The shock, the horror on their faces.

Beatrice gasps as she hears her words, like some scandalously juicy rumor she must know more. “You’ve met Prince Zai?!”

“Last night… when I…” She tries to find the word as she stares at this candid photograph. “When I… ran away. We spoke… for a while.”

“About what?” Naomi works her younger sister like a captured insurgent, trying to wring out as much information as possible with a harsh bark. “What did you speak about?!”

“I don’t remember?! We talked about what food we liked to eat; he talked about his home… and uh we laughed… sorta?”

“Sophia was missing for almost ten minutes…” Beatrice calculates, counting fingers up to their maximum.

Alice feigns fainting, waving a gloved hand over her face. “Oh dear Sophia holding a conversation with a stranger for ten minutes? She truly has fallen for him.”

Their mother moves, pretending to catch her youngest daughter mid-fall. “Well that certainly makes the initial introductions completed. I’m glad you two got to laugh over something.”

I don’t think it's like that mother! Sophia gulps.

Beatrice is already at work, a master crafting together the narrative. “This could be spun quite nicely in the press. I assume talk of this engagement and… alliance with the Dominion has been occurring for quite a bit of time?”

“It has.” Mother confirms. “In fact, if your Father wasn’t delayed he would’ve already been packing for a diplomatic trip to Tianci this evening to finalize the treaty.”

“Well we can play it off perhaps retroactively? Falling in love at first sight during your coming-of-age does have its own… romantic flair. And for the first royal of our siblinghood to be married out of love and not some political point?” Beatrice swoons. “The people will cry and weep in the streets, they’ll be sending fall roses to the palace in such droves the wedding fire will burn for weeks! Perhaps this new Imperial Era shall be called ‘Era of Roses’ in honor of an age of peace and love!”

Beatrice, Sophia thinks, narrowing her eyes. Always oversharing that dramatic part of you. I am getting married for political reasons…

One objection takes form, one single cry from a court of six. Natan’s voice cutting into their presumptuous celebrations. “Mother, Empress, my Lord, please reconsider this engagement!”

Natan?! All think at once. He’s the one to object to this?!

His natural speechcraft lets the silence sit for just a moment before he finishes his reasoning. “Prince Zai deserves someone much better than Sophia!”

Natan was always the one out of place.

The only male heir in a squabble of sisters and often the most rebellious out of the bunch, his strangeness only seemed to be out of a genuine desire and love for all of them. Except now.

“The Prince deserves someone of royal import, a bride, a partner who can stand beside him in the rebuilding of his nation. I plead for you to reconsider my Empress!”

What. All of the sisters think at once.

Naomi raises the first strange look, swearing in front of her family. “Natan, what in the damned holiness’ name are you on about?”

Second Prince Natan speaks with passion, of a love to a brother he never had (and in actuality, never met technically). “My dear siblings, my noble Empress: my comrades in this divine mission of governance! Prince Zai—a man I have never even shared so much as a greeting with—is a paragon of virtue! A hero. He has led his people through the horrors of the Great Starving, when the echoes of the Third Stygian War still howled in their ears! He has borne this burden, not with complaint, but with tired strength!”

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Oh no, here he goes. Father should never have taught him improv.

They watch as he begins to pace the Court, pointing towards the staring family.

“And now, we: rulers of the Imperium, paragons of decency and good conscience standing beneath our Goddess, dare to stand in judgment over his heart? His heart! That sacred vessel of longing… and love! What audacity, what hubris, do we possess to tear away his future? To hand him a bride he has met but once, like some ill-considered parting gift? Is this the love we show a man who has given his soul to rebuild the Dominion, our brotherly nation?”

The crowd, the entire imaginary court begins to rise. Shouting thunderous words of appealment, two sides already beginning to break: those that would follow tradition and those who would follow the heart. Natan grabs the hands of his sisters in sequence: Naomi, Beatrice, Alice.

“Are we, noble prince and princesses, heirs of a bloodline of wisdom and compassion, nothing but barbarians? Are we to rip from his grasp the sacred freedom of love, to deny him the fire of passion, the thrill of romance? What right have we to shatter the dreams of a young man who has fought so valiantly to secure dreams for others? Shall we snuff out his hopes as if they were but a cheap candle? Nay! I say nay! This injustice cannot stand, not while we rule!”

If the royal court was here in its entirety this speech at minimum would’ve turned into a shouting match, perhaps even caused a friendly fist fight or two. But in their absence they just stare at him.

“Well I think it’s very rare you get to marry a nice hottie like Sophia these days, especially one of this political import.” Beatrice thinks aloud with a disappointed sigh. “Plus I think you two are a good fit, he is one with a kind personality after all~”

“He is a *responsible* one too, and not too poor on the eyes.” Naomi adds coldly. “You need physical attraction to get things going and I don’t doubt that he sees Sophia as a bit of a… special idol right now.”

“I… I didn’t even get to tell him my name.” Princess Sophia nervously chirps.

“It’s good, you’re building anticipation.” Beatrice offers her advice, lowering her voice with a belated breath. “Make him wait for it, make him lust for your…” She pauses as she notes Alice’s excited presence, “... voice again.”

“Stop!” Natan continues to argue, reorganizing his appeal. No longer to the hearts of his family, but instead to their logic. “That’s not the point. Sure he’s responsible, kind, funny, and… really handsome. But what about Sophia?! What’s he going to think after she shows him what she really is like?!”

Oh yeah, that might be the snag. This is not good at all…

“Mother.” Naomi snaps to attention. “When is the date of the wedding?”

“It’s agreed to five months from now.”

Five months, is this a wartime alliance?

“We have five months to sort her out.” Beatrice begins panicking. “Oh my Goddess I thought we’d have more time…”

The Empress clears her throat gently, interrupting her children. “Well it is still being decided on if Prince Zai is to stay here in the Palace for the time being. I thought it’d be well for Sophia and him to get to know each other a bit mor…”

Oh Goddess they have no time. He was still here…

And to stay…

Beatrice begins the fight against Nathan. “Nat, if we can turn Sophia into the best version of herself within 5 months, can you agree to her marriage to Zai?!”

The brother scoffs. “Impossible, I wouldn’t even think…”

Alice quickly tugs his sleeve, her voice filled with genuine, tragic concern. Playing against his own argument, telling the simple truth. “Natan, don’t you think Prince Zai deserves someone as unambitio… stable and loving as Sophia? After what he’s been through, that's the least he deserves. And if not Sophia, what if he is to be married to a person only seeking to rule Tianci through his assassination? Or worse, a woman with bad desires who will… break his heart? And don’t you think it would be good to help him, nurture him as a… brother-in-law?”

If a Trial of Succession was called, and it was a popular vote? Alice would probably win, even if she wasn’t on the ballot.

Natan’s face slacks, an argument out of the picture, resigned.

“I’m putting in leave from the First Legion.” Naomi rushes, a foot already pointed towards one of the Throne Room’s backup exits.

Natan follows alongside her. “I need to cancel all my appointments for the next month.”

Beatrice begins to jog, quite quickly despite the restrictive dress shoes. “We need a maid clean up team in her room NOW!”

Sophia just stands there dumbfounded, watching as her siblings run back into the main palace (running in the court, also a major breach in manners). Their love suffocating as always, despite herself being this mess she’s shocked that they’re willing to throw their lives into chaos like this just for her.

Alice, the youngest, takes her hand, a soft voice reading her nervous expression. “Sophia…?”

“Yes Alice?”

“Everything’s going to be ok.”