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2024-10-29 19:42:56Shortly after Prince Cyrus had parted ways with Cletus, on his way back to the small quarters he shared with his mother, he was greeted by a swift-footed messenger with a rolled-up piece of paper in hand.
“Good morning, Prince Cyrus,” the young man greeted, handing him a paper with the King's seal on it. “Queen Regina wishes to see you.”
Cyrus took the rolled up paper and broke the seal so he could examine the contents of the paper. He noticed that it was indeed a message from the Queen, as no aspect of the document felt forged or inauthentic.
“Please make haste, Prince Cyrus,” the messenger said. “She awaits your arrival even as we speak.”
“I'm coming with you, then,” Cyrus said, and the young man was relieved. The last thing the messenger wanted was to return to the Queen without the person she summoned by his side, as it would imply that he did not do his job properly.
The two of them walked to the other side of the King's residence, towards the Queen's quarters, an area much larger than the place Cyrus and his mother were sharing together.
Cyrus wondered what this meeting was going to be all about. After all, the Queen hated him and his mother so much that she couldn't stand breathing the same air as they did. But now, there she was, summoning him for an appointment with her.
What was going on?
Shortly after, there they were, in front of the Queen's study room, which seemed to have become her favorite place to stay since her husband had passed away.
The young messenger knocked on the door with a regular pattern, which the person inside recognized immediately.
“Come in, Prince Cyrus,” the Queen said from inside, and the Prince reluctantly obliged.
The messenger opened the door, and the prince pushed it inside and walked into the room, closing the door behind him once he stepped inside.
Inside the room was the Queen. He was dressed casually as he stood before her. In the light of the sun coming from the window, even he had to admit to himself that she was annoyingly beautiful.
For the first time in his life, she smiled at him, but it made him sick to his stomach. What she thought would delight him upon witnessing it for the first time only made him repulsed by her, and it felt disgusting.
“Good morning, Cyrus,” she greeted him.
“Good morning, your Majesty,” Cyrus greeted back. “You summoned me.”
“Yes, I did,” she replied. “I needed to talk to you.”
“I'm listening,” Cyrus replied, not willing to show her any emotion. She was acting like she was glad to see him, and he was not buying it. She took note of this and decided to drop the act entirely.
“Good,” she said curtly, suddenly removing the smile from her face. “As you know, I am going to be coronated as queen tomorrow, and until you come of age, you are not allowed to ascend to the throne. So I suppose your plan is to wait until you reach the ripe age of 21 before ascending to the throne, correct?”
“That is correct,” Cyrus replied.
“Alright, here is the deal,” she said to him. “To put things simply: You are a bastard, an illegitimate child. One in whom most of the elders, nobles, and senators would find an abomination should he ascend to the throne. You don't even--”
“What are you getting at?” asked Cyrus, cutting her off as she spoke. She wanted to wear him down with name-calling, but he was not going to take that from her.
The queen arched a brow, wondering how he had the guts to cut her off when she was speaking to him. So she had to clarify her authority over him and the state of things in general.
“I am your Queen!” she said to him. “In case you don't know, I have legal rights over you. So you will either show me some respect or I will have to teach you the hard way. Though I am not officially coronated yet, I will not have you disrespect me. But if you insist on doing so, I will have you punished severely, and nobody will be able to stop me from doing so. Do you understand?”
Cyrus stared at her, not wanting to give the woman a straight answer right away.
“Do you understand that?” she asked again, but this time with deeper intensity as she took a step closer towards him.
“Yes, my Queen,” he replied with begrudging submission.
“Lovely,” she said. “So I offer you a choice: first, you can choose to keep living in the Palace under my watch as an honorary member of the Royal Family—but without ascension to the throne when the time comes. You will never be king, and I will forever rule over you. But out of the love I have for my husband, I will treat you and your mother as family, and no harm will come to any of you for as long as I live.”
Cyrus remained silent, waiting for the other choice.
“The second choice: You go away from the city, leaving your mother and every other person who supports you behind. You will only be allowed to tell your mother about this, and no other person is to be informed about it by you. You will leave your mother under my jurisdiction, and though we will barely meet each other, I will make sure all of her needs are met until you are ready to take her back,” she said to him.
“What does it have to be that way? Why should I leave the city?” asked Cyrus before asking a clear question. “Are you putting me in exile?”
“No, I'm not,” she said. “And I was never going to. Like I said, it's entirely up to you to make the choice. As for what you will be doing outside of the city, it will also be your choice. But I will not have someone like you aspiring to take the throne from me because I have resolved never to step down because of you. So to avoid a civil war from erupting, this is the choice I lay before you. Just like you, I will be willing to fight for what I want, legally or illegally.”
“What would I be doing outside the city?” asked Cyrus.
“I don't know; like I said, it's completely up to you,” she said to him. “But if you want a wise suggestion, I could help you with that: Get out of the kingdom entirely; don't bother going to the lower towns and villages around, because nobody will listen to you.”
“Go into the territories and kingdoms outside Griffindale and build your army of followers and allies from scratch. Whenever you feel like you have amassed a huge following enough to seize the throne away from me, then you can come back to fight for it.”
“I promise you, I will be waiting for you. If you never return, I will make sure she lives out the rest of her days having all her needs met, and those after me will see to it that she gets an honorable burial after she passes away.”
Cyrus clenched his fist, seeing how well the choices were crafted for this moment. The Queen left no stone unturned, and he could not fight against that. He was at her mercy, and yet she had offered him a choice.
The only true followers he knew of were the Knights of the Diamond, but he would not be selfish enough to call upon them to attempt a coup d'etat against the Queen. The kingdom as a whole was just starting to adapt and adjust to the loss of their king; the last thing it needed was a civil war.
In other words, he had to play her game.
“So, young man,” Regina called to him. “What is it going to be? Will you play it safe by choosing the first one, or will you take the risk by choosing the second one? Keep in mind that once you step out of this city, you will never be allowed to return again under my watch.”
“Cyrus thought about it deeply, knowing that the Queen would not give him the luxury of letting him return to his quarters to think about it. He also knew that there was no way he could constitutionally get past this, as he knew Regina would not prepare this proposal without doing her homework first.”
No matter what, he had to make his decision here and now.
“Alright, my Queen,” Cyrus replied. “I choose the second one.”
Regina frowned, as she hadn't counted on him making that kind of choice.
“Do you know what you are saying? You will be exiled completely from the city. You might never return to see your mother again,” she told him.
“I know,” Cyrus replied, “But it's worth the risk.”
Regina frowned. “Is that how much you are willing to give up just for the possibility of becoming King?”
“Yes, my Queen” Cyrus said plainly to her, “Just as you have proposed, I will go out of the city to amass my following and then come back to take my place as the rightful ruler of Griffindale.”
Regina clenched her teeth angrily. She had expected him to take the safe route, resting assured that he and his mother would live safely as royal persons without major hardships in life. But he instead chose to give up everything just for the possibility of taking the throne from her. This annoyed her beyond anything, and she hated Cyrus all the more for it.
Then, as if to add insult to injury, Cyrus looked at her face-to-face and said something even more outrageous.
“Rest assured, Queen Regina. I will return—not just for my throne but also for your head.”
This warning upset the Queen so much that she almost threw a tantrum.
She repeatedly exclaimed in anger “Leave! Go away! Perish! Die!” as Cyrus exited the room and closed the door.
While the Queen fumed with rage in her private chamber, Cyrus emerged from her quarters wearing a satisfied grin, relieved that his life's path had become unambiguous.
Regardless of the circumstances, he was determined to ascend to the throne.
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