Chapter 3

    Young played with his hair and stared at his reflection on his spoon. He was giggling, an odd sound among the clinks of silver cutlery on ceramic and porcelain. 

“You’re giggling, Young, stop it, it’s not very manly.” Elden stated simply, lifting his glass to his lips to hide a smile. The family was having brunch the day after last night’s banquet dance. 

    The King Vernio was there in a black-blue corduroy vest over a gray suit shirt. He wore a golden chain in the front pocket, shimmering in sync with his one of three crowns he wore, depending on the occasion. Today’s was symmetrical pyre shapes narrowly dotted with scarlet rhinestones. Two abstract fire insignias of gold lay below the red points. Beneath this crown, ivory hair sprouted from his royal scalp in delicate webs down the sides of his wrinkling forehead and behind his ears. His eyes were ageless, fiery blue and pure white. He had a cool beard, which Elden hopes to have one of his own just like it.

  “Who says it’s not manly? It’s just laughing- but giddy. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with being happy about something, okay?” Young put a fake scowl on his face as a joke of offense and proceeded to down a baguette. His father only put a single hand over his eyes to show his disapproval of the manner.

“You’re happy, Young? So happy that it makes you giggle?” The Queen asked intriguingly, smiling with her pearly teeth, treating like a precious child. Young slowed down his eating and sat up straighter, shifting to his mother’s eyes. Brown, kind, and aging but joyous.

Young smiled thoughtfully and took a second to swallow, then suddenly turned his attention to his half brother, sitting to the right of him. His voice quieted and did indeed sound giddy in the slightest. “Her name is Rashelda.” 

     Elden’s black eyebrow jolted, highlighting the greenness of his irises. He was glad the interaction seemed to have started well. “Then, how is she like, this ‘Rashelda’?” He glanced at his step mother, who was listening closely, then back to his little half brother. “Did you feel she was intimidated by you?”

 The Queen gasped politely, seizing a melon chunk on her fork. The navy jems of her silver tiara glinted candle light above her head. “You met a girl, Youngin?” He turned back to her.

“Yes, mother, she’s quite lovely. Very kind.”

“Where is she from?” Were the first words out of the King’s mouth since the blessing on the meal. 

Young’s eyes widened slightly. He spoke slowly. “Well, I-” 

“Did she travel far just to see you?” The Queen interrupted, clasping her hands under her chin dreamily.

  “Have you met her parents yet?” Elden chimed in rather uninvited. He had been sitting quietly, poking at his food. 

       Young looked around at his three family members, trying to think of what he should tell them. 

“She is local,” he finally announced, not looking at anyone as he said it. There was a tap of a spoon in a bowl, then silence for a few seconds.

  Queen Seyna rested her hands on her golden-laced, cream-colored skirt. “So, she is…” 

King Vernio finished her sentence, “Not another royal? She’s common?”

Young shared a look with his brother, who only looked up from the table when his brother looked his way. It was worrisome, but only in the eyes.

  The little prince then looked straight ahead and refrained from snickering. He finally gave his mother and father some sort of response.

 “Is that a bad thing?”