The walk to the throne room was excruciating. My dress was uncomfortable, the corset pinched me and the hoop skirt weighed me down.

I felt like I was on display was we walked through the hallways. People gawked and pointed as we walked by. I gripped Evani’s arm tighter and plastered on a huge smile.

“You okay?” Evani whispered to me, when he noticed my tightened grip.

“Just ready to get this over with, and back into my real clothes.” I whispered back in response.

He smiled and continued walking. We had a little entourage escorting us to the throne room. Their was a few girls walking slightly behind me to constantly adjust my dress. Then their was the two men walking in front of me and Evani pushing people out of the way. I had never felt more important not even at home.

We had gone a different way to the throne room they we had taken the last two previous times. Walking through the halls, I saw our audience. I was wrong earlier, the King wasn't ashamed of us, he wanted to show us off when everyone was looking.

I bit my tongue to prevent saying any smart quip to Evani, when a woman gasped when she saw us. All I did was laugh to myself, earning an elbow from Evani.

By the time we finally made it to the throne room, my feet were killing me. We were taken through the main doors this time. The main doors were extremely ornate with stain glass windows in them.

The Kings advisor next to the door and led us to stand next to the throne. “Stand their and smile, if anyone tries to talk to you just tell them you don’t speak common okay?” He said through his teeth.

I whispered the translation to Evani and watched his expression change. He looked upset and rightfully so.

“So you want us to be ornaments, purely decoration?” I said while raising my eyebrows in question. He just rolled his eyes and stomped off.

Time went by painfully slow. People constantly came up to us to kiss our hands and practically beg for our favor. We had to just smile in response and wave them off.

As people stopped trickling in, the King stood up, “Welcome! Please enjoy the night! Food will be served later on, don’t worry,” a few chuckles came from the audience, every time the King would speak I would translate for Evani, “I would like to introduce our new esteemed guests. They will be escorting my children…” he paused obviously thinking of the correct words, “on a trip.” He motioned us to approach him.

I hesitantly approached, pulling Evani along with me. Everyone was staring. The amount of people in this room was more than all than all the Berserkers combined, it was intimidating.

“I would introduce them but, their names are a little hard for me to pronounce,” He said pausing for laughs, “I’ll let them introduce themselves!” He grabbed my arm harshly and pulled me up to the edge of the pedestal.

“My name is Emari and this is my twin brother Evani.” I said while grabbing Evani, “We are the children of the Berserker chief.” I stopped and looked at Evani for help, he was always better with people than me.

Evani pulled me closer to whisper something into my ear “Tell them who we are not just what.” He whispered softly and smiled at me confidently.

I faced the audience again and started speaking “We are the children of Astoria Thatcher,” I smiled thinking about my mom’s kind face, “and Covaci. I am a fighter and my brother is a healer. We are both proud to protect and, if necessary, fight to protect the King’s children.” I grabbed Evani’s hand while saying the last line.

Their was silence before the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. We had gotten their temporary approval. The King pushed us aside and gave his last remarks to the audience before announcing the ball as officially begun.

The ball had just barley begun and I was ready for it to be over. Me and Evani just had to watch, the King didn't allow us to go dance or enjoy the ball at all.

Everything we did was watched. Every time I moved the people around us tensed up preparing for an attack or something drastic. Anytime I leaned to whisper something to Evani, everyone near strained to hear us.

My feet started to burn from standing for this long in heels, I would trade anything to be back in my normal clothes. I started to tune everything out as the night went along.

I was paying attention only to the people who entered and left the room out of habit. No one who came through the door were anyone of mention until three girls walked in. The crowd parted as they walked through some even bowed.

One of the girls was tall and blonde, she wore a light pink dress with gold accents through out. Another girl looked about seven, she had short curly blonde hair, she wore a purple dress with a big bow on the front. The last girl looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t place her face.

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I was staring at her face until Evani elbowed me with a strange look on his face. “The staring is starting to get weird,” he whispered.

I whipped my head towards him, and rolled my eyes. The King stepped up again, waving the three girls toward him.

“My three girls have arrived,” the King put his hands around them, “My eldest Charlotte,” He gestured to the tall blonde girl, “my middle daughter Elizabeth,” I gasped when he said the name. It was the girl again.

“And finally my youngest Anne.” He then gestured to the girl that was left the small one. “Now that they have arrived let’s feast!” He said.

