The Head Chef Luca immediately rushed over and bowed to me. Straightening up with a little difficulty because of the chubbiness of his belly, he concernedly said, “Was there something wrong with your dinner, do you want something else?”

“Oh, no! I loved the dinner. It was delicious! I just came to visit and this way my guards do not have to wait until I am asleep to eat their dinner.” Luca, though still looking a bit confused, stepped aside and bowed me into his kitchen. Walking in through the doors and past Head Chef Luca, I sat down and motioned for them to sit down next to me. After all of them rolled their eyes at me in unison, they sat down and we waited while the cooks prepared plates for them. Moments later I stood up and walked back over to where Head Chef Luca was. “Head Chef Luca, I was wondering if you could help me with something. Only if you have the time though.” I rushed to add that last part so he did not feel obligated to help me.

Eyes wide with shock, he bowed and said, “Of course I have time to help you Princess Ariana. The meals for everyone have already been made and everyone has been served other than the bodyguards of the other royal family members.”

I beamed. “That is great! I was hoping that you could teach me how to cook.”

Even though I had not believed that it was possible, his eyes got even wider and his bow went even lower. “Of course I will teach you how to cook. What would you like to learn first?”

“Before I answer that question, I want you to stop bowing to me. Since my guards don’t even bow to me anymore, you do not have to. Especially since you are going to be teaching me. That would make you my master, so maybe I should curtsey to you.” As Head Chef Luca straightened, I started to go down in a curtsey. Before I could get very far though, Luca grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back up to a standing position.

“Please do not curtsey to me Princess Ariana. It would not be proper even if you are going to be my student. Also please just call me Luca.” I nodded.

“I will accept those conditions as long as you accept my condition of calling me Ari. None of that ‘Princess Ariana’ stuff.” A small smile tugged at the corner of Luca’s lips.

“We are in agreement than Ari.” He turned and walked over to the pantry and gestured for me to follow him. Opening the big doors, we stepped into a huge pantry that was about the size of a normal sized room. Smiling at the stunned expression on my face, he asked “Why are you surprised? If we are supposed to feed everyone in this castle, then we need enough ingredients for it. Plus you guys always want different things so we have tons of different spices, breads, sauces, and more.” I nodded in acknowledgement and gestured for him to continue. “Now, you still have not answered my question about what you want to learn to cook first.”

“Right. Well I was thinking about it and I realized that there was only one correct answer to your question. What would you suggest for someone who has never cooked before Luca?”

Noting the glint in his eye, I knew that I had said the right thing. “That is a great answer. I think that we should start with a simple soup to see what you know. It might be nothing, but this will start you learning about multiple aspects of cooking.” Following him out of the pantry after grabbing quite a few spices, vegetables, a couple of different meats, and some starches, we headed back to an empty part of the kitchen that was still in sight of my guards. They all seemed excited and amused to see me cooking for the first time.

“Your mother might not be very happy with you if she finds out about this you know.” Glancing over at Alex, I stuck my tongue out at him.

Attempting to sound commanding I replied, “Well then I guess that she better not find out.” Luca looked nervous for about two seconds before my guards hurriedly reassured him that none of them would tell the Queen about what we were about to do. All the other chefs and helpers in the kitchen also swore never to tell the Queen what was going on. They would not tell the rest of the royal family either. My dad and brothers would probably be okay with it, but I did not know for sure. Also the more people who knew about it, the harder it would be to keep from my mother. More people who might slip up at the wrong time. Starting to make the soup now, Luca started by showing me how to properly cut the vegetables, the meats, and the starches. It fascinated me to learn that you had to cut everything differently. There was not one technique that worked for all of them. While cutting the onions, I was stunned to find out that they made you cry. However I determinedly pushed forward. I wanted to experience everything that my palace’s staff experienced. The good and the bad. That way I could fully appreciate everything they did for me, and I could help them with something whenever they needed the help.

