"I've heard a lot about you," Was something that Morana of House Silvertongue was getting used to by the time she had turned the age of thirteen. "You are as beautiful as the legends say," It was the type of sentence that she would expect someone to say to a woman twice her age, not a small girl who liked to hide behind her mother's skirts whenever someone talked to her. She had always looked to her mother for help, and her mother had always made her feel safe.

She was now eighteen years old without a mother or a home and she still wanted to run and hide when she was told this. She was told this now, as she was presented to the prince of the Red Kingdom. "I've heard a lot about you, Princess Silvertongue." He told her. "You are quite beautiful," She tried to keep her cool and smile and take the compliment, she knew that this was for the good of her people and the survival of her house and nothing more, but the prospect of getting married at such a young age filled her heart with sorrow.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," She told the man in front of her. He was considerably older, with jet black hair that had grey streaks running through it. He was by no means an unattractive looking man, but there was this glint in his eyes that unnerved her to her very core.

'You just have to bite your tongue and survive this,' She thought to herself.

She could do this.

She had to.

For the last few years, she had been growing accustomed to losing too much, but it had lately become something that was too much to bear for even her. House Silvertongue was one of the last houses in Althea that used magic and worshipped the old gods, and the war against magic had become so perilous that she had lost both her parents and her younger sister to it. Her older sister might be dead as well, she could not be sure about that though. Marina was a fearsome warrior and she had been telling herself that she would come back some day, but after a fearsome storm swallowed up the boat that she had allegedly been on, she gave up hope.

That left her and her older brother, and her older brother had been insistent on selling--er, marrying--her to the Kingdom with the most soldiers and the best army possible so that they could eventually bring glory back to their house.

'Bite your tongue,' She reminded herself as she stared into the eyes of a prince that she couldn't even remember the name of. 'You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.' Morana was not ready to give up on her house either, so she was going to tell herself that her brother was right and that this was the best way to bring glory back to her house.

It had to be for what it cost.

"Let me introduce to you, Myrina Kesk, of the House of Asturias." Was a sentence that Myrina had become all too used to at this point. She had grown into the age where her job was to impress every single rich man that she could so that she could bring her family wealth and honor. She was from one of the lower houses, and so there was a lot riding on her shoulders as the oldest sister of four. She had been told many times that she was meant to bring back the valor behind her family name.

Every time she heard that sentence, she stared at the man in front of her with this numb feeling in her eyes. This time she was being introduced to a man from the House of Aurum Cornu. His eyes were about as gold as the sun and his pale white hair contrasted his beautiful dark skin. She gave him a gentle smile and looked him up and down. He was one of the gentler looking men that she had been introduced to, so she was a little less tense than she usually was around men.

She still had no urge to get married to this man and have his children, but she decided that if this worked out well and there were no immediate red flags that she was going to settle for him. He was an elligible bachelor and his house was one of the middle houses, on it's way to growing more into it's name because of the unique power to summon precious metals and constantly increase their well. "This is Voski Jinn, of house Aurum Cornu." His right hand said.

"Hello," He bowed rather theatrically. His voice was thick and velvety smooth and Myrina knew that her mother was going to love this boy. She could already feel her eyes on the back of her neck. "What a pleasure it is to meet you,"

Myrina curtsied in the most ladylike fashion that she could, holding out her hand. Voski took it and kissed it. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Duke Jinn."

"Please, just call me Voski." His golden eyes sparkled. Myrina smiled. He didn't seem too bad, but she hadn't even gotten to talk to him yet so she shouldn't expect too much. She sighed, knowing that men usually had a way of disappointing her.

"I hope you had a good trip, Voski." She said.

"I did," He had this toothy grin. "You have a rather beautiful countryside before the castle. You don't see that everywhere."

"Yes, we take pride in how beautiful our land is." She could go on for hours and hours about the land, and how she would much prefer to stay here where life was much easier for her and she could take care of her sisters and made sure that they had an education, but she didn't.

The pressure was on her to make sure that the house had the best reputation, so she was going to do her job and make sure that the house had it's best reputation. Otherwise she would never hear the end of it. The adults took over the conversation and started talking about sleeping arrangements and then left. Myrina's mother turned to her.

"Good girl," She said. "You made me proud. Now keep it up for the festivities tonight."

High above the smokestacks, a monster lies in wait. It's patient, watching the people below it passing like ants. It wondered if they knew just how fragile their lives were. Lights from torches flickered below, someone stumbled around drunkenly and the monster licked it's lips. It was so tempting to pounce, but it wasn't going to. Not yet. It was waiting for someone. There was a sign that the monster needed, but it wasn't sure quite what the sign was. It just knew that it would immediately know what the sign was when it saw the sign. It would know, and then it would feast.

... *...

Morana felt like if she rolled her eyes any further, she was going to explode. She was bored beyond belief, thinking of all the different things that she would rather do than be here right now.

She decided that list included dying.

That's how bad it was.

She wondered why older men always had to be so dull. They managed to make even talk of war sound like they were cultivating slugs, or something equally as boring. She wished that she was anywhere but here. She wished that her sisters were here again so that she could talk to them. They always kept her safe and made her feel understood and loved, but she knew that the people that truly loved her were dead. Her eldest brother was solely doing this based off of greed. He didn't care about her at all.

"So, princess." Her potential husband said, "are you as good in bed as they say?"

Morana resisted the urge to roll her eyes and giggled. She knew what her brother was going to say. He didn't want her to be of any substance. He wanted to be this ideal picture of a woman in order to get in good graces with this man. Meanwhile, she couldn't even remember his name.

"I don't know, my lord." She stared down at her wine. "I am but a ******," He practically salivated at this lie. She knew that he wouldn't find out this truth and she expected that it would stay that way. She would marry this man, but she would find a way to get as far away from him as soon as she could.

She was smart and fast and knew how to hide. She had learned these skills from the war that was tearing apart Althea and several more countries as well. Morana bit her lip, trying to seem more inticing to this man. He licked his lips. Meanwhile, she was trying her best not to throw up.

She dreamed of being somewhere safe, away from people that wanted her dead, away from men that wanted to use her. She knew that such a place was fictious, Morana would never find the type of place that she so desperately wanted to call her own.

Fantasy helped her cope though. Fantasy was the only thing that she could use to keep her sane in the moment.