I was so nervous for Dy to come over. I had prepared everything down to the tiniest detail. It was an intimate and light dinner, consisting of bread, dried lamb's meat as a topping, some dried whale meat and blubber, and then an array of cookies and cakes for dessert. All washed down with tea. I was hoping it wasn't too... Bland. But this was the best I could do with such short notice.

A knock drew me out of fidgeting with the napkins, and I almost ran to the door. I opened it and looked up to meet the dark eyes of Dy. She smiled a little crookedly.

"Been waiting long?"

"No, no. Not at all," I said a little frantically and stepped out of her way. She looked around before her eyes settled on the table.

"We're getting bread? I love Andaheim bread. And the toppings. Dried meat is the best," she said with a wide smile.

"I was afraid you would be underwhelmed," I admitted and motioned her to sit down.

She dumped down in the chair opposite of mine and removed her green jacket. She rolled up her sleeves, showing off all of the amazing tattoos starting from her wrists and disappearing under her shirt by her elbows. And she was wearing these black suspenders. She looked amazing, to be honest.

"No, this is perfect. At night I'm not really that hungry. You guys sure do love a big lunch."

I chuckled and nodded. Usually, you'd get a hot lunch here, consisting of potatoes, lamb, fish or whale meat. Sometimes veil or pork, but that was rare and expensive.

Dy spread some butter on the brown bread and happily put the pieces of dry lamb thigh on top of it. Then she reached for the salt and sprinkled that over, almost as if she was a native.

"You're not unaccustomed to our cuisine, I see."

"No, I just love food." She looked up from her plate, and her cheeks darkened a little. "I mean... I like Andaheim food."

I snorted. "I like food too. If I was allowed to eat all the time, I would. But apparently, no one wants a fat queen."

Dy laughed and poured me some wine from the pitcher. "Gotta love the curvy women too."

I bit down on my lip and smiled. "They make good cuddling mates don't they?"

"Oh hell yeah, they're so soft. I mean, I'm not the skinniest myself, so I can't hate."

She didn't look like she lacked food, but she was definitely not fat either. Curvy was a good word for her, even though all of her limbs were sort of long and slim. She did have some thighs on her. And more. My eyes had been looking at her chest for a little too long, and when I met her gaze, she was smirking.

"Are you checking me out?"

I swallowed hard. "No, I'd never do such a thing."

"Too bad. I was checking you out."

My face felt like it had been dipped in lava. Instead of answering, I took a bite of my bread and swallowed hard. I didn't mind her checking me out one bit.

"So, what do you do? Like on a daily basis," she asked after a while of silence.

"I attend council meetings. Royal appearances. Act as an ambassador for the kingdom. I meet a lot of officials from other countries. I think I'm meeting with the leaders of the tribes in a couple of weeks."

"And what do you do for fun?"

"I read. And I love listening to the radio!"

That perked Dy right up. "Which programmes?"

"The news, obviously. And Tina Talks. I love her interviews."

Dy nodded. "Yeah, she's amazing. I've never learned as much about Skyen as I did when she interviewed some locals there. That entire broadcast from Skyen was amazing."

I nodded very eagerly. "Yes! I can't wait for the one about Bursaaq next month. I know next to nothing about them, and it's hard to gain information."

Dy shrugged a shoulder. "They're introverted as hell I can tell you that."

"Oh, you know something about them? Them being your neighbours and all?"

"Not much." It didn't seem like that was the entire truth, but I didn't wanna prod into that. The dinner was too nice to ruin with my curiosity. And I had plenty of time to fry her later.

"What do you do for fun, then?"

"I go out a lot. I love the bars here. You have a great party culture." She smiled a little wickedly at me. "And you have more than four bars."

I snorted. "Yeah, if there's one thing the commoners love, it's to party. I wish I could participate someday."

"Ah, security risks." Dy rolled her eyes a bit, and I had to agree. It was eyeroll-worthy. I wanted to go out too. Experience the actual culture of my country and not just see it happen from the windows of the stronghold.