Now that I had a presence I knew that tons more royal families would come to visit, and that meant lots more feasts, and parties. I wanted to be there to help the staff so they did not get overwhelmed. After cutting the onions though, I had to wait a bit before continuing with the soup.Thankfully, no one laughed at me, reproached me, or tried to help me. They seemed to realize that I was doing my best, and knew that I wanted to learn to do things on my own. Two hours later the soup was ready to eat. Serving myself a bowl, I sat down to eat it. Even though I had probably had better soups made by experts, this soup tasted like the best soup I had ever had. That was probably just because I had made it with my own hands. Inviting my guards and all of the kitchen staff to try it, I beamed so hard when they all praised me because of it. I figured they were all exaggerating, but it felt good all the same. Looking out the window at the sky, I realized that it was way past my bedtime and I needed to leave before someone found me out. Waving goodbye cheerfully to everyone, after making sure that I was okay to come back tomorrow to have another lesson, I skipped all the way up to my room.

Walking into my room I quickly washed up, changed, and got into bed. Waking up the next morning bright and early, I got into comfortable clothes and sneakily ran out of the castle with my guards hot on my heels. All the servants turned the other way as I passed them. This way they could say that they had not seen where I had gone if my family asked about me. As this routine had been going on for several years now, we were all well versed on what to do. Outside now, I stretched and then started my run. Every morning at around 4 in the morning, I would wake up and go running. My normal running route is 4 miles, but today I wanted more of a challenge so I went off my course and took the uphill path that was a 6 mile round trip. I heard one of my guards sigh. Probably either Alex or Tyler. In all the time I have known them, I have never seen them do more of a workout than they had to. It puzzled me how they were in such good shape.

I was not quite sure what their story was even though I had grown up with them guarding my father and being his friends. One day I would get the story of how they had become guards for my father and how they had first met each other. By the end of my run I was panting and had to rest for a couple of seconds before I began my second round of workouts. Dropping to the ground I started pumping out my push-ups. My guards had surrounded me and were doing all my exercises with me. This was around the only time that they got to workout unless there was an emergency and then either they would fight or run with me out of the palace. Or maybe both. Something like that had not happened since I was three years old. Mercenaries had broken into the castle and had tried to kidnap my brothers and me. Thankfully, our guards were smart and had taken us and left the castle grounds immediately. Tristan, Carter, and I had already been outside playing when we had been attacked so we hid in the woods until it was safe to come out. My parents had been taken to the cellars because that was the closest safe place for them to go too.

The kingdom that had hired the mercenaries, one of the ones in the north, had been found out and all the rest of the kingdoms attacked them until they surrendered and gave up their right to their thrones. We then banished them across the waters to the kingdoms in the east. We did this because the kingdoms in the east were barbaric. They did old rituals and were very separated from every other kingdom with barely any power. My kingdom was part of many in the south, and there were many powerful kingdoms in the north, and the west. Some of the royals that had come to see me today had been from across the waters from those other lands. Huge oceans separated each four lands, but we still crossed them to visit our allies, and sometimes to negotiate with our enemies. Finishing up my exercises, I started back up to my room so that I could shower and change into my day clothes. Even my guards were sweaty and needed to shower. Running quickly we managed to get back into my room before any of my family showed up. Staggering to my closet and then to the bathroom, I showered as fast as possible and then dressed. I got out of the bathroom around 5-7 minutes after I got in.

After my guards all showered and dressed, we walked down to go get breakfast around 6 a.m. Getting there before the rest of my family, I walked into the kitchen to see the staff. “Hi Luca, hello the rest of the staff.” They all waved and smiled at me in unison.

“Are you here to help us make breakfast?” Luca asked. My face lit up.

“Can I?” My tone was so excited and eager that all of the staff and my guards laughed at me. Luca’s only response was to gesture me to his spot, give me an apron, and hand me a knife. Grinning wildly, I started to work on the sausages. I cut them into the appropriate shapes and then put them onto a pan and waited for them to cook. A couple minutes later, I pulled them out and arranged them on a plate. One of the servants from outside came in and warned me that my mother was coming. Scrambling to clean myself up, I rushed out of the kitchen. My mother came in only moments later with the rest of my family in her wake. From the way that my brothers looked, I guessed that my mother had just gone up and woke them. They were yawning, had tousled hair, and wrinkled clothes. Smothering a grin, I waited until my father sat in his chair before taking my assigned seat at the round table next to my father, and Carter.

