Another day of court meetings and assemblies.

Heather sighed, exhaustion evident on her face, as she leaned back on her chair. Who knew that being queen was so tiring? Of course, it felt like it should have been common knowledge, but Heather was caught off guard by the amount of duties piled upon her. Emma helped where she could, but Heather always felt a little guilty whenever her friend insisted on doing some paperwork for her.

Smalls was tired too, she could tell. Because of this, she didn't want to bother him too much with her own troubles, the two of them feeling the stress of lifting the kingdom up from its feet.

She sighed again, resting her head in her hands. The library had become her retreat away from politicians vying for power, petty troubles with establishing connections between Terrelain and Natalia, Jovesons appearing in the most random places, and so on. It provided her a haven, seeing as barely anyone visited the vast room anymore.

"Are you even alive?"

Heather's head shot up. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was just her brother-in-law, Whitbie Joveson, balancing a strangely large number of books in his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked, eyeing the precarious stack.

"Getting books," Whit responded, like it was the most obvious answer in the world. Heather scowled. Whit was nice enough, but she always got this vibe that he and her other siblings-in-law were silently judging her, waiting for her to mess up. A little paranoid, but she was pretty sure Lana Joveson had been talking about her last night.

Oh well. Heather shifted her attention away from the Joveson prince, determined to focus on her own problems.

She could take a small rest before the next conference with Kylen and Smalls, discussing trade routes between the two nations.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, when the door shot open and Lana Joveson stomped in.

Heather groaned quietly. Why was her safe place being invaded by dramatic royalty, who apparently had 500 grudges against each other?! All she wanted was to sleep…

"Whit!" Eve snapped, hands on her hips.

"Shh," Whit hissed, kicking his sister. "Heather's tryna sleep."

Lana turned to face her and winced. "Oops, sorry," she said, a little uncharacteristic for the usually spiteful, sort of mean-spirited doe. She lowered her voice. "Smalls needs ya."

Heather breathed a sigh of relief when the two Jovesons left the library, Whit muttering about how he was never going to get his books.

It was difficult, adjusting to this new life. Picket seemed to adjust easier, which scared her a little. Picket never did well with change.

Her eyes strayed to the window, where she could see Jacks throwing a ball with a group of younglings, supervised by Sween.

Everyone was so happy, and here Heather was, cooped up in the stuffy old palace with thousands of meetings on her roster and no break in sight. Did King Jupiter ever feel this way? Or Lady Glen?

Maybe she should ask Smalls' mother for some help.

No, she didn't have the energy to roam the palace in search for the reclusive Queen Mother, who spent most of her days rebuilding her relationships with her siblings and acting as an advisor for her son.

She stood up stiffly, brushing some dust off her dress and beginning her walk to her bedroom. She had a little time before the meeting…and she always needed to be well-rested to deal with Kyle's headache inducing antics…

Well, at least her problems could be set aside for now.


Ahem i love Joveson OCs,,

This was fun! I'd assume Lady Glen and Emma gave Heather some advice after her nap sjdskdjs

I didn't really focus on the aspect of her integrating into royal life and more the after-effects/exhaustion following. I might even write a part 2 where its more focused on the political/royal aspects lol