You reluctantly travel across land by carriage to your marriage with Prince Darvik. It isn’t the marriage you would have chosen, but it will be a good thing for your kingdom. Your marriage will ensure peace between Fairelandia and Romancia and your people will be able to live their lives without fear. Your sacrifice will save your people.

Mother was reluctant to agree to the plan to send you to Romancia. In the end, Father convinced her that saving her people from war was the only right thing for a queen to do, but she hugged you fiercely before sending you on your way. And she pressed into your hands a locket. It’s the one you always admired, with a tiny picture of her great-great grandmother inside. She would sometimes let you peek at it when you were very small.

“I had it charmed,” she whispered. “It will keep you safe. Wear it always, my dear. Promise me. Those Romancians . . . I do not know what sort of people they will be, but as long as you wear the locket, they cannot harm you.” You keep the chain around your neck, the locket hidden out of sight beneath your gown.

Across the carriage is your handmaiden, Felicia. She gives you a bright smile before turning to look out the window again. As the daughter to an earl, she too is being sent to marry in Romancia in order to create more bonds between your people. Unlike you, she gets to choose her own husband. She will join the court there and meet many handsome gentlemen during the social season, although her parents do expect her to choose one and marry before the end of it.

The carriage slows to a stop by a stream. One of the guards rides by and nods to Felicia, who smirks back. She turns to you. “Would you like to walk for a few minutes while the guards arrange the load and refill the water barrels? It will be a welcome respite after our long hours in the carriage.”

You have been in the carriage for a long time with only brief stops at various inns to refresh yourself. It will take the guards a little while to fill the water barrels, and a walk would do you good.

Do you:

agree to go on a walk with Felicia, staying in sight of the carriages of course?

or

prefer to stay in the carriage and read while you wait to continue your journey?