Dragon Prince

Demon Prince

1

Castle in my Mind

Sileas remembers so little about the countryside, but she remembered everything about her home, where her parents still reside. Safe and comfortable in a villa that her grandparents called inadequate and small. But her villa was home and perfect. And that’s all she ever let herself think about as she stood painfully still on the hall.

She ignored the pinchy shoes, the tight corset, or the uncomfortable pins in her hair. Her wedding dress had added most to her weight than her actual body weight, but she forced herself to think of something else. To remember something else other than here, which often means she’s thinking of home. Home home, not the cold mansion her grandparents lived in, but the villa that overlooked the ocean and welcomed in the warm breeze of the sea, where her parents lived their days in sunshine and warmth. A place that first embraced her and didn’t want to let her go.

Her mother would be sitting by the organ, her small but fast fingers played the melody of her childhood. Upbeat yet peaceful. Not too fast or too slow. The mere sound of her music would bring anyone in the villa to a hum or a skip as they tried to dance and follow her music. No one would be able to do the court dance with that song, but one could waltz to it.

Then her father would bring in tea with such ease, even though he was raised with titles and money. He loved making tea and preferred to serve the whole family his own concoction of tea. The taste of his tea was common but better and more distinct. She had drunk hundreds of other teas, but none of it was like the one she grew up with, countless of tea parties and lessons yet none of it were able to emulate her father’s tea.

All of them would be in the sitting room where the windows are the largest. That sitting room would be facing west rather than east to avoid the blazing heat of the morning sun as it rose but would meet the waning heat of the sunset and its wonderful orangey hues. Her mother loved sunsets more than sunrises anyway

If she strained hard enough, she could imagine herself entering the room and the warm faces of her favorite people would smile towards her direction. She had no nanny as her mother was a commoner and a human. She raised her closely and warmly. The only servants that tended to her were her mother’s own personal maid, Letiana, with her soft chuckles and warm hands that often brushed her hair.

“Stand straighter” a voice behind her stole her from her thoughts. From her home.

Sileas pulled her shoulders back. Her mind tries to remain in the setting sun of her home with the scent of the water palpable on her tongue.

An older woman with silver hair and lilac eyes stands beside her, and she could practically burn Sileas with her body heat. But she doesn’t move away or took a step back. She met the woman’s stare instead as the woman reminded her of her father, but less of the harshness.

“Remember what this means to our family, who you represent. Do not shame us.”

“Yes, grandmother” She answered politely. Her father’s eyes and nose are facing her.

Erimine looked at her with such coldness, it rivaled the heat of her physical body. “Do not” She hissed lowly. “Disappoint us.” A reminder. A threat. She had grown up with it for so long that the line between those words have blurred.