Chương 11: Keeping the Queen Company

Zylvia had found Fayre in her 'sowing' room. When she entered the room Fayre had been embroidering a Phoenix onto a curtain. As Zylvia joined her and picked up her sowing project, which was a cloak she was embroidering a dragon onto the shoulder of, Fayre and her had continued the discussion of Fayre's children that they had started yesterday.

They worked while they talked all morning, though they changed topics every now and then. Their discussions ranged from the mundane to more important things. Zylvia found the morning spent in the company of her best friend rather relaxing.

When it came to be about noon the two went to go eat something for lunch, though they had now fallen silent. As they say down in the dining hall, Zylvia found herself asking Fayre, "Do you normally eat with Jayesh or-?"

"Depends on how busy he is."

"I see." As the king, Jayesh would have to see to the kingdom's welfare before his own, which often led to him not spending as much time with his wife as he might have liked. Zylvia hoped that it did not put any strain on her friend's relationship.

"Though, even when he is busy," Fayre explained. "We still spend plenty of time together, he always makes the effort to be able to check up on me at some point in the day.

Zylvia laughed softly as she bit into her food. "Of course he does, how could he bear being apart from the love of his life," She teased.

"Yep, he hates being apart from me," Fayre almost managed to keep a straight face. Almost. But her lips curved into a smirk and ruined her efforts to appear nonchalant. "It would actually be annoying if I didn't love him so much."

The two girls fell silent as the ate their lunch. Zylvia though was thinking of the wonderful relationship her best friend had with her husband. 'How wonderful it is to love and be loved,' She mused. 'Would it ever be possible for me to know that feeling?' She didn't think it likely.

After they finished eating the two girls decided to go for a walk in the courtyard. It was a very lovely day, with a soft breeze and warm sunshine. The birds were singing softly and they could see butterflies drinking nectar from the many blooming flowers. All in all the courtyard had a rather tranquil feel to it.

As the two walked they happily continued their chatter. The few people they passed, most of whom were servants, were joyful to see their queen in such high spirits. Though the queen was a fairly happy person it was obvious just how much enjoyment she got from her best friend being where she could easily spend time with her.

It was a couple hours after lunch when Fayre remembered something her husband had told her earlier, "Oh! We will soon be having a visitor from Amriel arriving to stay a while. Princess Hazel just turned sixteen and her father decided that she would have her out of country year here." (It was traditional in Amriel for their royalty to spend a year in a different country in order to learn about different cultures more close up.) "I am looking forward to her visit. How quickly do you think we could befriend her?"

Zylvia smiled, "You will probably have her befriended in a day. It will probably take me a bit longer, about a week."

"Have a bit more confidence in yourself," The queen rolled her eyes. "You are a wonderful person and anyone would be happy to be your friend."

"Perhaps but it takes me a while to warm up to someone."

"Really? But you befriended both Jayesh and Kaldrek really quickly."

"That was because you were so interested in Jayesh, it would have been arkward to not be friendly to him. And if I befriended Jayesh it stood to reason that I would have to befriend his best friend as well."

"So what you are saying is that when you have an incentive you can befriend someone really quickly."

"I guess that is one way to take it. Though with those two it wasn't hard to befriend them. Even if it wasn't for you I probably still would have found myself liking them."

"They are rather likable, aren't they?" Fayre smiled. "Even if they both can sometimes get a little scary."

"That is because of their responsibilities though, they can't really afford to appear weak. And they don't really seem all that scary."

Fayre let out a loud laugh, "Oh Zylv, of course you wouldn't be all that intimidated by them. Does anything scare you?"

"Of course, everyone has something that would scare them. I dislike being all alone."

"I suppose I shouldn't find that too surprising."

They continued talking all the afternoon and into the evening as well. Both girls got a deep happiness from being able to talk to each other like this. They hadn't been able to hold a good conversation like this since Fayre had become queen. Not that they hadn't seen each other during that time, just they weren't able to just causally walk and talk together like they had been used to.