The silence of the throne room seemed to press down on her as she looked around uneasily, avoiding the gaze of the soldiers that had dragged her across the throne room at the feet of where the Royal General Aderas Stormbound who sat with his glowing silver eyes looking down on her.The glowing silver eyes that she had seen just last night, in the garden not too far from the castle where they had laughed with each other and had such a lovely time in the light of the moon. He had not acted like a future king then. He had just been a boy talking to a pretty girl.
He looked down at her now, his silvery-blue eyes looking cold in the light of the throne room. With his slight figure draped in the brocade leather of the royal family. Aderas, royal general of arms, and soon to be King, sat on his throne and looked down at the gentle creature he had found last night on his nightly wanderings of the woods. With her russet-colored locks, and pale green eyes walking in the starlight unafraid, unassuming, she had been otherworldly.
A girl from myth.
Someone unreal from anything Aderas could've conjured himself. He tensed at seeing her here in the castle. He was suddenly glad for the stark darkness of the throne room. He glanced away from her to the guards that had dragged her here.
"What is the meaning of this?" Aderas asked, his voice sharp in the gloom. He saw in the corner of his eye the girl flinch as if his words had struck her somehow.
"We found her in the tavern. Stealing." one guard said.
"I was not stealing," she said sharply. She glared at the guard, who looked astounded that she had dared to speak.
"How interesting," Aderas said in a bored tone. "The guard says one thing and you say another. Who to believe," he said. The other guard dropped a satchel at Aderas's feet that opened silvery coins falling out like water.
"These were in her possession. It can't possibly belong to her." The guard Abraxas (Aderas believed his name was) said.
"Those are rightfully mine. I worked hard to achieve them." the girl said, looking hungrily at the coins. She looked up at Aderas once more, her eyes imploring. "They are the only thing that can free my brother," she said.
"You can't possibly believe her words. She is clearly a thief." The other guard, Dion, scoffed.
"Had you been born under a different star you may have shared her fate," Aderas said, making the guard Dion turn pale at his words. Aderas glanced at the girl, his silvery eyes making her flush and look away. The same flush he remembered so vividly from the night before.
Aderas cringed inwardly, dismissing the guards with a wave. As if he could hide the effect that this girl seemed to have on him. He eyed the girl once more, stepping down from the throne and sitting on the topmost step that led to the pedestal that the throne sat on. "Is any of what you said true?Miss?" Aderas asked with narrowed eyes.
"Asteria. They call me Asteria," she said, seeming to collapse to her knees with tiredness. "My brother inherited a massive debt. Three days hence I received word that my brother would be sent away to the stocks of America if his debt wasn't settled." Asteria said, her eyes wide with terror. For her brother, for the fear, that Aderas wouldn't believe her tale.
"Those coins I made by selling out family jewels the last meager possessions left to us from our father and our ancestral home. I don't need anything but my brother." Asteria said, she looked behind her where the guards had left and turned back taking a knee. "I didn't know who you were, your majesty. Or I wouldn't have been so forward. Please accept my apologies." She said.
Aderas stifled a grimace. "There is no need for that," he said. "I was there not to be a crown but just to be me," he said quietly. His lips thinned, and he seemed to suddenly harden.
"Kailani" he barked, startling Asteria. She turned as a door opened and a girl with delicate features walked in a sword on either side of her hip. "Go to Aedion. Find whatever pirate ship has the prisoner," he said, glancing at Asteria who stood straighter, her eyes wide.
"Zathrian," she said.
"Zathrian. Find this Zathrian," he said, lifting the satchel of silver, closing it properly, and handing it to Kailani. "Use what you must from this if need be," he said pointedly.
Asteria watched her leave, the stark sound of the door closing seeming to be a portent of doom for her. Aderas seemed to study her for a moment before he rose, then gestured her to follow him. Asteria did so worriedly. He entered a chamber of the throne room with a spiral staircase that led to double doors. He opened it, and Asteria was astounded to see a brightly lit chamber with high windows piled with stacks of books. Shelves stood half-full and empty all along the walls.
"Do you read?" Aderas enquired.
"Yes, I've been taught," she said.
"I've need to appoint my library, the former custodian has left this place in a bit of disarray, and it seems he has left most of the illuminated texts away from the shelves, see if you can't appoint this room properly," he said with a sigh.
"Let's see what you can do with this room. Perhaps you and your brother won't leave completely empty-handed." Aderas said, leaving Asteria to it, making his way out. He heard her gasp softly and as he closed the door, he thought he might have heard the whisper of a thank you on the wind.