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HelpHouse of Xavia -2
in reply to a message by La Reina
Siân
Monarch: Ciprian Juris Leighton Adelino Xavia
Consort: Dariena Lys [Airelen] Xavia
S: Crispyn Leamon Domenick Xavia
D: Vyvienne Yevgenia Iseult Xavia
Pretending these spellings are totally normal in their land.
This "chapter" will have to backtrack a little to tell a complete story.
Let's tell what's happened between the last "chapter" and this one.
Also, Savendir is pronounced SAV-vehn-deer.
Ecafor (EH-kah-fore) is the capital where Bruna Castle is located. Ecafor is an anagram of A-Force.
This one gets a little risqué during the diary excerpts. This is your warning. Skip the italics if you actually read this and don’t want to read that part.
After meeting Crispyn, Ciprian had convinced Macsén to handle things happening in Ecafor and allow him to go to Savendir and visit Crispyn's mother.
The journey from the capital to Savendir took three days. Father and son sat side by side on the way to the city and discussed everything they could think of. Ciprian told the boy he enjoyed falconry. Crispyn told the King he enjoyed drawing and even promised to draw his picture once they were settled somewhere. They discussed songs they liked and stories they had been told. Ciprian told Crispyn stories about the stars and Crispyn told Ciprian stories he and his friends had made up while playing around the stream near his home. Both of them admitted to having sometimes pretended they were pirates and sometimes pretending they fought dragons and sea monsters. On the second day, Crispyn fell asleep against Ciprian's side hours into the journey and it was all Ciprian could do not to pull the child to him and hold him tightly.
The worn out, feverish girl he was met with upon arriving at the Nolwyn cottage was nothing he remembered of the Tullie he once knew. She was weary and hard to understand, her voice so weak from the illness.
Crispyn was curled up next to her in a matter of seconds, but almost immediately his grandmother was yelling at him to wash up from the road.
Tullie spent that night whispering to Ciprian about their past and about their child. They talked about things since the end of the war and about Ciprian's new wife. Tullie said she hadn't thought about marriage. Her concern was for Crispyn. Ciprian promised to take him back to Ecafor, to Bruna Castle and to bring up as a prince.
Tullie died on a Wednesday. Syla Nolwyn played it strong, but Crispyn was inconsolable and he didn't talk much at all on his way back to Bruna Castle.
The first night, Ciprian himself tucked the little prince into his new bed. He fluffed his pillows and pulled up the covers and tucked them in tightly around the boy. He left a cup of water next to the bed and put another piece of wood on the fire to make sure it would stay burning. Then he told Crispyn goodnight and left him to sleep.
Crispyn had managed to fall asleep, but woke back up a few hours later and the isolation he felt at being alone in his new, large bed and overwhelming. He began to cry outright and within a few minutes was crawling out of bed and going in search of his father. Instead, he found Dariena. She awoke to the sound of crying in the corridor and crept from bed. The sight of Crispyn sobbing, standing barefoot in his night gown and with dark hair everywhere melted her heart. She may have been upset with Ciprian, but she couldn't hold a thing against the little boy.
"Crispyn?" she asked as warmly as possibly. "Come here."
The little boy ran to her and clung to her body, reaching up and wrapping his arms around her. Dariena reached down and held the child, allowing him to cry into her dress. She walked him into the sitting room and sat down, pulling him to her side. Crispyn sobbed as they talked. He told her about his grandmother that had insisted on staying in Savendir. He told her how he missed his mother.
“I miss my mother too,” Dariena replied. “She died when I was seven like you and left me and my brother all alone. My father died before I was born so I don’t remember him at all. I’m from the south too, from Savendir.”
“Like me?”
“Like you. I bet we’re a lot like, you and me,” she told him and the child nodded.
“Do you like it here?” he asked her, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
“Well, it’s a lot colder in the winters. And it’s much more beautiful in the fall. The leaves on all the leaves change colours. I had never seen that until I moved here. Have you seen that before?”
Crispyn shook his head. “What colours?”
“Different ones. Some turn yellow and some turn orange. All different shades of red, some so deep they even look purple.”
“Blue?” Crispyn asked.
“I don’t think they turn blue, but who knows,” she told him. “They are a delight to see.”
