Frostine watched with watery eyes as her father was lowered into the Family Crypt. The moment the coffin disappeared from sight, people started to leave the Church. She heard them talking in soft voices. However, she didn’t tear her gaze away from the hole in the floor until the piece of the floor moved back into place, covering the hole. She took a deep breath and reached up to wipe her eyes. A hand cupped her shoulder. She glanced over to see Prince Kili standing a foot away.
“I know I haven’t experience what you have went through, Princess, but I can tell you are a person with a strong will and you will make it through this troubled time,” The Dwarven Prince started, “You have my sympathies over your loss.” He offered his arm to her.
Frostine nodded, “Thank you.” She took his arm and allowed herself to be escort out of the Church to her carriage. She spotted her handmaiden already sitting in the carriage while Sir James stood beside the footsteps, waiting on her. Prince Kili paused next to the carriage and nodded at Sir James. He grabbed her left hand as Frostine grabbed a handful of her black skirt with her free hand before she climbed the stairs. She let go of Kili’s hand and her skirt before she settled in her seat. She met Kili’s eyes and said, “Thank you.” This time she tilted her head in his direction.
Kili grinned, brightly, and said, “Anything for you, my lady.”
Frostine blinked when she heard some of the words being stressed. An odd feeling settled down into her stomach as she knew the stress words meant something. She might have to look into the Dwarven culture to understand what the Prince of the Iron Mountain Clan meant.
They heard some bark something in the Dwarven tongue and Kili’s cheeks redden as he preformed a hurried bow to her before he turned away. He didn’t run. Apparently, that was also against the Dwarven Royal protocol. However, he did walk as he could toward his mountain pony and the rest of his group.
Frostine spotted a bold Dwarf with tattoos covering his head and dressed in enough armor to give the impression he was either the Head of the Guard or a very important person within the escort party, already sitting on a pony and giving a glare to the Prince. She cocked her head to the side. There was another thing about Dwarven culture she just learned. The Guard, she was assuming on his position within the escort party, could give a lecture to the Prince while they were in public. She frowned, thinking about that as she strained her ears. The Guard was speaking in their mother tongue. Perhaps, he used that as a cover to do that. Anyone would think the Guard was giving some important advice on how to handle the rest of the ceremony, but Kili’s face told a different story.
She tried not to giggled. She knew how it felt to get a lecture, even though in her case, it would be whispered by her guards and not using a loud tone where everyone could hear. She turned away, but she spotted out of the corner of her eye, the bold guard turned to her carriage.
Sir James noticed her gaze to the Dwarven party and rolled his eyes as he climbed into the carriage, settling down in the same spot he had occupied on the way to the church. He called out, “Driver!” The driver turned in his seat. “Take us back to the Forgotten Tower.”
“Please,” Frostine added in.
James sighed, “Please.”
“Yes sir,” The Driver flicked the reins and the remaining guards of Frostine’s party filled into rank around them as the driver stirred them back to the base of the Forgotten Tower. A notification appeared in the center of her vision a few moment later, stating her relationship with Kili had improved to Friendly from Acquaintances. It would be easier to start a conversation with him the next time she ran into him, assuming there would be a next time.
Frostine and her handmaiden, Natasha, walked into her new bedroom at the top of the Forgotten Tower. The Princess sighed as she reached up and grabbed the black veil, pulling it off her head. She tossed it at the high back chair before she reached behind her and undid the strings holding the dress together. She felt the torso of the dress loosen and she let out a sigh of relief, closing her eyes briefly.
The combine years of her old life and this one, she had discovered she didn’t like wearing a corset. They were medieval torture devices for females. However, in a way, she was thankful she had started wearing one early in this life. Her body had developed to allow her internal organs to move to create the illusion of a smaller waist. In fact, she had to forced to start wearing one when she turned 8. At first, she thought it was creepy for a kid at 8 to wear a corset, but as she grew up a little and felt her organs shift to make her waist to look smaller then it was, she was somewhat glad.
It didn’t take her long to shed the black dress and walked across the bedroom, wearing her under shift. Natasha giggled at her actions. “My lady!” she tried to scold her, “What if there had been a man in this room?”
“Why would a man in my bedroom in first place when he is not my husband?” Frostine shot back. “A True Gentleman would know he wouldn’t welcome in my bedroom unless I welcome him there.” She sent a smirk over her shoulder and went to her closet. She opened the door and walked into the huge walk-in closet she would have destroyed her monthly budget in her previous life to have. Now, it was a given she would have to have one since she had been born into royalty. She eyed the various dresses. She grabbed a dark silver one. It would good with her dark colored hair and it would also fit the mood of mourning, still. She slipped it on over her head and forced down around her form. Lucky, this dress didn’t have corset with it so she didn’t have to worry about feeling her organ shifting around to give the illusion of a smaller waistline.
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She sighed as she stepped from the closet. She needed Natasha’s help to tie up the back of the dress. She missed having zippers on dresses. Maybe she could talk a trailer to work with the blacksmith to create zippers. She frowned when she glanced through the bedroom. Natasha usually followed her into the bedroom and picked up the discarded mourning dress that Frostine had left on the floor.
Frostine walked over to the discarded dress and picked it up before she tossed it on the back of the nearby chair. She walked to the anti-chamber and froze in the doorway. She stared at the large escort group filling the room. At the end of the group, The Queen Regent Janet stood with a glared on her face.
“You were late, Princess Frostine,” Her step-mother started, “That was unacceptable. You embarrassed myself and my daughters.” She paused. Frostine didn’t say anything, waiting. “What do you say for yourself?”
