Elizabeth woke up slowly, working herself out of bed. She looked over at the Crown of Final Selection. She grimaced at the magical item, feeling a measure of ire at the item after the events of the previous day. However, she had little choice. She got herself dressed and put on the crown with a sigh, a notification screen popping up as she put it on telling her it activated “Mark of the True Ruler” whatever that meant. She left the room to go eat and everyone was already at the table except Racknar.
Despite not needing food Marionette and Krys'tal both sat at the table with no food in front of them, only in the dining area to talk to the other party members that did eat. “Is Racknar not up yet? He's usually the first one to the table.” Marionette shook her head. “No one's seen him yet today. He's probably taking his time to leave his room. I know he said we'd be going back to the castle Londinium today to show them you passed the test but I don't blame him for taking his time. I don't think he's ready to take on tasks yet.”
Elizabeth sighed. “It doesn't matter if he's ready, he said we'd go today. You know how he is, words once given are never taken back.” Marionette nodded. “Yes, I know. I've been trying to give him space despite my feelings, especially after what I did when I was younger. I don't want to push things but I also know that if I don't at least try I'll lose.” Elizabeth closed her eyes before nodding. She had forgotten that she had competition with how things had been lately. “Right. Well expect for things to sort of return to normal as he tries to dive back into the mission despite himself.”
Racknar finally made his appearance, slowly walking into the room from the kitchen with a plate. He sat it down before sitting down himself. Elizabeth nodded at him and went to get herself some food before also sitting at the table. “How are you feeling today?” Racknar let out a series of displeased moaning sounds, he looked up at Elizabeth and she could tell from his eyes that he'd been crying. It was likely that he didn't sleep last night as his body processed all the emotions he had previously left unfelt. Now that the dam had been broken and the flooding had finished his body was trying to reach a new balance.
Racknar looked at his food and finally responded. “I should be able to travel, I'll definitely try. The sooner we take care of things the better. Once this is done it's back to the grind to prepare to fight Lolith.” Elizabeth nodded as everyone ate. She wanted desperately to ask if he could tell her how he felt about her now that his emotions were set free, but she knew asking would be selfish. Marionette was doing her best to give him space, so she would try to as well. When Racknar was ready to talk about it he'd do so.
With meals finished everyone started getting ready. They loaded into the spider drawn carriage and once again my ade the trip to Londinium. The party made its way right to the castle and parked the carriage with others before sending the spider away with the badge. The party then made their way to the main entrance with Racknar gesturing for Elizabeth to move forward. Elizabeth walked her way to the door and as soon as the two men saw the crown they bowed. Despite never seeing it before it was like they knew exactly what it was and what it meant. They let the princess in as well as the Monster Mashers without trouble or complaint. They didn't even try to take any weapons.
Elizabeth started feeling nervous as she walked through the halls. The way everyone bowed felt different then before. They seemed to be deeper, and kept flourishes tight and minimal. They moved with a quick and purposeful motion. Almost as if the bow had been combined with a salute. It felt weird to Elizabeth. She was used to bowing but this was different and it made her anxious. It didn't help that the entire time she was wearing the crown she couldn't help but think about what it did to Racknar. She found herself lost in thought as she made her way to the King's chambers.
She entered her father's room to see him being fed a liquidy grewal as solid foods had become too much for him to take. His body was pale and emaciated, withering away before their eyes. Elizabeth waved to get his attention and he stopped eating to look at his daughter. He let out a long, sad sigh. “You never cease to surprise me. I'd ask if you went in alone as instructed but knowing you that's not something that needs asking.” Elizabeth frowned. “You speak as if you expected me to fail.”
The king sighed, then coughed. “Not expected, but I had hoped. Part of me is still hung up on the idea of my oldest son taking the throne, even if he's not exactly the best choice. I'm a stubborn old man, set in my ways, who tried so desperately to mold his son into the perfect king to take my place. Not only did I fail, but the daughter I had dispatched and thought nothing of who suddenly made an extremely triumphant return out of nowhere continued to build and show herself to be the best option for the next ruler of this nation. It's a tad funny. If everything had gone as planned you'd be married to the late Duke of Flowers and far away from Londinium as your brother ascended to the throne with you not so much as hearing a word until after it was done.”
Elizabeth scowled. “Well unfortunately for you, things didn't go as planned. I'll be queen and I'll marry whoever the hell I want. If that so happens to be my pho-fiancee then that's my choice to make. What you'd want or would like to happen is irrelevant. By this time next year you'll be dead and there'll be no way for you to stop me.” King William looked to Racknar and scowled. “I'd say I'd sooner die or over my dead body but that's already going to happen. I am still King however. I could order him executed without any due cause and these men would have no choice but to obey.”
