[Lauchenoiria]

Princess Leila of Zargothrax sat atop a horse, her face stony. Still, she sat up straight as she rode into Castle Zargo, through the crowds which had been assembled to welcome her. She wore a feminised version of a Thraxian coronation outfit, though Zargothrax had never had a Queen Regnant before. It still wouldn’t, in practice. She was merely a puppet. How could she have been so stupid?

Leila had, of course, been eleven years old when she had first sought out a Kerlian from Project Belle. She’d been tipped off by a palace servant to check the Peasants’ Temple, as a woman from Belle had been seen there. In hindsight, it was likely the palace servant had been one of Zichitla’s spies. They were everywhere. The Aurora had grown up from the age of three immersed in the world of espionage. Leila did not stand a chance.

Had she even come up with the idea of using a Kerlian to flee her father’s cats on her own? She couldn’t remember. Perhaps that had been a manipulation too. Maybe it all was. Maybe the damned Auroras had even prompted the cat laws in the first place! Who knew where her father’s “religious experience” in hospital had come from? If not a god, then perhaps a Kerlian.

She’d had no choice but to go along with their charade. She’d wanted to flee her family, not kill them – and that is exactly what Zichitla would do if Leila had refused. It was not even a question. The moment she’d laid eyes on Zichitla she had understood what the religious notion of “pure evil” referred to. Maybe this woman, who now awaited her in the palace, was indeed a figure from myth. Satan, Ahriman, Iblis. Zichitla?

The procession continued, regardless of her thoughts. The crowd clapped uncertainly, louder when prompted. Zichtila had already recruited many local women to her cause, offering them pay previously unknown to the female sex in Zargothrax. Even some men had enthusiastically joined the cause, particularly minorities and the impoverished, and other groups with reason to want radical change.

She was the poster child for the radical change. Leila was to be Queen of Zargothrax. On paper, at least.

She was led through the streets and up the hill to the palace as the crowd clapped and cheered and sang. The formerly rich and wealthy hid or fled, expecting retribution from the alleged revolutionaries who had seized power. The destitute and downtrodden cheered without prompting, expecting some kind of saviour, and not just of their souls.

As the palace gates closed and Leila dismounted, she felt a pang of guilt that she was not what they all thought she was. She was just a stupid child who had been manipulated by a demon in human form.

The coronation ceremony had been shortened from its usual procedure. Normally, all the High Lords of the country would present gifts – but only one High Lord was actually able and willing* to travel to the coronation. (*People are willing to do many things when an Aurora holds a gun to their head.)

There were no speeches prior to the coronation, either. Leila merely walked down the aisle; a small scattering of nobles to either side – their numbers bolstered with Auroras, whom the nobles were trying hard to ignore. She knelt, said the words, and had a crown placed on her head. She was barely aware of what was happening around her.

The palace had, mercifully, been cleared of cats, either by Zichitla or Hashemi. She did not sneeze constantly while she was crowned. She posed for the pictures and the television cameras, and then allowed herself to be ushered out of the throne room. Once she was alone, she sat down and cried.

This is how Zargothrax got its first Queen Regnant.

The story of Zargothrax will continue in We Who Are Broken.