A/N: The years are long, but it's good to write fanfiction again. Here I am with a SYOC for The Selection, but because I always have to add something, I added fantasy elements.
Serenity smiled as she looked at her finished painting, a beautiful mix of vibrant colors creating a picture of the gardens outside her windows. She stepped away and took off her smock, going to wash her hand in a bucket of water she had brought with her. Her mind drifted so much that she flinched when she heard to door open. She turned to see one of the older maids stand by the door.
"Princess Serenity, King Georgios has requested your presence." She spoke in a calm, monotone voice. Serenity nodded.
"I'll go right now, Mrs. Crow" Serenity responded, drying her hands and taking one last look at her painting before leaving her art room. Mrs. Crow followed her down the cool hallways.
Serenity walked in an awkward silence, the only sound were Mrs. Crow heels clicking across the tiled floor. She wondered what her father wanted, he rarely called her for anything other than scolding for sneaking out of the palace. Serenity scratched at a drop of green paint that had stained a strand of her brown hair. She hardly noticed that she had reached her father's office until Mrs. Crow has opened the large door, the loud squeaking making her look up. She smoothed her dress before entering.
King Georgios Schreave's office was large and round, the floor was covered by a large burgundy rug. The walls were painted with vertical stripes of ivory and stripes. Family pictures were hung everywhere although instead of being set up in some timeframe they were disorganized a picture of a young King Georgios next to a picture of the older King holding his youngest daughter, Justine with his other daughters Ophelia and Serenity peeking from the background. Two brownish-red leather seats sat in front of a large mahogany desk, adorned with a small lamp, several letters and a few cracked picture frames.
Sitting at his desk with his hands folded was King Georgios, ruler of all of Illea. His long brown hair, fell in light curls around his fair face, warm brown eyes following his daughter. Next to him stood Queen Aspen, the elven queen and Serenity's mother. Her platinum hair was pulled up into a tight bun, showing her pale face and long, pointed ears, double the size of Serenity's ears, her aqua colored eyes looking at the papers on her husband's desk.
"Serenity, please have a seat." King Georgios said, leaning back in his chair.
"It was Justine, I swear." Serenity joked as she sat down. Queen Aspen chuckled then straightened her face. Georgios sighed and rolled his eyes at his daughter.
"We're not here to talk about whatever your siblings did. We're here to talk about you, your twenty years old now Serenity, and your mother and I decided that it's time for you to meet your future spouse." King Georgios said, pausing to let his daughter react. Serenity stuck her tongue in her cheek and then sat up.
"Is it an arranged marriage? I don't want to marry some random prince from another country." Serenity said crossing her arms. Georgios shook his head and clear his throat.
"It isn't a foreign prince, it will be a tournament. You'll have 35 men all competing for your hand. Won't that be exciting?" Georgios said. Serenity grimaced, went silent for a few moments then sighed and began to speak.
"A tournament huh? I... Father you can't serious expect me to pick a husband by having Rastus, Captain Pearce and you test the guys, then have me pick whether they are good or not for me."
"That's how I met your mother." Georgios said turning to Aspen, looking to her for support. The queen remained silent, merely observing.
"Yeah, and you got lucky, dad. What if I'm not? What if I'm stuck with some jerk who'll treat me like dirt?" Serenity crossed her arms. Silence filled the room as neither father nor daughter spoke. Queen Aspen suddenly spoke.
"What about a Selection? There isn't any law stating that it is illegal." Georgios and Serenity looked to the queen.
"We haven't had a Selection in ages, Aspen." King Georgios said, Aspen nodded.
"While that is true, dear. We can't just keep having tournaments. The people are starting to grow irate at them. People are still arguing over the possibility of racism in yours. Perhaps it's for the best, or better yet we let Serenity decide." Aspen said. Georgios reluctantly agreed and turned to his daughter.
"Can I just choose not to have one?" Serenity asked, both her parent shook their heads in sync. The odd synchronization of their head movements unnerved Serenity. She knew she didn't have a say in the matter. She had to pick the lesser of two evils. A tournament would be quick but it would leave her with someone who got lucky. A selection would give her time to know someone. She looked at her parents.
"I'll go with a Selection. I'd prefer to get to know my future husband instead of leaving it up to chance." Serenity said. Aspen smiled and clapped her hands.
"Perfect! We'll announce it on the Report and have Rastus send out invitations." Aspen chirped. Serenity sighed and left without another word. Upon opening the door, she bumped into a tall man in armor.