“You can still see stars here,” Crispyn told her and Dariena smiled.
“Yes, and you know what? Your grandmother can see those same stars when she looks outside in Savendir.” Little Crispyn’s eyes grew wide and he moved so he could look up through the glassed in window overhead. “But I want you to keep something else in mind now that you live here, okay?”
Crispyn looked at her apprehensively.
“We’re your family too. I know we’re new to you, but we care about you just as much as your grandmother does and we want you to like it here.”
“Muma said,” Crispyn stated with a look of remembrance, “That I was a part of the royal family, but I couldn’t live here because the King would have other children and there wouldn’t be enough room for me. She said that there was only enough room for the Queen’s children and the other princes and Princess Adalyn."
“She said that?” Dariena asked. “I bet she didn’t know how big our house was. We have room for you here and you may live here as long as you want.”
“Do I have to live with the Queen’s children?” he asked and Dariena laughed.
“No, no,” she told him, reaching to brush black curls back from his face. “I am the Queen and I don’t have any children yet. You’re the only child here except for Princess Adalyn. But can you keep a secret?”
Crispyn nodded his head and his curls bounced.
“There will be another child living here by winter.”
“Really?” Crsipyn asked. “Who?”
“I’m going to have a baby,” Dariena told him with a soft smile. “You’re going to be a big brother, but don’t tell the King, okay? Not yet. It’s going to be our secret until later, alright?”
Crispyn nodded again. “Why don’t you tell him?”
Dariena wasn’t sure what to say to a child so she just replied, “I’m going to wait and surprise him on his birthday.” It wasn’t true and Ciprian’s birthday wasn’t for another three months, but it appeased the child and gave her time to think. She and Crispyn talked a little more until they both fell asleep on the large sofa, curled up head to head. Sometime during the night, Crispyn’s fingers found their way into Dariena’s hair and he ran a lock of it through his fingers soothingly until he fell asleep deeply enough not to wake again until morning.
***
Dariena met Ciprian with a cold reserve the next day. The guard at the door alerted Ciprian to her presence and he stopped writing and looked up at her with confusion. She stepped into the room and closed the door before saying cooly, “I talked to Crispyn last night. He’ll live here, eat with the family, be taught by the best teachers, and have the best staff. He will attend festivities with us and we will include him during holidays and leisurely trips. He’ll be attended to no differently than anyone else in this family. He will have respect and honor. He’s your child and you’ll treat him as the prince he is. However you acquired him will not reflect upon him.”
Ciprian stood up and considered Dariena where she stood. “You have my word,” he swore despite not knowing where this was coming from. “He’ll be cared for as family should be. But Dariena,” Ciprian reached and pulled a box out from under the desk where he was sitting, “I think you should read these. These are Crispyn’s mother’s diaries. They start before I ever met her and continue up until a few weeks ago when she became too ill to write anymore. She gave them to me. She told me to read them and to save them for Crispyn. I read them all on the way back to Ecafor and I’ve been inspired. I started my own diary last night and I wrote sixteen pages in the first entry!” He motioned to what he had been writing on the desk and it was an open book showing two pages that were mostly blank. The one bit of writing on the first page was clearly carried over from the previous page and Dariena looked at it a moment before reaching and taking the box of diaries from his hands.
***
14 May
I have found myself in the strangest and perhaps most dangerous of situations. Yesterday, I was walking down the way toward the water when someone stopped me and invited me into the royal house where the Prince Ioncu and Princess Dariena lived before they were arrested. The northerners have taken it now. My heart sped up. At first I thought the man speaking to me was one of those mouthy Bejagatian patrols, but when I looked twice, I saw the men standing around him weren’t there to witness him bothering me, but were there to attend to him while he tried to persuade me into his quarters. He introduced himself as Ciprian. I told him my name was Tullie. In my mind, I told myself it was better to go inside than to run. It was obvious he had a lot of power. I didn’t want to be on the bad end of that. I entered with only the bag on my back and my heart beat so swiftly I thought I might pass out! He was kind to me, but I kept waiting for his next move, so sure he would turn on me any second, prove to me what the Bejagatians have always when it comes to taking things. His men had food brought to us and he asked me things about the war. How had my family been fairing? Were the soldiers treating the city fairly enough, despite the war? Was there anything he could get me to make things easier on me or my family despite the current hardships? He even asked me about any intended husband. I told him there wasn’t anyone. Maybe I should have told him there was. Last night, he invited me into his rooms and the fear that gripped me when I first entered the house washed over me again, but I let him have what he wanted. He had me take a bath and then took me to his bed where he used my body repeatedly throughout the night. I slept in between and I don’t know how. But he never forced anything on me and I never tried to stop him. I don’t know what that says about me. Also, I spent the night thinking he was a high commanding officer. Imagine my surprise this morning when his hand servant referred to him as “Your Highness.” He’s a Xavia!
