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A Very Strange Love Story: Chapter 1

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His eyes locked against mine suddenly, and I felt a pang go through my chest.

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why this dirty, sweaty, unkempt man, soaked with the stink of alcohol and labor, was staring me dead in the face. As my eyes slowly slid to my suitor's for support, I saw that Alexei was also staring at the mysterious man, just as I was.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Alexei finally pointed out, "erm, Mikhail, you do realize it's inappropriate to just stare at a young lady like that?"

Mikhail, as I now knew the stranger to be called, snapped to attention at Alexei's prompt words and broke his gaze from mine, turning to Alexei.

For a moment, it looked as though Mikhail was seriously about to say something appropriate. What ended up coming out of Mikhail's mouth was quite simply, "Interesting. I have to return to my post".

Within a moment of saying those words, Mikhail was out of grasp. Alexei stopped me from turning to pursue him.

"Sorry Viktorya," Alexei said calmly, "sometimes Mikhail gets a little unpredictable. He's a nice guy, but he's a bit..." Alexei paused.

"...of his own man".

I couldn't quite understand what Alexei was implying by "his own man", but I resigned myself to just agreeing and allowing Alexei to change the topic.

We sat back down at our seats, looking out over the terrace at the rest of Ignoliya. Here upon our perch, we could bask in the warm glow of the sun as we gazed down upon the common-folk in the squares and churches below.

We, above, would one day be the rulers and wives (in my case) within the elite class. Today, however, we were just young heirs and heiresses, put to our first real social duty of courting and producing our own future heirs. The annual courting ball was just around the corner, and I was of age.

I looked around for a moment, as Alexei Kazimir III sat across from me, quietly stirring exactly three spoonfuls of honey into his tea.

Something he apparently had a habit of doing: one of many odd habits, so I'd heard: multiplicities of three. I'd been told to put up with Alexei regardless of this. He was someone my uncle had particular eyes for.

I'm sure setting your niece up with a candidate to take the throne has perks. Alexei's bloodline, strength, and various friendships within the elite echelons would earn him a promising, sustainable career in life, unless he did something quite dishonorable to lose him of all of these. With his honor intact, even the possibility of being skimmed over in favor of another candidate when the succession would eventually come would do his future no harm. Candidacy requires a strong background in many factors, and thus, even mere candidacy does a young nobleman many favors.

Nevermind if he were to succeed to the throne...I couldn't imagine how powerful he would become...

And with that power and status came many young women to court him. When Alexei's arrival was announced, a swarm of eligible girls immediately surrounded him. I wasn't included in that group, but it so happened that my uncle got in contact with his father while other guests were still arriving to the ball. Despite having made no personal contact with him, I was one of the girls that Alexei approached for conversation as the night went on.

I must have done something right without intending to. He invited me to sit with him on the terrace for tea: something he didn't do with the others.

And so, there we were. Three spoons of honey in a teacup and all. The only thing I've yet to explain is Mikhail.

Another thing that was strange about Alexei was his taste in color choices. I watched carefully as he picked up his teacup with one hand, steadying his saucer just below it with the other. From under his well-kept gray coat, I could see the cuffs of pastel-yellow sleeves. This was certainly an odd sort of thing to wear with local fashions and customs dictating red and purple as "preferred" colors for men at this time, but I couldn't find a reason to bring the matter up to him.

Who questions an heir to the throne?

Searching for conversation, my mind flashed back to Mikhail.

"So what did you say he did again?" I asked Alexei casually.

"Oh, him?" Alexei smiled. "He's my favorite of all my former whipping-boys. Of course, he isn't anymore. Now-a-days that unassuming drunkard friend of mine is a very respectable Cavalry Lieutenant when he isn't at his cups. A rather cynical, cold-hearted, iron-willed Lieutenant, but a Lieutenant all the same..."

He quickly locked eye-contact with me, with a bit of command in his gaze. The next words seemed more as imperial orders than words between those in the beginning phases of courting.

"But enough about him. I apologize, by the way, for interrupting your interesting story to call him over, but I really do like to keep tabs on him. He'd be lost without me".

"Tell me about you," Alexei asked. "You're an interesting one from what I heard before meeting you, Viktorya Ivanov".

With my name, his eyes seemed to trail downward, past my face and to my light, lilac-colored dress. It didn't seem that he was sizing me up for lusts, so much as he was analyzing me. This was a potential future king, after all. He could have all the bed-mates he asked: he wasn't here for that. He was here to find a wife.

