Frostine glanced at the red timer at the bottom right corner of her vision. They had less then 2 minutes to join the rest of the funeral parade. She didn’t know what her step-mother would do as the result of Frostine being late. She hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. Of course, it could be. She didn’t know her stepmother well. Her father, the Late King, had married the widow a few months ago after deciding to give Frostine a mother again. This time, her father also gave her several sisters who want nothing to do with her and prefer her to be gone. She knew they wanted to have good matches for marriages, but they didn’t have any ‘good’ suitors since Frostine was still the True Heir of the Kingdom and would have a line of suitors will to do anything for her attention.
From what she remembered from her previous life, a royal family having too many daughters could be a bad thing since the line of secession went from father to son. However, the Late King didn’t have a problem announcing Frostine to be the next ruler of the Snow Capped Mountain Kingdom when she came of age. No body expected the King to die in a random corridor of the castle, leading to the Dungeon of Fear.
She saw the timer reached the one minute mark. She stood up and grabbed the wooden railing that separated her and the driver. She peered over the driver’s shoulder, trying to measure how much further they had to cover before they joined the funeral parade. She glanced down at the timer and saw there was 30 seconds left. She sighed. They weren’t going to make it. She frowned, thinking. She regretted not studying the maps in her father’s study of the town surrounding the castle. Those maps would have been helpful right now.
“My lady,” her handmaiden gasped from behind her. Frostine ignored her as she glanced to the left where the main street was located, perhaps a few streets over. She managed to catch sight of the funeral parade as it started to move. She muttered a sharp curse word under her breath and she heard the handmaiden gasp while James coughed. The carriage rolled over a large rock and rose into the air. Frostine’s habit of keeping her bent kept her on her feet and inside the carriage as it came back down to the road.
“I know,” Frostine said, “We are going to be late.” She looked forward and shook her head. She sat back down. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at her feet. She sniffed as she fought to control her emotions. She took a deep breath as tears welled up in her eyes. She knew what was going with her. She was on the verge of going through puberty. She hated it the first time around and she still hated it. However, she knew it was necessary for her to grow into a woman. She took another deep breath. She felt the carriage take a left turn and slowed to a stop.
“My lady,” James placed a cupped hand on her shoulder. She turned, blinking back the tears that wanted to flow down her cheeks, and looked up at the head guard. “We are going to join the parade at the tail end.”
“At least we arrived,” Frostine said, “Later, after we get back to the tower, I would like to address the guards who escorted me here.”
“As you wish, my lady,” James looked puzzled, but he nodded. “Forward, driver.”
Frostine reached up and made sure the black veil sat straight on her head and covered her face. She felt the tears she tried to hid from James rolled down her cheeks and her lower lip trembled. She was frustrated at the situation. While she knew there was a chance it wasn’t her stepmother who blocked the path from the Forgotten Tower to the Main road, Frostine also didn’t put it past the new Queen. She refused to take it out on her guards. They could be the only people she would be allowed to interact with for a long time.
Frostine stared ahead, but she noticed many of the people of the Kingdom pointed and whispered as her carriage past. Even they knew she should have been up closer to the casket then toward the end of the Funeral parade. In small way, she hoped the rumors that will fly over the next few days will make the Queen and her daughters question their actions behind blocking the path from the Forgotten Tower.
However, once her carriage pulled to a stop in front of the church where her father would be buried in the crypts, she spotted her step-mother standing just outside the double doors. At first glance, she thought the Queen had been crying over the King’s death, but when Frostine took a closer, she knew it was rage coloring her face. The Queen’s eyes flashed, dangerous. Frostine knew she would hear of her actions later that night after dinner. Hopefully, she added silently.
James climbed out of the carriage first and turned to Frostine, holding out his hand. Frostine reached the edge of the carriage and took his hand as she stepped down out of the carriage. She walked over to the Queen and grabbed the edges of her skirt before she preformed a curtsy, muttering, “Queen-Mother.”
“Princess,” The Queen replied, “Inside before you embarrass this family further.”
“As you wish,” Frostine bowed her head and hurried inside the large church. She kept her pace steady as she walked to her chair on the opposite side of the aisle way from the Queen and her daughters. The act further solidified the fact she was not welcome within the Queen’s family. That was alright with Frostine. She figured out what to do later. She will need time to do that.
However, a quest prompt popped into her vision, informing her she had failed the quest to join the Funeral Parade before it started. There were negatives effects to failing the quest. The fact there was a negative effect on relationship points with the Queen and her daughters took her by surprise. She really didn’t think there would be any relationship points rewarded for beating the timer, but apparently, there was. Another side effect of failing the quest was an emotional debuff that was going to last for several hours.
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Sitting in the chair next to hers, a foreign prince with dark brown hair, wearing the symbol of the nearby Dwarven Kingdom, gave her a puzzled look as she claimed her seat. He had a silver crown holding his hair back from his face. He might have been a few years older then she was from the whiskers she spotted on his jawline. Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell his age. She might have use to Analyze on him to gather more information. He could have been a lot older then her, but had the appearance of a human teenager. From what she could remember from her lessons over the nearby kingdoms, the Dwarven Kingdom was ruled by King Bili, son of Fili, Son of Wili, the First of his name, of the Iron Mountain Clan.
