Cinder X Bella ~ Forty-Two!

Giving Bella a glare of warning as she stalked out of the room, Matringa marched to the main door and yanked it open. 

Bella was standing near the door of the dining room and peered through the crack between the door and its frame to try and see what was happening. All she could see was a sudden tension in her stepmother's posture before she was roughly shoved out of the way by Malvagio.

“Move!” the older girl hissed at Bella, who flinched away in horror as she saw the dark energy surging through her stepsister. Unlike with Matringa, there was no blatant aura of darkness and corruption; instead, it seemed to be slowly gaining in power. She was well on her way to being a Witch but had not quite crossed that threshold. 

With that thought in mind, she turned to look at Cattiva, staring intently until the wisps of dark energy made themselves known, crawling on the younger of the stepsisters like spiders scuttling into and out of hiding spaces. “Can you still be saved?”

In her surprise, Bella had accidentally spoken the words out loud, though very softly. It was enough to make her disgruntled stepsister glare at her, but not enough to make her comment.

“Signora Matringa, my apologies for the interruption of your morning,” a powerful voice practically shouted into the entryway, the voice clearly well-trained and used to speaking to large crowds at a time. “It’s-a me, Dario, the King's Herald, here to deliver the decree of the crown in person!”

From her new position as the last in line of the snooping trio, Bella could just barely make out her stepmother's motions as she swept into a stilted curtsy. “How very gracious of you, Signore. What can House Vigatori do for our kingdom?” 

There was a sound of vellum flapping; no doubt the man was opening a scroll with a dramatic flourish. “As of this morning, a royal decree has been signed by the Queen's hand! Crown Prince Cinder will be leading a royal procession from town to town, seeking the young woman who filled his heart with fire during the masquerade! There is to be a festival in each town nearest the largest concentration of attendees, and all eligible young women who attended the ball are hereby ordered to present themselves to the prince when he arrives in their towns.”

The authoritative voice cut off, and a long silence stretched before Matringa realized he had finished. “Do you speak for the Kingdom at this moment?”

“Indeed I do!” the man bellowed jovially. 

Matringa allowed herself a polite chuckle. “In that case, perhaps I can make a complaint known through you. This is highly unusual and puts us in an awkward position. We are exhausted from the masquerade this last evening, as wonderful as it was and are ill-prepared to travel today.”

“Not to worry!” The man leaned forward, finally coming into Bella's field of view, and she recoiled as she saw him wink salaciously at the Witch. “You will not have to travel at all! In fact, the prince himself has decided they will arrive here at luncheon instead of pressing on to the next town over. His Highness felt it necessary to extend his personal presence, sending me ahead to deliver this decree in person to permit your household ample time to prepare for a private visit.”

“He… the prince is coming here?” Matringa inquired incredulously, only her hand trailing along her dress to smooth it out betraying a hint of nervousness. “I have… there's no… we will be unable to host, as we have nothing prepared! Our servants were given the day off for the holiday of the prince's birth. I'm honored, but-”

“Not to worry, the procession will be bringing its own food, and your family is personally invited to dine with the prince!” Dario the herald paused, and when he spoke again, it was in a much more reasonable tone, conversational even. “Look, this is off the record. I've heard that the prince was quite taken with a conversation with one of your daughters last night. He sent me ahead, personally, to make sure you knew he was coming. You have perhaps… two hours? Less, most likely, but he will be arriving.”

Through Matringa’s sputtering combination of denial and thanks, the herald was clearly quite accustomed to dealing with all manner of nobility, from the highborn to the newly raised. No matter what she called after him, he refused to give any further details, simply bowing slightly before spinning on his heel and fading away like fog in the wind.

“A movement skill? I guess that explains how we got past the thorns.” Bella muttered softly. 

Thankfully, her words were hidden by Malvagio and Cattiva immediately scrambling into the hallway, squabbling with each other in raised voices. The younger of the two was the loudest. “He must be coming to see me! I danced with him twice, I'm sure of it, and I talked the whole time!”

“Stop deluding yourself; clearly, our conversation was what he's remembering. I know how to give and take, to bestow an arrogant meatsack like the prince to feel self-important.” Malvagio seemed to be trying to maintain her apathetic air, but the trembling and smile forcing itself onto her lips belied her attempt at being casual. 

“Girls, it could be either of you.” Matringa set aside her hesitation after a moment, clapping her hands once and pulling all attention to her. “We only-”

“Couldn't be Bella, though, could it?” Cattiva cattily called, casting a condescending glance at her stepsister. “Not unless he's here to charge us for all the desserts she gobbled down in the handful of minutes she managed to make a pest of herself at the masquerade.”

“I heard about that from at least three different people.” Malvagio huffed and shook her head in annoyance. “Mother, please tell me she’s going to stay out of sight. We don't need to be embarrassed.”

Matringa nodded serenely, the burgeoning twitch of her lips blooming into a full-blown smile as she listened to her daughter's speak. “Never fear, Bella will be in her new room, preparing it for herself. I guarantee it will take days of hard work to make it livable… especially since my kitties seem so hungry today. There's not a mouse to be found, no matter where they look!”

