The man kept a brisk lead that he did not allow to close.  It wasn’t hard for him to maintain his distance, since he had longer legs and knew the layout of the castle.  Olive wasn’t sure she wanted to catch him.  She didn’t like the way he looked at her.  The only reason she was following him was because she didn’t think she quite had the courage to wander alone through a castle in a world that wasn’t her own just yet.  At least this way he’d take the blame for letting her out if they ran into anyone else.

She’d just entered a long hallway when she lost sight of him.  It was a wide, sumptuous hallway on the exterior of the castle.  Windows stretched from floor to ceiling, painting panels of light onto the tiled floor.  Something in the sky caught her attention.  A nimbus of light, stretching like a rainbow across the sky.  She squinted at it, straining to see what it was through the brilliant sunlight.  Then, before she could make it out, she heard voices approaching.  Startled, she glanced to see where her guide was, and found that he was gone.

She was alone.

Olive swallowed hard, fighting down panic.  Did she run?  Try to find her way back to that tiny little room by herself?  She rejected that quickly.  She’d done nothing wrong.  It wasn’t like she was trying to do anything malicious - she’d just wandered a bit and was now lost.  No one could blame her for such a thing.

She hastily raked a hand through her long hair and straightened her back in an effort to look presentable.  Then the approaching group came through the archway at the other end and her confidence faltered.  Wasn’t this how it always happened?  She charged head-long into things and only realized too late that she was in over her head.

Except this time it wasn’t an ambitious class project.  It was a sumptuously dressed man, wearing a crown and surrounded by attendants.

And it was too late to slink away.  He’d already spotted her.  He gestured to one of his attendants and said something.  The man gave a short bow and then walked briskly down the hall until he was close enough to speak to Olive.  She didn’t need to know his language to understand.  His tone was that of a command.  The king wanted to see her.

Heart sinking, Olive approached.  The king watched her carefully.  He was tall and lean, swathed in layers of rich fabric decorated with intricate patterns of gold thread.  As she drew closer she realized that the crown wasn’t made of gold as she’d assumed - it was made of light.  Golden light, like his brow was wreathed in tongues of flame carved from the sun itself.  He wore ruby earrings and a heavy gold ring rested on his right thumb.  Smaller rings embedded with gems decorated the rest of his fingers.  His hair and trim beard was the color of straw with heavy streaks of white.

His most striking feature, however, were his eyes.  Like they were carved from amber.

Furtively, Olive glanced about for the man she’d followed here.  Why were their eyes so similar?  None of the attendants had such unusual eye coloring.  

Olive grit her teeth and forced herself to smile pleasantly.  She’d do a lot more than slap his hand if she saw him again.  But in the meantime, the king was staring down at her unpleasantly.  Should she curtsy?  Bow?  She didn’t know how to do either, really.  But she didn’t want to be rude, either.  

She tried doing both.  She tucked an ankle behind the other and started to bend her knees to curtsy, then realized in mid-gesture that she wasn’t wearing a dress to complete the effect and she hadn’t seen anyone else curtsy yet so perhaps that wasn’t a thing here.  But she HAD seen someone bow.  So she changed to a bow, hastily straightening her knees and awkwardly bending at the waist.  It felt stiff and unnatural.  And when she raised her head she could tell that the king was similarly unimpressed.  His attendants were stone-faced and expressionless, but she felt their disapproval on her skin like electricity.

“What is this?” the king demanded.  Olive was surprised that she could understand him.  “I did not send for the outsider.”

“There was-” Olive began, but quickly faltered.

This wasn’t a question for her, she realized.  One of the attendants spoke to the king in a low voice and then hurried away.  There was another exit from the hallway, she realized, as he vanished through a narrow door.  That must have been where the man who got her into this mess slipped away.

“Your earrings,” he said brusquely.  “What do they signify?”

“Uh, nothing?” she answered nervously.  “They’re just pretty.  We, uh, it’s normal back home for women to wear earrings.”

His expression darkened slightly.

“Not here.  Take them out.”

“What?!” she exclaimed indignantly.

The words slipped from her mouth before she knew what she was doing.  Instantly, she realized her mistake.  The annoyance on the king’s face slipped away, replaced by cold, bitter contempt.  He stared at her in open disgust, like she was a bit of rotten food left out in the rain for too long.

Well, Olive thought ruefully, at least now she could cross ‘piss off a king by wearing $14 earrings’ off her bucket list.  Not that she’d ever have put it there in the first place.

He gestured to his attendants lazily.  Two of them stepped forward.  With mounting alarm, Olive realized what they planned to do.

They were going to take her earrings by force.

One grabbed her right arm.  She tried to evade, side-stepping, but not wanting to fight back too much in case they escalated.

“Fine!” she cried.  “I’ll take them out.”

But it seemed it was too late, for the king did nothing to call off his attendants.  He only watched in silent approval as her other arm was seized and both of them were twisted behind her back in the grip of one of the men.  These were no mere servants.  Olive’s arms were held fast and even her slight struggles were enough to tell her that the person holding her was quite strong.

She cried silently as the other gently pulled the backings off her earrings and removed them.  Both studs in either lobe and then the one in her cartilage.  Her face burned with humiliation.  And the worst of it was, the king seemed to be pleased with this petty display of absolute power.

Then they released her and she rubbed at her ears to hide her shaking hands.  The attention of the king and his attendants shifted abruptly and she glanced up as well.

The attendant was back.  And with him was the man that started all of this, his amber eyes bright with defiance, and a faint smirk playing across his lips.