When Sioni did not attend the ball, part of me was not surprised.

I kept remembering how she looked the last time I saw her, standing at her window as she normally would, only this time she was staring at me with the saddest of expressions. Her lips mouthed words I could not hear and did not comprehend. I waited for her to open her casement, but she didn’t, wouldn’t, for what reason, I knew not. But then I understood – she was telling me that what we’d had, this tentative friendship, was over. She did not want to see me. All my aspirations for our future disappeared in that moment.

Before I left, I placed a rose on the ground beneath her window. I did not look back.

Now I kneel before my parents, my head bowed respectfully. My father is seated at his throne, looking down at me with an expression I cannot fathom. Mother sits on her throne next to him. She is smiling at me.

“Stand,” my father commands and I comply.

Then he says, “We have found a match for you. This alliance will unite Austria and Spain.”