The food followed seconds later. I was very proud to see that the sausages I had made were one of the first dishes to come out. The waiter that put it down winked at me before going back into the kitchen. As all of my guards had seen the waiter wink at me, they each had a small smile on their faces. They knew how much it meant to me to know that I had some freedom and helped out around the castle. I had wanted to help with the chores around here since I could walk, however, my mother had always stopped me. Now that I was 16, I knew how to hide things from my mother enough that I could now get away with things that I couldn’t before. The only thing that I had hidden from her before now was my morning workouts, and the sword fighting. She now knows about the sword fighting, though I did intend to start doing that again soon, but she had never found out about the workouts. That is probably because she doesn’t wake up until 5:30 each morning. I give the credit to my sneaking skills though.

Breakfast now over, we all stood up and left the table heading to either our rooms, or to various things we needed to do around the castle. My brothers were both grumbling so I guessed that it was time for their strategic lessons. They hate classes where they have to think a lot. These lessons taught them how to assemble an army, command that army, and learn how to successfully run a kingdom. Carter was only in that class because there was always a chance that he could marry to a throne or that Tristan would die before having any heirs. Sighing, I decided to go see if there was any staff that needed helping around the palace. When my dad joined me as I left the kitchen I knew that he needed to talk to me and, seeing as my mom was walking the other way, I knew that he did not want to talk about it in front of anyone else in our family. Slowing my walk so that we could talk comfortably as we walked, I decided to start it off. “You wanted to discuss something with me?”

Laughing he said, “You were always really good at reading me.”

I rolled my eyes. “It is not hard to guess at what you want or what you are thinking. Your face is like an open book. If mom was paying any attention then she would have gotten suspicious and probably be with us right now.”

Looking resigned about that fact, he replied, “Probably.” He shook his head. “Anyways, that is not what I wanted to talk about with you. Now that you have a presence, I want you to start training. Both with your presence and just getting stronger overall. The stronger you are, the more you will be able to control your presence.” My eyes lit up in excitement. I had been waiting for this moment my whole life. My dad laughed. “However, there are some conditions. You can only do it when the trainer, Cayden, comes and gets you from your room or when I come and get you. Also, you can not tell anyone else about this, and you have to subject yourself to whatever your mother thinks will help you master your presence. For your sake, I hope that it is a fighting presence. That way she will have to let you train with the palace trainer.” A smile lit up his face. “Well at least train with him out in the open.”

After hugging my dad, and promising to obey all of his conditions, I ran up to my room to wait for the trainer to come and get me. Normally, at least according to my dad, he would come get me at night, but today was the first day and the trainer was open all day today. My dad wanted me to get stronger as fast as possible so that I could start figuring out what my presence was and how to use it, so we would train longer until that happened. I changed into my exercising clothes in record time. The waiting afterwards was agony. By the end I was pacing the room with impatience. When the knock came, I was over at the door in a flash. Opening it, I almost knocked Cayden over with my hug. As he laughed at my eagerness, the scar on his left cheek rippled. “I can tell that you are happy to train with me. We will see how long that lasts.”

Pulling away I replied, “Well I have wanted to train with you for ages. No matter what you throw at me, I will try my best and always be excited to train with you.”

His smile turned very threatening. “We shall see about that. For the first part of your training you will run down to the training room. To make it more of a challenge though, you will be carrying these.” From behind his back, he pulled out two 20 pound weights. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the weights from him, and put them up on my shoulders. I then started running. At first I started out fast, but I quickly started slowing down. Soon I was jogging, but I was determined to keep this pace the whole way there, even though it was on the other side of the palace. Arms burning I staggered into the training room 15 minutes later, and 10 staircases later. What I saw inside made me gape. Cayden had somehow beat me there!

Gasping for breath, it took a moment for me to say “How did you beat me here?! You started way after me, and you did not pass me on the way here!” I tried to sound outraged, but my breathlessness just made me sound tired.

