Kingdoms AU - Alt Storyline

[infringe]

A THOUSAND SHIPS ( joshua, alecto ) The Princess of the Riverlands has been put under a terrible curse. Her childhood friend (and betrothed) seeks to break her free of it. But first, a ball.

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[Present Day: The Ball]

[singinthestorm]

It had been several years since Prince Joshua Archer had been invited to visit the Riverlands.

There had been a time when he was very well acquainted with the other kingdom and its inhabitants. Even now he was friends with some of the other princes in the Crabtree family, particularly Philip, who was closer to his own age. But travel and visits between them had slowed almost to a stop in recent years, and every time he saw Prince Philip elsewhere and asked about her - asked about why, the other prince had always looked briefly pained and then quickly changed the subject.

So it had been five years since the last time he'd seen the Princess Alecto in person.

Princess Alecto, youngest of the Crabtrees, had always stood out among her peers. Her parents had an abundance of heirs and spares in the other princes, her brothers, but only the one precious daughter. As close allies with Joshua's kingdom, there had been a lot of early discussion of a royal engagement, since set aside, and as children they had been thrown together often, whether on visits to each others' kingdoms, or at large gatherings of all the nearby countries.

As a child, Joshua had been shy and quiet. He had been an only child until around the age of ten, when his father had remarried. He had since learned to hold his own, but many of his memories of home involved curling up in the library behind a veritable fort of books, swimming in the lake near the castle, and spending time outside near the stables. While he was never truly alone, being constantly followed by minders or tutors or governesses, he was still generally left by himself.

Except during these visits and gatherings. And the Princess had featured in quote a few of those memories, very much out of proportion with their frequency. She had been something of a menace, terrorizing even the other princes and nobles, boisterous and willful, excelling at all manner of sport, and not at all shy of showing off her skills in mixed company. Many of the other princes, used to their less domineering and meek siblings and the polite young ladies in their home countries, were not quite sure what to do with Princess Alecto, who could beat them handily in races and cards, didn't seem to care at all that her clothes and hair were mussed, and had a swarm of handsome, protective, and very indulgent elder brothers to escort her around, and no need of their services.

Joshua, on the other hand, had fallen in love.

It had been quiet, gradual, a slow build of feeling over the years as they grew together (even though he was aware it was far from mutual) and then suddenly and abruptly interrupted. He still remembers that first year when she'd stopped coming, stopped visiting, the year he'd turned thirteen. He'd been looking forward to seeing her for months, and when he'd seen the delegation from the Riverlands, he'd had to stop himself from running over to look for her, starting to become more than dimly aware of decorum and courtesy as his education had broadened with maturity. Every year since, every gathering where she could potentially be in attendance, he had looked for her, asked after her, his questions getting subtler with age and knowledge, but no less heartfelt or curious.

But she never left the Riverlands anymore, and no invitations were issued. While the kingdom's many princes were often out and about, the princess herself was never seen.

Until now. On the occasion of her 18th year, there was a huge ball planned in her honor for the winter solstice, with princes and nobles from all over invited to descend upon the small kingdom to celebrate. The party was set to begin just after sundown and last through the entirety of the longest night (the Crabtrees would be spending a fortune on lighting and candles and lanterns and staff to tend them), and everyone was abuzz with rumors.

The princess was sure to be present, the gossips said, but perhaps she would be masked, to hide some disfigurement? She had been seen so seldom in the last five years.

Why the solstice, the longest night of the year? It was only the fact that winters in the Riverlands tended to be mild that meant this was possible at all; some northern kingdoms had already had to offer excuses due to the weather, ice and storms making travel impossible.

Were there rumors of an engagement, to be confirmed by official decree at some point tonight?

Prince Joshua Archer, waiting far in the back of a line of princes and other noblemen, had arrived accompanied by the two younger Quill boys (Marlow, who had gone on ahead, and Montgomery - Monty, his best friend, who was still standing next to him), all waiting to be announced and received, and, truth be told, is hoping only for a glimpse, for a chance to see that the person who intermittently responded to his missives, one or two letters to his five, the person who had offered him the lock of hair he kept tucked in his breastpocket, closest to his heart, was still healthy and well.

