"Ordinary Life"- Seladon, Mayrin
Her mother finds her giggling with a pair of dark-haired peasant girls in a great pile of hay- circlet askew, straw poking through her braids. She doesn't make a scene in front of them, merely offers a curt "Come, Seladon," but the moment they're back in the carriage, she fixes her daughter with a stony glare.
"How many times must I tell you?" She hisses. "You are to conduct yourself with dignity in front of our subjects."
Seladon bites her lip, defiant. Her wings will open in a few trine- she's far too old to cry over something like this. "I just wanted to have some fun for once!" It comes out sounding whiny and childish, but it is simply the truth. The other children had begged her to join their game, and for once, she had.
"I brought you with me to learn to be a proper princess, to begin to understand your responsibilities," her mother replies, infuriatingly calm. "Not to have fun."
"What if I don't want to be a princess?" Seladon bursts out, already horrified with herself but somehow unable to stop. "I didn't ask to be your daughter and have all these- these responsibilities and rules and-" She cuts herself off, tears of frustration welling despite her efforts to contain them. "...I just want a normal life."
She expects her mother to explode in return, but instead she softens, reaches out to place her hand over Seladon's own. "...I know. Better than you realize. None of us ask for this." She sighs, and Seladon wonders for a moment if her mother will allow the touch to become a dreamfast- allow her to see the experiences that her mother has kept locked away, the ones that turned her from an uncertain child herself into someone ready to lead an entire race. But the hand pulls away, and her expression shifts back into its default- warm, yet distant. "You will understand someday."
It isn't the first time Seladon has heard that, and she suspects it won't be the last. She can only hope it's true.
For now, they finish the carriage ride in silence.