The Glow

Still slightly confused and overwhelmed by the current events, each queen (with the exception of Anne) makes their way to the couches on the opposite side of the house. They sit in a somewhat random order, but all Anne can think about is how the most distance is put in between her and Catherine. 

How she misses Catherine. Her Catherine. Not Henry's. And they had died for loving each other. For being soulmates. People disgust her sometimes.

"Should we go in order then?" The question comes from the blue queen. Anne, being the last one to exit her room, hadn't been able to see all the labels on the doors, so currently she recognizes Catalina, Jane, and vaguely remembers seeing the pink queen from somewhere. Perhaps as a younger child.

Anne notices the slight tension in Catherine's posture. She also notices the scarf that so strategically covers up her neck. When she had first woken up, the first thing she'd done was check herself in the mirror. A long scar was wrapped around her neck; she knows it's from her beheading. Looking around the group of women, she only notices one other with a scar like hers, the youngest of the group.

The green 'queen' wonders what the child had done to earn such a fate. But her questions will be answered in time.

"Yes, I suppose it makes sense." Recognizes the voice, she turns to the one she loves dearly. "In that case, let me introduce myself. My name is Catherine of Aragon, I'm 26, and if you couldn't tell, my Glow is gold." 

There's a small debate whether each person should share the same information, the conclusion ending in yes. As the side conversation comes to a close, Catherine continues her 'story'.

"To put it simply, I was shipped from Spain to marry Henry's brother, Arthur, but when he died, I was imprisoned until Henry himself became king. Henry and I were married and I hadn't caused any trouble for him whatsoever. Anne came back to England and long story short, he chose her over me. Went through a lot of trouble to divorce me, claiming we couldn't have children, even though we had a 12 year old daughter, and claimed that he was tired of waiting for our Glow."

Luckily for the first queen, she doesn't have to say much as the others have surely heard the story before. Or this version of the story, at least. She was the most respected queen, after all. The only responses the gold queen gets are some nods, before they start to look around for the second.

"I'll take that silence that she's finished, so it's my turn now." Anne keeps her naturally upbeat personality up, to hide the fact that she's about to lie about a lot of things, and to hide her yearning for her lover. "Heyo, I'm Anne Boleyn, 23 years old, and my Glow is green."

"Oh Anne! We played together before you moved to France!" This comes from a suddenly excited pink queen, as childhood memories start to stir in Anne's mind.

"Oh right! We're cousins right?" A nod comes from the younger cousin. "I'm really excited about that, but we're all doing introductions so moving on! I was born in England but grew up in France 'cause I was sent to study there. When I came back to England, I was invited to stay in court. In Cat..therine's chambers to be exact." Anne quickly changes how she addresses the first queen. She doesn't want to hurt her feelings if she doesn't like her anymore. "Henry divorced her, married me, nothing really different from what she said. At some point he got tired of me and told everyone I was cheating on him, so yeah, I got beheaded."

Unconsciously, the pink, green, and gold queens bring their hands up to their necks. For Boleyn and Howard, their scars were clear and apparent. For Aragon, it looked like she was fixing her scarf, which she was, but only to hide the tension of her own beheading that no one could know about.

There's another awkward silence of glances and side-looks before the third queen speaks up.

"Oh, sorry, I suppose I'm next. Um, my name is Jane Seymour, I'm 25 years old, and my Glow color is silver. I was actually a lady in waiting for Catherine....of Aragon." The silver queen adds, knowing there are multiple Catherines in the room. "And I saw how he treated both of the queens before me. But, when he first approached me, I thought he had actually changed. He seemed nicer, he treated me somewhat better than Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. In other words, I actually thought I loved him. After we got married, I finally gave him the son he wanted, and he was so....happy. I was celebrated for the few days that I was alive after giving birth. When he saw I was dying, he turned his back on me. Simply saying 'she didn't last long enough for a Glow.' and moved on. I died of childbed fever after."

The silence that follows isn't from waiting for the next person, but from a moment of honor, in a way. The last three queens clearly remember her portrait still hanging on the walls after she had died. Other than that, the other five queens just feel sorry for the girl who had been mislead. 

"Ok. I'm not going to waste anytime then. Hi, I'm Anna of Cleves. I am 23 and my Glow color is red. I lived in Germany all my life. Henry had seen my portrait in the Haus of Holbein and ordered for me to be shipped to England. We weren't married for long until he found out my Glow is red. He didn't want to be married to anyone with the same Glow color as him, so he told everyone that I was simply too ugly to be with, and divorced me. We were pretty cool with each other afterwards, but you know, everyone hates his guts."

Small laughter arises from the fourth queen's final comment. However, the lightened mood dies, as one by one the queens notice the uncomfortable shifting of the pink queen.

"Are you alright darling?" Jane asks, her voice having a tender type of mood to it.

"Yes. I just don't like to talk about......anyway. Hello! I'm Katherine Howard! But, I guess you can call me Kat so we don't get confused. I'm 19, and my Glow is pink." The fifth queen notices the small glances towards her neck, but tries her best to ignore it. They're probably just concerned, anyway. "Before Henry....I um....let's just say.....that I never really had a childhood. Not childhood. I had that. I um....didn't have normal teenage years? Screw it, I was sexually assaulted twice. The first when I was 13, the second around 15. I became a lady in waiting to Anna, actually, then around the time he was getting his divorce all settled in, he started to notice me. At this point, I had given up on my Glow and just decided to go along with everything he said. After we were married, I already expected to be sexually assaulted again, so it didn't hurt as much. But anyway, one day, I was walking around the halls, when I had my Glow. Completely out of the blue. Someone saw it, and told Henry that I was cheating on him. Then I got beheaded."

The queens can't begin to imagine all the pain this child, well, 19 year old, had gone through in her past life. And then to be beheaded after finding her soulmate? Catherine and Anne do their best to now show any flinching. She had been through the same thing they had. Though, her plate had already been a lot more full than theirs.

"I guess that just leaves me... Hello, my name is Catherine Parr. I suppose you can call me Cathy. I'm 22, and my Glow is blue. I had been married twice before Henry, though, both of them died before anything else really happened. When I started working in court officially, Henry saw me and made me his wife. Though, the entire situation had been a bit awkward for me as I had had my Glow prior to the marriage. Though, you can't really say no to the king." Kat notices how the sixth queen leaves out what happened to her soulmate. Does she remember? "We stayed married until he died. Not much to say about what happened afterward." 

Congratulations! You all are just that much closer! YAY!

"..I-I'm not the only one who heard that...right?"

Oh don't worry, you're not crazy. It's me! The Helper! Or, that's my code name, hehe. I'm so glad you guys are all getting along well, and that you've gotten all this heavy story stuff out of the way! If you don't feel comfortable using the phones yet, or you just need help with things, just ask! Of course, you can only talk to me inside the house. We gotta have some constraints now don't we?

"Uhh...."

Guys, I know it's all a lot to take in, but try not to think about specifics too much. It'll only hurt your brains. I can only respond to one of you at a time, so if I don't respond, I'm talking to someone else. Another reason why you might want to get used to using the phones... But anyway! Welcome to the 21st century! Trust me, "If it takes [reincarnation] for [you] to meet, it will have been worth it. I'll leave you to it!"

The queens can tell that 'The Helper' is referring to something, but what specifically, none of them know. But they suppose that living with each other isn't going to be hard. What will be hard is getting used to the new technology that's all around them.

But it can't be that hard. Right?