Mare

My whole being calls for an act of violence, but I still use velvet gloves.

Chapter Music: I Will Remain, Now and Always 

My heels click against the marble as I walk down the hall. My dress of Calore capes, heavily emblazoned with circlets of gold, spin out around me. 

When I pass by the courtiers, nearly all sweep into deep bows. My recruitment has been going along swiftly, promising this and that to the lords and ladies of the court. Buying their loyalty like the Red I am. The ones who don't, stare at me with beady eyes of accusation. They expect me to fail, what they won't expect is for the red girl to play the great game of kings and queens. With a destiny burning underneath my feet, what could stop me from sweeping the crown off Maven's head and putting it on my own?

My personal guard trails behind at a respectable distance, allowing me to be in view of everyone we pass, even the ones who try not to look. None of them are the same sentinels that guarded me day and night in my tomb. Those soldiers have been paid off, Maven doesn't even know they have been replaced since their faces are shielded with the masks their uniform requires. Now, they are all Samos' men, and their loyalties are not to their King.

Whitefire is large enough to get lost in. The halls closest to the throne room are lined with gold carvings and banners representing the Calore's flame sigil. As we walk deeper into the palace, the halls slowly lose their extravagance. The gold turns to stone, and the banners stop making their appearance leaving the hallways feeling cold and bare without their presence. But, the floors keep their bluster- the marble always staying in extravagant shapes and curves. These hallways are where the war rooms lie.

I expect that once in Norta's bloody history a grand King made these war hallways his home, now they remain long forgotten by the rest of the world. The war rooms hold a new purpose now, and they serve it well.

"You know where to go," My voice sounds strange as I address my guards when I come to a halt, nowhere near familiar to the voice of Mare Barrow, the girl from the stilts. Perhaps that's what scheming does to you. Changes your programming from the inside out. If the theory is true, I suspect my voice will be long hallowed by the time I'm done with the great game.

The guards leave to another room, no doubt where another four have already taken up residence if I am the last one to arrive in the room. I slip in the doors, barely letting them creak from lack of use.

"You're late." Evangeline's voice carries over the room. Obviously.

"When have I ever been on time?" She doesn't reply, just gives a sigh as she smooths out a page of paper on the stone table. Julian stands next to her, looking at me with one of his sad smiles.

"I've gotten away, what is the report?"

"Our spies have intercepted a letter to Maven," Evangeline says, sliding a paper lazily across the table towards me, "It appears to be one of the Lakelander princesses are due to make an appearance at your wedding."

I pick the paper up, letting my eyes scan the page. "Not the heir apparent though, only the spare."

"I suspect they don't trust that Maven will keep his promise about their safety to send their heir. Still, sending her is a step-- even for them," Evangeline says.

"Ah yes, Iris Cygnet. Maybe she pissed her daddy, the King, off that he figured there wasn't much left to lose." Evangeline chuckles at my dry humor, Julian, who hasn't spoken a word since my arrival, offers a small smile. There's something wrong, usually it is I who cannot give much more than an indication I am listening. Never Julian. But he's keeping a tight lip, I suspect Evangeline has something to do with it.

"That's what is strange about sending her. The Cygnets actually love their children. To send either is a risk."

"Love is a weakness they do not realize they have," I mutter absently, barely realizing the words until after they have already been spoken. "Does this information help us in any way?" I add a little louder as I hand the letter back to Evangeline. She takes care to carefully place it back in a new envelope and hide the strange look on her face.

"A Cygnet royal to be coming to a Nortan royal wedding hasn't been heard of since the war started a century ago, it is more than a big deal." My lips twitch into a grimace at the sound of the war. It's a rouse, meant to keep the red population in control. It's killed millions of us in the past century, and neither side really wants to win because of that. It won't stand for much longer, I remind myself.