Cayden laughed. “When you beat me, then I will tell you the answer to that question.” I glared at him, but he just laughed again. All of a sudden his face got all serious. “Okay, training starts now. I want you to take this seriously and work as hard as you can.” I nodded, already composing my face and preparing myself for what was about to happen. “You can put those weights down over there.” I quickly put them down and looked back at him. “Now you are going to drop and give me 20 push-ups.” Exhaling, I dropped down to the ground and tried to get my arms to cooperate with me. After 10 push-ups my arms gave out and dropped me face down on the ground. Shaking my arms out and stretching a bit, I got back into position. No matter how long it took or how tired I was, I was going to finish. Two minutes later, I was done and rose on shaky legs to face Cayden again. “Good job. In a week’s time, I want you to be able to do that in one go.”

Even though I thought that was impossible, I nodded again. My workout continued for the next 2 hours. By the end I literally could not even stand up anymore. Cayden crouched down in front of me. “That went a lot better than I thought it would. Honesty, you are in much better shape than I thought you would be.”

“Thanks.” My breath came out in gasps.

He turned now to my guards. “You might have to carry her back to her room. You will want to take care that none of the royal family sees her. It would be best if no one sees her, but that is probably not possible.” Looking at each other, my guards smiled.

“We can get her into her room without anyone seeing us.”

Cayden, even though he looked suspicious, nodded. “Good, then I guess I will see you all tomorrow.” Waving goodbye to him, Tyler picked me up into his arms and we started off towards my room.

“You know, this is unnecessary. I can totally walk back to my room. It is not that far.” Other than laughing at me, my guards all ignored me. I would have continued my argument, but I had to breathe for a little bit to get my breath back first. At that point, my argument would have been moot anyways. Outside now, we got to the grounds right below my room, but I had no idea how we were going to get in from here. Even with the castle guards around us pretending not to see us, these walls were made specifically so that no one could climb them. Looking around though, I realized that Liam was missing. A moment later I figured out where he was. A rope fell down from my window, and we were gestured up. They tied my waist to it and made sure that I was secure. They then tugged on the rope signaling him to pull me up. For one guy, he certainly pulled me up fast. In less than a minute, I was being untied and pulled inside. My guards followed soon after.

Liam grabbed me in his arms and lifted me onto my bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. A couple of hours later, I woke up in pain and super sore. I barely resisted groaning when I woke up around 2 p.m. Seeing the time, I sighed. My mom and brothers were probably extremely curious about why I was not at lunch. That meant that I had to show up to dinner. Then they would not be suspicious and would just assume that I had decided to eat in my room or that something had come up and I had not been able to make it down. Casey and Alex were still standing around me. Swinging my legs off the bed, I tried to stand up, but my legs did not want to hold me and they gave out on me. Collapsing to the floor with a thud, Casey and Alex turned towards me in unison with their hands on their various weapons. Tyler and Liam burst through the door with their hands on their weapons as well. Seeing me on the ground smiling sheepishly at them, Casey and Alex turned back to keep scanning the room, and Tyler and Liam went back outside of my room. Meanwhile, I gathered my arms underneath of me and tried to lift myself off the ground.

It was a struggle, but eventually I managed to get back onto my feet and stagger clumsily to the bathroom. On the way I grabbed a random dress from my closet. Right as I was reaching the door though, my two maids came into the room. I waved at them and continued walking into the bathroom, but they followed me in. Seeing my confusion they both put their hands on their hips. “There is no way that you will be able to bathe and then put that dress on in your weakened state.” Hazel's green eyes turned to look closer at the dress in my hands. “Also that is barely even fancy enough for a jaunt in the woods. There is no way that you will get away with wearing that to dinner. Especially with the foreign prince from the west coming to dinner tonight.”

My jaw dropped. “What is a foreign prince from the west still doing here?”

Sophia answered this time with a smile on her full pink lips. “He never left. Apparently he has been staying in a cabin near the castle since the party yesterday because he is friends with your brothers and he is an ally. Our kingdoms have some sort of treaty and his kingdom wants to further solidify that treaty and their alliance by having you marry this prince.”

My jaw dropped down even farther. “Please tell me that my parents are not even considering his offer.”