"One day, maybe." I tipped my glass at her and took a sip.

"To 'one day'," she said and tipped her glass back at me.

Living in the stronghold was boring, to say the least. I spent a lot of time listening to the radio, following the news of what happened outside of the stonewalls. I felt disconnected from what happened. There had just been an election of a new high priestess, and I didn't even remember the face of the old one. The people were getting ready to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

And I was all alone here. There was no one to talk to. Most of the people who lived at court never spoke to me. They had been friends with my parents.

There was a soft knock on my door, and I almost sprang out of the chair I had been sitting in, more or less ripping it open.

"Your Highness," one my servants said.

I sighed deeply. "Yes?"

"I have your dinner."

"Bring it in," I muttered and moved out of her way. She rolled in a small table and started arranging it. It was fish again. We always got fish. Or lamb. And always with steamed potatoes.

I hated potatoes.

I sat down at the table and dug in. The fish was nice, cooked with lots of salt. But eating alone always got me thinking. And I wasn't good company to myself.

Could I even be a good queen? Would it be a good idea for me to rule a country? I wasn't very smart. I didn't know a lot about politics or the world outside. I tried to read everything I could, but I still felt so dumb at every council meeting.

What the hell was I doing? I couldn't be queen. I was no one. I had no one. I looked down at the freshly made tattoos and wanted them off. I needed to get them off.

"Al."

I looked up at my brother, standing in the door. He looked worried. "I can't do this."

"Of course, you can." He came closer and gently wrapped his arms around me. "You're strong, yeah?"

"No," I breathed. "I hate it already, Quinn. I don't wanna do this."

"In a few days, it'll be better. When all of the coronation stuff is done, when you have all of the tattoos. When you can finally take a breather."

"And we can't just run away?" I tried and pulled back, drying my eyes.

"No, princess, we can't." He smiled and took three steps backwards, falling down on the sofa behind him. "We could get drunk, though."

I dumped down beside him. "Not everything can be solved by getting drunk."

"Works pretty well for me, the Drunk Bastard."

"Don't call yourself that," I huffed and swatted his arm.

"But that is what I am. I'm a drunk, and I'm a bastard," he chuckled. "I don't mind knowing what I am, Al. It's time you acknowledged it too."

"When I become queen, I'll legitimise you as the first thing I do."

He laughed out loud. "Oh, what a brilliant idea. Acknowledge the biggest mistake our beloved father ever made. The dirty spot on an otherwise clean record. The ruin of the av Stál family name."

"Stop being so melodramatic. You're not the first to be born out of wedlock."

"No, but I'm the first to have a servant as a mum and a king as a dad." He sent me a saying look, which I didn't even want to acknowledge. "There's freedom in being illegitimate. I don't have to attend boring council meetings, be in line for the throne, stay pure..."

"I don't have to stay pure, either. It's 2929. Not... The 2500's."

"Well, I get to mingle with all of the hotties here. You get to uh... Have fun with the council."

I made a fart noise with my mouth. "Wanna switch?"

"Not for all of the glory and power in the world."

"You just say that so you can keep sleeping with that guard."

"He's very pretty."

"He is," I agreed and closed my eyes. "The girl who tattooed me was pretty."

"Oh?"

I nodded without opening my eyes. "She's coming back tomorrow to do my back. We had dinner last night."

"Well, aren't you lucky." I could hear the grin in his voice.

Quinn always made things easier. Things were so simple in his world. And I absolutely needed more of his easy-going nature in my life.

"So about getting drunk..." Quinn chuckled.

"Fine, let's get drunk."

I woke up to Quinn, cuddling me. He hadn't left the night before, but we had gotten drunk on mulled wine. Which I now realised had been a very bad idea. My head felt too heavy. I moved his arm out of the way, and he snored loudly. Then he opened his eyes and looked up at me as if I had offended his mother.

