The Princess grinned as she pulled her horse to a stop, lightly sliding off. The horse, a beautiful black stallion playfully nudged her and she patted him before feeding him a carrot. He was a good tempered beast and almost a perfect example of the Haasha horse breed. Her Prince would likely appreciate the betrothal gift and he would sire plenty of lovely little foals for the Royal stables.

Roxas sighed as 'she' thought about her upcoming marriage. She wasn't looking forward to departing her comfortable castle for the wild Kingdom of Ashara, far to the North. It was said to be a barbaric place with all kinds of uncouth customs. Unfortunately, that was exactly the reason she was being married off there. Roxas handed the stallion off to a stable hand as she remembered…

"I'm what?" Roxas stared at her mother in shock. Queen Arlista was a beautiful woman with blonde hair the exact same shade as Roxas blonde curls and dark blue eyes. Her figure was lush from repeatedly pregnancies but still lovely.

"You're getting married to Prince Axel of Ashara." Roxas felt like her head was reeling. This couldn't be true. Could it? Her mother was smiling sympathetically at her confusion. "I'm sorry to have to tell you so abruptly but the negotiations have been very delicate. We didn't want to worry you if nothing came of it."

"B-But how?!? I'm not… you know I can't…" Roxas heard her voice break and hated it. But she wasn't… right. How could they be doing this? Her mother coughed into her hand.

"That's been the delicate part. We've advised King Cristopher of your condition. You know the Asharan's practice multiple marriages?" Roxas blinked and swallowed. That was considered to be an abomination in her country. "In this particular case that custom has proved very useful. Prince Axel can have a second and even third wife to fulfill his duties to the Kingdom while still giving you full honor as his First Wife. You see?"

"No! Why do I have to do this at all? Why can't I just stay in our castle and be a maiden aunt to Sora's kids?" That had been her rather lackluster dream in life. Not that she wanted to be a maiden aunt but it had seemed the only recourse. The Queen winced.

"Roxas, I know you think so but too many people here are aware of your… status. And you were firstborn. It would be much better for the both of you if you marry and go elsewhere. The Asharan's might be barbaric but you'll be well treated. You might even enjoy it. They let their women go to war and wear trousers." Her mother sounded slightly disapproving but Roxas was captivated by the image. Trousers? She hadn't been allowed to wear them since she was very small.

"But mama, what if I can't feel right?" Roxas swallowed at the embarrassing subject but it was a pressing concern. The Queen sighed.

"Women have had that problem all through the ages Roxas. You'll just have to survive. And as I said, he'll have other wives to spread the duty with. Don't worry about it. Oh, I have a picture of him for you." The Queen offered Roxas a locket and she took it with numb hands, opening it to look at the picture inside. "Handsome isn't he?"

"Yes." Roxas said softly as she looked at the little picture of a flame haired man with flashing green eyes. "Are those tattoos on his face?" That was odd. Her mother laughed.

"Yes, it's a custom they have up there. Women get them too but not on their face." The conversation went on to minutiae about Ashara. All the little things Roxas would need to know to live there. Fortunately she was already fluent in the Northern tongue.

Now she would just have to prepare for the trip.

Roxas shook herself out of her daze with a sigh and went into the castle. It was a typical Southern castle full of towers with pretty balconies and lots of windows. She knew it would be very different in the North. She'd seen pictures of Castle Ashara in her reading and it was a squat, forbidding place. But it had been built to fend off unfriendly attacks.

The history of Ashara had been fascinating reading. The Kingdom had come into being in the aftermath of a bloody civil war in the neighboring kingdom of Aarin. The rebels had been defeated and had carved out their own domain, seizing the land from the nomads and reindeer people who had lived their before. The Kingdom of Aarin had probably figured that the rebels stood no chance of creating a real kingdom out of land that forbidding and had done nothing, but that had proven to be a mistake. The nomads had ended up pledging their loyalty to the new overlords and they were enemies of Aarin to this day. A half dozen wars and uncountable skirmishes had been fought between the two.

The land of Ashara was a harsh place plagued with wild magic and wilder experiments but it bred a strong, formidable people. Roxas stared in fascination at the illustrations of Queen Brunva, Axel's grandmother, riding into battle on a demonic horse. She had been called the Skull Queen and the book said she had five husbands. That made Roxas sit back and blink many times. A man having multiple wives would have been beyond the pale in her country. A woman having multiple husbands was just ludicrous!

