(13x Featured, Award Winner)
She is ruthless. She is scorned. And her blood? The darkest shade of blue.
***
When Queen Aravena basically life-threatens Gunderson, an evil merchant, to find the best warrior candidate in just a day, she doesn't know h...
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Aravena
Mother hadn't been fair with her.
A frown marred my features as I walked through a dark hallway.
The chilling breeze of Winter night was biting my already exposed cold face while I was passing by a series of open windows.
I tugged at the pale blue woolen vest to cover my chest that was wrapped in the thin, white silk of the evening gown.
Some of the stray snow littered the hallways. More joined the pile as time went by.
I huffed.
Which careless buffoon forgot to close the windows at this hour of the night! Couldn't Mother now find them instead of threatening the harmless ones?
I rolled my eyes.
Queen and her baseless partiality between servants!
I turned around a corner and froze at the sight before me.
It was that maid!
She was closing the humongous shutters of those windows, almost losing her balance and slipping through the gray window sill.
Oh, so this was the reason behind the open windows this evening.
I pressed my lips tight and crossed my arms.
Mother was getting quite creative with her punishments these days.
I suppressed a sigh and took a step forward.
The young maid snapped her head up at the clicks of my heels. Her hands froze on the brown broom.
I took notice of the piling snow beside her bare feet.
She must have been on sweeping duty as well.
With haste, her shivering form leaned the broom against the nearest wall and bowed deep.
"Y-Your H-Highness..." her teeth clattered as she spoke.
Howling wind brushed past her trembling body, making her flimsy brown, knee-length, cotton dress flow in the air.
She clung onto a thin floral print black shawl as she tried to keep her nylon-clad, dark blue, shaky legs steady.
"Rise." I waved my fingers upwards.
She barely held back the sigh of relief and straightened her spine. She briskly brushed a stray frizzy brown strand off her face and turned to the lonely, cold broom.
