"Bartra!" The grand doors to the main hall burst open with a thundering boom. "What is the meaning of this?!"
A small, yet evidently powerful, young blonde man storms in, his voice clearly agitated and much more intimidating than that of his stature. Nevertheless he is successful in demanding the attention of the eleventh King of Liones.
"Meliodas," King Bartra greets him like an old friend, despite the tone of underlying wariness in his voice, "We weren't expecting a visit from you today?" The King, sitting in his throne, slightly grips the plush red material on the arms of his chair, positioning himself to stand if necessary.
Meliodas hasn't stopped his determined pace to get to Bartra. This makes the guards surrounding the King grip their spears nervously, they aren't ignorant to the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins power. He stops just a few feet before the King's throne, ignoring the guards and obviously pissed, but not reaching his full force of anger. King Bartra notes this and relaxes slightly, there will be no need for a real confrontation it seems.
"Cut the crap Bartra, we had a deal." Meliodas huffs and tries to the best of his ability not to completely chew him out, despite how much he wants to. How could he betray me like this, I thought we had an understanding. "When I brought her to you I was explicitly clear on how I was to be involved."
Bartra had his suspicions on why the small blonde boy bursted into his throne room so angrily and this admission made it quite clear that he was correct. However, it doesn't solve how he knew about the situation so quickly. He barely had time to tell those who were solely on the 'need-to-know' basis.
"Look Meliodas, I don't know how you—"
"It doesn't matter how! It's not happening."
"Young man, you don't have the authority to stop me. Elizabeth is my daughter and the third Princess of Lioness. She will fulfill her duties however I see fit."
Meliodas' ignored the 'young man' comment and clenched his fists in anger. He is about to burst, Bartra can tell, he didn't realize the extent of which Meliodas actually cared about his daughter. From what Bartra could remember he was barely involved in his daughter's life at all, maybe the exception being the amount of time he spent with her while she was a child. He supposed they were quite inseparable then. Still many years has past since that time. Now Elizabeth was a full grown women, practically an adult to the standards of Britannia. To his knowledge she didn't even remember him. Why should he still care to be involved this much in the welfare of his daughter? Bartra realizes his mistake in not giving Meliodas a warning about his plans and decides to try to rectify the situation. No one wants a demon lord as an enemy in this day and age, or in any for that matter. Still, Bartra decides Meliodas didn't need to know everything about what he has planned for his third daughter.
"Meliodas, hear me now. Elizabeth is needed in the Kingdom of Camelot. It may be for reasons that you don't understand, but it is true none the less and nothing you say or do will be able to stop this from happening. It is for the good of both Kingdoms. As King, I must do what is best for my Kingdom and my allies if possible." Bartra notices his anger still hasn't dissipated. Ah well, I suppose I can involve him in some way, she will need to be protected on her way to Camelot, and if this will appease him then what's the harm? "But… I suppose if you're insisting on being aware of her goings on I will allow you to escort her to the allied Kingdom and protect her from harm as you see fit." His tone and expression are a tinge regretful and wholly exasperated.
Meliodas finally relieved the tightening of his fists, however his expression is still unimpressed and mistrustful of the King. He hasn't forgiven him for not involving him in the decision to begin with. After all protecting the princess is his only objective. Deciding that this was the best he was going to get from the King, he stifles his protests about not being involved from the start and objections to having her being moved in the first place and leaves with a simple, but not without attitude:
"Thank you, King Bartra," and leaves as swiftly as he arrived.
As he leaves the castle, Meliodas promises to himself that he'll keep a close eye on the happenings in the Kingdom of Liones from now on. He isn't sure what King Bartra is up to but he knows damn well he's keeping something from him.
Princess Elizabeth, sitting comfortably by the window surrounded by plush yellow cushions with frilly white lace, reads quietly in her room. She's so engrossed in her story that when a loud boom echoes through the castle, she lets out a startled yelp and grips the edge of the window for balance. Pushing her silver hair out of her face, she notices a flock of birds shooting straight up from the sky presumably fleeing their comfortable spot on a tree branch, startled from the noise as well. What in the world could have caused that noise?! It isn't common for Elizabeth to be frightened in her own home. She has lived a very sheltered and quiet life in the Kingdom of Liones. Surrounded by her family and the townspeople she's never felt more comfortable or more safe, not that she's ever traveled to other parts of Britannia very much.
Relaxing from the shock of the noise, she concludes that was the end of it and lets her mind briefly remember a trip that Veronica and her went on when she was a child. It wasn't too long ago but long enough. She feels a flash of regret and remorse for being the reason Veronica was hurt so badly. She couldn't help think that if she was more careful she might be able to explore and travel much more but because of that trip and the discoveries that it brought, she has more important things to focus on. Poor Veronica was hurt very badly on their excursions and it was Elizabeth's fault, but as soon as she held her in her arms a faint glow appeared all around them. Elizabeth could barely register the light flowing between them, only focusing on her dear sister and the sobs wracking from her chest. But moments later, Veronica gained consciousness and alerted her to the beautiful and surprising magical entity that was, unbeknownst to her at the time, her goddess powers. She was so surprised that the light almost immediately ceased, but not too soon as Veronica was well enough for them to both make it back to the kingdom in one piece, along with an amazing-impossible story to tell their father.
From that point on it was all practising and improving her goddess powers for Elizabeth. Gone were the days she could laze about in the gardens and walk aimlessly through out the grounds of Liones. Not by her Fathers wishes, oh no, if her father had any say in her doings she would be the much protected and perfect princess only thinking about Princes and flowers all day, but she was stubbornly determined to know more about the druids, the goddess and ultimately her powers. Eventually when progress was being made her father had no choice but to get on board. Realizing the magnitude of his daughters abilities and what they could mean for the people of the Kingdom he couldn't help but encourage Elizabeth, not only for her sake but for the sake of Britannia.
That's when her father enlisted the help of Merlin, a raven haired mage capable of wonderfully terrifying abilities, with vast knowledge of magical entities and practises to boot. Merlin has consistently reminded Elizabeth that she is not, in fact, a goddess herself, and will not be able to help her reach her truest, most powerful form. However Merlin has helped her immensely on learning the basics and how to control what she already knows — which was very little mind you — but enough for her to be useful and that was more than enough for Elizabeth.
Elizabeth has become very fond of Merlin, she has been her confidant and mentor for a few years and couldn't imagine knowing what she knows today about herself and her powers without her help. Not to mention she's the reason that she met King Arthur. Elizabeth supposed that she would have met them eventually, being that they are allied kingdoms after all but still she couldn't picture knowing these two as well as she does presently unless her father was so keen on helping her with her abilities. She'll always love her family but having the luck to acquire such great friends is something she'll always be grateful for.
Unfortunately since King Arthur has his own Kingdom to run, Camelot, she hasn't spent as much time with him as Merlin, regrettably but she's always known the innate kindness that's in him. Merlin travels back and forth — very quickly thanks to her magic — dividing her time between the both of them helping them both individually with their own specific needs. Elizabeth always looks forward to when Merlin comes back, not only does she get to see her great friend again and learn more about her abilities, but she also hears about the amazing stories of Camelot. Stories of great adventure, battles, and camaraderie with Merlins friends. Elizabeth hangs on to every word when she comes home with a grand new story filled with giants, fairies, and sometimes even demons. Merlin always had a way with words and those tales were always Elizabeths favourite. One day she hoped that adventure would come her way. But, until then Elizabeth had more practising to do and for her that was enough for now.
If only Elizabeth knew what adventure awaits her and a huge blonde part of it is already in her castle! Until next time!