"Oh! Apologies Princess Serenity." He said. Serenity chuckled
"You know you can just call me Serenity, Pearce. You're family." Pearce looked a little embarrassed and ran his fingers through his short, brown hair.
"That's very kind of you, but I know I'm not family." He said, before Georgios coughed loudly to get his attention.
"Oops! I apologize your highness. I wanted to discuss to newest guards..." Captain Pearce spoke entering the office. Serenity rolled her eyes and wonder if Pearce was ever going to let himself be considered family. She figured that she should tell Rastus to start sending out applications. She wondered if she could send Mrs. Crow to speak to him in her place, but figure that the old maid would be far too busy to listen to her. Serenity began to head to the mage's workshop.
Serenity had no idea why the workshop was on the opposite side of the palace. It wasn't like Rastus was dangerous. The only strange thing about him was that he insisted that he came from another world. The door to the workshop contrasted against the white walls that surrounded it. It was made from thick planks of dark wood held together with metal bars. A heavy knocker rested in the middle and the handle was unusually ornate. Serenity entered without bothering to knock. The workshop was a large square room. Colored in swirling shades of navy blue and forest green. Metal tables lined the walls some organized neatly others disorganized with bottle of various bubbling liquids. On the few shelves above rested thick, dusty books and several different kinds of tomes. In the middle of the room was a large cauldron. Serenity had never seen it empty, this time it was filled with water. She saw the mage leaning on a counter next to a small pot on a flame, holding a wooden spoon and flipping through a book.
"Making more potions, Rastus?" she asked, the wizard turned around.
"I'm making soup. I have to eat too Serenity" He said turning back to his soup, adding a few spices and stirring it. He tasted it, added more salt then spoke again.
"Anyways do you have business here, Serenity. You don't come here often." He asked setting the spoon aside.
"I do in fact. You see I'm going to have a selection and-"
"I can't send you to where I came. If I knew I'd go back myself" Rastus interrupted, leaning on the counter.
"No that isn't what I want. I came to ask you to send out the applications. I want to get this over with quickly, and sending out applications the old fashion way takes forever."
"With the magic and science we have you'd think that we'd have used these quicker ways to send out applications but no, tradition and what not." Rastus replied as he snuffed the flame under his pot. He went over to one of the many tables and shifted through the mess of papers, taking an official looking sheet. The mage then went around his workshop collecting what seemed like random items. What did a dragon fang have to do with sending out applications?
The dark-haired mage pulled a small rolling cart with his foot and placed all the objects on the cart. He tapped his foot against the bottom of the cauldron and muttered
"Incendio." A fire lit and roared under the cauldron. He looked through his bottles and tossed a few in, cork and all.
"Want me to rig it? So more of one race get it?" Rastus asked looking at a bottle that had a swirling orange liquid.
"No. I want it to be fair. We are already being criticized for favoring Elves, I don't need the news saying that I favored one race over the others." Rastus shrugged at the princess request and tossed the orange bottle away, instead of shattering on the floor, it bounced off the floor and rolled under a table.
"Do you think any Merfolk will join?" Serenity asked as the mage, added more odd things to his cauldron.
"Maybe. But they hardly come up to the surface. I don't think your father wants any Shape of Water shenanigans though." Rastus say as he drops the dragon fang and a bottle of ink. Whatever was in the cauldron suddenly started to bubble then stop, glowing a pale green. Rastus grabbed a pen off the cart and tossed the pen in the pot. It disappeared as soon as it hit the liquid. Rastus smiled and picked up the official looking paper.
"Duplico" he said, turning the paper into a stack and dropping it into the cauldron. He turned to Serenity who just stared, confused and a little amazed.
"It's done, Rastus Amar has done his job" He said with a content look on his face. The mage went back to his soup as if nothing had ever happened. Serenity stared for another few seconds then left. She wasn't entirely sure what happened or what Rastus did. His kind of magecraft was... odd to say the least. He could do it without his staff and so effortlessly. Serenity struggled to even be able to cast a levitation spell.
Serenity figured that she would tell her sisters. Justine would be in the library and Ophelia would probably be in the gardens with Quinn. She was already near the library so she decided to head there.
Serenity entered the library and looks around at the maze of shelves, filled with various books on different subjects. Serenity was certain that nobody except her little sister read these books.
"Justine? You in here?" Serenity called out. The soft rustle of a few books was heard before a soft voice called back.
"I'm by the desks in the back, Serenity." Serenity began to walk to the back of the library. She had never realized how large and organized the library was. It felt as if she was walking through an endless maze of books. The dim lighting didn't help, eventually serenity reached the desks. Where a short girl sat at a desk, reading. The girl put her book down, sticking a metallic bookmark in it.