They both avoided my gaze. As I started to protest though, Sophia broke in. “They consider every offer that comes to them. However, I do not think that they are considering this one more than they considered those. Plus, if you do not like the prince then you will not marry him. Your opinion matters here unlike in other kingdoms.” That was true. Quickly bathing and getting changed into a dress that they picked, I left the bathroom and went into my main room to get my hair done, get my make-up on, pick out jewelry, and get my shoes on. Three hours later I was ready. Hazel and Sophia had taken up even more time getting me ready for this dinner than they had for the party. When asked about it they just replied that they liked this prince and at the party they knew that I would probably just sweat off all my make-up, and my hair would have drooped in the humid ballroom.

Walking towards the dining hall, I noticed that I was half an hour early for dinner. Hoping that no one else would bet there yet, I strode in. Smiling when I realized that I was the first one there, I quickly walked into the kitchen and started helping the kitchen staff make dinner. 15 minutes later, the kitchen door opened and someone walked in. I didn't even look up because I was too busy making the salad for dinner. When someone came and stood right in front of me though, I finally glanced up. I was stunned by what I saw. The foreign prince that sat and ate with me during my birthday and presence getting party was standing right in front of me. Thinking quickly, I realized that this must be the foreign prince from the western kingdom. The man that was trying to court me. Looking around me, I realized how bad this looked for me. If this got out my parents would kill me and other kingdoms would become either mad, or disappointed with me.

As if he could read my thoughts, the prince hurriedly said, “Do not worry. I will not tell anyone that I found you here. I am assuming that your family does not know about this?” I shook my head. “Well in order for you to trust me, I will tell you a secret. I do the same thing. In fact I am one of the best chefs in my kingdom. It is hard for me to see my servants and staff working and not do anything to help them.”

Starting to relax now, I laughed. “I am nowhere as good as you then. You see, I just started cooking yesterday after my party. I wanted to start cooking and helping out around the palace before then, but I was too nervous. After my party though, I figured that I was old enough to keep a secret and besides, my servants and staff know me pretty well now and are okay with me helping.” All of the kitchen staff, my guards, and the waiters nodded. I turned to the prince’s guards. “Is all of what he said true though?” They nodded.

The tallest one of his three guards spoke up. “Yes. He helps around our castle every chance he can. Plus, he loves learning new things.” My body finally fully relaxed. Turning back to the prince I decided to go back to the basics. “I know that we met at my party yesterday, but I still do not know your name or what kingdom you are from. Obviously I am Princess Ariana Esma from the southern kingdom of Kuli.”

The foreign prince spoke up quickly. “Oh goodness. Please do not tell my parents that I waited until now to introduce myself. They will be so mad at me for forgetting my manners.” He bowed to me. “I am Crown Prince Darius Hashim of the eastern kingdom of Thacaea.” My eyes widened when I heard his name. Even as far from his kingdom as I was, I had still heard of him. Darius sighed when he saw my expression. “I am assuming from your expression that you have heard of me before.”

Nodding excitedly I responded, “Of course I have heard of you! My dad talks about you all the time. You are the Crown Prince that defeated 126 soldiers of an enemy army when they attacked Thacaea!” Darius blinked in surprise. My shoulders slumped. “You thought that I was going to talk about the other things you are known for weren’t you? Like the devilishly good looks, the smile that sends girls into comas, the sense of humor that could get an agelast to laugh, or the man who had broken over 24 hearts in the past month.” His lips quirked in a small smile. Sighing, I said, “Everyone thinks that I am just like every other girl who only cares about their looks, who they will marry, and gossiping. I do not care at all for those things. However, I will not tell you what I like to do or talk about because I have a feeling that you would not approve like so many others.”

Tilting his head to the side he asked, “And what makes you think I am like so many others?” A smile appeared on his face. “Nonetheless, I have a feeling that I already know what you like.”

“Really? What do you think that I like?” The challenge was obvious in my words.

Prince Darius gladly accepted that challenge. “I think that you like helping others, fighting, and learning how to be independent and not having to rely on anyone else but yourself. However, you are not averse to having friends or advisors. Furthermore, I think that you love learning new things and taking on new challenges.” The more he talked, the more my jaw dropped. Prince Darius smirked. “I am just going to assume that I am right on all accounts.”

