Nanowrimo 2023 Best Bit and Word Count - Day 20 + 21 (Patreon)

Over the past two days I've added 3,310 words to my project, bringing my total word count to 35,566!

They kept to same trails that they had before when they were fleeing. With harvesting season over, the fields were left unattended, allowing the army to travel through at least mostly undetected. The soldiers stuck to the woods along the country roads where they could, though. Just in case.

The closer they grew to the capital, the heavier Ayden's stomach felt. It was she'd swallowed a molten ball of iron at some point, and it only grew larger and heavier as they approached her former home. She could not tell what the feeling was. Anxiety? Anticipation? Dread?

And then, she could see the tower. Her tower. Her prison. The not-so-gilded cage where her mother abandoned her for crimes she did not commit. Crimes that started with her mother's indiscretions. Memories crashed into her like a wave upon a cliff. The cruelty of the maids. The days she went without food or water. The dirty state she was allowed to wallow in. The isolation. The cold.

And the molten heaviness in her stomach turned to rage.

They approached the castle at sunset, the golden hour sunlight glinting off the soldier's copper armor in a way that blinded the guards at the gate. The Orange soldiers overtook them, and Ayden marched into the courtyard unimpeded. She caught sight of a few ornate carriages in the stables, embossed with the crests of the various noble houses of Blue.

Excellent, she thought. What better audience to watch her ascension.

Addie and her other companions followed her through the castle doors and up towards the grand throne room. A retinue of soldiers followed after them, clearing their path of guards and particularly brave servants. Shouting voices could be heard through the grand doors, angry men shouting men arguing with each other over one thing or another. Ayden wondered if they were even aware of what was happening outside the throne room.

They doors were opened for her, and the shouting became clearer.

"You can't just cut off the entirety of the west's trade!" the Duke of Sapphire shouted at the Queen, far braver than he would have been in Ayden's youth. "Your pettiness will be the end of us! You'd think you would have learned after the incident with --"

"The incident with who, Duke Sapphire?" Ayden asked curiously, reveling in the click-clack sound of her heels and cane against the floor in the sudden silence that met her voice. "Do you mean my debutante ball? That incident?"

"Y-You!" the duke shouted, face going pale and splotchy behind his meticulously maintained midnight beard.

"Now, now, my lord," Ayden chided. "Surely you know better manners than that. How do you address the kingdom's one and only heir?"

"Heir? Please!" another noble barked. "You were deposed years ago."

"Was I?" Ayden asked, her tone curious. Her sharp eyes landed squarely on her mother. She looked better than she had the last time Ayden saw her. She didn't curl in on herself in fear at the sight of her anymore. She wondered what changed.

"The princess is correct," the Queen of Blue said plainly. "I never disinherited her."

"What?!" the Duke of Sapphire snapped.

"Oh, dear. Are you angry that your precious baby boy isn't actually first in line to inherit?" Ayden asked mockingly. "Probably for the best. From what I remember he wasn't exactly the most faithful man to any endeavor. We wouldn't want another King of Red, would we?"

"You!" The Duke made to strike or perhaps strangle her, but a blur of movement had him slammed on the ground, Addie kneeling on his back with a dagger at his throat.

"Do not touch her," the maid hissed through clenched teeth.

"Where did she get that dagger?" Laurent whispered to Percival, who shrugged.

"What are you even doing here?" another noble, Viscount Robin, demanded.

Ayden kept her gaze squarely on her mother. "I'm here to take what's rightfully mine -- my throne, and my vengeance."

To her surprise, her mother did not fight. She did not cower. She did not tremble or scream. She stood from the throne and reached for the glimmering crown atop her head. Ayden had always admired the swirling, glittering crown of the queens of Blue. The silvery metal contrasted so well with the ultramarine tresses of her mother and the other queens before her. On her own head, the metal would fade into the white, but that would only make the teardrop-shaped blue diamond at the center of it stand out all the more.

At least, that's what she thought when she was little and still dreamed of glittering ballrooms and chivalrous knights.

Her mother approached her with steady footsteps, her shoulders rolled back and her head held high like it always was in Ayden's oldest memories. Her eyes were bright, glittering with an emotion Ayden hadn't seen on her mother's face in a long time. Pride. Pride in herself. In her kingdom. In her people.

In her daughter.

Ayden's breath caught in her throat as her mother set the crown upon her head, the touch delicate and full of care. The crown was heavy on her head, heavier than expected for something so delicate looking. Her brows furrowed as her mind raced. What was happening? Had her mother truly gone mad? Where was the fear she'd seen before? The guilt? No. She could see it. The guilt was still there. Along with sadness, and remorse.

"Take it," her mother whispered. "It is yours."

Ayden stared at her. The word shock couldn't even begin to cover the utter disbelief that swirled in her mind like a typhoon at sea. Her words were taken from her, thrown overboard as she tried to right herself.

The nobles, however, did not suffer the same wordlessness.

"You can't just do that!" Baron Cornflower shouted.

"The crown is mine to pass on whenever I see fit," the Queen countered.

"You wouldn't dare handing the throne over to this...this demon girl!" Duke Aquamarine blubbered. "We won't have it."

"You can't possibly still recognize her as heir! Iris will smite us as she did Orange!"

"Oh, you mean the Orange where we got this very nice army from?" Laurent asked sarcastically, using his thumb to gesture over his shoulder at the soldiers that stood watch at the door.

"She has the blessing of the Oracles," Fionna added, a smug look on her face. "So, perhaps it would be best not to use our goddess as an excuse to deny her her birthright."

"Her birthright?!" the Duke of Sapphire shouted, pushing up on his elbows despite Addie's weight on his back. "She lost any claim to the throne the moment she was born to that philanderer in Red."

"Funny you should mention that," Laurent drawled. "Turns out, she's the only heir to the Valiant Throne as well!"

"That's madness!" Viscount Robin sputtered in disbelief. "This is madness!"

Addie let out a yelp as the Duke of Sapphire pushed her off. He struggled to his feet, eyes wide and wild with envious rage. "I will not have you strip away our one chance to rise above!" He drew a large hunting knife from within his coat. The other nobles gasped, jumping back in fright.

The Duke lunged at Ayden, his eyes going wide with shock as she sidestepped him. She heard Percival fumbling with his rifle, but she didn't need him for this.

She lifted her cane from the ground, smacking the duke in the back of the head with it before pulling her sword free. He tumbled once more to the ground, his knife skittering across the floor. He made to crawl for it, the slick fabric of his silken gloves and trousers slipping on the polished marble. He reached for his knife, only to let out a scream of pain as the point of Ayden's sword came down on it, piercing his flesh.

"I'd rather you didn't do that," she said flatly, regaining her voice.