[infringe]

The truth is, Alecto doesn't feel cursed. Even though she knows she is, even though she knows that with the first kiss of sunlight tomorrow morning she'll become nothing more than a burst of feathers and song, she feels, beneath it all, still the same as she's ever been: a cool, chilly beauty with a sharp wit and a stubborn heart.

Tonight, while the night was still young, a clear black evening encrusted with stars, she is sitting insight on the bannister of the large marble staircase, her legs crossed idly, one dainty heel kicking, with obstinate, lethargic rhythm as she looks about the grand ballroom with a studied carelessness. Alecto - who was rarely content to sit still but was always itching to do something, anything, play cards, go for a picnic, or a ride - was bored and restless, and made no secret of it. Finally, as much to humor her as anything, Philip suggested she please try and talk to someone, anyone, while the eldest Crabtree, Prince Hector, urged the orchestra to stir up a jaunty tune. "It's a party in your honor after all, Ali, and can you pretend to be enjoying yourself," he said, and Alecto pursed her lips at the childhood nickname, about to make a comment about how there was no one or thing of any real interest here to her when suddenly, she sees him.

He looks...the same. Just a bit taller now, more mannish and sharp, but nonetheless identical to how she remembered him: a shy, warm thing, cautious and gentle of spirit. Even the way he penned his letters had a distinct softness to it, the way the ink sunk dark and wet into certain letters because of how careful he was to shape them. It was a stark contrast to Alecto herself and how she returned his notes with quick, winding paragraphs - spontaneous with her word choices, a near stream of consciousness - in a particular shade of dark red ink indigenous to the Riverlands, that echoed the cheerful hoarseness of her voice, the boldness of her absolute certainty in so many things.

She gets up in one sharp, intense motion. Her dress seems to move on its own all around her, a delicate geometry of fine, white fabric strings that lock together around her body like the echo of fish bones and fins. It gave the effect that she was wearing practically nothing and yet she was completely covered. The sound of her pointed heels on the marble floor seemed incredibly loud and decisive.

Once she gets close enough, passing by multiple greetings and offers to dance, her voice rises stridently above the clambering of the crowd gathered around her.

"Is that my little minnow, I see?"

[singinthestorm]

He hears the crowd, notices its shifting and readjustment, like the scattering of a school of fish before the oncoming presence of a predator, before he quite registers what is happening. He'd caught a glimpse of her, from a distance, heard the mutterings and observations of the gathered crowd - how bold and artistic her choice of attire, the careful crafting that had gone into it, how forward and indulged the young Princess of the Riverlands had become, on this occasion of reaching her age of majority - but he had been far more focused on seeing her face, on seeing what he could read in those dark eyes and fine features. She seemed well enough - bored with the ceremony perhaps, gazing out at the attendees with a superior air in a way that was both familiar and not from gatherings in their youth - and he resigns himself to making himself pleasant to the other attendees, only looking at her from afar.

He really wasn't expecting to be approached, the bright, intense tone of her voice commanding - demanding - attention, so it takes a long moment for her actual words to register, and he flushes faintly, cheeks pinking under the scrutiny. My. That word definitely did not mean as much to her as it did to him.

"Princess," he says, ducking his head as he shifts into a courteously graceful bow. "I suppose it is."

He glances up at her as he straightens up again, his eyes briefly flickering down to her attire, before focusing on her face. "I'm glad to see you so well," he says, just a bit too warm to be entirely polite. "Is there something I can do for you this evening?"

[infringe]

"Well. You could be a gentleman and ask me to dance," she teases, extending one fine hand, adorned with several silver rings. They were dainty and bright, shining with coral and navy jewels, the colors of her house.

[singinthestorm]

He takes her extended hand, his own fingers curling around her slender ones, and brings it up to his mouth; his lips just brush against the back of her hand. "You don't usually bother waiting to be asked, when you want to do something," he points out - but that was so long ago. The Alecto of his memories was not shy about dragging any number of childhood compatriots into various schemes and activities whenever it struck her fancy. Of course, it had been some five years now, and anything could have changed.

"May I have this dance, Princess?" He asks, gazing up at her, her hand still grasped gently in his, breath ghosting against her skin. "If nothing else, I've managed to pick up a few more steps since we last met."