Everyone turned to head to the grand hall before the screaming started. The crowd parted and there was 15 cloaked humanoid figures standing over two dead bodies.

They were all holding short swords, and through the cracks in their cloaks I could see silver armor. Out of habit I reached for my two swords on my back but my hands came up empty.

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs out of frustration. I can’t believe I let them take my swords and put me into these silly clothes.

I rushed in front of the King’s daughter, and motioned for Evani to do the same.

“What do you want?” The King bellowed at them.

“A lot of things,” The figures responded, “but in particular you, your children, and everyone in your kingdom dead.”

The crowd gasped in response, clearly they had not heard of the ongoing tensions between the Human Kingdom and almost every other surrounding kingdom.

I whispered over my shoulder to the girls, “Close your eyes, and don’t open them. I don't want any of you to see this.”

I focused on the cloaked figures. “I’ll leave one of you alive, which of you want to survive?’ I asked feigning innocence.

The figures scoffed and half of them starting to charge at me. I looked at the figures legs and a CRACK resounded through the hall, as eight of the figures fell to the ground with their legs bent at awkward angles.

I walked past the withering figures and as I passed their necks cracked and they stopped moving. The remaining seven as I got closer started to look terrified.

One of them raised their swords and swung it at me. I caught his arm and it snapped in my grip. As the figure screamed I put my hands on his head and snapped his neck.

Two more did the same clearly not learning from their friend’s mistakes. I didn’t even let them get close enough to start to swing before I snapped their necks.

I picked up one of their swords and raised it in invitation for a fight. The remaining four looked at each other and turned on their heels and started to run away.

I focused on the three moving away on the right and snapped their necks. There was only one left now, I turned towards them and snapped his legs in a half.

The figure fell to the ground in a sobbing pile. I walked over and pulled off his hood.

It was a young orc boy, he looked even younger than me, I would pity him if he didn’t kill those two people in front of everyone.

I leaned down to his face, “I chose for you,” I said while picking him up. I turned back around and walked over to the King.

I set him down and got down on my knee “What would you like me to do my King?” I asked him with my eyes pointed to the ground.

The King stuttered in bewilderment. I wanted to yell at him to get himself together, but I bit my tongue and waited for a response.

He finally decided on an answer and waved me away “I trust you, it’s up to your discretion.”

I nodded towards Evani as I started to pull the man back through the doors. Everybody seemed to be fighting each other to get away from us.

I pushed through the main doors while pulling the man behind me. My heart was pounding, I hated being here. I felt completely useless.

A voice interrupted my thoughts “Wait! Wait just one second.”

I turned around and Elizabeth was chasing after us. The door slammed behind her as she ran through. “I saw you up there, are you our Berserker body guard?” Elizabeth asked when I stopped and faced her.

“That’s what you got me to stop for. For you to ask me a question you already know the answer to?” I laughed.

Elizabeth sighed “No I just-” she trailed off as she noticed the man I was dragging behind me and she saw my dress and my hands drenched in blood.

Elizabeth’s complexion turned pale, as she her eyes flitted back to the throne room “Those men, the ones all bent in different directions that were dead, you did that?” She asked her eyes getting wide.

I wanted to explain but I just nodded. She shook her head looking like she fighting back the urge to vomit.

I didn’t understand her reaction. Death happened everyday at home. I killed my first being when I was seven, and hadn’t stopped since then.

I had no clue how to comfort the shaking girl in front of me. I just stood there watching her convulse in disgust. Evani grabbed my arm and started to pull me in the other direction.

Even without understanding any of mine or her words he knew exactly what to do for me. We headed deeper into the castle but instead of going the way back to our rooms, we headed down towards what I thought was the way towards the dungeons.

It took 15 minutes to get to the dingy dark place where the King held his prisoners. There was a bored looking knight standing at the entrance. His eyes widened when he stopped us and he waved us through.

I set the cloaked figure in an unoccupied cell, leaving his interrogating for later when we weren’t in such silly clothes.

Me and Evani started to head back up to our rooms. I was exhausted, when we got to our rooms I could barley keep my eyes open.

Evani looked over and noticed my face. He grabbed my shoulders just before I collapsed. He did his best to pull me into my room.

He pulled me onto my bed, “You ok?” he asked.

“Just tired,” I whispered, while my eyes slipped close and I fell asleep.