As she began her journey to the capital of Illyria, Epirus, she had time to contemplate what may be expected of her, if the King accepted her father's offer, Amir had mentioned slavery during some of the discussion she overheard, but there was so much uncertainty in what was actually expected of her and what her future would be like. Iris was innocent to the point that anything she knew of what was expected between a man and his wife was from the books and the snippets she heard from the maids who were married. But those stories were always between a man and his wife. Iris is just a woman, who at the ripe age of 19 has always been petite compared to other ladies her age. This line of thinking exhausted her to the point that she refused to think about it further.
She didn't know much of the King. King William the Great was his official name. She had caught a glimpse of him years before at her first ball in the capital. He stood tall with his ruffled dirty blonde hair, steele-blue eyes and his facial features unmistakably handsome. He had danced with one of the ladies at court and the other ladies were left disappointed when he left soon afterwards with her.
Everyone knew of King William's reputation and many threw their daughters at him hoping they will become the next queen of Illyria, but by his actions the King did not appear to have any plans of settling down. His focus seemed to be extending his empire by conquering as much land as possible. For now he was succeeding, though his enemies were continuously growing. Thus, it came as no surprise that when the Melrose family finally arrived at the castle after a 10 hour journey, everything in their possession were thoroughly checked and any weapons or make-shift weapons were confiscated.
They were then escorted to the great hall to await the King's presence.
After an hour one of the guards came to announce that the King will be late and although all three bowed at the news as a show of compliance, Iris saw Amir ball his hands into a fist and after the guard left, whispered to their father that this is to 'humiliate our family further'.
Iris took this time to take in her surroundings; she had only visited the palace a few times before but was always led to the ballroom and never saw the great hall before. It had domed shaped ceilings with painting of how the Illyrian line of Kings began. The windows were large and rectangular, traveling from the ceiling to the floor. She had also been very vigilant about her surroundings even on the car ride up-to the capital; The tip of the castle was what caught Iris's eye as they neared Epirus, she had made this journey to Epirus only three times in the past but was never before aware of her surroundings as she was now. Little by little the castle made out of marble appeared before her eyes. It was the tallest building in all of Illyria, built by King William's great-great grandfather, King Henry, the conqueror of the East, she recalled from one of her history books. Iris snapped out of her reverie, when she heard the door of the great hall open once more, this time with a guard announcing the entry of King William.
-
It had been a tumultuous day for King William; he had sat in countless number of meetings to discuss exportation of goods to Thessaly, his newly conquered land in the West, and the turbulent prison system to accommodate the continuously growing captured soldiers from the West. There was a topic of discussion towards the end that peaked his interest above all else; the resistance to the Crown that has been brewing in the out-skirts of the East. He of all people know that one must secure the land in their possession before venturing off to capture more, and during interrogation of some of the resistance members, one family's name above all escaped their lips before their inevitable torturous deaths. The Melrose family. He had knowledge of their debts to the Crown and was set to send soldiers to confiscate their properties and imprison the males for execution but not before getting any information in the most painful way he could think of. His vigilance and blood lust was why he presumes he is successful at expanding his Kingdom.
The King as an after thought contemplated what to do with the women of the family, and decided upon the standard and his favorite; selling the women to the slave trade but not before they had satisfied his soldiers that were sent to capture them. So he was very surprised to find a letter from Kenneth Melrose for a meeting personally with him and a notion of a 'surprise gift'. The King decided to entertain himself and agreed to a meeting. This will make things easier for him in any case.
He entered the great hall and all three subjects greeted him with a low bow to the floor, the two males stood up while the woman remained on her knees keeping her eyes downcast. He immediately recognized Kenneth from the annual Capital meetings. He was a stocky burly man with a round belly, probably eating way too much than he can afford or deserves, the King thought. Kenneth bowed his head when he stood up, "your majesty, it is a pleasure to meet you in person, thank you for your time!" He then pointed to the other male, "this is Amir my oldest son," and Amir bowed his head in response.
