“Do you object to having these complicated matters handled for you? Some people spend their entire lives searching for someone to spend their time with, and I’ve done all the hard work for you. I’ve found you a worthy partner to be your King, to stand by your side in all matters and to help you produce the next heir to the throne. Is that not enough for you?”
Kyra flinched at her mother’s words, regret stabbing at her insides. “It is not my intent to come off as ungrateful, Mother. I just wish I could have had a say in the matter. I would have liked to pick someone for myself.”
The Queen placed her hands on Kyra’s shoulders and stared at her reflection in the mirror. “Darling, I’ve done you a favor. You will marry Owyn and he will be your King.”
“But I don’t particularly like him!” she cried softly. She saw in her reflection that she looked ugly with tears, her demeanor not worthy of the beauty placed upon her head.
“Kyra Straton, stop your crying this instant. You are the heir to the throne of Terra; you do not cry!” She twirled her around until they were face-to-face, the Queen’s own fingers brushing away fallen tears from Kyra’s face. “There is never a reason for you to cry, do you understand?”
Kyra sniffed and nodded her head, willing her eyes to dry before any more tears could fall. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“Do not apologize, either. Now, without crying, tell me what has you so upset.”
“I don’t want to marry Owyn. He’s not the boy I like.”
“So there’s someone else you have in mind?”
“Yes,” she replied. Her mother raised her eyebrows, silently prompting her to continue. “I like Evander Nero.”
A small, knowing smile curled the Queen’s lips as she nodded. “Evander Nero is a very handsome young man. He looks very much like his father,” she spoke. Her eyes looked distant for a moment, lost in some thought she didn’t share with her daughter. Finally pulled Kyra close to her and wrapped her arms around her tightly.
“The great advantage of being Queen is that you can do whatever you want, and with whomever you want,” she whispered into Kyra’s ear. “Just because you’re married to one man doesn’t mean you can’t be with the other.”
Kyra was confused by her mother’s admission, not knowing the full extent of her meaning. Who would want to be with her if she was already married to someone else? Moreover, who would be brave enough to take on that kind of relationship with her when she was Queen?
Not long after the announcement was made, plans for her coronation were set with the wedding to follow thereafter. In all the time leading up to the grand festivities the Queen continued to give Kyra lessons in how to perform her job as the Queen. She learned over time that they were relatively mundane and that there would likely never be an occasion to act as commander of the Crown Soldiers. Life in Terra was peaceful after the Stratons took over the Crown, and she was assured it would remain that way.
Perhaps it was the grave misconception about lasting peace in Terra that made Kyra unsure of how to act. The Crown Soldiers were supposed to be adept at their job, trained to keep the peace so that her interference would not be required. She was neither a commander-in-chief nor a warrior; she was a Queen whose duty was to serve as the leader of Terra. The very system of defense she had come to rely on was cracking under an unprecedented threat.
The residents from Last City had vanished, as had the Elder woman who was quite possibly the last Thanatos Queen. Of all the possibilities in Terra it was her very own husband, the King, who was their suspected coconspirator and now traitor to the Crown. Everything had unraveled under her rule and her mother was a witness to it all.
Ordinarily, Owyn would have been detained by the Crown Soldiers and placed in a maximum security detainment room. However, he was the King, and no one wanted to be the one to recommend such a punishing detainment. It was the Queen Mother’s command that he be put into solitary confinement, Kyra merely nodding her head in approval when Alcander looked to her for confirmation.
Until the Elder’s escape she had placed her faith in the competent hands of her Crown Soldiers, but now she would be forced to take matters into her own hands, a notion she was not comfortable with. She went first to the Government Complex where a contingent of soldiers was being detained after their lapse in job performance led to the escape of the Last City residents. One by one they explained how the King’s presence had distracted them from their duties leading up to the escape, none of them expressing any notion that the King had deliberately deceived them. Despite their expressed regret at their lapse in judgment they were each dishonorably discharged, stripped of their military statuses and deported to the outlying cities.