22 May
It’s only been a week and I am already settling here with Ciprian. I am getting used to the sour fruits he has brought to us from Bejagat. I am getting along quite well with the ice cream as well. It’s better than what he have here, richer and creamier. It must be nice to be a prince and be able to afford such luxury. Ciprian said that as long as the ports remain open, they can import the sugar required to make it. I wonder if the secret reason his war is being fought is to determine which country gets the better ice cream. I guess it is lucky for me that Bejagat is winning.
27 June
For the first time in over a week, I didn’t wake to Ciprian’s head beneath the covers. He was already awake and out of bed. In fact, he spent hours today speaking quietly in the closed off area with the other officers that are still here. That’s four days that they’ve been staying with us. I am growing quite tired of them and am hoping that the long meetings they are having today will mean they have things to do soon and will be on their way.
29 June
There is chaos in the streets. The King is dead. People have been rioting at the gates all morning. Things have been thrown over the walls and at the guards. I couldn’t keep myself from crying, but Ciprian said he was a “callous bastard.”
7 July
Ciprian took me to bed in triumph today and we stayed there for much of the afternoon. He finally told me we were celebrating Veraseng’s surrender. I am a citizen of Bejagat.
24 July
Our new King Thanuselm died a few days ago from a bee sting! It would be funny if I didn’t know Ciprian was in so much pain. What’s even more unbelievable, Ciprian has succeeded his father in becoming the new King of our land.
11 August
I haven’t felt much like writing. My whole world has changed in so short a time. Ciprian departed Savendir and left only troops behind to patrol. I am back at home with my mother. I am with child. She is outraged.
22 February
I’ve been saving the money Ciprian gave me last year for when the baby arrived. Now that Crispyn’s here, I couldn’t have imagined how many things cost so much money. Orlandis made him a cradle and refuses to charge me. He said if I want, to pretend that it’s on loan and to give it back to him when he and Mella have a baby of their own.
10 July
It’s been a year since I’ve seen Ciprian, but I hear or see something about him almost weekly in the news. I wish he could see Crispyn. It’s nearly every day I notice something else in him that reminds me he’s a Xavia. They are so much alike- father and son. I think Ciprian would adore him.
***
Dariena had read through all of the diaries in a few days. As she went, she wrote her own notes on where to find little passes to share with Crispyn during especially hard times, lines about how special he was and how much his mother had loved him. She marked little tips to remember about Tullie’s pregnancy as well. Growing up without many females in her life had left her to learn about many things on her own. It was nice to hear something feminine talked about by another woman even if it was only in written form. She looked at the lists when she finished writing them and then collected herself and went to talk to Ciprian.
***
The whole royal family was delighted to learn Ciprian and Dariena were expecting an heir, but the family sent out the proclamation to the country with the headline: King and Queen Announce Heirs. They received mixed feelings from their subjects about the announcement that Ciprian had fathered a child with a commoner during the war. Some were less upset about that and were more upset that he hadn’t acknowledged the child before this point. Overall however, everyone seemed pleased to find out Dariena was expecting.
Only Dariena was bedridden and doctors kept having to tend to her for headaches and nausea. She complained of the brightness during the daylight and they had to install dark curtains to block out the light. During the evenings, she complained about the candles and they had to put covers high around them. Ciprian kept watch outside her wing, but she rarely had anyone permitted to come into the room where she rested. Anyone except Crispyn who was allowed to visit her and would often carry information from her to Ciprian waiting outside and sometimes from Ciprian to Dariena. He would curl up in the bed next to her and tell her what he had been learning in class. He was learning enough to read simple books and he read them to both his parents regularly. And steadily too, Crispyn told his unborn sibling goodnight each night, settling down next to Dariena and talking to her growing middle.