She bowed her head to him as she sat down and casted analyze. The Dwarf was a member of the Iron Mountain Clan, in fact, the heir named Kili. She was right about the age. He was a lot older then her, but there was a number in a circle with the label over it called human years: 70 (14).
She turned her head away from him, keeping his stat page in the center of her vision, slowly over it. She had no doubt he was doing the same with her boring stat page. His was a lot more interesting to her now she was studied it. Kili had invested several of his leveling points in Endurance which helped increase his stamina pool or maybe it was the fact he was a Dwarf and they got 2 points per level for Endurance and Dexterity. He was already at level 8, but she couldn’t see what his skills were. His level wasn’t high enough for a profession.
Most non-combat professions were awarded at Level 15 and the combat professions were awarded at Level 30. So, naturally, there weren’t a lot of people with a profession. It was achievable, but once a person achieved a profession in any skill, it was equal to winning the lottery, earning an important prize, and meeting several presidents and royal family members. A Professional could charge any amount of money for their services and give out quests in their profession. For example, a candle maker could give a quest to three of his apprentices to gather dye supplies for red, green, and yellow candles while giving out a second quest to two more apprentices to create the wicks for several different candles. So far, Frostine hadn’t heard of a limit on quests a professional could give out or how many professions one could have.
Frostine saw under the Alliances area of his stat sheet his kingdom had an agreement with the Snow Capped Mountain Kingdom. That was interesting. She really needed to visit her father’s library to read over the records when she had a chance. When she takes over the Kingdom, she needed to be ready for any agreement renewals.
She pushed those thoughts away and glanced over Kili’s stat sheet, again. This time, she noticed a locked element on the relationship line and there was a dash next to it with a single word “ONE”. It obviously had a weight behind that word. She wondered what that meant.
Music erupted from the large piano sitting halfway into the wall. Frostine blinked and Kili’s stat page disappeared from her vision as she flicked her eyes to the Bishop, standing by a podium. He glanced down at the open book on top of the slated top before he started to speak, “Today, we mourn the lost of our great leader, King Adolph Frost Meyer, son of Maximilian Jonas, son of Theodore Jakob, son of Henry Bruno…”
Frostine admitted to no one else, but herself that she turned the Bishop as he listed the last several Kings. There was no need to go back 15 generations to acknowledge her father’s birth right to the Crown of the Snow Capped Mountain Kingdom, even though one of the last 15 rulers was Female. She tuned back into what the Bishop was saying after he had finished the list of names, “Join his ancestors in their eternal sleep. Blessed be the Faithful.”
“Blessed be the Faithful,” Frostine echoed with majority of the attendants. She dimly noticed Prince Kili didn’t speak the phase. She knew he didn’t follow the religion she had grown up with in this life. She wondered what the Dwarf lore speak of the creation of the World and how their people came to be.
The Bishop continued, “Through our Father and The God of All, our beloved King will arise in Paradise and live without hungry or pain until it is his time to rejoin the Cycle of Rebirth. He will walk among us once more until we will remember how he lived in this life.” Frostine glanced across the aisle way to see her step-mother looking stotic like she didn’t have a care in the world, but Frostine recognized the glint of proud in her eyes. “King Adolph was a great warrior and even better leader. We have faced a time of peacefulness we have not experience during his father’s, King Maximilian, time on the Throne. Hopefully, that peace will last through the Queen Regent Janet’s time until Princess Frostine takes the Throne and marries a suitable Prince.”
Frostine cocked an eyebrow at the Bishop when he turned to her. She wanted to remind the Bishop it was her father’s funeral and not a sermon. His cheeks turned a faint shade of pink when he saw the look on her face. Frostine saw he turned to the Queen and the color deepened. She glanced over at her step-mother and saw the dark look she had coloring her face. Frostine had to bit her tongue in amusement. Despite the obvious feelings the woman and the child felt toward each other, they didn’t like being talked down by a mere priest.
The Bishop cleared his throat as Frostine sensed someone entering her personal bubble. She glanced over to see Prince Kili’s eyes glinting in amusement and he muttered, “He doesn’t respect you or your step-mother much, does he?”
“Obviously not,” Frostine agreed, “He can be replaced if he creates too many problems for either of us.”
“Of course he can be,” Kili agreed, “Especially he tries to jeopardies any peaceful treaties between our two kingdoms.”
“Are you suggesting something, Prince Kili,” Frostine questioned. She took delight in the surprise look darting across his face and saw how his eyes unfocused. He was no doubt looking through her stat page like she did when she first sat down next to him.
“Interesting, Princess,” Kili commented, “However, your analyze skill obviously is still too low to read into the other parts of my stat page.”
“I will have to wait to see the rest of your stat page when my analyze skill is a lot better,” she rolled her eyes, “I still have a few years before I can take the throne.”
“Yes, I noticed that aspect of your civilization,” he replied, “I look forward to working with you when you do take the Throne from your Step-Mother.”
As Frostine turned her attention back to the Bishop as he went on praising her father’s many accomplishments, she saw the Queen’s dark look transfer onto her. A heavy feeling settled into her stomach and she worried what will happened later that night after the Funeral was over.