AN/ I have recently been asked to write a second chapter by two different people within the space of a week, so I will tie this minificthing up.
"Tara!" shouted a voice behind her. Struggling not to send decorum to the winds and just run away from this undoubtedly awkward meeting, Tara turned around stiffly, her leg paining her again now that Robin was no longer there to hold her up.
"Lisbeth." Her tone was unpromising to say the least, but Lisbeth on a mission was not to be denied, and she launched straight into her beautifully prepared spiel about duties and responsibilities. As Lisbeth demonstrated once more the extraordinary abilities of her speech writer, (she was quick, Tara would give her that, she'd only had, what, thirty minutes at most since the declaration to write this whole thing up) Tara could almost hear the spiderman theme tune playing in the background.
"Doo dee doo doo doo dee doo" she mumbled, causing Lisbeth to forget her lines and frown at her in confusion.
"Er… What?"
"Earth culture reference, you wouldn't understand. What was that you were saying?" Slurk. Not the right thing to say, apparently.
"You weren't listening to me, young lady?! You do realise I am talking about the future of your life and this emp…!"
Tara cut across her. "Yes. And that's why I don't care. Because, as you say, this is the future of my life we're talking about. Not yours. Or anyone else's. So you can just leave me in peace, OK! I don't care."
"Tara. You don't mean that. Omois is important to you. I know it is."
"Yes, but I just don't see why me marrying Robin is going to ruin the empire."
"If you'd just listened for once, you'd have heard me telling you about all the other more advantageous marriages you could make."
"However, I don't love any of these various princes or merchants. I love Robin. End of. Anyway, the empire seems to be doing quite well without any of these treaties my wedding could lead to. This isn't really what this is about, is it? You're just speciesist. You don't like Robin because he's not completely human. To be honest Lisbeth, you need to grow up. You and your little empire can't survive as the last outposts of speciesism on otherworld for ever. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to see my fiancé. He's probably worried about me. He generally is. With no reason. Mostly. Sometimes. Occasionally. Poor Robin."
Lisbeth stared after Tara as she limped down the corridor.
The speciesist comment had hurt. She knew her empire was proportionally more human than any other country. But no one accused Selenda of being speciesist because it was mostly elves. Nevertheless, Lisbeth was self-aware enough to know that her hatred of Robin was in part due to her disdain for the elves in her services.
"Tara!" Not again, thought Tara as she turned around again, only to find herself suddenly surrounded by warm arms as she looked up into the face of her fiancé.
"Robin!"
"Where have you been? I was worried about you!". One point to me, thought Tara.
"Giving my aunt what she had coming."
"Oh Zelda. Tara, what did you say?"
"I told her she was a speciesist little cow and she could stick her fancy speeches wherever she liked but not give them to me." Tara replied smugly
"You really mean it then. Us getting m-married?"
"You know, you should probably be convinced you want to marry someone, before you ask them."
"I am! Tara you know I love you more than the world. I tell you twenty times a day, at least. I just wasn't sure Lisbeth wouldn't persuade you to wait at least."
"If we wait to announce our engagement she'll just get rid of you. I couldn't bear that. I'm not saying we'll get married right now, just we'll tell the newscrystals now so she can't make you disappear quietly."
"I somehow doubt much announcing will be necessary. Enough scoops covered that ceremony, the news must be all over Otherworld by now."
"Oh yeah. I always forget scoops are not just snitches."
"Er, they kind of are. They find out and tell people's secrets. If that's not snitching…"
"Never mind. I can think of something much more interesting we could be doing…"
Perfectly agreeing with the sentiment behind these words Robin lifted Tara up and carried her back to her sitting room. This manoeuvre was made slightly less graceful by his simultaneous efforts to capture her lips. They got there though.
Next day on Crytter this post did not startle the empire in the least:
Tara Duncan ImperialHeiress
RobinM'angil Love you #engaged
Unlike this one:
Lisbeth'tylanhnem T'al Barmi Empress
#Congratulations to ImperialHeiress and RobinM'angil
Which caused widespread shock and anxiety. #who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-to-our-Empress became the number one Otherworld trend within 20 minutes.