Then the day came when a guard stopped Crispyn at the door.
“No one is allowed in. The heir is arriving,” he was told and he went outside and sat down next to his father. It was past midnight when they were finally allowed to enter, but even then it wasn’t the joyous moment Ciprian had hoped it would be. Everyone was hushed as they spoke and tended to Dariena and the child.
“Ciprian, she-“ Dariena whispered as she cradled the newborn child in her arms. “She’s so small.”
Ciprian looked at the delicate child swaddled in his wife’s arms and his heart found its way to his throat. The princess was so still she looked lifeless.
“She barely made a sound,” Dariena whispered and Crispyn looked over the edge of the bed at his tiny new sister. “She’s so thin and you can feel right to her bones.”
Hesitantly, Ciprian reached out for the baby and Dariena passed the infant over ever so gently. She looked lost in Ciprian’s large hands.
“I want to see her,” Crispyn whined and Cipran knelt down with the new princess held against his chest.
“She’s so small. We have to be careful.”
“All you can do is pray now, Your Majesty,” a nurse said quietly and Ciprian nodded.
They named her Vyvienne in hope that she would hold on to life and they sat vigil with her at all times. Religious leaders came and prayed over her. Crispyn did the same.
“The gods have never protected anyone I’ve known,” Ciprian said bitterly one night.
Dariena bit her tongue and didn’t reply, “Nor anyone I have."
“She’s going to get well,” Crispyn said every day to one of his parents or one of the nurses. He said it to Ioncu when he went with Dariena to visit him. He said it to his teachers and to the butlers, cooks, and various household servants. “You’re going to get well soon,” he told the princess.
One night Ciprian realized he had fallen asleep with his head in his hands next to the crib when he was awakened by a wailing cry. The child wasn’t big enough for the sound to carry very far, but it brought tears to the King’s eyes.
“You’re getting better,” he told the crying child as Dariena hurried over. “You’re getting better, Vyvienne."
Monarch: Ciprian Juris Leighton Adelino Xavia
Consort: Dariena Lys [Airelen] Xavia
S: Crispyn Leamon Domenick Xavia
D: Vyvienne Yevgenia Iseult Xavia
Pretending these spellings are totally normal in their land.
This "chapter" will have to backtrack a little to tell a complete story.
Let's tell what's happened between the last "chapter" and this one.
Also, Savendir is pronounced SAV-vehn-deer.
Ecafor (EH-kah-fore) is the capital where Bruna Castle is located. Ecafor is an anagram of A-Force.
This one gets a little risqué during the diary excerpts. This is your warning. Skip the italics if you actually read this and don’t want to read that part.
After meeting Crispyn, Ciprian had convinced Macsén to handle things happening in Ecafor and allow him to go to Savendir and visit Crispyn's mother.
The journey from the capital to Savendir took three days. Father and son sat side by side on the way to the city and discussed everything they could think of. Ciprian told the boy he enjoyed falconry. Crispyn told the King he enjoyed drawing and even promised to draw his picture once they were settled somewhere. They discussed songs they liked and stories they had been told. Ciprian told Crispyn stories about the stars and Crispyn told Ciprian stories he and his friends had made up while playing around the stream near his home. Both of them admitted to having sometimes pretended they were pirates and sometimes pretending they fought dragons and sea monsters. On the second day, Crispyn fell asleep against Ciprian's side hours into the journey and it was all Ciprian could do not to pull the child to him and hold him tightly.
The worn out, feverish girl he was met with upon arriving at the Nolwyn cottage was nothing he remembered of the Tullie he once knew. She was weary and hard to understand, her voice so weak from the illness.
Crispyn was curled up next to her in a matter of seconds, but almost immediately his grandmother was yelling at him to wash up from the road.
Tullie spent that night whispering to Ciprian about their past and about their child. They talked about things since the end of the war and about Ciprian's new wife. Tullie said she hadn't thought about marriage. Her concern was for Crispyn. Ciprian promised to take him back to Ecafor, to Bruna Castle and to bring up as a prince.
