly believe it.  Her mother was talking to her and she would get to travel with her family.

            “You, however, will remain here.”

            Queen Amethyst’s words were like glass cracking in half.  Yuna’s face fell in a swift movement.

            “It’s nothing personal, honey,” Ephraim broke in.  Even though his wife ignored the child in front of him, he still loved his youngest daughter with all of his heart.  “Mingle Ball rules state all attendees must be 13.  I’m sorry.”

            “I-I understand,” her voice fracked, but Yuna still tried to stop herself from falling apart on the spot.

            “AND, you will be in charge of the castle and certain domestic decisions, while we’re gone.  Can you do that for me, darling?” Ephraim asked.

            Yuna nodded, but her eyes fixated on the floor.

            “You’re dismissed.” Amethyst’s cold voice shook the room.

            The girl spent the remainder of the evening in her room alone, questioning how much more she could take before insanity would overcome her.

Hello lovely people,

I hope your Christmas has been good - mine was spent with a new friend, his name is Type A Flu.

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