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“The tall woman with the strawberry blonde hair is Lady Clarissa,” Hakon began as he pointed out to a woman clothed in a blush gown that clashed with the red undertones in her hair. “She is beautiful, to be sure, but has been relentless in her pursuit of my hand. Once, when Herrick and I were young, we passed her and her father in Veter, and Herrick decided to launch a mud pie at her. It splattered onto her curls, and I had felt so terrible that I had offered to escort herhome. Since that day, she has told anyone near or pretending to listen that my actions had solidified our union for the future.”

Hakon rolled his eyes, and Maude laughed merrily at the mental image of Herrick cornering his brother into this task.

“Surely you had to have known that Herrick did this on purpose,” Maude chuckled.

“Oh, of course. He came clean that night and confessed that he knew she had been boasting about how she would secure my hand and decided to mess with me,” Hakon responded, laughing with her.

“Gods above, you boys are trouble,” Maude murmured as her eyes inevitably searched for Herrick’s again.

Unable to find him, Maude turned her attention back to Hakon and listened to the rest of his critique of the guests. Maude could see that Hakon was not overly fond of the nobles in his court but was courteous and charming to all he engaged with. He introduced Maude as a family friend who came to stay with them for this event, expressing in perhaps too much detail how delighted he was about it.

Maude plastered on a fake smile that she had tucked away in her arsenal from her days in the Palace of Wind and Embers. Each time her thoughts drifted in the direction of her childhood, Maude could feel her mood burrow further into the earth. She was starting to get her fill of the polite company, hearing how, even in this kingdom, they spoke with double-edged words.

As the evening wore on, Maude’s mood worsened. Unused to spending much time in the public eye, Maude had spent the last day and a half holed up in her bedroom with books. She yearned to return to them now. In her youth, she had read to escape the challenges of her daily life. The relationship that Maude had developed with books was an everlasting love:to be able to escape to another land for a time, to fall in love with the characters at every turn of the page.

For Maude, to read was to live. She could not have made it through her childhood if she had not found her love for books. It was no chore to hide away from the world before she had to set out with Herrick and his friends.

At last, the music had begun to wind down, signaling the closing of the ball. Maude could feel Herrick’s eyes on her from across the ballroom. He tracked her movements like he was a wolf stalking its prey. Noticing that her partner for the night had gone silent, Maude turned to find Hakon had disappeared from her side when she had searched for Herrick.

The Heir of Rivers had made it all the way to the other side of the ballroom before she noticed. He shot her a quick solute and grinned before he turned into a servant's passage and disappeared.

Maude stared after him, mouth slightly open.

Well then.

Before she could move further from her spot on the outskirts of the guests, Maude felt someone stop to stand with her. She glanced to her side to find Alva. The Queen was resplendent in a gown of deep sapphire, the shade almost identical to Hakon’s and her husband’s eyes. Alva’s silver-streaked chestnut hair was coiled into neat braids, and atop her head sat the silver crown with droplet sapphires Maude had first seen her in.

“I didn’t get to say how stunning you look tonight, Maude,” Alva said.

“You have my gratitude for allowing me to take such liberties with my gown,” Maude replied awkwardly.

“How did you enjoy the ball glued to Hakon’s side the way he begged you to be?” Alva asked calmly.

Maude was careful in her response. “Hakon and I have come to be good friends during our time together, and it feels as if we truly understand each other. He saw how I struggled to mingle and offered his support.”

“Yes, it seemed like you two were getting along so well that the other eligible matches felt they had no chance with Hakon and steered clear of you both, but perhaps I misjudged the situation,” Alva replied.

Choosing to say nothing, Maude snagged a flute of sparkling wine from a passing servant and sipped on it.

“As Heir of your kingdom, I would think you would understand the responsibility Hakon carries on his shoulders,” Alva began, but Maude cut her off.

“It isbecauseI understand that I help him follow his own heart and desires. Spending a lifetime crushed under the pressure of these responsibilities until nothing is left of us in the name of ourfateis not a way to live. We would only exist to take our parent’s places, husks of the people we could have been. This may have been what you and my father accepted, but not I,” Maude seethed. “I am Heir to nothing. I gave up my title long ago in the pursuit of my freedom, in spite of my fate. You look at me, and you think you know me because you knew my mother, but you are sorely mistaken,Your Majesty,” Maude said, drawing out her title like a sneer.

Alva scrutinized her for a long moment before she said, “Sylvi would have been proud of you, you know.”

Maude stiffened at her mother’s name.

“I doubt that,” Maude muttered, the grip on her temper loosening more.

“A mother is always proud of her children, even if they don't necessarily make the same choices,” Alva said, eyeing the door Hakon had just escaped through.

“You didn’t know the relationship we had in the end,” Maude said, unable to stop herself.

Alva gave her a small, sympathetic smile.

“You’re wrong,” she said quietly before she walked back to the dais where the King stood.

Overwhelmed by the Queen’s words and the many reminders of her past tonight, her mood finally crashed into the darkest part of her soul, bleeding into every memory and sparking her flames.