A/N: Last chapter, I didn't really mean to make Oria so arrogant. She just gets that way against Lucier because well, she loathes him.
Meliara sighed softly and the king tightened his comforting grip on her arm.
"Alaraec, I think it would be best if you left for a few moments." Vidanric knew that his son was going to protest, so he tore his gaze away from his daughter and looked at the crown prince. The look was one that told Alec to leave, that he could not hear what would be said to Oria, and that Ria needed to hear it alone first. As much as Alec hated this, he stood up, took his papers and quills with him and walked out of the room, pushing aside the door hanging. He would hear what Oria was hearing sooner or later; he just didn't like being asked to leave. Something was happening; something that would change the Renselaeuses forever and he wanted to be a part of it.
But the blond prince decided he would give Oria her space, for now.
The door hanging stopped moving and Ria looked away from it to her parents. A tear fell from her gray eyes onto the bridge of her nose. "How can you do this to me?" She wasn't exactly addressing her mother, but mainly her father. "You married the woman you loved, even though people said she wouldn't be a proper queen for Remalna. I am not given the chance to fall in love and marry the man I love?"
Vidanric's grip on his wife faltered for a moment and he looked down at Mel with loving gray eyes. Meliara moved out of her husband's grasp and walked toward her daughter. "Oria," she said softly, stroking her daughter's hair and then pulling her into a hug as the blond mage started to shake with tears. Mel held her close, allowing the tears to stain her gown, not caring about its cost. Vidanric stood back, watching the scene unfold, asking himself how he could have signed that piece of parchment years ago.
Oria tried to calm her tears and after a moment, pulled away from her mother. "Just tell me why," she pleaded, her gray eyes filled with questions and pain. She knew there had to be some reason, for her father would never have signed her away without one. She knelt down onto a cushion and looked up at her parents, trying to wipe the tears from her face with the lace cuffs of her silver gown.
Meliara walked back towards her husband and the two of them knelt on cushions facing Oria. Vidanric went straight the point. "Oria… Before you were born, there was a different ruling family of Enaeran ." Ria looked at her father in surprise; why had she never known this? It seemed as if the king could read her mind, for he answered that question next. "The people of Enaeran themselves hardly knew about it for years, as the Kiryi made it out as if the king was sick and they were merely ruling in his stead. The displacement of the king was unusual in that it did not occur in battle or all at once. It occurred when a family of nobles, the Kiryi, told the people of Enaeran that the crown prince, Lucieneres, had died and his father was sick. However the king knew he was not sick, but a victim of poison, because somehow the Kiryi had obtained from a letter claiming that they were next inline for the throne. So relying on the aid of those in the government who still supported him, the king escaped and gave the Kiryi the opportunity to proclaim his death and assume the throne. As the king had deserted his country and there was seemingly no true heir, they have ruled ever since."
"But Papa, how is this relevant to my… betrothal?" Oria said the last word quietly.
Meliara took over, "The king escaped and managed to reach Remalna before he died of the poison. Enaeran and Remalna have been allies for centuries, as Enaeran supplies Remalna with what wood we need while we supply them with the natural resources they need yet they are not able to access in their own country. Your father and I were obligated to aid the king. He wanted us to do one thing, to promise our last child to his son." Mel paused for a moment looking at her daughter.
"You were hardly a week old, but your father and I were obligated to agree with an ally of ours, especially since he was growing weaker by the day. He told us he had safeguarded his son with a loyal man and his wife who were currently in Marloven Hess acting as ambassadors. We signed a betrothal only moments before he died. He wished for his son to be able to reclaim his throne and the only way to do so was to have his son marry a princess of a wealthy country, a country with a strong army. We are duty bound to honor it, Oria." Mel paused again, wishing that she hadn't been so foolish years ago as to allow her daughter's entire life to be laid out when Oria was only a week old. "I'm sorry."
Meliara held out her hands to her daughter, hoping that she would at least see how hard this was for her parents. But when Oria stood and turned away, Mel looked towards Danric and silently asked him for advice. Vidanric was about to when Oria turned around once more and said four simple words: "When do we meet?"
Mel looked at her daughter with shock, but Vidanric understood. Ria had been raised as he had, to some extent at least, he thought wryly, glancing at his wife. He understood that Oria knew what she had to do, because she was honor bound to this. And perhaps pitied the prince of Enaeran who had lost the life he had been born into. But she was a princess of Remalna and had been raised since birth to always keep promises; Vidanric and Mel had ensured that. He had wanted his children to be able to make decisions properly, without the clouded judgment that was their mother's weakness. And here he and Mel were taking away one of the most important decisions of Oria's life, because of a dying man's wish that his son one day reclaimed the life into which he had been born .
"He arrives in four days, Oria," Mel said softly.
Oria nodded and glanced down at her dress. "Then I guess we had better summon at least half of the dressmakers in the kingdom, for if I am being married off to a stranger, I should dress appropriately," she said solemnly, and Meliara couldn't help but laugh. Only Vidanric's daughter could manage to take a bad situation and figure out a way to get clothes. Oria might not particularly enjoy the parties—in fact Mel knew Oria found them tiring since there were so many to attend--but she did enjoy fashion. Meliara doubted she would ever understand her youngest child, a mage who adored fashion and a girl who wanted to find love but was willing to sacrifice her chance at it because of an arrangement made years ago.
"She gets it from you. The court fop," Mel muttered softly to her husband as he turned towards Oria to offer her his arm and the three of them walked out of the library together to let the topic of this discussion be known to the rest of their family. All three knew Ria could never forgive her parents, that a gap was there, but they were still family.
As they entered the hall, Vidanric couldn't resist but muttering in reply, "Really Mel, I thought we were past that."
Oria looked at them at her parents gazed at each other, the love they shared visible on their faces. Then she ran down the hall towards her rooms without any warning whatsoever.