Aleksei’s two-toned black and red hair swayed slightly in the wind as he glanced at his left pinkie finger—or more specifically, the subtle marking at the base of the finger.

Aleksei had given up trying to keep his silky locks tied up during the long trip he and the other members of the envoy had embarked on. Although the wind occasionally blew strands into his fiery red eyes, it also was a decent way to slightly hide his face from the rest of the traveling party. It helped during the moments where he found himself zoning out and letting his various thoughts take over. Considering how long the trip had ended up being, his thoughts had been creeping up on him more and more often—which is why his mind was turning yet again to his impending courtship with a fiancée that he had yet to meet.

He looked out at the cobblestone path in front of him as his obsidian Friesian horse slowly marched along with the rest of the envoy. He couldn’t remember the engagement ceremony itself very well—he was only three at the time—but he could distinctly remember the commotion it caused within his kingdom for the next few years, as the news spread that their prince had become engaged to the first Favored One of Ianthe in many centuries. On top of that, their engagement had been blessed by all three of the deities in charge of marriage—meaning the future couple’s blessed union would probably trickle down blessings upon the whole kingdom.

The idea of marrying someone who he couldn’t even remember meeting—only knowing them by the vague concept of them being “Ianthe’s Favored One”—had been a bit overwhelming for Aleksei as he grew up. Still, he understood that it would be his responsibility to make sure his kingdom would continue to live in peace and comfort after his parents passed the crown on to him. If that meant he had to marry a stranger, then he would at least attempt to put forth the effort to get to know his bride before suggesting they try to break off their engagement.

Aleksei thought he felt a small tug from the mark on his finger as soon as he had the thought about potentially ending the engagement. He couldn’t ask anyone’s opinion—since he had never actually voiced his dissatisfaction with the arranged marriage—yet it seemed that, whenever he seriously contemplated the idea of ending his engagement, he would feel a sharp tug from his pinkie that would snap his thoughts away from the possibility. He had wondered over the years if it was a sign from Ianthe that she wouldn’t allow such a thing, yet Ianthe still never showed up at the primary marriage temple in the Taicirus Kingdom, so his prayers had always gone unanswered.

Aleksei had tried to research if it was a common occurrence for couples blessed by Ianthe, but few historical records had survived since the last time she had blessed a union between two mortals.

The curious groom had also wondered if one of the Witch clans had any surviving records, since their main deity was Ianthe—but most of the Witch clans were too spread out in obscure locations. They remained secluded from the outside world, just like the goddess they worshiped. He knew it would be nearly impossible for him to request that envoys be sent out, just to maybe get their hands on old records that the Witch clans probably viewed as sacred—especially since Aleksei was still only the crown prince and not yet king.

When he had finally convinced his father to let him covertly join the envoy that was setting out to pick up his bride, Aleksei had been tempted to request the Forest Witch tribe’s village be added to the travel plans—maybe using the excuse that his bride’s grandparents lived there—but Aleksei already knew it had been a huge ask to let him join the envoy at all.

He glanced wistfully over his right shoulder, doing his best to not let anyone else notice. The teenager knew he wouldn’t be able to actually see anything, but he instinctively knew that to the west, and slightly north, of their current location were two areas that were swirling around his mind.

The closest of the two locations to the traveling group was the large forest that contained the Forest Witch Clan—but beyond the forest was also the Horymír Mountains, a mountain range that split the continent in two. Directly on the other side of the extensive range was a small patch of woods that were used occasionally as hunting grounds for social events. Aleksei had spent many days out riding along the area at the base of those mountains when he needed a quick escape from the title of “Prince”.

Aleksei found it a bit frustrating that he was finally on the other side of the Horymír Mountains—and so close to the largest and easiest to access Witch tribe—yet he wouldn’t even be able to visit them and read whatever records on Ianthe they might possess. Perhaps, if he really did end up getting married, he could later request to visit the Forest Witch’s inner circle along with his wife, since they would technically be his in-laws. Of course, by that time, what he wanted to research would probably no longer be relevant.

Also, by the time they were married and settled in, he would likely be given too many additional responsibilities to just up and leave the Taicirus Kingdom on a whim. He might not even be able to escape to the hunting forest that was right outside the castle walls.

Aleksei quietly sighed and ran his hand through Melanippos’ mane. As he thought about it, he realized that this trip would most likely be one of the last times he would be able to actually travel relatively freely with his favorite horse. Once they returned to the Taicirus Kingdom, the increase of his responsibilities would mean that he would only be able to leave the castle as a representative of the royal family. Even then, he would probably have to leave that role in the hands of various diplomats once he became king.

Aleksei must have slipped up and let his face start showing his worries, because the aide that he considered his right hand—and the closest thing to a friend Aleksei had—trotted his own bay-colored destrier up beside him.

Elvar was a fox-type Beastfolk, who had been assigned to Aleksei ever since Elvar was five years old and selected by the god Aulis—a minor knowledge deity that had blessed several successful scholars, as well as several competent aides of noble heads. It was the same year Aleksei had gotten engaged, so Elvar had a front row seat, watching Aleksei as he matured and the inevitable arranged marriage slowly approached. As a result, Elvar seemed to usually be able to read the feelings that Aleksei tried to hide away. Aleksei still did his best to evade the seemingly all-knowing brown eyes of the pale red—practically pink—haired fox.