"Fancy." Roxas commented weakly than kept reading. The book stopped well before Axel's birth, to her disappointment, but this place sounded absolutely fascinating. In a 'can you believe it' sort of way. Although the winter sounded rather ghastly. She was going to live in this frozen Hell? "At least I can wear trousers." That was a plus and in fact it looked like it would be mandatory in the winter although she could wear a little skirt over them if she wanted. Some of the women in the illustrations did that and while it looked rather silly it was feminine and warm.

Roxas finally shut the book and began practicing her Ashara language exercises. It wasn't really that hard. They spoke a dialect of Aarin and that language was related to Sloodi and Vaali's tongues. It was the duty of a royal princess to be fluent in the tongue of any place she might be married off to and those were nearby neighbors. Roxas didn't notice as the door to the library opened.

"Brother!" She almost jumped out of her skin as something soppy hugged her. "What's this I hear about you getting married?!?"

"Don't call me that." Roxas said automatically as Sora let go, sniffling. "And stop that. You're going to be the King not a wet tissue." Sora gave her a reproachful look and Roxas immediately melted. Sure, Sora was a soppy but his fiancée Kairi wasn't. She'd keep everyone in line when Sora got a bit too gooey and he only had one… sister. Sora plopped into a chair across from her.

"I've already spoken to mom and dad about it. Did they ask you before they agreed to this?" Sora demanded and Roxas couldn't hide a wince. "I didn't think so! Why'd you let them do this?"

"Sora." Roxas felt a bit helpless as she met her twins blue eyes. "You know why. I'm a rival claimant to the throne. It's better that I'm far away where no one can try to use me." Sora looked shocked at the blunt, painful truth. But then, no one had been willing to shove his face into it before. They all knew he loved Roxas. "I'm going to miss you Sora." Roxas felt tears springing up but held them back. They didn't need two tissues in the room. "Really I am. But this is for the best and I'm almost looking forward to it. Did you know Axel's grandmother had five husbands?"

"But that's so wrong you would never – hey what is THAT?" Roxas had opened the book to the illustration of the Skull Queen, counting on the full color page to catch Sora's attention. It had clearly worked. "Did she really wear a skull on her hoo-haa?"

"I, um, rather doubt it. But its striking isn't it?" Roxas privately thought the illustration had come from the diseased mind of some sophomoric artist. The half naked Queen in the picture would have some wicked saddle sores otherwise. And she doubted Royalty usually engaged the enemy directly that way although if things went wrong it could certainly happen. The history of Ashara had mentioned several royals who had died in combat including at least two Kings. Maybe that was where the multiple marriage custom had come from. They needed all the heirs they could get. "But women can do so many interesting things there."

"You make it sound like women can't do anything here." Sora sounded grouchy at the thought. "Women can be artisans, writers, painters, artists and performers and –"

"A Princess can't be any of those things." Roxas said a touch sharply. She'd heard the whole song and dance before. Women weren't really that unequal in her Kingdom but it didn't matter. "A Princess is a prisoner of custom. A Princess can't even walk in public without a bodyguard! Maybe in Ashara I won't be so penned in."

"You wouldn't be that penned in if you would just be a Prince." Sora retorted immediately and Roxas drew a deep breath. She wanted to scream at him but held it back.

"I'm not a boy Sora." She said firmly and Sora looked unhappy. "I don't know what I am but I'm not a boy. There's no point in pretending and the people would hate it anyway. I've been raised as a Princess all my life." Her problem was common knowledge though. That was part of the reason she needed to get away. Hopefully Prince Axel wouldn't be aware of it or maybe he'd be prepared for it. His people certainly wouldn't know about the peculiarities of a Princess from a far away land.

At least, he hoped not.

"When did I agree to this?" Axel asked the walls of his castle. They didn't answer. "Oh thanks, just ignore me." Venting a disgusted sigh he grabbed a cloak and wandered out onto the battlements.

Spring was just beginning and it was still more than a little nippy outside. Wrapping the cloak firmly around himself he looked down over his Kingdom. What little of it he could see from the castle. It wasn't really a high castle so he was mostly getting a view of the town. It was a highly defensible castle though, built in a highly defensible valley in the Fangwulf Mountains. In addition to being the Royal seat the City of Ashara was also a great mining town and Axel coughed a little at the fumes. There wasn't much wind today and the city always stank a bit when the air was calm. Fortunately with the wizards purifying the emissions it was mostly harmless if disgusting. He wondered what his new bride would make of it.

