Princess Rivalee (Part 3)

This is a really short chapter, but I need to go slower. I need to figure out Glen. Melanie, bless her wonderful heart, wrote me a little back story and I loved it! However... I can't post it, number one, because it's hers, number two, because you'll get the two mixed up. BUT it was mind blowing! It was like I was starving and someone came and placed a huge pan of lasagna in front of me. THAT'S what it was like.

Anyway, Melanie I hope you keep reading cause it's... different, if that makes any sense. AH HA! sometimes I'm so cliche! I just want to get to the good stuff but these next chapters are completely set up and man vs self kind of conflict. So not a lot of action, but I really wanted you all to see the change in Riva.

Okay enough rambling, I promise to post EVERYDAY! How's that? I'm serious about this whole Nano thing. I'm gonna do it! By the way.... I really love feedback. It inspires ideas and awesomeness!

Princess Rivalee (Part 3)

Time still passed slowly, but this time it wasn’t out of impatience. Instead it was misery and self loathing. Riva had never had this problem before Glen had showed up. Riva began to comb over her life, looking for times when she had acted badly. There weren’t many. But then she went through again and looked for times when she had acted above and beyond expectations. There weren’t many. She started to read the histories of Kings and Queens before her, trying to understand the motivations behind the terrible and commendable deeds of their times.

Who was she?

Among the servants she was known as Rivalee the Silent. Her title had never bothered her before. Silence had been her solace, now she wasn’t so sure. What did the servants think? What did her people think? How did they think she should act? Did they want to her to be the kind of Queen that stories told of? Did they expect that of her?

Glen had expected it and now he was gone, never to come back.

She hadn’t expected him to. She had acted poorly, not considering his view. He had grown up with literally nothing, hearing stories of Kings and Queens and how they were kind, loving and caring. He had expected more.

The gossip in general was depressing. Riva could never trust it. She didn’t want to believe it was true. It brought back painful memories. Still, after classes Riva would wander the halls, silently listening to the talk of the servants. Trying to understand their lives, their desires and their view of life. Were they like Glen? Did they grab life? Take it into their own hands?

“Excuse me, sir. Why are we at war with Sealidan?”

Her etiquette teacher paused, taken aback. He snapped his book shut and took of his glasses and then looked at her closely. “Why do you want to know?”

She cocked her head to one side, wanting to give an answer that captured her motivations. “Because I don’t know, and I feel like that is something that everyone should know. We are after all, at war with them. Shouldn’t we know why we are sending our young men out to die and taxing our kingdom into poverty?” (She had gleaned this information form the servants.)

Her etiquette teacher blinked, expression void. “Part of it is that we know no other way, we’ve been fighting with Sealidan for so long that it’s become a part of lives. We hate them and they hate us. We kill them and they kill us. The children of the murdered fathers then fight each other, fueled by hate and memory of their deaths. It’s a cycle that is hard to break unless one side wins and even then-” he shrugged. “it’s unlikely that all the children raised thinking ‘Alsteare is the enemy’ will simply lay down their anger and hate. To tell you the truth, I’m unsure of how this all began and I don’t see the relevance. We are too far gone. I do know that Sealidan has the same idea as your father. It’s take-over or nothing. The war has lasted long enough and now it is time to finish it, once and for all. No more petty border disputes.” He stood silent for a while, lost in his own thoughts. Riva took the time to gather her own before he launched back into his lecture.

During all of her classes she started to ask her instructors their opinions, about the war, about the system of government, about other kingdoms, economy, the Council, anything.

There were only two subjects with which she gave a wide berth.

First: What had happened to the Queen, her mother?

Second: Why was she kept so well hidden?

She knew the rumors, of course, but rumors were not truth. They were not proven and then retested.