Elvar looked at Aleksei a bit hesitantly, his black-tipped fox ears moving ever so slightly. Aleksei could tell Elvar was trying to weigh his words before he spoke. “Prin—” Aleksei raised an eyebrow at Elvar’s slip up. “I mean. . . Sir Magne. . . Are you doing all right? You haven’t taken such a long trip since you were a child, and back then you had the comfort of the carriage.” When Aleksei didn’t immediately rebuke him and tell him to silence his inquiries, Elvar seemed to quickly build up a bit of confidence to speak. “Also, even though we have almost arrived, you haven’t made any comments about what others view as a very momentous occasion in your life. Not once have I heard you utter anything of significance during the journey here.”

Aleksei did his best to keep his expression neutral when he finally decided what the best way would be to respond to Elvar’s inquiries—he had already accidentally let enough of his worries show on his face. “There has been enough time growing up to come to terms with the arranged marriage, so what comments would I even have at this stage? The engagement is for the good of the kingdom, and that is all I need to know.” Aleksei channeled his slight anxiety into the movements of his hand as he let his fingers get mindlessly tangled up in Melanippos’ ebony mane. The feeling of the long silky strands wrapping around his fingers inspired him to use his horse as the excuse for the faux pas of showing a hint of his true thoughts. “I only sighed because I realized this will be my last trip with Melani. Once we return, he will probably spend more time with the stablehands than he will with me. . .”

Aleksei was unsure if Elvar was actually buying it or not, but Elvar seemed to at least momentarily drop the topic that Aleksei was avoiding. “I’m sure the stablehands will take great care of him if that is true. They all know how much you treasure him.”

A silence fell over both of them, since Aleksei had nothing else to say and Elvar hadn’t wrangled any true response from the teenager on the topic of his marriage. Since none of the others in the envoy had enough energy to waste on random topics, either, the whole company continued onward, with only the sound of the gentle clopping of the horses’ hooves on the cobblestone, and the unfamiliar sounds of the fauna native only to the southern lands of the Ástland kingdom.

Although they had been making steady progress to the capital of Ástland, it had still been a long enough journey that Aleksei could almost say that he had gotten used to the ambiance the long stretches between towns provided the envoy. At the same time, the odd feeling of slowly acclimating to the foreign sounds had only made him more homesick for the backwaters of his own kingdom.

More than anything, the restless prince wanted to be back home racing his beloved horse along the unused hunting grounds that stretched from the outskirts of the castle's estate all the way to the base of the Horymír Mountains. However, this would be his only chance to secretly observe his bride—so that he could get an idea of what kind of person she was, and, most importantly, see how she acted towards his subordinates.

If Aleksei’s bride was the type to shun his citizens and the people that were beneath her, then it would be the perfect excuse to end the engagement right there and then. On the other hand, if she was someone who respected his people—and if she had a personality that didn’t clash with his own—then he would be more open to considering continuing the engagement and getting married.

Quietly glancing at the back of his hand again, seeing as how there was nothing to do other than to get lost in his own thoughts again, Aleksei remembered another thing he had never shared with anyone else—something that could actually spell out another way to end the engagement if his bride didn’t seem like a good fit to be his queen. It was something he had briefly noticed a while back, when visiting the Triplet Deities’ temple; something that only he would notice, since it was part of the runic symbols the deities had left on his hand during the engagement ritual.

Only visible to the people directly tied to the union, the runes would occasionally, lightly glow when the deity who had passed on the engagement blessings were directly present, showing the details of who were in the union that had been blessed. Only once did Aleksei’s visit to the temple happen to coincide with a time when Sláine, the god of well-being, was directly present. Although he couldn’t be positive, Aleksei thought he’d noticed during that brief visit that the glowing pale green runes of his bride’s first name didn’t quite line up with the shape he had been taught during his magic lessons. Before he could further investigate the runic symbol, though, Sláine had left the temple, causing the runic symbols to fade from sight again.

That had been the only time Aleksei had actually seen the symbols on the back of his hand. He didn’t have the time to consistently stay at the temple waiting for one of the Triplet Deities to show up, and on the few occasions afterwards that he did have time to visit, they weren’t directly overseeing the temple.

Since the prince couldn’t be sure of what he saw, he didn’t want to cause a false alarm by sharing it with anyone else. If he was mistaken, he didn’t want to go into his potential marriage with the guilt of calling his bride and in-laws liars. Instead, he wanted to investigate his suspicions privately. That way, he could also decide for himself if the reasoning behind the suspected lies was noble enough for him to forgive—without having the opinions from the sidelines influencing his final decision.

There was also the possibility that Aleksei misread the runes, or that his in-laws didn’t even realize there was a misprint of sorts in the runes that were left on the back of their hands. Perhaps only Aleksei’s runes were appearing incorrectly and his bride’s hand showed the correct runes.

Whatever the truth was, Aleksei wanted—no. . . needed—to meet his bride and find a way to confirm or deny his suspicions and silence his internal debates about what he had seen on the back of his hand a few years ago.