I closed my mouth and glared at him. “Well, aren't you just a cocky person. Yes you may be right, but I implied some of those things already and the others weren’t that hard to guess. They went along with the rest of my personality.”

“That is true, but I bet that no one has said any of those things to you before now.”

Right as I was about to reply, I heard my mother’s voice. “Where is that girl! First she missed lunch and now she dares to be late to dinner? I am so glad that the prince has not shown up yet. That would be so humiliating.” Wincing, I wondered what I would say to my mother to explain both why I missed lunch and why I would be coming out of the kitchen with Prince Darius. Although, coming out with Prince Darius might save me from all the questioning at least until I had an answer for her. Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself to go out to see my parents. The sooner I got out there, the faster I could deal with the repercussions and leave. Starting to walk out of the kitchen, I was amazed when Prince Darius grabbed my hand and began to walk out with me. In response to the confused look I sent his way, he just smiled and gripped my hand a little tighter. I decided to go with it and inquire with him about it later.

My mom almost started hyperventilating when she saw us walk out of the kitchen together. “Crown Prince Darius! May I ask what you two were doing in there?”

Tensing my muscles, I waited for him to respond to my mom. What came out of his mouth was not what I was expecting though. Instead Prince Darius said, “I had arrived early and wanted to help out in the kitchen. You see, I love cooking. While I was busy doing that, after a servant told Princess Ariana that I was in there, she came in looking for me. We started talking, and before we knew it we were late for dinner and we could hear you in here looking for us.”

Acting as if she knew that would be the answer the whole time, my mother nodded regally, and gestured for everyone to sit down after my father had sat down. Kings are always the first to sit down in any event. If there is more than one King present, then they sit down at the same time. I sat next to Prince Darius, and my father. Carter sat on the other side of Prince Darius, and by my mother. Tristan was in between my parents. Sharing a secret wink with another waiter when they brought out the salad I made, I made a mental note to learn the names of all the staff and servants in my palace. If I wanted to help out and become friends with them, then I would need to know their names. Hearing a small laugh coming from Prince Darius, I looked over curiously. Tristan was talking with him and had apparently just told a joke because my parents had a smile on their faces and Carter was laughing as well. Not wanting to stand out, I smiled as well.

The rest of the night I made sure to pay attention to all of the conversations going on around me and participate in at least a couple of them. Enough that my parents were satisfied, but not too many that I could not listen to everyone else. During dinner I figured out a couple of things about Darius. He had an older sister who had received a presence, he was 17 years old, and he was quite charming. Darius won over my parents almost instantly. After dinner had concluded and dessert had been brought out, the topic of the conversation turned to more serious matters. The treaty and alliance between our two kingdoms of Kuli and Thacaea. As expected, my mother was the first to bring it up. “You stayed after Princess Ariana’s birthday and presence getting party to discuss our alliance with your kingdom, correct?” Prince Darius nodded.

“Yes. My parents needed to get back to Thacaea, but they left me here to discuss a more permanent alliance between our two kingdoms. Marriage between Princess Ariana Esma and myself.”

My dad now spoke up. “Why were you the one they sent? Normally they send an ambassador or someone less important to their kingdom than their Crown Prince.”

“My parents wanted to show you that they trust you completely and feel safe leaving me here alone.”

Tristan smiled. “You mean as alone as a royal ever is with their guards.”

Prince Darius laughed. “Yes, that is what I mean exactly.”

Not surprisingly, my mother put the conversation back on track quickly. “We have had multiple offers for our daughter’s hand. Most from allies of ours looking for a more permanent alliance. What makes your offer any different? If you are offering money, land, or prestige, then know that they have already been offered by many other would be suitors. As of yet, Princess Ariana is available for marriage, but that could change in a heartbeat.”

“That is why I am offering now. And no, I had no intention of offering you any of those things. You see, my parents wanted me to offer you something else. Protection. Many kingdoms may be coming here to try to take your daughter away from you as you know.” He changed his statement when he saw the shock on our faces. “Or maybe you did not know. Princess Ariana’s eyes are incredibly dark. Darker than anyone has seen in a long time. Because of that, many kingdoms may forsake pleasantries of trying to marry her and just try to kidnap her. Even if that meant risking your kingdom’s wrath.” We now all understood what he was saying. This was the reason why my dad was training me and why I had been given the two best guards in the kingdom as my personal guards.