Suddenly caught in the middle of a conversation she didn't want to be in, Bella simply hung her head to stare at the floor, folding her palms in front of herself in an attempt to become invisible. The sudden silence stretched thin, and Matringa finally snapped. 

“Go now! Time is flying by, we must all prepare ourselves immediately. Bella. You are to see to it that they are both beyond presentable… they must be exquisite! Once the prince arrives, you are to go directly to the attic and begin cleaning. Do not test me, not today. Girls! This could be the chance encounter we’ve been waiting for!”

- Prince Cinder -

“Julia was found this morning,” the captain of the royal guard quietly murmured into the prince's ear as they rode along at the head of a caravan stretching nearly half a mile. The wagons were full of foodstuffs, the covered carriages being mobile kitchens meant to feed whatever town they rolled into. “First confirmed case of the plague within the city.”

“I'm sure Mother is devastated.” Cinder shook his head as he replied, “I assume we are keeping that particular piece of news… rather quiet?”

The captain simply nodded his head solemnly, allowing the conversation to die. Cinder looked around, taking in the endless distractions such a well-stocked caravan could offer. Each portion of the caravan was bedecked in the colors of the crown: blue and gold. To his mind, they appeared as a winding sea serpent swarming with activity and noise. Hundreds of people were necessary for the planned event, and he’d brought all of them along.

“This time, when I find her, I'll have plenty of witnesses ready to verify my words.” Cinder’s leather glove creaked as he squeezed his hand into a fist, still intensely annoyed with how the masquerade had ended the night before. “All of this to find someone who we will, no doubt, throw to the guard if her ability has any combat application at all. Otherwise, we are just blowing wagon-fulls of gold coins to find someone Mother wants to hire.”

Leaning in, the captain raised an eyebrow and reignited the conversation. “Is that so, my Prince? I was under the impression that you were rather taken with our runaway princess-to-be. You know… based on the stories you told me? I heard that you even knew what color her eyes were. Now, if we were just looking for someone who was evading us, or the crown wanted to hire, I would agree that this is wasteful. Conversely, if we are looking for one of the future leaders of the kingdom… well that puts a different spin on things, doesn't it?”

The clattering of wheels and the steady clopping of hooves filled the air between them as Cinder’s face became more flushed, his jaw tight so he didn't open it and give the captain further ammunition to use against him. 

Desperate to turn the conversation, he allowed the news of the plague arriving in the capital to come to the forefront of his mind, and a frown overtook the hard clenching of his lips. “How could the plague enter the capital? I was assured we had checkpoints in place to ensure no one who was sick could enter. Not just people, animals, plants. So… how? A disease cannot simply ignore the system’s magic, can it?” 

“That's a good question, your highness.” The teasing tone the captain had been using moments before was nowhere to be found. “I'm sure you understand we have been frantically organizing to see if our ward structure has been tampered with. The best enchanters and artificers are already going over the designs, resetting them in some places to test their effectiveness. If it isn't a failed design… there's always the possibility that it was done by design.”

“You think someone is intentionally spreading plague into our kingdom?” Cinder’s voice was as low as he could keep it and still be heard. “I can't imagine any of the surrounding kingdoms doing something so egregious, especially when we have no quarrel with them currently.”

“People will do strange things when there is sickness about, my Prince.” The captain turned and shot him a wince. “Perhaps even fly into a rage that they’ve been sick, or lost someone, and see a kingdom, such as ours, which is as of yet untouched, only to blame us for their misfortune. Then… well, they figure out how the disease is spreading and make that happen here. But, we only got started this morning; we can't assume such terrible intentions until we rule out simple negligence or ineffectiveness.”

“Hmm. I hope adjusting the kingdom's wards didn't have any unintended consequences.” Cinder tossed that around for a few moments, before leaning toward the guard. “You will make sure to remain vigilant, yes? I know you have your doubts, but I want a thorough sweep of House Vigatori while they are distracted by the festival in their front yard. Bella told me there was great danger there, and I am inclined to believe her, for some reason.”

“Understood, my Prince.” After confirming with all seriousness, the captain cracked a grin. “I bet I know the reason. Mwah, mwah!”

Cinder shook his head and looked away, unable to meet the eyes of his trusted protector when he was making kissy faces at him. “Perhaps a year of patrolling the border on horseback with a very thin saddle will get you to calm down? Imagine that, the glorious war hero, Justin Williams, returned to the same place he made a name for himself originally?”

“No need for threats, Your Highness.” The captain’s grin shifted slightly, almost becoming a leer. “All they do is prove me right. Can't just banish all of your problems.”

The caravan continued to roll along, past fields and forests. When they had been moving through the city, people had cheered and waved, collecting into a huge audience that followed behind them until they were outside the walls. Everyone seemed so sure that when the prince came back, they would be meeting their future queen. As he thought back over the events of late last night, into early this morning, the intensity and passion with which Bella had spoken of her skills, even he began to see the appeal.

“Perhaps… they can’t be right, can they? There are worse choices than someone like her. At least she’s someone who understands the draw of pursuing Perfection.”