Whatever she thought was happening or wherever she thought the conversation was going, she finds herself completely surprised by what her father says—asks—next. The surprise registers on her gentle features, her sage green eyes widening just slightly beneath the thicket of her forelock. Her? Lead? She had never once considered it something she was well-suited for. Never once considered that she would ever be fit for the type of leadership both of her parents at varying times have managed to find themselves in.
It feels ill-fitting. Uncomfortable.
For perhaps the first time in her life, she finds herself wishing to fidget.
Still, she remains still, calm even in the face of this. Her head tilts to the side and she bites her bottom lip, leaning against her brother and taking several steadying breaths.
But the truth is that there is never a question or a debate for the girl.
Her father has asked and she has never had anything within her capable of saying no. She has never had anything in her that would make her willing to turn him away.
So despite her misgivings and her fears (what would the people of Ischia do in the face of a leader thrust upon them?), she just nods. She reaches up and presses a chaste kiss to his cheek. “Okay,” she breathes. Still unable to wrap her mind around it but knowing that this was the path that was now laid in front of her. She would have to walk it to the best of her abilities.
“If that’s what you think is best then, of course.”
She has no thirst for the western crown and her heart doesn’t thump at the prospect, but she knows these kingdoms are dear to her parents so they will be dear to her.
Tentatively, she steps forward, her shoulder still pressed to her brother’s side.
“Home, then.”
as the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet