The queen... she was a woman of outward grace and commanding presence, softened by her classic fairy tale beauty and kindly smile. Not as beautiful as her fairy-blessed daughter, of course, but for a woman of her age she was remarkably untouched by the passage of years that had left grey at her husband's temples and grown the princess from a baby into a young lady.
Hadama's chin lifted in thought as he considered Maea's question and pushed through the cobwebbed veils of someone else's memories that filled the corners of his mind. "Mmmh. I had not considered that," he admitted, brows furrowing slightly. "Though she tried to protect the child from my curse..." Though even that may have been a ruse, if she knew that the Dark Fairy did not dare to harm her. But no matter how hard he tried, in the end he lowered his head and shook it in defeat. "But I cannot remember." A pause and then a slow murmur of insight. "... Which is important, I think. That the book is hiding it from me." Preventing him from flipping to the last page, so to speak, before the tale had finished unfolding.
At a nod from the king the band began to play again and the courtiers fell back, murmuring and sighing happily at their perfect princess. A princess who, a moment later, came to stand before Maea and offered her a shy hand and a smile like sunrise, her eyes demurely down and hidden by her thick lashes. "Will you do me the honor of my first dance, my bravest Knight?" she asked sweetly.
Hadama's chin lifted in thought as he considered Maea's question and pushed through the cobwebbed veils of someone else's memories that filled the corners of his mind. "Mmmh. I had not considered that," he admitted, brows furrowing slightly. "Though she tried to protect the child from my curse..." Though even that may have been a ruse, if she knew that the Dark Fairy did not dare to harm her. But no matter how hard he tried, in the end he lowered his head and shook it in defeat. "But I cannot remember." A pause and then a slow murmur of insight. "... Which is important, I think. That the book is hiding it from me." Preventing him from flipping to the last page, so to speak, before the tale had finished unfolding.
At a nod from the king the band began to play again and the courtiers fell back, murmuring and sighing happily at their perfect princess. A princess who, a moment later, came to stand before Maea and offered her a shy hand and a smile like sunrise, her eyes demurely down and hidden by her thick lashes. "Will you do me the honor of my first dance, my bravest Knight?" she asked sweetly.