“You think that you can offer more protection in your kingdom than we can in ours?” It was a fair question, but my mother still elbowed my dad. He restated his question. “I meant to say what protections does your kingdom have that are so great?” My mom directed a sigh in his direction. She still felt like he was being too impertinent. This time though my dad decided to leave his question as it was.

Prince Darius’s voice changed to a more professional tone. “We have over 3,200 guards, two walls, vigilant archers all over the walls and in the turrets, a moat with stakes in it, a drawbridge that we can raise and lower at any time, and many other defenses that we can use in times of an attack.” As the strategist of the castle, we all looked to the King.

“That is more than we have. You already know that we only have one wall, not as many guards, and no moat. However, I am still not so sure that anyone would dare attack us. They might attack my daughter’s new castle that she moves to once she is married, but I am sure that they will improve their defenses before they get married.”

“They might, but who knows for sure? With us you could be positive that she is as safe as she could be. Our kingdom is the most secure kingdom in all of the four lands. At least for right now. If need be, we can also improve upon it and make even more layers of defenses.”

My dad waved that suggestion away. “No, I do not think that there is really any way to improve your defenses if they are really as good as you say. I am just not sure if we are ready to give our daughter away in marriage to anyone just yet. She is still so young. Most girls do not get married until they turn 17 or 18 years old. Your offer is the most tempting one we have gotten though. We will certainly consider it. In the meantime we hope that you will stay another day or two before heading back to Thacaea.”

Prince Darius shook his head. “I would love to stay, but I was told to return home as soon as I got your answer. I will be leaving in the morning, nevertheless, I will come to every dance and social event that your kingdom has so that I can continue to get to know you all better.”

The discussion now over, we all stood up and went to our respective rooms. When the morning came, we all went to the entrance hall to say goodbye to Prince Darius. My guards and I had just finished showering after our workout that morning since it was only 5:30 in the morning when Prince Darius decided to leave. Once he was gone, my parents grabbed my arms and pulled me into my mom’s office. It was a pretty tight fit with us and all of our guards in there, so we made them stay outside the office except for one guard per person. The guard that stayed in the office for me was Tyler. Looking directly into my eyes, making sure I knew that this was a serious question, my mom asked, “What did you think of Crown Prince Darius? We knew the answer to every would be suitor as they asked us for your hand, but we are not so sure on this one. Especially since you went out of your way to talk to him before dinner yesterday night.”

“That is a very good question, mother. I am not quite sure of the answer myself.” Gasps came from everyone in the room including the guards. Well, all except Tyler. My guards had assumed that I would like him at least as a friend after our talk yesterday. “He understands me better than anyone has even tried to before. When he talks to me, he does not just talk to Princess me, he also talks to normal, Ari, me. Plus, we have a lot in common. I can definitely see us at least becoming friends.”

After sputtering a bit, my dad finally managed to speak to me. However when he spoke to me, he used his King voice. “You are way too young to marry anyone! I am so glad we sent him back to Thacaea! When I see him at social events or dances, I am going to make sure that he stays far away from you. If I do not allow you two to get to know each other then you will not want to marry him!”

“Seriously dad. You would rather I marry someone who I do not know, and do not like? The only reason that he offered to marry me is because you two announced that I am old enough to be married, and yet you are now saying that I am too young to be married?”

“We had said that you were technically of marriageable age, but that we wanted you to wait a little while longer before you actually married anyone! I can not believe that you actually found someone that you like! We never should have had that party and let you go around without supervision!”

“Would you count my brothers and the kitchen staff as supervisors?”

Speaking up again, my mother said, “We would count them as supervisors. Are you suggesting that either your brothers or the kitchen staff go with you when you talk to him?”

“They can, but that was not what I was getting to. When I first met him at the party, my brothers were with me. When I talked to him yesterday night, the kitchen staff were all there listening and watching us. If that is not enough for you, then I will remind you that both of our guards were with us when we talked in the kitchen as well. It was pretty crowded in there. At parties, my guards and brothers can be near us at all times when we talk. However my brothers might get pretty mad at you for making them stay near us the entire time, and my guards might get bored.”

