There are no words to describe it, that feeling of revulsion, terror, and hatred, that mixture that could be the deadliest feeling of all. She knew she had to get out, before she did something she would perhaps not live to regret.
She stiffened her shoulders and shoved away restraining hands and words. She walked out the door and turned to run into the stables, brushing past the puzzled stable hands to leap onto her horse's back.
She kicked her mare into a canter, rushing past the sentries and galloping flat out when she got to the main road.
She hissed as she reflected on what they were asking of her...
"Please, you must understand that this alliance would benefit both clans greatly."
"Yes, listen to you uncle Daeîn." Her mother echoed, and she found herself hating her weak-willed mother more than ever.
She looked up in defiance. "Get Mir to do it, get anyone else to!" She looked from face to face in the room, most of the Elves there refusing to meet her eyes.
"He asked for you, now grow up. You have led a sheltered life here; you lack knowledge on the outside world, and so you fear it. That's completely understandable, forgivable even. What we cannot forgive is your self-centered view of the world. All of us would benefit from this. All of us." That was the silent cue from her uncle for the family to nod their heads in agreement. "Would you do that to us? Ostracize us is our King's eyes? No, you are a good girl, if not sometimes misguided. Just sign your name, that's all there is to it. Sign to marry the Prince and you shall never know want..."
She stormed out and she heard him say to the others, "Just give her time, she'll come around."
And she knew she would 'come 'round'; she knew this because she was but a little past her majority, with hardly a penny to her own name, and no knowledge of anything but her humble existence as the oldest daughter of a failing noble line.
She slowed her horse to a trot, letting her adjust to the slower pace and then turning around.
She was weak and she hated it. She could not decide who she would marry, when she would marry, and deciding if was out of the question entirely.
It was so different from the life she had envisioned for herself. She had hoped, with the money and lands vanishing from her family's hands, that they could live a simpler life. She was good with herbs, she could be become a medicine woman, heal the sick, treat the wounded. That's all she had ever wanted, was that too much to ask?
But it seemed that her uncle, now the head of the family with her father gone, had other tings in mind. Like her marrying the Crown Prince.
She had nothing personally against the Prince, she had only ever met him once at a feast at the Palace. They had exchanged a few pleasantries and parted ways, never seeing the other ever again.
And now they were to marry? She couldn't get past the fact of it. Married...
She couldn't believe it, she had thought that if she had to marry, she would at least be well past her majority, why, she was only two thousand one hundred! It human years that was fifteen!
Her mother waited at the gate, clucking at her muddied cloak and her panting horse, sending her up to bed with a kiss. She acts as if it never happened...and maybe, so should I.
Her uncle stopped her on her way to her room.
"Don't forget us when you're Queen." Daeîn shivered and brushed past him. She knew what he meant, Put in a good word for us with the Prince, after all...
Never you lech! Never never never never never...