Elizabeth looked her father right in the eyes. “You so much as utter one word to the effect of harming Racknar, and I'll ensure you don't wake up tomorrow. You may not have much to lose since you're already going to die, but I highly doubt you want to expedite the process.” King William laughed and coughed. “Go right ahead and put me out of my misery. You'd be doing me a favor. Death would be a mercy at this point.” He coughed for a bit before talking more. “My time is short, so I must know… do you love him?”
Elizabeth looked over to Racknar, then back to her father. “Since before the time I was born into this world, I loved him. I wished in secret that he had been reborn here as well and that I would one day find him and make my true feelings known. Even if I didn't fully understand them myself I wanted to try my best. I'd risk my life for his.” The king shut his eyes, rolled to his back, and sighed. “To think you'd go so far for a beast, someone who bears the Mark of Cain, a symbol of unforgivable sin.” Elizabeth scowled. “The only thing Racknar ever did wrong in his past life is struggle to feel and express emotions. He was beaten, bullied, ridiculed day after day when he wasn't struggling for even the smallest amount of acknowledgement. Invisible until he was seen as failing in some way.”
The king didn't respond to his daughter's retort, he just sat there with his eyes closed. Elizabeth continued. “He's spent two lifetimes of hardship and the only thing he's ever done is try to make this world a better place. I'm sick and tired of people mistreating him for his looks, forcing him to hide behind an illusion just to avoid someone treating him like some monster. Despite his looks he is a human being under there, one who's lived a far more virtuous life then most. I'm not saying he's perfect, I mean he's killed people, but everything he's done has been within the laws here and the only reason he killed people is because he's reached a point where it's difficult not to. He-”
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Racknar put his hand on her shoulder. “Eli, that's enough.” Elizabeth turned to face him. “No, it's not. I'm tired of everyone-” Racknar gestured to the king. “He can't hear you anymore.” Elizabeth started blankly at Racknar for a moment before looking back at her father. His chest wasn't moving anymore. She checked for a pulse and found nothing. The attending nurse checked him and tried a healing spell with no results. “He has passed on my princess, the king has died.” The guards in the room then say “Long live the queen!” Like an automated response.
Elizabeth let out a long drawn out sigh. “Fuck.” She said in an equally drawn out manner. “Well, I've got a funeral to run, then a coronation. Looks like I won't be able to hang out with you guys much anymore.” Racknar took his hand off Elizabeth's shoulder. “We'll be with you through the coronation. This may be sooner than we'd hoped but we did plan for this.” Elizabeth nodded as a tear rolled down her cheek. “He may have been a neglectful asshole, but he was still my father.” Racknar nodded. “It's completely understandable to have mixed feelings. All of us will be here to support you until you've officially taken the throne.”
Elizabeth started giving orders to prepare the kings body for the funerary parade, a tradition that had the king or queen marched through the city in a glass casket so the people could say their goodbyes before the body would be moved to a wooden casket, floated out to into a large lake on a boat, and given a Viking funeral via the boat being burned. The ritual is meant to symbolically mirror the funeral of King Author Bramble the Pendragon. The funeral would last an entire day, then the next morning the coronation ceremony would commence and Elizabeth would officially be queen of Bramble. It is at this point the new ruler would introduce their consort who rules beside them.
The Monster Mashers marched with the parade, taking the King's corpse down every main road in Londinium as the people tossed flowers at the parade and put their hands on the casket that slowly moved through the town. It was dark and well into the nighttime hours when the boat was finally put out into the lake and burned. After everything Elizabeth and the party returned to the castle to stay the night in Londinium to participate in the crowning ceremony. The next morning it felt as if the entire country had gathered outside the castle Londinium to watch as Elizabeth was crowned.
A man came forward with the ceremonial crown to behind the ceremonial throne and behind Elizabeth who was in the ceremonial robes and placed the crown on her head. The man then announced with the help of magic boosting his voice like a megaphone. “I give you Queen Elizabeth Anne Victoria Bramble. Long live the queen!” The crowd repeated “Long live the queen.” As Elizabeth was handed a scepter and orb before standing and blowing lightly. She then handed the staff and orb over to give her speech.
“Good people of Bramble. You are at this point expecting a few things. First, you are expecting me to introduce my king consort. Then, you are expecting me to do the whole “long live the kingdom, long live the king” bit like everything is going to continue on like nothing has changed. Maintaining the traditions and ruling mostly reactively. I'm here before you to tell you I won't be doing any of that. I will not be introducing a king consort at this time, I'll remain a single matriarch for a time. I will not give some empty line reassuring you that it's going to be the same old same old. Here's the new boss, same as the old boss. No, instead I'm here to tell you I'll get acting proactively. I'm going to shake things up. I'm going to buck traditions and challenge the norm. I'm here to say fuck your status quo and the horse it rode in on. I'm here to announce, with determination, that no longer will Bramble exist under the thumb of the Empire. Bramble will, once again, like in the golden age, be free to govern itself.”