Frostine had a lot to say, but she was 12 years old and she had to act like it. She spoke, “The path was blocked, Step-mother—“
“You will address me as my Queen, your highness, or your majesty, Little Princess,” The Queen growled, “I will not accept you as one of my daughters.” Frostine opened her mouth to reply, but she snapped it shut as the Queen went on, “I only accepted your father’s request of marriage to further my daughters’ status. They were meant to be princesses and they will rule their own Kingdoms, but Teressa will rule this Kingdom when I pass.”
Frostine blinked. She didn’t expect for Queen Janet to say the quiet part out loud, but she wasn’t surprise. She glanced through the room for her handmaiden and her Head of the Princess Guard.
Natasha was bounded and gagged near the window. She looked terrified and surprised when she heard the Queen’s confession. She didn’t struggled against the guard standing beside her with a knife pointed at her throat.
Sir James lay crumbled on the stone floor. Frostine spotted blood surrounding his head. She hoped it was stretch or flesh wound and nothing deeper than that. She also hoped he would awake from being knocked out. His sword laid a few feet away from his out stretch hand.
“My apologies, my Queen,” Frostine preformed a curtsy. She needed to stay on Queen Janet’s good side for the time being. She didn’t want any innocent blood on her hands. “The path to join the Funeral Parade was blocked, your highness, and my escorts had to find another way to join the Funeral Parade. We tried to get there before the parade started to move.”
“Excuses,” Queen Janet spat. “As punishment for embarrassing my daughters and I, you will spend the two nights in the Dungeons.”
Frostine took a step back as she heard the sentence. Two nights in the Dungeons? The adult side of Frostine thought it was a bit overkill on the punishment and would have settled on something simple as being grounded. That was far better punishment then the Dungeons. The child side of Frostine reacted to the news instead. After all, it was where her father had died. Tears filled Frostine’s blue eyes as her lower lip trembled. “Why the Dungeons?”
“Be glad it is the Dungeons and not something far worst,” The Queen snapped, “Guards! Take the disgraced princess away.”
Four guards stepped forward and encircled Frostine. They marched forward. The two rear guards grabbed Frostine’s upper arms and forced her to walk with them. She didn’t say a word as tears rolled down her cheeks and the group left the anti-chamber with the Queen calling behind them, “Make sure you are not seen. I don’t want this to get out and become a scandal for the Crown.”
Frostine tried to hold her head up high and not to shed a tear as they took the long way to reach the dungeons. Fear slowly crept into her heart as they reached the stairs descending to the dungeons. She knew this path. It was the same path her father had used to banish the criminals and other people with a death sentenced walked this path. At the far end of the path, the entrance to the Dungeon of Fear sat, waiting for its next meal. It was also the same path they had find her father laying in the pool of his own blood.
Her heart thundered in her ears as she was forced to walk down the stairs with the guards’ holding her upper arms, still. She noticed their grip had gotten tighter as they reached the bottom of the stairs. A guard wearing a captain’s armband around his left upper arm stepped from the shadows and said, “Halt.”
The group came to a stop. One of the leading guards stepped forward and stated in a loud voice, “The Queen Regent had ordered…” he paused as he appeared to be thinking about what to address Frostine as before he went on, “The Princess Frostine to stay in the Dungeons for the next two nights.”
The Captain’s raised his eyebrows in surprise and peered over the Guard’s shoulders to stare at Frostine. He blinked then he went on, “On what charge?”
“For Embarrassing her royal highness and her daughters,” The guard explained, “The Princess Frostine had appeared late for the Funeral Parade.”
“Oh for The Blessed One’s sake,” the Captain growled, “You are telling me that the Queen Regent had ordered the imprisonment of her step-daughter for being late for the Funeral Parade for her own father.”
Frostine gathered her courage and took a deep as the Guard stumbled over his words in the face of the Captain’s wrath. She spoke, “That is correct, Captain.” The Guard stepped to the side and allowed the Captain to face the Princess. “I wouldn’t address me as the Queen Regent’s step-daughter, anymore. She doesn’t like it.”
The Captain blinked again at that statement before he asked, “Perhaps, if you could be kind, Princess, to explain what happened.”
Frostine did. The guards who had escorted her shifted uneasily as Frostine informed the Captain of what had happened. The Captain nodded and started to pace back and forth. She used analyzed and got the Captain’s stat page. She ran her eyes over the important parts, getting the Captain’s name, level, and profession as well as a few other parts of his character.
Captain Rex was an half Human-Elf Level 30 with a profession of Administration and Warrior. He got a point of agility and Dexterity per level, thanks to his Elven heritage. Frostine thought he would have at least 2 points to Agility and Dexterity since he did have Elven blood, but apparently, it was cut in half for being a half Elf. If she remembered from her studies with her father, Elves did get 2 points to Agility and Dexterity and were naturally gracefully. They also got boost to their herbology skill for their natural affinity with nature. However, Frostine’s Analzye skill was not high enough to figure if Captain Rex receive such boost to his herbology skills, was naturally gracefully, or his alliance was. She studied him. He looked conflicted over what to do.
“Captain Rex,” She started. He looked startled, but he snapped a salute with a mutter of her title, “If it helps, Princess is outranked by Queen and Queen is out ranked by King. With no King, the Queen’s word is law.”
Captain Rex looked taken back, “Princess, you are aware of what that means.”
“Yes,” Frostine sighed, “I’m spending the next two nights in the Dungeons.”
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