He wondered what his new bride would make of everything, himself included, and cursed his father roundly in ten different languages. Axel had planned to never marry. He had plenty of cousins and could name one of them as the heir. His father didn't like that plan though and Axel had to admit, if only to himself, that it had serious drawbacks. If he named one of the cousins heir one of the other cousins could easily take exception to it and try to start a civil war. His father was determined to not have that happen and the only way to ensure it wouldn't was to get Axel married and producing some heirs.

Prince Axel was an only child although not for want of trying. Just a year after his birth the King had gotten badly sick with a disease notorious for rendering sufferers sterile. He'd recovered but with the expected effect and despite three Royal wives, Axel had never had a brother or sister. It was a shame really, he'd have liked to have some siblings. Although the other palace rugrats had provided plenty of companions in mischief. Ashara didn't stand on ceremony the way some other countries did and the offspring of the scullery maids had often played with him. Not to mention…

"Hai Prince." The soldier on duty made a quick salute and Axel returned it.

"Hai Riku." He could have recognized that voice in the dark. Riku was the son of his father's best general and was currently working his way up in the ranks. He was a junior Lieutenant and clearly had the responsibility for the battlements right now.

"What are you doing here? A pressing desire for fresh air?" Riku's tone was full of gentle irony and Axel grinned.

"Fresh air that smells like rotten eggs, ah, bliss." Riku's low laugh was soothing as always. "I'm just thinking about my upcoming nuptials." Axel's tone was sour and Riku didn't smile. He knew what the problem was. "I wish I could just marry you. My life would be so much easier."

"Except that that would do the country no good at all from the heir perspective." Riku observed. "And my Kitty would probably kill you." Axel grinned at that. Kitty was a flame haired woman and his distant relative. She was related to the Skull Queen and took after her in temperament.

"She likely would, too. Kill first and ask questions later, that could be her motto." Riku smiled in pleasure as Axel's words reminded him of his woman. Axel envied him. If only he could feel that way about a woman than his marriage wouldn't be such a chore. "And she's the jealous sort I hear." Riku sighed.

"I think everyone has heard by now after what she did to that poor minstrel." Riku shook his head reprovingly then looked at Axel. "Enough about us though. I hear the King is insisting you get several wives, not just this one." Axel nodded glumly.

"Yes. He's hoping one of them will take my fancy." Axel doubted it. He was taken with the men. That was all there was too it. In the normal course of things he'd have had brothers and sisters and at least one of them would have come up with a good claimant to the throne but now it was either his own children or the cousins. And there were just too many cousins. "The first one is going to be this girl from Reyerton. She's a first Princess." Riku frowned faintly and Axel noticed. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just, does she have a lot of sisters?" Axel looked at the silver hair, puzzled, and shook his head.

"No, none at all. Her only sibling is her brother the heir. Why?" Riku's frown deepened and then he shrugged.

"It just seems odd that they'd marry a first Princess off to you." Axel bristled and Riku smiled. "Not that you're not handsome enough or strong enough. But we're too far North to have any real contact with them. What are they getting out of this? Not even trading concessions and they have to provide us with the dowry."

"Huh." Axel hadn't thought about the pairing analytically. He'd been too wrapped up in his own personal reactions. But now that it was pointed out Riku did have a point. "You're right that's odd. I hope she's not ugly or crippled or something." He pulled out the locket he'd been given and looked at the picture critically. It was of a very young girl with long blonde hair. "She looks nice enough although she'll have to cut that mess off." His people didn't believe in long hair for anyone. It was too easy for someone to get a grip on during combat. "If only she were a boy."

"You'll be able to have lovers." Riku said comfortingly and Axel nodded. Other countries derided them for the custom, but same sex relationships were an open fact of life in Ashara. It was just understood that they couldn't get in the way of the important business of siring and bearing children. Life could be very hard in the Northlands.

"Well, I'll do my duty." Axel finally sighed and made peace with it. It really was his duty now. There was no way around it. "But I don't have to like it." Riku nodded and set a hand comfortingly on his shoulder for a moment.

Sometimes that was all you could do.