He'd spent most of the past week going over the Union between him and the girl he'd chosen.
Emon had invited the necessary countries and their royal families. The grounds were being prepared and food and drink were being brought from his entire country.
After spending most of the day sitting and listening to his counsel and viziers bicker about wether he should say this or that, he had had enough.
He rose from his seat.
"My Sovereign?" Lord Gaul's voice called after him but he was gone.
The Sovereign followed his feet and soon found himself at his private entrance to the royal library.
He sighed happily through his nose.
Throughout his entire life his only solace had been reading.
His mother had the palace architect build him his own private reading room at the top of the tower.
These days he mostly read tax reviews, population charts and trade route updates and such. But in his youth he had been free to read books full of adventure and intrigue.
His favourite tale had been of a sailor who had been shipwrecked on an island and as a gift from the Primals he was to be granted anything he wanted.
He ascended the spiralling path and arrived at his favourite place.
He deeply inhaled the smell of the parchment and cowhide. His favourite smell.
He crossed the balcony and sat in one of the large, comfortable couches that was hidden behind a scroll cabinet.
He sat and reclined against the soft back of the couch, holding a book in his hands.
He read one and finished another. He decided that it was probably time for him to leave, his viziers would be wondering where he was and would most likely soon send a search party after him.
He got up and stretched his legs. He picked up the two books to put them away, but instead of walking to the shelf he hid behind the cabinet next to him.
Before his eyes was the girl. The one he'd selected. He was about to ask what she was doing in his personal library when the most radiant smile lit her face.
He felt his heart quicken and his head spun in a daze. But quickly pushing his reaction aside he spoke in a commanding voice.
"And just what do you think you're doing?"
She froze, only her black hair visible. She was wearing a lemon yellow dress that barely reached her ankles. He noticed then that her feet were bare.
'Did I select a child as my queen?' He asked.
She turned finally and revealed her pale face, free of any embellishments. Her hair was pinned back but left down. The dress she wore was plain and simple, he wondered how it was even considered part of her wardrobe.
"My Sovereign." She curtsied slightly, her head bowed.
He nodded.
Her feet shuffled, 'Embarrassed are we?' He asked amused.
"Hydrangea, is it?" He asked.
Her fists clenched and he could see her delicate lips twist in distaste.
"Yes, my Sovereign."
"Hmm," He circled her, "No biting remarks today?" He stopped in front of her, "Cat got your tongue?"
He saw her lips spread into a not-so-nice smile and she looked away to the window revealing those grey eyes.
He straightened and turned to pick up his books.
He heard a gasp and turned on his heel to face the girl.
"Oh, apologies my Sovereign. I'm just surprised that such a brute is able to read." She said, her eyes trained on his feet.
He stood, frozen, unable to believe that she'd just uttered those words.
He reawakened himself and moved to put the books on their shelf.
"And you, what would you be doing in a library? Can the daughter of a harlot read?" He heard her gasp.
He looked back with a smirk and saw her head raised and looking at him with a mix of shock, horror and anger.
"Oh, yes. I know about your mother. It's not hard to find the mother of someone named 'Hydrangea' and in a small area such as Crescent, especially when she lived at port," He said mockingly, "And if she just happened to be a very popular harlot, then…" He shrugged his shoulders.
His smirk widened when he saw her clench her fists and close her smouldering grey eyes.
"Yes, my Sovereign, I do know how to read. But may I ask why the Sovereign would be in a library at midday. Does he not have duties to attend to, or is one of them reading the Tale of Sir Fauntleroy?" She stuck her short rounded chin at the book in his hand.
It was a child's book but it had been one his mother had read to him.
He did not know how to reply, she'd caught him. He was neglecting his duties and hiding away here.
"And what of you? Why do you sneak around in the Sovereign's personal library? And not even properly clothed." He shot back.
"A maid told me that it was my library and I was free to enter." He noted that she didn't name the maid, or her position, so he could not punish this lying maid.
He laughed, mocking her, "Your library? I have not been chained to you through Union yet. What right do you have thinking anything in this palace is yours." He hissed at her.
He was standing a step away from her now and could see her chest heaving and her face flushed from anger.
"Then why give me the room, the entire wing? Why give me this wardrobe and position if you loathe me so?"
"I selected you because you had something the other girls did not have, intelligence."
"Those girls were intelligent enough to play your puppet queen," She yelled at him pointing out the window to the girls he spoke of, "You chose me to spite me! To ridicule me for what I'd said, and know this," She stepped closer to him, the top of her head only came to his chin so she was looking up and he down, he could smell a waft of sickly sweet flowers.
Her voice spoke in what he supposed to be a threatening tone, "I will do everything in my power to make you regret. Your. Choice." And with that she turned on her heel, her black hair smacking him in the face, and she descended down the tower.