Usual disclaimers apply.

"Rose!"

Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the oncoming carriage. I looked into the jade green eyes of my best friend, Lissa, and smiled my thanks. The carriage driver pulled the horses to a stop and jumped down to check on me.

"Are you alright?" he asked. I lifted up the heavy skirts and checked my ankles.

"Yes," I replied, smiling at him. He looked towards Lissa and bowed with a "m'lady" and a tip of his hat. He jumped back onto his carriage and drove away.

"Rogue," Lissa said, smirking at the bouncing carriage and horses. She looked back at me. "You need to start be more heedful of your area, Rose."

"I know," I whined. We crossed the dirt road and when we reached the other side, I couldn't help but add, "I am sorry, m'lady."

She playfully swatted my arm, and laughing, we started to climb the hill to the palace.

While she was next to the throne, it was not her parents' palace - they had died many a year ago. A distant aunt had taken over until Lissa became of age and was ready to rule our kingdom, Nir. Her first name was really Vasilisa, a name she had recieved because of her distant Vechin blood, but those close to her just called her by her shortened name.

Just as my name was Rosemarie, but only strangers who recognized me called me by that name. I was "Rose" to nearly everyone I knew, and I preferred it that way.

"A liish for your thoughts?" Lissa asked. I found myself staring at nothing in particular and dragged my eyes back to her face.

I smirked. "You know that is more than what I make in a year's time, Lissa."

"You did not answer my question," she pointed out.

"My mind is not here, fir that I am positive." I sighed. "I keep thinking of my name."

"Rose?" Lissa asked. She raised her eyebrows at me. "I love that name. I envy you on occasion, for you have quite the beautiful name. 'Tis similar to that new flower Lord Ivanov found."

"Oh?" We nodded to the drawbridge guards, and they let us pass.

"I heard that he saw you in a tavern and decided that he will name the flower after you!" Lissa gushed. She, along with my sisters, loved gossip.

"Really? And what would be his name?" I joked.

Lissa rolled her eyes. "Lord Ivanov, of course."

"Which one?" I taunted. I knew there was only one Lord Ivanov that dare show his face to the Queen, and Lissa was aware that I knew this.

"What do you suppose my aunt has in store for us?" Lissa asked, deftly changing the subject of conversation. The Queen had summoned Lissa back to the palace for an important announcement. My younger siblings were upset that she had to leave so soon - we had barely been there for half the day - but when the Queen wanted Lissa, Lissa had to present herself. As her loyal best friend and unrelated sister, I stuck alongside her, no matter how much the Queen disapproved of my parents.

"Princess Vasilisa," one of the guards murmured, bowing low to her. He opened the door, and I could feel his eyes boring into my back. No doubt he was wondering why I was with Lissa.

"Niece," the Queen said, turning from her guards to hug Lissa. The Queen's son, Adrian, stood in the corner of his aunt's private quarters. He looked up from his reading, inappropriately winked at me, and then pretended to be thoroughly engrossed in the book in front of him. I knew he was listening in on us.

"Aunt," Lissa replied, returning the hug. Out of politeness, I gave the Queen a quick curtsey; she merely gave me a stiff nod and directed her attention back to Lissa.

"Come, come, sit." She motioned to the velvet chairs by the window. It was a particularly large room, but the official Queen's quarters had been sectioned off until Lissa took the throne. Her aunt's reign was nothing short of temporary.

I stood behind Lissa, my dirty bare feet sinking into the plush, Vechin carpet. I knew I had no place sitting, even if I was going to be Lissa's advisor and left-hand some day. The last time I tried to was when Lissa's aunt gave me a tongue-lashing about my inferior status in Nir the first time I met her.

"Are you aware of the Games that shall be coming up this summer?"

Lissa nodded. The Games were a side-by-side competition - Magyk and Physikal - that showed the ability of available suitors for the few royalty and the non-royalty and were held every five years. Nir held them, and suitors and their followers young women came from Vechi and Soal to compete against our own suitors.

Those that wielded Magyk - the royalty - competed against each other in hopes of marrying into a different kingdom to help solve peace issues. The non-royalty - the farmers, the guards, the merchants - competed in the Physikal Games to show that they were able to defend themselves and any woman they married. Most of the time, however, it just bred into gossip and everyone just married into people from their own courts. And nobody ever married someone competing in a different Games - royalty never married under them.

"As you are seventeen and will be able to partake in the selection of a suitor, I would like to ask for your assistance in making sure everything runs smoothly. Not that anything wrong has happened in the past, but just to calm an old woman's worries."

Lissa looked at her hands that were folded neatly in her lap. I could almost hear the conflict in her mind.

"Tatiana, may I ask a favor?" Lissa looked up. She had a way of getting nearly anything she wanted, and this time would prove to be no different. Or so I hoped.

"Anything," the Queen replied, taking Lissa's hands into her own. She leaned forward a tiny bit.

