"I will not be wearing that!"

Lyra stared at the hideous dress that the maid brought in for her to wear. It was a tight mid cut dress, with Green and Yellow as the main colours, if that wasn't the worse part about it. Ther frills around the hips and that came up behind the neck would seal the deal for anyone. This was something picked out specifically by her father for the day's events. Her eyes rolled as she turned around, facing the mirror on her rose gold polished vanity.

Muttering under her breath, she picked up a brush and began to run it through her hair, counting in her head as she went through each little section. After a moment, she looked into the reflective surface of the mirror, seeing that the maid was still standing there with the dress in hand.

"Bring me one of my other dresses. I am quite serious about not wearing that. There is no way I will be looking like a clown in front of these people." she returned to tending to her hair.

Lyra watched as the maid left the room, disappearing into the room that held the rest of her clothing. After that, Lyra set the brush down and leaned back in the vanity chair. Her thoughts filled her mind; as the tracks got jumbled together, she heard the door open again.

"That is much better. Thank you, Octavia" Lyra stood up and greeted her maid when she brought over a soft coral coloured dress.

"Lyra, I don't think the King will like this change." Her face showed her concern as she spoke.

Lyra waved her maid's concerns away with a hand, "I will take on any damage caused by this." she said, looking over the dress. "Help with this, will you?"

Octavia agreed, and in a moment, Lyra had on the dress and was back at the Vanity fixing her hair up into a twist.

"You look lovely." Octavia hummed as she helped Lyra place some pins on her hair. "Reminds me of ya mother, when she first arrived in the castle after her choosing."

"Not many have the gull to compare me to my mother, Octavia," Lyra said, staring at the woman in the mirror.

Lyra saw a smile appear on the older woman's face, "Not many met the woman before she turned into a right old witch."

The two shared a chuckle. After that, they shared a look in the mirror together. "Eat their hearts out, Lyra. Make those old hound shake in their boots."

"I plan on doing nothing less." she grinned devilishly for a moment.

"Get on, don't make yer father wait for ya any longer."

Lyra left the comfort of her own bedroom, leaving out into the halls of her father's palace. On one of the upper levels, she quickly made her way from her room to the bottom floor, where the throne room awaited her. Moving as quickly as she could, her movements were occasionally slowed by the icy floors.

Her feet held no shoes, nor had they ever. She was the firstborn to the King of Calipyre; in her father's nation, only the poor wore shoes, as only they worked the jobs that needed them.

So, to feel cold when the floors should have long been warmed already did shock her enough to slow her pace to her destination.

Even with her slowing down. Lyra managed to make it to her father's side in under ten minutes through the whole journey. When she enters, the curtains covering the large windows surrounding the room on three walls were drawn back. Lighting everything up and showing the family crest on the centre of the floor.

Lyra noticed that the banners were also lowered; the yellow and green of the nation's colours flicked lightly as a small breeze that couldn't be felt where she stood moved them about. Each marked with her family crest.

In the centre of the Yellow and Green banners was the symbol of a succubus done in red. This had been the symbol of the Calipyre's noble family for generations.

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"Lyra!"

Hearing her name, Lyra quickly turned to look at her father, who was already sitting on his throne speaking with his advisors. As she got closer, she noticed they all shared a face of concern. They passed looked between each other, occasionally a few at the King and then at Lyra herself. She did note this as strange behaviour for them, but she expected them to have some sort of reaction after all, with what her father would be announcing today.

"I see you choose to once again choose something else besides what I requested." Lyra's father ageing eyes looked her over. His wrinkled face shook from side to side for some time before he shrugged. "I guess I should be used to this by now." he chuckled. "You look perfect; you made a good choice in the change of outfits."

"Of course."

He waved her to come to stand closer to him. Which she did. Next to him, she stood up only a few feet higher than the rest of the room, but it still gave it a different feel. She smiled as soon she knew this view would be all hers to have.