There's a dead silence in the crowd before they start murmuring amongst themselves. Racknar took a step forward. “We will fight: For freedom, for independence, for liberty. We will throw away the shackles of religious subjugation, no longer subject to the whims of corrupt individuals in the Church. We will throw away the shackles of oppression, no longer will we allow the venomous words of bigots to send our hands at the throats of our neighbors. No longer will our hard work be used to line the pockets and fatten the bodies of the rich in the mainland. We will stand, united, as brothers in arms to fight for a common cause. We will rise up, all of us. Humans, dragon-bloods, beast-kin, Shatterkin, goblin, orc, elf, dwarf, man, woman, and child. For revolution!” He tossed his fist up into the air. “Death to the Empire!” The crowd cheered: “Death to the Empire, death to the tyrants. For revolution!”
Elizabeth looked at Racknar, remembering him once telling her how absolutely terrified of public speaking to a crowd he was back when he was Jon. Racknar continued. “I know what it's like, to be stepped on, walked on, treated like you are less simply because you weren't born to a well off family. I've spent two lifetimes being pushed down by those in power. People who put us at one another's throats using whatever excuses they can find. That person looks different, they have a different god than you. No one asks to be born, no one has control over what they were born as. What we can do is control what we do with what we are given.” Racknar pulled off his ring of illusion. “And in this moment I chose to stop hiding who I really am. I am Racknar Aradae, and I am an eight legged geek.”
The cheers stopped for a moment as the crowd looked at one another. Racknar continued. “Aren't you tired of hiding? How many among you secretly like the same gender, or someone of a different race? How many among you secretly worship a different god? Once we are independent from the Empire we won't have to hide anymore.” There's a silence when Elizabeth finally pitches in again. “Death to the Empire!” The crowd cheered again. “Death to tyrants! Revolution!” Elizabeth looked over to Racknar. “You were starting to lose them.”
Elizabeth then came back from the balcony and the party followed her. As the crowd cheered outside Racknar grumbled. “I see you've decided to move up my timetable without discussing it with me first.” His voice has a clear hint of irritation. Elizabeth looked out the balcony and back again. “Yeah, sorry about that. I figured since the last two pieces are in Svartalfheim you don't necessarily need to go to the mainland to grind. Since we already moved all the important things and people here and the only people we still have in the Empire are trying to change things from the inside, I could make this move. Everything was already in place.”
Racknar sighed. “I would have liked more time or at least a heads up. Just because I can easily adjust the plan doesn't mean I like it. Also I suppose since the guild is an independent entity and my involvement here might not become common knowledge I could still keep my guild licence and conti6to take quests in the Empire. Though tensions will definitely be higher. Also, being at war means you'll be busier. If you let peace roll for a while we would have at least had some time to hangout.” Elizabeth nodded. “Well I haven't officially declared war, just stated that I plan to. We still have to write up our declaration of independence and our declaration of war. The paperwork alone will take a week or two.”
Racknar sighed and shuffled around. “Well, I guess now that the coronation is over, it's time for me and my crew to get back to work.” Marionette walked over to Racknar and tugged on his arm to get his attention before pressing her face to his and whispering. “Hey, it's okay if you want to kiss her goodbye.” Racknar blinked before making a click sound. “I don't have lips, and neither do you.” Marionette pulled back with a bit of shock, having not considered that before. “We'd figure something out. Anyway, as I said, I wouldn't be mad or jealous if you gave Elizabeth a proper goodbye.”
Racknar nodded softly before walking over to Elizabeth and gently grabbing her face. “I'll do my best to return safely.” He gently placed his forehead to her's. Elizabeth closed her eyes and smiled. Although a small gesture this had been the first time he initiated a show of affection outside the hug when he was in an extremely emotional state the other day. In this moment, while stable, he was the one to initiate. Elizabeth couldn't help herself but to kiss Racknar's mandibles. A strange sensation. He then gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, pressing his face tighter into the kiss.
Elizabeth pulled away from this kiss and looked Racknar in the eyes. “Does this mean you're finally ready?” Racknar's fangs curled. “I'll give it a try, but you still have competition. At least till I've sorted through all my feelings and can make a choice.” Marionette crossed her arms and nodded. “Yeah, I'm not exactly giving up.” Racknar pulled out of the hug and started walking out with a wave. “I'll return after I've done some missions and put myself in position to take on Lolith.” Elizabeth nodded and waved. “I'll be waiting for your return.”