"Here to tell me about your Selection?" Justine said, leaning back in her chair. Serenity looked surprised.
"How did you know?" Serenity said. Justine sat up and undid her bun letting her blonde hair fall.
"Mrs. Crow told me. Chances are I knew before you did. I'll tell you now Serenity, be careful." Justine said her face suddenly turning serious.
"What do you mean?" Serenity asked, she was never certain what her straight-laced, serious sister talked about.
"You aren't playing games, Serenity. In a week or so 35 men will be in the palace vying for your hand. Be careful not to play with their heartstrings too hard."
"I'm not quite sure I follow, Justine."
"Serenity, think of our image. We are not loved by the people of Illea, for Father's tournament. Your Selection is a chance to somewhat restore our image. Only if you can play your cards right." Justine said, staring at the books scattered on the desk. Her fingers tracing over several horror books.
"If you crush the hearts of those men underneath a heel. You'll only cause more strife, be smart. If you are going to let them go, then let them go. These are real people and you can't afford to play around." Justine looked at Serenity before speaking up again.
"I'll help you out... I'm not very social but I know how to conduct secretive research and whoever join. I will know about them and what they like. Come to me if you want some help, but don't rely too much on me, Serenity. If something were to happen, I don't want to be caught in the crossfire." Justine then stood up.
"I think I've read enough for today." Justine said, beginning to walk towards the exit. Serenity followed her out of the library. Justine then quickly disappeared before Serenity could properly thanks her for the unwanted but useful advice. Serenity was going to head to the garden to meet her sister when she was suddenly hugged from behind.
"There's my favorite niece!" A woman said as she hugged Serenity from behind. Serenity broke away from the woman's grasp and smiled at who it was.
"Auntie Delilah! You're back!" Serenity said, a smiling creeping on her face as she hugged her aunt tightly.
"Yes, I'm back sweetheart and I'm going to be here for a while. Traveling too much isn't good for my health." Delilah said cupping her pale face.
"Auntie, I'm having a selection." Serenity happily said, her aunt's face quickly changed to one of a glee.
'That's great, baby. Ooh you're growing up so fast!" Delilah said, her watch beeped and she had to excuse herself. Serenity smiled at her aunt, she was a nice woman. She seemed so normal and always brought Serenity gifts from her travels. Serenity then made her way to the gardens where her sister Ophelia and brother, Quinn was.
"All I'm saying is that is isn't my fault she fainted!" Quinn said with a sip of his lemonade looking over at his sister.
"Quinn, you put a fake spider on her shoulder. A realistic looking one." Ophelia said.
"Eh I still blame her." Quinn said, unaware the Serenity was right behind her.
"Well you better not put that kind of stunt during the Selection." Serenity said, crossing her arms. Quinn didn't even bother to look at his sister.
"You're having a Selection?" Ophelia questioned looking up at her sister.
"Not a tournament?" Quinn asked, drinking down the rest of his lemonade.
"Yep, I convinced Mom and Dad to let me have on instead of a tournament." Serenity said.
"Great, a bunch of sweaty guys are gonna be here all hounding us for your favorite teacup or something." Quinn said, grumbling.
"You're just mad that we're going to have to keep you on a tight leash so you won't kill a vampire with food seasonings" Ophelia teased. Quinn turned his head.
"Are vampires even allergic to garlic?" Serenity asked.
"Maybe they don't want bad breath. But a Selection, huh. Thirty-five hunky men all coming here, huh. Must be nice." she said.
"Kinda sorta. I'm nervous but just hope that they aren't jerks." Serenity said.
"Please, they're probably all going to be testosterone poisoned." Quinn quipped.
"If you don't shut up, we're going to tie you and leave you in the dungeon." Ophelia said, Quinn rolled his eyes and left.
"For the youngest, he sure is bratty..." Serenity said
"Leave him. Anyways Serenity I hope everything goes well. I hope you don't mind if I steal some guys from you." Ophelia said with a wink. Serenity shook her head.
"You can have them all if I don't like them." Serenity said, she was already starting to warm up to the idea. As she continued to speak with Ohpelia, Justine's words bounced in her head, she hoped that she wouldn't damage their family's reputation more than it already was.
A/N: and that's it. My introductory chapter to an SYOC with fantasy elements. On my profile is the form, alongside any information you need to know. You can reserve a spot and province and have until the end of February to submit your character. I will say one thing I need more Dwarves and Humans. Regardless I look forward to your submissions.