"I can't imagine Maven allying himself with the Cygnets. It would end the war and would mean they would have to be neighborly again. Maven doesn't trust anyone, any alliance they would make would not be a secure one." I fold up my hand as I speak, imagining bolts of lightning racing up my fingers. But as always, there is nothing. And there will be nothing as long as the manacles stay on.

"Before, their common enemy was Reds. Now, it's the Scarlet Guard. If Maven were to ally himself with them on your wedding-- we would lose any chance of taking the throne."

"Then the plan must change," Julian cuts in. I'm surprised he even spoke at all.

"Before the wedding," Evangeline says with a nod, "We must attack before the wedding."

"Are the Newbloods ready?"

Evangeline gives me a curious look. When we first started recruitment, I was never far from them. Always analyzing how they need to improve, what they have learned. To anyone watching, it would seem like I was just a prisoner entranced in the abilities she could no longer wield. In the past week, I have strayed away from the training grounds. My focus has been on the nobles, and with that projecting the image of a ruler without letting Maven get a wisp of what I'm doing.

"They can be," Evangeline replies.

"We have the strongest houses with us." At least they say they are, I remind myself. "The only ones that aren't are the Samos whispers and the Gliacons shivers. Both are strong houses, but their abilities will be reduced to nothing with the Arvens-"

"If it even makes it that far."

My head pops up to Julian as he sets his eyes on me. "Would you like to elaborate Julian?" Evangeline says in a slightly elevated voice that I can only take for annoyance.

"The houses alliances with us are meant so that they don't turn around and elect a new ruler, that isn't you after you displace Maven. Mare, you can't believe that they will not try to turn on you before you get your hands on the crown. If we do this right, they won't even know a coup has started."

"Your proposition is to not let our allies know of the coup they are supposed to play a part in?" Evangeline says.

"You're forgetting Maven doesn't need a distraction to expose himself. If Mare simply asks him to meet her somewhere he won't be able to resist. He loves her, and he hates her for it."

"That won't-" Evangeline starts before I speak over her.

"I will do it. I won't let another betrayal pass over me like a storm. We will warn the Newbloods of the oncoming coup, but not all of them. Elect two commanders that we can trust and inform them of the plan. If it goes wrong, we send them in." To my surprise, Evangeline isn't fuming from being hushed by me. Instead, a sharp smirk tugs at her lips. I smile back at her widely. It makes Julian frown.

"I will let Wren know of the change," Evangeline doesn't curtsy as she leaves as she should, but I don't care. I'm not queen yet, and frankly, it doesn't suit her to bow.

When she's gone Julian sinks into the wooden chair at the table, letting a sigh hiss through his teeth in the process. "What's the matter with you, Julian?" He looks at me with his round, brown eyes and pats the seat next to him. I sit down and he takes my hands in his.

"Sometimes," he starts, carefully looking at me as if I could snap and break in his hold, "I look at you and I don't see Mare anymore. You've never wanted to have power or to be queen. Now you're willing to kill for it."

"The crown has power. If I'm queen, I can accomplish everything the Guard wants and more. I can end the war, bring equality, joy even. Once the Guard sees the good I could do, they could ally with us. We could see everyone again."

"The crown has power, but power comes with a price. I've seen people I loved crushed under its weight." His eyes dull even more and he seems to be taken away from the war room. I know he speaks of his sister, the one I barely know anything about. She was Cal's mother, and Julian often mentions her.

"Julian, you don't need to worry about that. I have you, and as strange as it sounds I have Evangeline and Wren."

"I'm not worried about you dying, Mare," he says with a small laugh. "You have a way of surviving all those physical wounds. It's the mental ones I'm worried about. You've seen so much, and with that, you have also suffered so much."

"No one is born evil, just like no one is born alone. They become that way through choice and circumstance. I'm so afraid of what you could become, if given the wrong choice." I can't stop from looking away from his eyes as my stomach twists up. I've always felt darkness all over me, stubborn as a stain. It follows me wherever I go. For Julian, I will try.