"I will assist you in the Games, if in return you allow Rosemarie to act as my left-hand."

The Queen sat back in her chair, letting go of Lissa's hands. I dared a glance at Adrian in the opposite corner - he stopped trying to fake interest in the book and quickly shut his mouth when he saw me looking.

Being someone's left-hand, especially royalty, was not only beyond an honor, but it was as close to working with someone as one could get. Any closer, and they would have to be the same person. The left-hand was one's second mind and body - some Kings and Queens had even gone as far as to send their left-hands on negotiation trips and into what war strategists considered to be major battles.

"And allow Soalin scum to intermingle with royalty? I daresay you are near out of your very mind." Tatiana shook her head. "No, I will not allow it."

That set me off. "My mother was Soal's King's left-hand! And her father before her had been a Lord of a farm! I am not Soalin scum!" I defended through gritted teeth.

"She did not even attend the Physikal Games in which your father competed. She relied merely on the word of others. And she left her King in the middle of the night to run here with a man she had never laid eyes on before. Tell me this, Miss Hathaway, why I should allow you to act as Lissa's left-hand when your own mother could not even act as her King's left hand for something less important as the Games?" Tatiana gave me a smug look when I didn't respond.

"She is already my most loyal and trustworthy friend, Aunt. I believe she will not act in the mistakes of her mother before her," Lissa said quietly, staring Tatiana in the eye. Something in the Queen must have broken, because she eventually nodded slowly.

"Yes, alright, fine, Rosemarie can act as your left-hand." She looked at me and pointed a finger. "But one slip-up or mistake, and I will have no issues making sure you never find a suitor here in Nir or in Soal and Vechi."

"I understand, Your Majesty," I whispered, bowing my head.

"Thank you," Lissa said. She hugged the Queen.

She waved a hand in a silent dismissal, and the two of us took for Lissa's quarters. Neither of us said a word until the heavy wood door to her large room was closed.

"I cannot believe she agreed to it!" Lissa breathed, opening the window. She leaned against the ledge and took a deep breath of the air. The setting sun made her golden hair shine. I leaned out the window with her.

"It is amazing," I agreed, watching the merchants packing up their goods and closing their stalls and stands.

"Uncle Victor would have said, 'Tis a miracle that only the stars could have produced'," Lissa whispered. The faraway look in her eyes told me she was remembering the time before Victor had been hanged, the time when Victor had been nothing but smiles and hugs and free dances at balls.

We stood in silence for a while, watching the village in front of the palace close up for the night. I had taken to staying in the palace since many of the bedrooms were unoccupied as Lissa was now an only child. I spent little time with my family anymore.

"Lissa?" I asked quietly, breaking the silence.

She raised an eyebrow and titled her head towards me.

"Do you mind if I spend tomorrow with my family? I barely saw them today, and my father is riding in tonight from business afar. I would like to share my news of being your left-hand with them, if you do not mind."

"Not at all," Lissa said, giving me a brief hug. "I am sure my aunt will have duties for me to start on tomorrow and such, so I have no issue with it."

"And you will inform me of them after tomorrow?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course!" Lissa's smile lit up the room. "Now I wonder what the status of dinner is."

She grabbed my hand and we left her room. Adrian was walking down the corridor, his head bent as he read the same book from earlier. I never learned to read, so I had not an idea what the book was called.

"Cousin!" Lissa teased, poking him in the arm. "Are you aware of dinner?"

"Yes I am aware," he replied, closing the book. "What is my gain by telling you?"

"A kiss on the cheek," Lissa said.

"Of course," Adrian said, giving in much more easily than he normally did. "'Tis starting momentarily. If you two ladies will allow me to return my book to my quarters, I will escort the both of you to dinner."

Lissa kissed him on the cheek, and we turned to look at the portraits on the wall.

Adrian escorted the both of us to dinner on both arms; Lissa on the left, myself on the right. Several people laughed quietly as the three of us walked into the Dining Hall.

Dinner was a usual affair, filled with laughs and fantastic food - though the cooks could never measure up to my own mother. Tatiana announced my being Lissa's left-hand and that we had three months to start preparations for the Games. Preparations would not begin until next week, so Lissa was free to do whatever she pleased tomorrow while I attempted to visit with my family once again.

"I will see you the day after tomorrow?" Lissa asked as we stopped in front of her door.

I nodded. "I hope to be gone before sunrise. Most time with my family that way."

"Have fun. Tell the younger ones I give my acknowledgment." She smiled.

"I will. Have a fun day tomorrow."

"If fun means spending the day with Adrian," Lissa started, rolling her eyes.

"He is not that bad!" I pretended to be shocked.

"You're not related to him," Lissa replied. She smiled again. "Now go get some rest. Sunrise will be here soon."

I gave her a small smile in return and then went back to my own, smaller chambers. Tomorrow would be fun, if everything turned out as planned.

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