My dad looked ready to explode. “We are done talking about this. If you want to talk to that boy then either your mother or I have to be there with you both at all times when you are together.”

After turning to my mom for support, she looked at my father and said, “Leave her alone. If your parents had said all of this to you, or my parents had supervised us at every moment then we would probably not be married right now. Even if we had still gotten married, we would not have had the connection or special moments that we shared during that time.” Before my dad could figure out an answer to that, my mom spoke to me. “When he comes over you two can hang out as much as you like and you do not have to have a supervisor with you. If you go away from the castle or away from all the people, however, then you have to take both of Darius’s and your sets of guards with you.”

“That is fair. I accept those terms.” I then walked out before my father could start arguing or yelling again. Returning to the rest of my guards, we walked back to my room. Along the way, Tyler filled in everyone with every word that had been said. I should have made someone else stay. I had known before this that Tyler had a photographic memory, but I had not thought about it in time. Reaching my room, I changed into my exercise clothes. Even though I had already worked out today, I now had tons of emotions that I needed to get out. Opening the door to leave, I crashed into someone outside of it. Alex and Casey drew their weapons when they saw me fall. They soon put them away when they saw who it was though.

Cayden reached a hand down to help me up. “Where were you going so quickly?”

Grabbing his hand, I replied, “I just had a meeting with my parents and had some emotions that I needed to work out. If I had known that you were coming right now, then I would have waited for you. I had forgotten though.”

Pulling me to my feet, Cayden nodded. “I heard your parents yelling when I was coming over here. Was that because of you?” I nodded. “Well then maybe we should start our workout now.” Handing me the 20 pound weights, I started down to the training room slower than I had yesterday. Today I was smarter. I knew that I could not run very fast with these weights and I wanted to get stronger, so I went at a medium jog and made sure to stay at that pace the entire time. 10 minutes later I reached the training room out of breath. Cayden had beaten me again. I didn't even ask him how he had beaten me this time. It would just be a waste of precious breath that I would need later in this training session. Placing the weights in their correct places, I dropped to the floor to start my push-ups. 12 push-ups in I had to take a break and catch my breath for a couple of moments. The last 8 push-ups were torture, but I did them faster than yesterday. Cayden’s eyes showed his approval and I felt all my negative emotions start to leave me.

Today’s workout was the same exercises as yesterday, but I managed to do them a bit faster and easier. Near the end, he added more exercises so that I still worked out for 2 hours straight. Wanting to push myself even farther than yesterday, I stayed standing at the end instead of collapsing to the ground. I was determined to walk back to my room today. Wobbling on shaky legs, I managed to get about halfway back to my room before I collapsed from sheer exhaustion. The guard behind me, Casey, grabbed me before I could hit the tiles. Lifting me into his arms, we continued on our way. Taking the same route we did yesterday, we got back into my room unseen by my family and most of the servants and staff. All the ones that saw us quickly turned the other way so that they could say that they did not see where we went. This time Alex went into my room first to throw the rope down and pull me up. On my bed now, I slept in a tired, dreamless sleep. Three hours later a knock on the door woke me up.

Yawing, I went over to the door and opened it with guards on both sides of me. The servant outside bowed to me. “I am sorry to bother you Princess Ariana, but your mother requested you in the library.”

Shaking myself awake I thanked the servant and closed the door. Summoning my maids, they helped me shower and change into a day dress. Since we did not know exactly why my mother was requesting my presence, we did a middle dress. It was fancy enough for a party, but simple enough for a stroll around the gardens. 5 minutes later I arrived at the library and knocked. Waiting patiently for my mother to grant me permission to enter, I gazed around the hall and talked to a couple of servants that went by. I now knew the names of six more of my staff and servants. Finally getting the permission I needed to enter, I strode in through the doors to our library. This was a place that I was rarely allowed to visit. When I wanted a book I had to send a servant to get one for me. I never got to choose what book I wanted, I just got to pick a genre. It was pretty annoying sometimes, but my mother hated people rereading books and that is why she put this system into place. Whenever I was summoned to the library it was always to discuss matters that were important to my mom.