"Well, I'm from Naltiv, originally, although my uncle is from Weskerhaus. He came over to care for me after my parents died in a carriage accident".

Alexei's eyes widened a bit. "How unfortunate," I heard him say quietly. He hesitated a moment before expressing his condolences and asking if I was alright.

"I'm alright," I said quickly. "My uncle said I went into a very catatonic state afterward. I don't remember much of those times, but I was young. I was only 12 years old".

Alexei nodded. "Well, if there's ever anything I can do..."

I said nothing. I didn't want to offend him, but I also wondered in that moment if he really thought he could do anything.

In my silence, Alexei recoiled for a moment before extending the palm of his hand towards me. A glimmer of light radiated from his palm, manifesting with a slight tinge of yellow before slowly turning into an awesome pale white glow. It molded itself, taking shape and hardening. As it formed, the glow began to dissipate.

A moment later, I was presented with the white, long-stemmed rose that Alexei had conjured for me. A symbol of condolence, in Ignoliya.

"My sincerest condolences. Hopefully the next one I make for you will be as red as blood".

"Red as blood?" I asked.

"A proper gift for such a remarkable young woman," Alexei smiled. "You intrigue me".

---

Alexei was soon drawn away to visit with some other woman, and I walked down through the terrace, through the many courtyards, to make my way to my lodgings. I was tired, and with Alexei having conjured up a visible token of affection (albeit by condolence) for me, many other men seemed too intimidated to speak with me.

As I made my way down to the many suites, furnished by the royals for those partaking of the season, I noticed Mikhail again.

He noticed me back, and quickly locked eye-contact with me again.

I became annoyed.

"Is there a reason that you keep staring at me?"

Mikhail recoiled and looked away.

"Force of habit," he muttered. "What are you doing here, girl?"

"Going home. Why did you address me as girl? How rude of you!"

"Rude of me?" Mikhail raised an eyebrow. "Are you not a girl? Yet you wear a dress..."

"One might consider using the name of the person you address when speaking! I would call you Mikhail, rather than boy!"

"You can call me boy, that's what I am," Mikhail said bluntly.

My manners kicked in. "You're far too rude to address on first-name basis," I said. "But since I was raised better, why don't I just call you Lieutenant?"

"Lieutenant sounds just fine to me, girl, that's also what I am..."

He could probably see the frustration rising upon my face.

"Would you like to be walked home?" He asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"It's quite late at night, and a young woman such as yourself should not be unaccompanied while trying to reach her domicile".

As soon as Mikhail mentioned this, I realized that I hadn't gone back to inform my uncle of how tired I had gotten.

"You just reminded me of something, Lieutenant," I smiled, "and for that, I'd like to thank you and bid you a pleasant night. I really have to get back to that something..." I said, turning around and heading back up towards the courtyards.

"Don't you live down there?" Mikhail asked, pointing towards the direction I had originally intended to go.

"I have lodgings there, but I forgot that my uncle was waiting for me," I said. "It's actually quite well that you reminded me of that, lest my uncle not be pleased with my failing to seek his permission to leave".

"Well," Mikhail said suddenly, "it's quite late at night, and a young woman such as yourself should not be unaccompanied while trying to reach her uncle".

"Of what business is it to you that I reach my destination safely?"

Mikhail answered quickly, "oh, not just you, but all the young bachelorettes up for marriage this year. I am a Lieutenant, after all. My job is to ensure the safety of the populace".

He quipped, "now let me ensure your safety. I'll stop pestering you after I see to it you reach your uncle".
A Very Strange Love Story is an attempt at romance literature for me. It's inspired off of quite a few different things of which I've seen over the years, from my own relationships (note that I said the plural of the word), and several stories and characters I've seen, the most recent of which I discovered a couple days ago.

Now of course this is as much a test of compliance and endurance as it is romance writing, but one of the things that's certainly unique to other stories I have up on DA is that it isn't entirely written yet. Instead of coming up with the story and trying to write it out and failing to comply with myself, I now make this my own little surprise to myself.

Within reason. Some things are obviously already thought out.

The narrator is Viktorya. At the time of her narration, the events of the story have already passed, although we have yet to see the results.

As Viktorya comes of age and makes her way through the seasonal courtship rituals of the elite within her kingdom, she makes several discoveries about herself and those she knows that will change her life forever. Along the way, she finds a strange love and gets married...but the result is not entirely what she expects.

Chapter 1 is just an introduction of a few interesting characters. I have much more somewhere.

EDIT: Chapter 2 is up. liliumrosette.deviantart.com/a…
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