Her eyes were a shallow lake.
Diane was sitting on the floor in front of her father’s study the entire evening. She was looking right through the door, through the room, and into infinity; her mother was gobbling star-like creations there. Diane longed to join her in her endeavors, but she was tied back by the world’s weight. Then the door creaked open, and a flash of light made Diane turn her head to the side. Someone walked out without greeting his queen. She was too tired to remember who and continued dreaming in silence. The hallway was pitch black again; she ordered all candles in the castle be extinguished, lest the light should mock her mourning. Rain purified the outside world from which Diane was estranged. She could not understand their carless worries any more than she could understand her father’s refusal to see her. She had been sitting outside of that room for days, millenniums, without getting as much as a greeting.
A rebellious princess becomes a problematic queen by default. To say that the castle was ruled by chaos would be an understatement. It seemed like the Crystalian aristocracy became especially loyal to the crown in such circumstances. It wasn’t Maria’s untimely death that made them sweat, but the lack of necessary protocols. Her execution had, it seems, been carried out carelessly, with the now asleep Thomas Hammer jumping in at an especially uncomfortable moment; his being a Flamer did not help the least. It had come to Diane’s attention that there had still been a whole level of humiliation left to be imposed on the ex-queen before she could be forever exiled; they called it ‘questioning’, but Diane was certain there was nothing left they wished to know. Still, Thomas Hammer’s act of mercy would have been ruled treason had his new queen not jumped in and claimed his bravery, calling it ‘acting on orders’. She was, in return, saved by her lack of knowledge. It appeared that the man in red was supposed to disclose the protocol to the new queen in private beforehand, which she claimed he didn’t. Luckily, the Queen of Crystalia was not shy when it came to threats, so the mishapening was forever locked in the hearts of the forgetful Crystalian aristocracy; if they had those, that is.
Naisa, the Queen of Drama, declared that she was ‘spiritually wounded’ by her welcome and decided to lock herself and poor Elaine in her room, to the enthusiasm of the entire castle. As much as she could keep her maid inside, that is. Isaac stopped by their window every evening, but she didn’t need to know that. His marriage plans would have certainly made her even sicker. He was the one amusing Diane’s guests while she waited; not that they needed much other than the gossip that circulated like air.
Suddenly, the door opened, and Diane focused on what was before her: her father, asking her to come inside. She shivered. Truth be told, she hoped he would never let her in, and she would stay sitting on the marble until her hair was all snow and she was unable to fight anymore. Still, she chose to walk in. Brandon was looking at his heiress from behind his desk, or maybe it was his ghost. Either way, the two stared at each other and talked nonsense, one not listening to the other. Maybe they were mourning. Maybe they wanted to blame and execute each other. Or maybe they didn’t know who to be. They say power is like a disease, an incurable one that comes back in gushes of greed. Both Diane and Brandon thought they were the person in its possession yet wanted to push its execution onto the other. Somebody had to be the brave one and take the blame, but they were the Hunsters, and they were never to be blamed.
“Did you really not know it would come to this?” Diane asked Brandon. That was the first meaningful sentence uttered between the two.
He sighed. “I knew she was exchanging letters with a Demon, but I couldn’t have imagined it being Him. I warned her not to anger the Judge multiple times, but she wouldn’t listen. In her mind, it was the only thing she could do for you.” He looked at his daughter, her dress all wrinkled and her jewels crooked. “It seems I understand how disheartening it must be to live with a king and the most powerful princess in history. Especially when you have no magic yourself.”
“Still…” Diane squeezed her left bicep with her right hand. “Still, she should have told me. We could have dealt with this together. Whatever this is.”
“Before you woke up,” Brandon started, leaning over his table, “the Judge visited us. She told us that Clara Heal had decided to change the plan. Now that you weren’t willing to work with Demons, she had to find another way to achieve her goal.”
“What is her goal?” Diane inquired.
“Peace, I was told. But the Judge wouldn’t tell us anything more than you already know: the Demons were now our enemies.” Brandon narrowed his eyebrows. “I never quite understood that. The only way to achieve peace is to defeat Void, yet…”
“Yet I was ordered to work with him,” Diane completed her sentence. “There is something extremely wrong here.”
Brandon scratched his head. “Either way, it seems your mother wasn’t only a way to terrify you. I think they want to make you desperate.”
“But why? I have done everything they asked me to.”
Brandon smiled. “With enthusiasm, I am sure.” He stood up and pulled the curtains that had been closed. The city that appeared before the father and the daughter looked like a constellation. “Come here.”
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Diane gulped and, with careful steps, made her way towards her father. From up close, he seemed a few years older than the last time she had seen him. “What now?”
“Nothing,” he answered, suddenly too busy admiring the city to pay attention to her. “Now I leave.”
