Elise Hydaelyn, the princess of Eorzia and youngest daughter to King Regis was about to take on a new adventure and head into unknown land. One thing she kept telling herself was that this was all for peace and that it did not matter what happened to her. It was to stop a war that had been raging for quite the century. It had been agreed that to broker a peace a union would happen, a marriage between to Kingdoms that had been at war for as long as people could remember. Eorzia was sustaining itself, just. They had vast amounts of land and plenty of crops enough to feed their Kingdom for a few years. Soldiers and magic, however, weren’t as easy to come by. Sure, the Kingdom had enough men to protect its defences, but to keep a war going they needed fresh new soldiers who could wield magic which had become all the more difficult with their missing artifact, stolen at some point during the many years of war. It was becoming much harder to keep the magic alive throughout their lands and it was beginning to show. 

A plan had been made, the King had hoped it would call the other Kingdoms bluff at first, create a break in the defence for him to get the upper hand but it had done the opposite and now was offering his daughter to them in a marriage pact. The King hoped that offering a peace treaty through marriage meant they would decline, him declining could have meant people potentially rebelling over this Kingdom not accepting a peaceful way to resolve this. It was meant to be quite the bold move on his part and work, but that had not been the case, there was no decline, in fact there was a counteroffer and King Regis was left with no choice but to accept as he didn’t want to be the one declining peace and showing weakness. There was also the plus side of ending this long-drawn-out war that had to have taken its toll on both the Kingdoms. 

As word spread about the peace between Kingdoms it was hard to back down, Regis had arranged for his daughter through many ambassadors to visit the other Kingdom ahead of any preparations so they could meet one another before they would sign the treaty at the wedding. It felt right that to him that they got to know each other before any sort of union. 

"Stupid father, what an absolute idiot. How could he do this to me?" Grumbling to herself quietly as she looked out the window of her carriage, she had been sent with an escort into what was once enemy territory to have her first meeting with him. Her father would join a day later for two reasons, one in case it was a trap and two he still had a few loose ends to tie up as a country didn’t run itself. Thinking back to when she was told she had remembered her anger about the idea of the marriage, the fury and then tears. Her hand curled into a fist as she remembered that day. 

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[i]“My dearest daughter Elise.” A gruff voice come from the doorway of her room, smiling up at her father she gestured him inside as she turned from the seat at her table wondering what had brought him here.

“Father, to what do I owe this visit?”

“I have managed to find a way of peace which would be beneficial to both Kingdoms. A way to stop this long-drawn-out war.” Hesitating with his words as he stepped further inside the room pacing towards the window, he glanced at his daughter wondering how to approach the subject. “I have arranged something, to keep the peace I have… promised your hand to them.”

Snapping her head around to her father, the King, she frowned anger rising. “You did what!? Why couldn’t you marry of my brother? Surely the heir to the throne is far more important than me!” Slamming her book down against the table she was outraged, arranged marriages were common but it didn’t mean she had to like it. The idea of it was just not something that sat right with her and she had kind of hoped that she did not have to go through with something like that. Of course, she was wrong, but she had been working on putting the idea into their heads in hopes it meant she could avoid such a fate.

“It’s the only way. You will be leaving in a couple of days to go meet with him. There is no fighting against this.” 

“YOU COWARD! NO WONDER YOU COULDN’T WIN THE WAR!” Shouting her outrage as her father left quite quickly after breaking the news, she had thrown the book just as the door had shut behind him, narrowly missing him in the process. Clearly he had not wanted to stay much longer knowing it would only cause a fight.[/i] 

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Sighing to herself as she shook her head from the memory, she did not want to think on it anymore as she felt the carriage come to a stop, glancing back out the window the scenery was vastly different to Eorzia and she felt a pang of guilt for not saying goodbye to her father before she travelled, but she pushed it aside quickly reminding herself this was his fault. Looking at the carriage door as it opened, she was helped out of the carriage by a few soldiers that had accompanied her on the long ride. It had taken a couple of days to get here but the journey had been quite smooth, there had been no attacks throughout the whole journey which she found quite surprising and a little disheartening that she’d have to go through with this.

As she stretched her legs, it felt good to be out of the carriage, but the pit in her stomach began to rise as she realised who she was about to meet. Though she knew she had to stay strong and not show weakness. Brushing out the creases of her dress she knew that there was no escaping this, she was about to meet her soon to be husband. Not liking that phrase at all. [i]Maybe if I just run? Go into hiding? Perhaps under the cover of darkness.[/i] Getting lost in her thoughts as she approached her impending doom the Princess began to think on ways she could potentially escape this fate her father had sealed for her.