"Can I have a moment alone, with my daughter, please?" her father asked the men that stood in front of them. They all gave thereof courses, and yes, your majesty as they bowed and left the room through the door that Lyra came from.

"Do you wish to talk to me about something?" she moved in front of him so that they could speak eye to eye.

Her father, the King, no longer had any colour in his hair nor his beard. Only white, like the clouds, clung to his wrinkled ageing face. Lyra knew that her father had a difficult time conceiving with all five of his wives, which is why she and the rest of her siblings were born so late in his life.

She didn't share many of his features, only the green of his eyes; everything else came from her mother. Though she found herself closer to the man that stood before her than the woman who birthed her.

"Yes, I would like to speak with you before everything today. Cause the two of us will be very busy for the next while," he said, adjusting the way he sat. "Since we discussed my retiring from King and you taking over. You know that you will have to start your choosing of your husbands."

Lyra shook her head, "I know. One from each district of the Kingdom." she repeated, "To unify the commoners with the nobility and our strength of power lies within our numbers. That has been drilled into my skull since I was old enough to read, father."

"It never hurts to go over it again, my girl" the King put his hand up to calm his daughter, who was getting slightly more excited than a lady of her standing should.

Lyra bit the inside of her lip, reminding herself to use fewer words. She still needed to look and act like the Princess and not the soon to be Queen. As her father hasn't announced that publicly yet.

"I wanted to discuss rather or not you would be willing to break some standards with your choosing process," he said, thinking over his words carefully as he said them.

"What do you mean by break some standards?" she raised her brow as she restated the phrase he used.

He bobbed his head a few times as he was thinking, "As you know, my wives were just handed to me. It was publicly announced as a choice, but I had gotten not a word in otherwise about who or what I was being married off to. Though my situation was far different from yours as your grandfather had just perished, and I was in line for this old thing." he said, patting the throne he sat on. "I just want you to have a better time than I did."

Lyra smiled softly as her father rambled on, "Alright, I can at least hear what you wanted to do before I say anything against it."

"Oh good," he said, looking happier now that she agreed to hear him out. "What if we turn your Choosing into a game?"

"A WHAT?" she almost yelled as the words echoed in her mind.

"A game, we bring five men from each district, and you can even choose what they have to do. Make a show out of it, so they have to perform and do tricks in public view. Which I believe is quite entertaining, and behind closed doors, you can spend all the time you need getting to know them."

"Have you gone mad?" Lyra gawked wide-eyed at her father. Before turning and placing her hand on her head. "You hear yourself, right? A game?" she turned and looked out at the room before her, were only a few guards stood at the furthest end. "I cannot be hearing this correctly. You want me to make a game out of something very serious?" she turned back around, staring at him, waiting for him to say something like it was a joke or he had her fooled. He didn't say anything like that.

"If you do not like the idea, it will not be forced," he said.

Lyra thought about it for all of a second, "What would we even have them do? Balance Pies on their heads?"

"If you wished, though, I would go with something more traditional like fencing,"

"What would be the benefit to something like that?" she started to pace in front of him.

"I could list a few, but the biggest and the most important to me is you can extend the time you take one choosing them. So you know who you work well with. Yes, my wives did well for me over the years, but I do not want a just do well for you. I want you to have the ones your want and need." he spoke as if he was a hopeless romantic.

Lyra looked him over, seeing that this was serious and a good reason. Though she never expected to ever be in love as she grew up. She would have the chance with this; maybe she could understand what those old storybooks were talking about. Or maybe she would be certain they were just baloney. Who knew if she didn't give them all a chance.

"Alright." she finally said after she finished pacing for a few moments. "I will go along with your little idea. We will host a series of" she held her hand up when the old King started to smile. "OF Competitions that will challenge, the mind as well as the body, and we will use this as a way to make the peasantry like us by holding feasts and other things they are allowed to attend. Since this is a time of unity."

The old King just smiled and laughed triumphantly. While Lyra reeled on the fact that she just agreed to this outrageous idea.