Diane scoffed. “Now you leave? And what about me? Am I to stay here forever and clean up the mess you made?”
“The mess we made. She did it for you.” He sighed. She waited. There were millions of things on both of their minds. He just said, “Now, you choose.”
“And if I can’t?”
“You must.”
“I have been trying to, for months…”
“No, Diane.” She shivered at the sound of her name. “Now you choose. Now that your friends are dead. Now that your mother was humiliated. Now that you know your past.” He looked into her eyes from up close; he saw his beard, his wrinkles, and his bruised under eyes. “Now that you are the queen. Now you choose.”
She looked at the lights. Down there, in the distance, were millions of little lights; up here, in the castle on the hill, was a queen. Her every move, her every word, would shape their houses, their dreams, and their hopes.
Diane Hunster was gone.
“I see,” she replied, in a haze. “Thank you.”
Before she had realized it, she was already walking towards her new room. Then a chill attacked her right arm from an open window she passed. December was singing its farewell and so was she, deep inside; whom to exactly, she did not care to understand. Everyone and no one, it seemed. Herself. January. Mother. Her mother, underneath the snow that threatened to fall any second. There seemed to be a few more open windows. She stopped to close them all. It was her perfect confinement. Around the third window, she decided that there was only her and her father left now, and that bond should be preserved. So, she went back in.
“I just wanted to…”
Diane’s monologue was cut short by a horrifying sight: her father crying. Really crying, with tears and sobs. Diane’s hands fell from the doorknob and trembled next to her silk. She stood transfixed for a while, while he went on with his business, as if unaware of her presence. Her face turned every shade of white and orange during those few minutes before her eyes suddenly twitched and she turned around and left. It was real; Diane was now unmistakably aware of that. She saw before her all those colors intertwined and spinning, and that unnatural motion made her sick. But she was now the queen, and queens don’t fall apart in public.
She staggered around a bit before finding refuge outside the castle, in the woods. The air was cruel. She hoped to escape the castle and the memories that haunted her, but its sharpness invited a different kind of chill inside her soul. She would have to return soon; no escape seemed possible. She was stuck facing what life had gifted her, and it wasn’t a basket of strawberries. Then, as if prophesized, before Diane appeared an angel in blue. Her complexion almost mimicked Diane’s, only more natural. The softness of her gaze and the amiability of her smile made Diane’s blood flow rage..
The girl lowered her head. “My queen.”
The dulcimer sounds scratched Diane’s face and her breathing fastened due to Elaine’s repulsive greeting. “How dare you show your face to me?” Then realization forced Diane out of her daydream; the Judge did not bow.
She smiled. “I thought you would give me another chance.” The Aquarian’s tone sounded earthlier now. “How noble of you.”
“What do you want?”
“Regardless of how it seems now, Queen Maria’s death was a necessary asset of the desired future. Had I stayed back and let her continue with her little charade, who knows what would have happened?” Elaine looked at Diane with her head slightly tilted. “If I had wasted a second, you would have found a way to save her.”
“So, there was a way?” Diane replied daringly.
“One. A cataclysmic one. You would have taken it?”
“Yes.”
“Hm.” Elaine’s smile did not seem so angelic anymore. “Death is a necessary part of living. We must let it have its way.” Her blue eyes were a pit that swallowed Diane’s whole being. Her voice hypnotized Diane until she could feel no more pain. “You mustn’t mess with death, Your Majesty. It will find its way to return the favor.”
The wind carried the words of Her messenger; the sorrowful melody moved the frost from the little colorful dots mixed in with the grass. Hers was the sweetest threat in the world, one Diane almost wished to test out. Diane could feel a thousand years’ worth of tears clean her eyes and uncover the road she had been walking blindfolded. It might have been light she saw on its end; it might have been a new beginning.
“Show me the way,” Diane ordered her teammate. “And I might just follow it.”
Elaine smiled. “It seems that Crystalia has finally gained a queen.” She came close to Diane and whispered, “I will make you the queen of this world if She lets me.”
But there was something the Judge couldn’t understand. Diane Hunster was never one for submission; she was now determined to choose her own path. And she would take that cursed country with her. This new queen might just have been the most troublesome one in Crystalia’s short history.
“No,” she told Elaine, determination and hatred for an unnamed spirit making her remember the time when she was eighteen, “if I let you.”
Elaine couldn't help but let out a little chuckle; she could not determine just where this Dove's pride would take her. The princess may be playing at the top of her hand now, but she could as easily slip and demolish everything Elaine had spent her life building. "Then," Elaine said, "take Thomas Hammer to Lewtown. I am sure he misses his home. And, while you are there, visit George's house. You will find your answers there."
Diane smiled back. "Very well. I will see you soon, then."