"I won't make the wrong choice." I squeeze his hands to solidify the promise before standing up. "Next time I see you, I will have a crown. Together, we will use it correctly." I smile at him and he smiles at me as I leave.

As I open the door I hear him say one last thing, "Don't let that crown destroy you." When the door closes behind me, my smile fades.

I knock on the door my guards are in, they come out and take up their positions as we walk back to the main parts of the palace. We're careful to use the hallways with the least amount of use, better that way than to stumble into someone who will start asking questions. Eventually, I make it back to the main hallways. I choose not to go back to my rooms the short way, instead I take the long route back. After many turns, I'm in a familiar hallway with the paintings of all the past rulers. It's my last stop to my rooms, and after all the walking I'm regretting not just getting to my rooms faster.

"You still wear that red cloth in your hair." I stop at the voice, and turn to face him and his blue eyes.

"Reminds me of everything I have to repay you for." Not the full truth, but Maven looks gravely annoyed so the lie was worth it.

"Maybe it's to remind you of your red roots." I stay quiet, not because it's true but because it'd be a waste of my breath to reply to the petty insult. "You're not in the mood to be witty and snap back with some charming response?" His eyes glitter with amusement.

"It's not something to take offense, I'm a Red. That much is true, just look at my blood. But I'm also silver, a quality I think you have forgotten thanks to these chains on my wrist. Calling me a red is not an insult anymore, Maven. I've been called far worse."

"Oh, and what is? Amuse me."

"Your betrothed." The room is sickly hot for a few moments before he narrows his eyes and readjusts that mask. "I wonder why you keep these clunks of metal on me? Afraid of a little spark?"

Maven laughs outright, "I hope you're not asking if I'm afraid of you. You couldn't kill me if you tried, not for a hundred years. But, you could rally up your Guard friends, well if they still consider you a friend that is. You must know by now, a single spark can ignite a fire, can start a storm. I'm not interested in putting either one out at the moment." I bite my cheek hard, hard enough that I taste the tang of copper.

"Then you're going to let me die. I loved you and I'm going to die for it." Maven's smirk vanishes and he growls out an order for the guards to leave us. When they're gone, he speaks.

"You never loved me, Mare." He's moved closer to me now, only a few feet away.

"I would have chosen you over him," I whisper. At first, I'm not even sure he hears me but then he takes my hand in his. It feels strange, unnatural, and yet it feels familiar.

"People like you and me cannot love anymore, Mare. Not after what the world has done to us.

We need to be empty. Up here," he moves his finger from his head to his heart, "and here."

"What makes you think you and I are the same?" I don't expect my voice to come out hard, not while my cheeks are burning and I want to look away from him, but it does.

His lips crack into a smile, without a shadow of a smirk or it's normal sharpness. "Both of us have been forgotten by those who love us. That's why you wear that red cloth in your hair you cling to so dearly, why you've kept it all this time. It's your last bit of hope that Cal will come and save you." Suddenly his hand feels like fire in my hands.

"I wasn't the only one who loved you. Your father loved you. Cal loved you. You may not have seen it, but they did. But you chose that thing on your head over them, over me." I look up into his burning gaze as I pull my hand from his grasp. "One day Maven, your palace walls will crumble down on you, and when your world has turned to ash, you will know the debt of what you did to me has been repaid." I turn away from him before he can see a hot, stinging tear of anger drip down my face. I wipe it away as quickly as it came and turn down the hallway that leads to my room.

There are no footsteps echoing behind me, and his long stride could easily keep up if he wished. I open the doors to my room and close them softly, taking on the full weight of the silent stone again. Already, I feel tired as I lean on the door, keeping my eyes trained on the floor. Wren will have to come tomorrow and give me one of her boosts.

I look up and at first I do not see it— the silhouette of the figure staring at me in the corner of my room. "Mav-" I start before I find its eyes. They are not the chilly blue I have become accustomed to, they are the color of golden bronze I have only seen in my memories. And I suddenly remember that there were no guards outside my door.