"Jeffrey," my grandmother greets the Prime Minister as she walks into the boardroom with me close behind her.

"Your Majesty," he greets with a bow, allowing her to sit down first before he takes his seat at the same moment I do around the big round table.

"I am sorry for changing our appointment, but certain matters about the Angeland invasion of the Simbé islands has come to my attention that we will need to discuss," she says in her usual gracious manner. I find it odd that she had gone and put on a necklace to match her sapphire brooch before seeing the Prime Minister.

"Not a problem at all Ma'am," he answers, again bowing his head a little bit.

"Do you know where this table comes from?" Queen Nicola asks the Prime Minister, looking him square in the eyes while running her hand over the carved hard wood table we are sitting at.

"It was commissioned by King Harold the Wise," he answers looking just as confused as I am.

"And can you read the carving in the middle?" she asks.

"Mutatio est constant," he reads. "Change is the constant."

"Very good," she says almost like a teacher would tell a first grade student that they did a good job in drawing a picture. "Change is constant has been the family motto for over seven hundred years. Great Susax would not have been here anymore if you hadn't kept with the times and changed when it was needed. We would not have survived the revolutions from all over the world where monarchies has been dethroned in the past two decades. We remain the only monarchy in the world where the monarch still has a certain amount of political power, where we are not just figureheads to parade around like circus attractions for economic growth. Would you agree to that Prime Minister?"

"I would Ma'am. It's our change that keeps our title of the superpower of the world stable," he answers.

"And in your honest opinion. Would you say that fighting over two little islands in the middle of nowhere with a country who are supposed to be our brothers will strengthen or weaken the monarchy?" she asks, her left eyebrow rising.

"May I be honest Ma'am?" the Prime Minister asks, a drop of sweat trickling down his forehead.

"As always," she says.

"If I may be as blunt to say that not fighting will make the country, as well as the monarchy look weak. That the entire world can just take from us whatever they want. On the other hand, fighting may cause an equal amount of trouble. If we were to lose soldiers over two small islands it would make us greatly unpopular with the citizens of Great Susax. Luckily, should the latter happen, we would be able to raise moral again with the subjects of our great nation given a few years and some public display of what the monarchy stands for," the Prime Minister says looking like he may faint.

"And what would you say to it if I have an option that may ensure us keeping the islands whilst not having to go to war at all? A negotiation so to speak, even if it is just to buy time?" she asks, a little bit of a smile playing over her face. "That being said, it would require some change, especially on the part of parliament. There will need to be a few laws rewritten which I will off course gladly sign and give my blessing to."

"Your plan Ma'am?" he asks, his face in disbelief as if he cannot imagine another alternative than going to war.

"Nicolas will propose marriage to Crown Prince Dominik, melding the two countries together, expanding the realm to include Angeland as part of Great Susax and building the nation to one we cannot usually have without a war. In that we will make the two Princes the Dukes of Simbré, symbolising the melding of two families to become one in the way it was meant to be done, but so badly handled when my niece married King Heinrich," she answers as if she had thought it all out. As if this was a plan she had been working on for years instead of throwing it together in the last half an hour.

"Ma'am," the Prime Minister says almost breathless. "You can't be serious?"

"Oh, I am very serious. You need to understand something very carefully. The Crown may be an old institution and may look stable from the outside, but it can be quite fickle when we start to stagnate and not change. The Crown was placed on my head and at my coronation I made a vow that the Crown will always come first, no matter the personal sacrifices we need to make in order to do so," Queen Nicola says as she gets up from her chair. "Now I think Prime Minister... You have a meeting to call in parliament, sooner rather than later. I am expecting my sister and Prince Dominik to arrive tomorrow at which moment the negotiations will begin."

"But what if he says no?" I ask from beside my grandmother, not wanting to believe what just happened. Trying my best to think of this entire meeting as happening to someone else and not to me. "What if Dominik says no to the proposal."

"Then the Prime Minister here can start a war with my blessing and have the military victory he so hoped for when he walked into this room," she says throwing daggers to the Prime Minister with her eyes, making him slouch in his chair. "Now that will be all for today."

At those words she walks out of the room, this time opening the door for herself and leaving it wide open behind her with the Prime Minister and me sitting across from each other not sure what to say.

"So you're gay hey?" the Prime Minister asks after a few moments of silence.

"Yes," I answer as I start getting up from my chair.

"King Heinrich will never fall for this. We went to school together and he is probably the biggest homophobe I know," he says as he stands up as well.

"Well then you will have your war you wanted," I say, turning my back to the Prime Minister and following my grandmothers lead in walking out of the room as fast as I can, leaving the Prime Minister alone to show himself out.

By the time I walk down the fourth corridor I don't know where exactly I am anymore. Even though I have been living in the palace my entire life, the hallways still seem to get confusing at times with all the portraits that look the same hanging from the walls.

I turn to one of the portraits, a woman dressed completely in black, a long strand of pearls hanging from her neck. I read the inscription at the bottom of the frame.

"Margaret of Lyon Saxa-Henderson. 1643 to 1688," I mouth.

She looks a little bit like me. Same nose. Same eyes. A distant relative from a long ago time where I might have been executed instead of being forced into marriage for being gay.

"Nico?" I hear a voice behind me.

I turn and see Markus standing there, a load of laundry in his arms. I can smell the fresh iron that must have just pressed it.

"I have no idea where I am right now. Or how to get back to my room," I tell him even though he didn't ask.

"Follow me," he answers, and for the second time in a few days I learn a secret or two about the castle that I didn't know off.

Hidden behind a tapestry an opening in the wall shows dimly light steps leading up.

"How do you know about these?" I ask as I start ascending the steps right behind Markus.

"It's servant's passages. They were built into the castle walls, everywhere actually, to make sure we can get from one place to the next in a timely manner and also not be seen while doing so," Markus says. "It's been here since forever."

"And where does this one lead?" I ask.

"The horse painting in your lounge area," he answers. "It opens up to this staircase."

"So anyone can basically get into my rooms without going through a door," I ask feeling violated and unsafe. The guards outside my door is just there for show and mean nothing if there is a passage way that leads right into my rooms.

"I guess so Nico. But not a lot of people know about it. And we sign contracts to never reveal the passages after it has been shown to us," he answers as we get to the top where he opens up the painting from the inside and climbs through into my lounge area.

"I'm getting married Markus," I say as I close the painting behind me, following him into my bedroom where he immediately busies himself with making my bed.

"Oh," he answers without looking up. "Congratulations."

"You can't tell anyone yet Markus. The Queen is arranging for me to marry the Prince of Angeland," I say, sitting down on the bed, preventing Markus from making it any further. Forcing him to look at me.

"The two of you would make a very handsome couple," Markus answers, his voice just a slight bit higher than usual.

"There's just one problem," I say.

Today has been the day for taking chances. For getting things off my chest. For saying everything I have wanted to say, and even the things I was afraid of saying. The yellow eyes that stare back at me give me the courage to continue this day in the same manner.

"I'm not in love with him Markus. He kissed me at my party the other night, and for a moment I closed my eyes, and when I did, I didn't see him. I saw someone else. Someone I now know I am in love with and I don't know what to do about it," I say to Markus who tries to reach over to take one of my pillows to get a new casing on it, but I stop him by taking him by the wrist, forcing him to look at me.

"Maybe you should tell that person how you feel then," Markus says with what looks like tears in his eyes.

"That's what I'm trying to do," I whisper as I pull Markus down on top of me, falling back onto the bed. "I'm trying to tell you I'm in love with you."