SARAH

            “You’re sure that you’re with child?” her mother asked to the woman sitting in front of them.  The three of them were alone, in the Spark’s royal solar: Princess Sarah Spark, her mother the Lady Alison, and the farmer’s widow.

            Marcus had found the poor woman last night, when he left the palace in secret to accomplish his task. Thankfully, the King of Mauville knew the names, or at least remembered the lives of, the men who had fought and died defending Mauville when the Brightflames invaded little over a month ago, else he never would have found the woman.

            “I’m sure, my lady,” spoke the widow. She had the drawl of the common folk. Sarah knew such accents got on her mother’s nerves, but not hers. The Princess of Mauville felt ashamed and guilty at what they were doing. “I missed the last moon two weeks ago, and I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather in the mornings. The time fits just right with when my husband and I last… when he was still…” the widow’s voice trailed off as she broke down in tears.

            “You’ll do,” said Sarah’s mother. As she placed a hand on the crying widow’s fingers. Sarah saw the Queen of Mauville grimace as she touched someone of such low birth. “It is a great honor to die in the service of your king. Marcus and I and the whole kingdom of Mauville thank him for his noble sacrifice. Now we must ask for a small one from you. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.”

            The woman looked up and glanced from Sarah’s mother’s face to her own. Sarah looked away and fiddled with the end of her braid as the guilt welled up inside of her. How can we be doing this thing?

            Her mother went on. “My daughter married King Chris Marsh before he left on his noble yet ill-fated quest. The timing was quick and secret to secure the alliance between our Kingdoms in this uncertain time,” Alison Spark lied. Sarah had to blink back tears when her mother mentioned Chris. “Yet the marriage was never consummated. This alliance has never been of more importance than it is right now.”

            Sarah noticed a sudden realization cross the farmer’s widow’s eyes. “You want my baby?”

            Sarah’s mother sniffled what she knew was a fake sniffle. “Mauville needs your baby. Our own Kingdom and Slateport are in dire situations at the moment. We have heard from Lavaridge that we could be attacked again at any moment, and Luna Love, the Queen of Slateport, is gone missing or worse.” She leaned closer to the woman. “Your baby ensures Slateport and Mauville stand together to defend justice against wicked conquerors, who would enslave us all.”

            The common folk knew only what they were told. Hardly any of them were educated, and those that were found themselves serving their Chiefs and Kings. This farmer’s wife was no different, Sarah noticed. Sarah saw the loyalty to her husband, and the blind faith in the Sparks as Kings and protectors of Mauville, but there was still a mother’s apprehension of giving up her child. Gods forgive me for what I must do for my people, she thought.

            “I would raise him as my own, as I would raise Chris’s trueborn child,” she spoke up. The widow looked again to her. “I promise you, my lady, the child will want for nothing. He will never have to work the fields and struggle with hunger through the winter. He will be a Prince, and then a King.” Sarah got up from her seat, and fell to her knees with her head in the widow’s lap. It’s a good match, she thought as she glanced at her belly. The timing of this pregnancy couldn’t be better. “Please,” Sarah’s voice had real tears and real sadness in it; tears of Chris, and of loss. “I shall keep you on as my lead hand maiden, you will see the child as often as you like. I’m begging you. Mauville is begging you.”

            “Oh my Princess, you are young yet wise and kindhearted,” sobbed the widow. “Yes, of course. I agree.” They hugged for what seemed like an eternity. Sarah almost didn’t notice her mother coldly walk out of the room.

            It was hours later, the agreement had already been done, and the farmer’s widow, Lisa, had been taken to Sarah’s room personally to begin her training as handmaiden… and to stay until the end of her pregnancy. Sarah’s Manectric was keeping her company and cheering her up.

The Princess, no, Queen of Mauville and Slateport was making her way back to her father’s solar to speak with him. Sarah thought back again to why they had to do this. It was already done and set in stone, yet why did she feel guilty. What if Brandon was lying? What if Starfall had secured peace by ridding Hoenn of the Brightflame dynasty in Mt. Chimney?

