The Engagement Nobody Wanted
449 Words
The news reached Lunareth without ceremony.
No bells rang.
No banners were raised.
It arrived quietly, folded into routine, spoken in measured tones by people who believed decisions were easier when emotions were kept out of them.
Alice heard it while standing in the solar room, watching late afternoon light stretch across the marble floor. The room overlooked Lunareth’s inner gardens—neatly trimmed, carefully maintained, beautiful in a way that never felt personal.
“A political engagement has been finalized,” the woman said.
Alice did not turn.
“With Valenreach,” the woman continued. “Their heir.”
The name of the kingdom landed heavier than the words around it.
Valenreach.
Alice’s fingers tightened slightly around the window frame. “When?”
“Soon,” came the reply. “Arrangements are already in motion.”
No one asked if she wished to know more.
No one asked if she agreed.
Later that evening, Alice sat alone at her desk, staring at the same page of an open book. She hadn’t turned it in several minutes. The words blurred, meaningless.
Valenreach.
She did not know why the name stirred something uneasy in her chest. She told herself it was nothing—just another distant kingdom, another place she would be sent and expected to endure.
Still, she found herself whispering a different name under her breath.
Alex.
She closed the book abruptly.
Far away, in a chamber far larger and colder, Alex stood before the council of Valenreach.
The room smelled faintly of old stone and ink. Maps lay spread across the table, lines drawn and redrawn to show borders that Valenreach was expected to keep from bleeding.
“Your engagement has been confirmed,” the High Chancellor said.
Alex nodded once.
“With Lunareth,” another councilor added. “The girl’s name is Alice.”
For a brief moment—so brief it might have been imagined—Alex’s gaze flickered.
Alice.
The memory surfaced unbidden: laughter in a market, sugar on fingers, a girl who spoke without fear and vanished too quickly.
He straightened. “Understood.”
“This union is necessary,” the Chancellor continued. “Valenreach requires stability.”
Alex did not ask questions.
He had learned long ago which questions were not meant to be answered.
When the meeting ended, Alex remained alone in the chamber, staring at the maps until they all began to look the same.
Lunareth.
Alice.
He exhaled slowly.
Somewhere in another kingdom, a girl was learning her future had been decided.
And neither of them yet knew that the name tied to their fate belonged to someone they had once met by chance—and never truly forgotten.
- Writer