"What's happening?" he grunted and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm getting my back tattooed today."

"Oh, how wonderful. You better hurry." He fell back on the bed and snuggled up.

I envied him for being able to sleep but pushed that aside. I needed to get ready for today. She was coming again. Dy. And I had made up my mind. I was gonna invite her to the coronation party as my personal guest.

I didn't bother with waiting for my maid to come and help me dress. I dressed myself and quickly pulled my hair up to the sound of my brother snoring softly.

I left him in my bedroom and sat down in the small sitting room, adjoined to my bedroom. I had some light breakfast brought to me. Fried fish and some soup to soothe my headache. And lots of water.

Dy came in, followed by my maid. She greeted me with a nod and sat down at my table.

"Are you ready today?"

I took another sip of water and nodded. "Yes."

"Fantastic. It won't take long today. I'll get the tools ready while you eat. If that's alright with you?"

"Sure," I murmured and finished my soup.

She cleaned the tools, lining up every bit for the machine while I ate. She calmly told me what each bit did and what function they had for the machine. She carefully cleaned each bit before putting the machine together. Finally, she placed the needle in it and clicked the electrical chord to it too. She had a little button at her feet from where she turned the machine on and off.

"Ready?" She looked up, meeting my gaze.

"Yeah," I murmured and sat down in front of her, on the stool she had brought. I leaned in over the table, as she very carefully opened the buttons on my dress, exposing my back.

It was going to be three circles and a line following my pine. The middle circle would be in the middle of my back, and it'd be the biggest. Two smaller ones would be above and under it.

The needle touched my skin, and I flinched.

"You have to be still for this."

"Sorry." I bit down on my lip.

"It's okay. Just try and be as still as you can, and I'll be as gentle as I can." There was something cheeky about her tone. But I liked it.

She was done in no time, and it actually didn't hurt that bad. It was alright. She was very gentle, despite what could be assumed just based on her size.

"Listen," I said as she wiped my back. "I was wondering if uh... If you'd like to come to the coronation party. It's going to be fun. Kind of. If you're into that sort of thing."

She faintly smiled at me, and her dark eyes met mine as I looked over my shoulder. "Sure, Your Highness. I'd be honoured to come."

"Don't call me that. Just call me Alvina."

"Your maid reprimanded me. She thought it was truly disrespectful of me to not address you accordingly." She was smiling. She thought it was ridiculous too.

I snorted. "Yeah, well. She can be uptight."

"I'll come to your party. What am I supposed to wear?"

"Whatever, really. I don't really care."

She took apart the machine again, sitting at the table after having helped me button up my dress again. "Would you prefer I showed up naked then?"

I was about to choke on the hard breath I sucked into my mouth. "I wouldn't be opposed to that notion." I sat back down in my own chair.

She chuckled and looked up from her machine. She put it down on the table and rose from her chair. She leaned forward, grabbing the high backrest on mine, coming very close to my face with hers.

"If I didn't know any better, I would think you were flirting with me, Your Highness."

"I am," I said with a shivering voice.

She smiled and slowly leaned in, placing her lips on top of mine. They were ridiculously soft. Like actually ridiculously soft. They made my blood boil, and my entire body was warm. I could hear my pulse in ears, and I clutched the armrests in my hands.

"Al, are you-" Quinn strode dramatically out of the bedroom and stopped. He smirked at me and then at Dy. "And here I thought my dear sister was getting tattooed."

"I was. And now I'm done." I rose to my feet and took Dy's hand in mine, turning to her. "Have my maid write up an invitation for you on your way out. Wouldn't want you to be turned away at the door."

"Sure. I'll see you there."

She was about to let go, but I pulled her close and kissed her again. "I can't wait," I said and smiled at her. She packed up very quickly and left the room.

Quinn was leaning against the frame of the door and chuckled when I turned to him. "Well, you don't move slowly, do you?"

"I don't have the time for that." I shrugged, and he just chuckled again.