It wasn’t us, Brandon Brightflame’s words played in Sarah’s mind. It was Starfall. Sarah didn’t know what to believe anymore.  Chris had told her that the Brightflame Prince had killed his friend Ryan, yet now Chris was dead, and Miguel Starfall ruled Lavaridge and the Mt. Chimney Kingdom. Yet if Starfall had been the bringer of peace, why did he still hold Swampert captive? And keep Hector and the others? She would have to wait for Apollo Love’s judgment of Brightflame to be surer.

Marcus Spark and his stoic Manectric were waiting for her as ever.  

“Head of handmaidens?” her father asked as he looked up at her from a chair by the wooden fireplace. There was no animosity in his voice as he got right into the meat of the conversation. Sarah and her father were always close.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Sarah said.

“There’s no right thing to do when you’re doing the wrong thing,” Marcus responded. “Yet sometimes to protect the Kingdoms, we must do what is wrong to protect what is right. I like it no more than you, Sarah.” He took a drink as they stared at the fire in silence.

“Had Chris’s mother still been in Slateport, I wouldn’t have put you in this position, but these are uncertain times,” he said. He looked at her. “I’m glad you accepted Lisa into your service, which was a noble thing to do. Your mother came to me complaining of it. She would have the woman deliver the child and then disposed of. Had it not been for you, Sarah, born less than a year after our marriage, I would have ended my marriage to her. I can’t stand the woman. She’s cold, and I constantly am having to talk her out of firing have of our servants, or taking their fingers for sewing her dresses wrong. Alas, I grew older and I might have ended it again, but keeping Verdanturf where she comes from loyal is more important than my tolerance for nagging. So here I am, saving fingers and re-hiring the only talented dress-maker in a hundred miles.”

Sarah was silent at that, yet somehow, she didn’t care. Her mother had never been anything more than a name to her. Alison Flowers knew her marriage was political. There was no love in it. But my betrothal to Chris was political in intention as well, and I grew to love him, and he loved me. From the time Sarah was young, her mother was always trying to fit her into tight skirts and learn curtsies… until her father showed her how to shoot a bow. 

“I find no more joy in her than you do, father,” she said, truthfully, not a tear in her eye.

“I love you, Sarah,” Marcus Spark said. “And it’s because I love you I must do this thing. For nine months, or as long as Lisa is carrying, you must not leave your room. It’s one thing to fake a pregnancy in the early months, but when your belly grows people will begin to wonder. You must stay in your room with Lisa. That means no archery.”

Sarah felt her heart skip a beat. Her bow and arrows seemed to be the only things that kept her constant sadness of Chris at bay, but she swallowed the order all the same. It’s necessary for me and for my people. She nodded in agreement.

“I’ve had word from Apollo Love,” Marcus said. “He met up with the ship carrying the Brightflame Prince and Chris’s friend. He told the captain that there are Sootopolis ships encroaching the borders of Slateport’s water. He took Brightflame and the other boy and was off.”

“Off to where?” Sarah asked. Why was her father so apprehensive?

“Off to find Luna Love, his sister,” Marcus replied as he took another swig of whatever alcohol was in his cup. “He believes her still alive in Sootopolis, being held captive. He’s of a mind that Ahab, the Empress Glamour’s half-brother was her kidnapper. Apollo is a rash man, always looking for a fight. Kind of like myself.” He gulped the last of the drink down. “If he goes and gets himself killed, Slateport will be leader-less. The Marsh dynasty hangs only from the family of the Loves, who Chris’s father married. Without them… only your child holds them together.”

“What are you saying then?” she asked.

“I’m going to Slateport, to reveal your marriage to Chris Marsh, and to bring news of your pregnancy to them, and to lead in this uncertain time until Apollo gets back.” He belched and reached for his cup, and realized his wine was gone. “Or doesn’t.”

 It was terrible news: Sootopolis, the enemy that Slateport fought five years ago seemed to be rearing its head at the same time that Starfall loomed suspiciously to the north of Mauville. Sarah finally realized that Lisa the farmer’s widow’s baby was the best chance for stability and peace in her Kingdom and all of Hoenn. No, Sarah thought as a guilty tear tried to emerge from her eye once more. My baby.