The King's funeral the next day came so quickly. It was really a very sullen morning for Rayah, she cried her eyes out, the reality of her father's death had finally hit her. Rayah quickly wrote down her farewell speech, she remembered pearl had asked her if she had prepared hers while they were both eating breakfast yesterday.
The attendees were the entire relatives of the royal family, most of the castle servants and workers except some guards and soldiers that had to watch over the palace to monitor and control the surroundings of the palace and few council officials that had been invited by the Queen.
Rayah felt someone hold her hands, she raised her head and saw it was pearl. She felt more tears spill down her cheeks. Rayah realized that she literally had no one to call her family other than this stepsister of her's who has always been there for her time and time again.
They both didn't say anything as they listened to the priest. Pearl cried too, her stepfather had given her as much love as he would give to Rayah his biological daughter. Pearl had never felt like she was a stepdaughter for once since the day she stepped into the Castle after King Almond married her mother. the king was just loving and kind.
After the funeral ended, the two princesses left the cathedral to their father's cemetery.
"Pearl please can you accompany me to the cemetery?" Rayah asked and Pearl agreed without hesitation.
"Here" Pearl handed over to Rayah a picture, it was that same picture the Queen had shown Rayah. But this time it looked different, it was cleaned and framed with flowers attached to it.
"I thought you might need it" Pearl added.
Rayah's green eyes were glistening with tears, she felt bad for the way she spoke to her sister the other day. Pearl was right, she did need a picture to place beside her father's grave.
"Pearl I'm sorry for... " Rayah tried to apologize but pearl cut in
"Rah it's fine. You don't have to apologize, I swear I'm not angry, I know you did not mean to say such a thing, you were still finding it hard to accept the reality of.. you know what, you should go give father your flowers okay."
"Don't keep him waiting I'm right here if you need me." Pearl didn't want to mention the king's death so Rayah would not burst out in tears again.
"Oh Pearl, thank you." Rayah hugged Pearl before she walked over to king Almond's grave which was just some distance away from where they stood right now.
"Father, it's me Rayah." Rayah was trying to speak due to her sniffs.
"I have always wished you told me the place you journeyed to, you once said the journey was partly because of me and I've been left wondering why so." Rayah sniffed again.
"I don't think it's fair, you and mother had left me all alone in this harsh world. Now I've only got Pearl yet I'll ever remain grateful for having a sister like her."
Rayah looked over to pearl who was sitting on a bench."
"At times, I thought about going to find you. I've always had an intense yearning to journey through our kingdom. Yet I know you would want me to consider my condition before anything." Rayah then placed the flowers she held by the side of her father's grave.
Rayah failed to notice the changed weather when rain started pouring down.
"Rah let's take cover or we'll get soaked before we reach home." Pearl hurriedly came up to Rayah to lead her out of the rain. Her hands were above her head as a means of trying dodging the rain.
"Okay." Rayah replied. They both ran to look for cover from the rain.
Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, everybody in Montis had passed on from the king's death and continued with their normal day to day activities.
"Checkmate" Pearl declared
"Hmm, you made a brilliant move there alright." Rayah said .They were both seated under a tree, a checkboard in between them.
"We are to meet mother to have tea before lunch this afternoon." Pearl informed her sister
"Mother invited us over for tea?" Rayah asked
"Yes. She's been nice and that totally gives me the creeps"Pearl replied
Rayah laughed at her statement.
"Why. Mother is often nice."Rayah said
"To you?" Pearl made a 'i can't believe you said that kind of face' then they both exploded in laughter.
The two princesses knew of the fact that the Queen was far from nice or kind. Rayah normally gets punishments like cooking in the kitchen, feeding the horses in the stable or preparing Queen Lisa's tea reapetedly up to her taste until she got extremely tired awaiting the queen's approval for any little mistake she did while for Pearl, she gets grounded for a week or two which was torture for someone like her who loves practicing with her sword and enjoys sneaking out of the castle.
"I'll be right back I need to ease myself." Rayah said.
"Don't take too long, I can't wait to beat you in the next round." Said pearl
"I sure will not let you win" Rayah responded before she made to go to the restroom.
"Oh Rayah?" Pearl called out to Rayah
"Please help me get me a book called Tales of the fiery knights from the library on your way back. Can you?, i was reading it last night and kept it on the reading desk by the left. You won't have a hard time searching for it" Pearl asked in a puppyish voice
"Alright I will get it for you, it is right across the throne hall anyways" Rayah respond
"Thank you Rah, you're the best sis ever"
Rayah reached the royal library but she could not find the book on the reading table as pearl had told her, she bagan browsing through the shelves to see if she would be able to find it.
"Aghh, where is it" Rayah groaned after 30 minutes passed and she had still not found the book.
"Well there are more than a thousand books in here, I can't possibly check all of this library's shelves."
Rayah was about to come out from behind a book shelf when she collided with someone, the book in which the other person was holding fell and both of them quickly bent down to pick it up, Rayah could deduce this person's gender from his polished shoes to his calloused hands.
"Oh I'm sorry bout that, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, it's my fault I'll be more careful next time." The person rendered his apologies politely with a charming smile.
Meanwhile, Rayah thought of the young man to be very handsome.The aura around him and clothes he had on, Rayah could tell that he belonged to the high class society or he might be a Royal.
"Ah you don't have to apologize, I should have watched where I was going also." Rayah spoke with a meek voice curtseying.
Rayah noticed they were so close to each other with the shelf behind her back so she couldn't move back to create space between them. Rayah coughed awkwardly, the handsome man with curly brown hair realized their current position and moved back.
"Oh sorry. I had wanted to place this book on this shelf before I came in contact with you." He said
"Oh my, this is the book I have been searching for a while now. It's my sister's." Rayah said.
"Here, have it. I saw it on the desk over there, I thought to read it. I didn't know a reader was already occupied with it" The man said
"Oh No No."
"No one has read it today, my sister dropped it here last night after reading, she only asked me to get it for her now."
"Okay I understand" He then handed Rayah the tale of the fiery knights book.
"The name is prince Hayne Siko, you can call me Siko." The young man introduced himself.
"And I am Princess Venshati Rayah of kingdom Montis, nice to meet you Prince Siko." Rayah curtsied.
"I am pleased to meet you too your highness." Prince Siko gave a slight bow.
"Why have you come to Montis Prince Siko?" Rayah inquired
"I am invited to an upcoming banquet for Business partners and associates of Montis . I hope we shall see each other more often from henceforth Princess." The Prince said
"Of course, are you staying in the guest quarters? when did you arrive." Rayah asked.
"I will be spending some days at a friend's residence, he's also one of my business partners here in Montis. I have been in the Palace working with the Queen and few officials." The young prince replied.
"Oh I see. I'll see you around Prince Siko, permit me to excuse myself." Rayah curtsied one more time.
"Please call me Siko."
"All right Siko." Rayah blushed.