Tullie died on a Wednesday. Syla Nolwyn played it strong, but Crispyn was inconsolable and he didn't talk much at all on his way back to Bruna Castle.
The first night, Ciprian himself tucked the little prince into his new bed. He fluffed his pillows and pulled up the covers and tucked them in tightly around the boy. He left a cup of water next to the bed and put another piece of wood on the fire to make sure it would stay burning. Then he told Crispyn goodnight and left him to sleep.
Crispyn had managed to fall asleep, but woke back up a few hours later and the isolation he felt at being alone in his new, large bed and overwhelming. He began to cry outright and within a few minutes was crawling out of bed and going in search of his father. Instead, he found Dariena. She awoke to the sound of crying in the corridor and crept from bed. The sight of Crispyn sobbing, standing barefoot in his night gown and with dark hair everywhere melted her heart. She may have been upset with Ciprian, but she couldn't hold a thing against the little boy.
"Crispyn?" she asked as warmly as possibly. "Come here."
The little boy ran to her and clung to her body, reaching up and wrapping his arms around her. Dariena reached down and held the child, allowing him to cry into her dress. She walked him into the sitting room and sat down, pulling him to her side. Crispyn sobbed as they talked. He told her about his grandmother that had insisted on staying in Savendir. He told her how he missed his mother.
“I miss my mother too,” Dariena replied. “She died when I was seven like you and left me and my brother all alone. My father died before I was born so I don’t remember him at all. I’m from the south too, from Savendir.”
“Like me?”
“Like you. I bet we’re a lot like, you and me,” she told him and the child nodded.
“Do you like it here?” he asked her, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
“Well, it’s a lot colder in the winters. And it’s much more beautiful in the fall. The leaves on all the leaves change colours. I had never seen that until I moved here. Have you seen that before?”
Crispyn shook his head. “What colours?”
“Different ones. Some turn yellow and some turn orange. All different shades of red, some so deep they even look purple.”
“Blue?” Crispyn asked.
“I don’t think they turn blue, but who knows,” she told him. “They are a delight to see.”
“You can still see stars here,” Crispyn told her and Dariena smiled.
“Yes, and you know what? Your grandmother can see those same stars when she looks outside in Savendir.” Little Crispyn’s eyes grew wide and he moved so he could look up through the glassed in window overhead. “But I want you to keep something else in mind now that you live here, okay?”
Crispyn looked at her apprehensively.
“We’re your family too. I know we’re new to you, but we care about you just as much as your grandmother does and we want you to like it here.”
“Muma said,” Crispyn stated with a look of remembrance, “That I was a part of the royal family, but I couldn’t live here because the King would have other children and there wouldn’t be enough room for me. She said that there was only enough room for the Queen’s children and the other princes and Princess Adalyn."
“She said that?” Dariena asked. “I bet she didn’t know how big our house was. We have room for you here and you may live here as long as you want.”
“Do I have to live with the Queen’s children?” he asked and Dariena laughed.
“No, no,” she told him, reaching to brush black curls back from his face. “I am the Queen and I don’t have any children yet. You’re the only child here except for Princess Adalyn. But can you keep a secret?”
Crispyn nodded his head and his curls bounced.
“There will be another child living here by winter.”
“Really?” Crsipyn asked. “Who?”
“I’m going to have a baby,” Dariena told him with a soft smile. “You’re going to be a big brother, but don’t tell the King, okay? Not yet. It’s going to be our secret until later, alright?”
Crispyn nodded again. “Why don’t you tell him?”
Dariena wasn’t sure what to say to a child so she just replied, “I’m going to wait and surprise him on his birthday.” It wasn’t true and Ciprian’s birthday wasn’t for another three months, but it appeased the child and gave her time to think. She and Crispyn talked a little more until they both fell asleep on the large sofa, curled up head to head. Sometime during the night, Crispyn’s fingers found their way into Dariena’s hair and he ran a lock of it through his fingers soothingly until he fell asleep deeply enough not to wake again until morning.
***
Dariena met Ciprian with a cold reserve the next day. The guard at the door alerted Ciprian to her presence and he stopped writing and looked up at her with confusion. She stepped into the room and closed the door before saying cooly, “I talked to Crispyn last night. He’ll live here, eat with the family, be taught by the best teachers, and have the best staff. He will attend festivities with us and we will include him during holidays and leisurely trips. He’ll be attended to no differently than anyone else in this family. He will have respect and honor. He’s your child and you’ll treat him as the prince he is. However you acquired him will not reflect upon him.”
Ciprian stood up and considered Dariena where she stood. “You have my word,” he swore despite not knowing where this was coming from. “He’ll be cared for as family should be. But Dariena,” Ciprian reached and pulled a box out from under the desk where he was sitting, “I think you should read these. These are Crispyn’s mother’s diaries. They start before I ever met her and continue up until a few weeks ago when she became too ill to write anymore. She gave them to me. She told me to read them and to save them for Crispyn. I read them all on the way back to Ecafor and I’ve been inspired. I started my own diary last night and I wrote sixteen pages in the first entry!” He motioned to what he had been writing on the desk and it was an open book showing two pages that were mostly blank. The one bit of writing on the first page was clearly carried over from the previous page and Dariena looked at it a moment before reaching and taking the box of diaries from his hands.
***
14 May
I have found myself in the strangest and perhaps most dangerous of situations. Yesterday, I was walking down the way toward the water when someone stopped me and invited me into the royal house where the Prince Ioncu and Princess Dariena lived before they were arrested. The northerners have taken it now. My heart sped up. At first I thought the man speaking to me was one of those mouthy Bejagatian patrols, but when I looked twice, I saw the men standing around him weren’t there to witness him bothering me, but were there to attend to him while he tried to persuade me into his quarters. He introduced himself as Ciprian. I told him my name was Tullie. In my mind, I told myself it was better to go inside than to run. It was obvious he had a lot of power. I didn’t want to be on the bad end of that. I entered with only the bag on my back and my heart beat so swiftly I thought I might pass out! He was kind to me, but I kept waiting for his next move, so sure he would turn on me any second, prove to me what the Bejagatians have always when it comes to taking things. His men had food brought to us and he asked me things about the war. How had my family been fairing? Were the soldiers treating the city fairly enough, despite the war? Was there anything he could get me to make things easier on me or my family despite the current hardships? He even asked me about any intended husband. I told him there wasn’t anyone. Maybe I should have told him there was. Last night, he invited me into his rooms and the fear that gripped me when I first entered the house washed over me again, but I let him have what he wanted. He had me take a bath and then took me to his bed where he used my body repeatedly throughout the night. I slept in between and I don’t know how. But he never forced anything on me and I never tried to stop him. I don’t know what that says about me. Also, I spent the night thinking he was a high commanding officer. Imagine my surprise this morning when his hand servant referred to him as “Your Highness.” He’s a Xavia!
22 May
It’s only been a week and I am already settling here with Ciprian. I am getting used to the sour fruits he has brought to us from Bejagat. I am getting along quite well with the ice cream as well. It’s better than what he have here, richer and creamier. It must be nice to be a prince and be able to afford such luxury. Ciprian said that as long as the ports remain open, they can import the sugar required to make it. I wonder if the secret reason his war is being fought is to determine which country gets the better ice cream. I guess it is lucky for me that Bejagat is winning.
27 June
For the first time in over a week, I didn’t wake to Ciprian’s head beneath the covers. He was already awake and out of bed. In fact, he spent hours today speaking quietly in the closed off area with the other officers that are still here. That’s four days that they’ve been staying with us. I am growing quite tired of them and am hoping that the long meetings they are having today will mean they have things to do soon and will be on their way.
29 June
There is chaos in the streets. The King is dead. People have been rioting at the gates all morning. Things have been thrown over the walls and at the guards. I couldn’t keep myself from crying, but Ciprian said he was a “callous bastard.”
7 July
Ciprian took me to bed in triumph today and we stayed there for much of the afternoon. He finally told me we were celebrating Veraseng’s surrender. I am a citizen of Bejagat.
24 July
Our new King Thanuselm died a few days ago from a bee sting! It would be funny if I didn’t know Ciprian was in so much pain. What’s even more unbelievable, Ciprian has succeeded his father in becoming the new King of our land.
11 August
I haven’t felt much like writing. My whole world has changed in so short a time. Ciprian departed Savendir and left only troops behind to patrol. I am back at home with my mother. I am with child. She is outraged.
22 February
I’ve been saving the money Ciprian gave me last year for when the baby arrived. Now that Crispyn’s here, I couldn’t have imagined how many things cost so much money. Orlandis made him a cradle and refuses to charge me. He said if I want, to pretend that it’s on loan and to give it back to him when he and Mella have a baby of their own.
10 July
It’s been a year since I’ve seen Ciprian, but I hear or see something about him almost weekly in the news. I wish he could see Crispyn. It’s nearly every day I notice something else in him that reminds me he’s a Xavia. They are so much alike- father and son. I think Ciprian would adore him.
***
Dariena had read through all of the diaries in a few days. As she went, she wrote her own notes on where to find little passes to share with Crispyn during especially hard times, lines about how special he was and how much his mother had loved him. She marked little tips to remember about Tullie’s pregnancy as well. Growing up without many females in her life had left her to learn about many things on her own. It was nice to hear something feminine talked about by another woman even if it was only in written form. She looked at the lists when she finished writing them and then collected herself and went to talk to Ciprian.
***
The whole royal family was delighted to learn Ciprian and Dariena were expecting an heir, but the family sent out the proclamation to the country with the headline: King and Queen Announce Heirs. They received mixed feelings from their subjects about the announcement that Ciprian had fathered a child with a commoner during the war. Some were less upset about that and were more upset that he hadn’t acknowledged the child before this point. Overall however, everyone seemed pleased to find out Dariena was expecting.
Only Dariena was bedridden and doctors kept having to tend to her for headaches and nausea. She complained of the brightness during the daylight and they had to install dark curtains to block out the light. During the evenings, she complained about the candles and they had to put covers high around them. Ciprian kept watch outside her wing, but she rarely had anyone permitted to come into the room where she rested. Anyone except Crispyn who was allowed to visit her and would often carry information from her to Ciprian waiting outside and sometimes from Ciprian to Dariena. He would curl up in the bed next to her and tell her what he had been learning in class. He was learning enough to read simple books and he read them to both his parents regularly. And steadily too, Crispyn told his unborn sibling goodnight each night, settling down next to Dariena and talking to her growing middle.
Then the day came when a guard stopped Crispyn at the door.
“No one is allowed in. The heir is arriving,” he was told and he went outside and sat down next to his father. It was past midnight when they were finally allowed to enter, but even then it wasn’t the joyous moment Ciprian had hoped it would be. Everyone was hushed as they spoke and tended to Dariena and the child.
“Ciprian, she-“ Dariena whispered as she cradled the newborn child in her arms. “She’s so small.”
Ciprian looked at the delicate child swaddled in his wife’s arms and his heart found its way to his throat. The princess was so still she looked lifeless.
“She barely made a sound,” Dariena whispered and Crispyn looked over the edge of the bed at his tiny new sister. “She’s so thin and you can feel right to her bones.”
Hesitantly, Ciprian reached out for the baby and Dariena passed the infant over ever so gently. She looked lost in Ciprian’s large hands.
“I want to see her,” Crispyn whined and Cipran knelt down with the new princess held against his chest.
“She’s so small. We have to be careful.”
“All you can do is pray now, Your Majesty,” a nurse said quietly and Ciprian nodded.
They named her Vyvienne in hope that she would hold on to life and they sat vigil with her at all times. Religious leaders came and prayed over her. Crispyn did the same.
“The gods have never protected anyone I’ve known,” Ciprian said bitterly one night.
Dariena bit her tongue and didn’t reply, “Nor anyone I have."
“She’s going to get well,” Crispyn said every day to one of his parents or one of the nurses. He said it to Ioncu when he went with Dariena to visit him. He said it to his teachers and to the butlers, cooks, and various household servants. “You’re going to get well soon,” he told the princess.
One night Ciprian realized he had fallen asleep with his head in his hands next to the crib when he was awakened by a wailing cry. The child wasn’t big enough for the sound to carry very far, but it brought tears to the King’s eyes.
“You’re getting better,” he told the crying child as Dariena hurried over. “You’re getting better, Vyvienne."
This message was edited 9/18/2015, 3:04 AM
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