As Edana left the throne room I still thought of her. As I washed off my makeup her face was in my head. And as I stepped into the brisk autumn air with my lute to my usual spot on the bench, I still went back to her.
I played the simple tune I always did, pressing my fingers to the fret board, humming silently to myself and the stars above me.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” a voice spoke from next to me, “I didn’t realize anyone was out here,”
I looked to my left and saw Edana in a robe covering a night gown and like I assumed, she was still the most beautiful woman I had ever seen with nothing luxurious adorning her.
She tilted her head, “Wait, aren’t you the jester?”
I let out a chuckle, “No one ever recognizes me without the makeup.”
She turned red, “Um…well…”
“Couldn’t sleep?” I smiled
She stopped her stuttering, “What?”
“That’s why you are out here, because you can’t sleep?”
Edana nodded her head, “Is that why you’re here?”
I shrugged, “It used to be, but now I just like to play,” I patted my hand on the seat next to me, “Do you want to sit for a little while?”
She walked over and sat next to me, “What’s that song you’re playing?”
“It’s just a little tune I’ve been fiddling with. It’s not finished.”
“You made it?”
“Yeah…”
“From what I heard, it was really good.”
My face became hot, “Oh, thanks.”
“Did you want to go into music?”
I nodded, brushing my hand over the strings, “Yeah, what about you?”
“What?”
“I’m sure you had another dream over being a ‘Grand Princess’. What was it?”
She blushed, “It’s silly,”
I gestured my hands to myself, “You are talking to the court fool, trust me, nothing is more silly than me”
“Well, I have always been interested in plants.”
I smiled, “Do you have a favorite?”
A small grin came across her face, “I like figs. The Celeste fig in particular. At home there is one in the garden, it produces the biggest leaves and sweetest fruits.”
“Maybe we can have it brought over?”
“Yeah, maybe,” Edana breathed out into the air and put her hand out to me, “We were never properly introduced. My name is Edana, and you?”
My name? No one asked for my name. I was just the jester, the fool. Never just-
“Marius,” I said, putting my hand in hers, “My name is Marius.”
We looked at each other for a moment, longer than what should have been. She looked at me not as the Jester, but as her equal.
I pulled away, the feelings brewing in my chest terrifying me.
I could not let these feelings overtake me.
***
The next day I didn’t see her until dinner. A feast was rolled out for the royals, just as there always was. Lamb, steak, potatoes, carrots, bread, corn, and the finest meads lined the wood table as the four of them sat around it. My duty at this time was to perform. I learned circus tricks from Tyler, my friend from school. He taught me spinning plates and yo-yo tricks, all of which I’ve worked on for the half decade spent in these old halls.
I balanced the stick the plate was spinning on on the tip of my nose and did my routine of yo-yo tricks. The King was entertained by this show like always as the prince talked on about his hunting to the emperor.
“So I cornered the deer in the forest,” Reginald gloated, “There was nowhere to run. Seeing the fear in its eyes always makes me feel powerful. I like that it knows that its life is in my hands. And then I shot my arrow, hitting it square in the eye.”
I will not deny that he is good at what he does, but anyone who kills for power does not deserve respect. Someday he will be King and then we all should be worried.
The Emperor made an impressed sound, “You should take my daughter hunting, show her your power.”
I finished my act and bowed dramatically, getting the pleased claps from the King and Edana.
“If she is entertained by the jester I doubt she would like my hunting,” Regniald sneered
Edana tired to speak but the emperor cut her off, “She wouldn’t appreciate the art of it I think,”
“Most women can’t,” The Prince yelled through a full mouth of food.
Edana looked defeated, moving her carrots around the plate. I didn’t know how to help her now, if there was anything I could say or do, so I waited until I was out of my uniform and went to the balcony with a bit of hope that she was there tonight. To both my shock and pleasure, she was already there.
The moment she saw me it was like an explosion went off.
“I hate them, Marius!” She yelled, pacing the wall, “They talked about me like I didn’t exist! Like I was just some dumb girl! I am not some dumb girl! I am the only one of my five brothers who can read in their head. I can run tests to determine oil acidity. And I might be the only one who sees killing for sport is a sign that someone is not fit to run a kingdom!”
She exhaled like she was releasing all of her anger into the air.
“Do you feel better now?” I asked, sitting down on the ledge.
She sat down next to me, “Yes.”
“I agree that killing for fun is not a sign of a good leader.”
She rolled her eyes, “My Father does not agree, but I honestly don’t care about what he thinks,”
“As you should,”
She turned to me, “Those tricks were really cool though, how did you learn those?”
“A good friend and years of practice,” I smiled at the memories
“Doing something like that that doesn’t hurt anyone is better than anything. They might see it as stupid, but that’s probably because they are too dumb to understand anything complex,”
I laughed, “I’m glad we can agree on that. Did you know the Prince couldn’t spell his name until he was ten?”
She leaned in to me, “Tell me more.”
***
For a week we relied on those talks on the balcony for some escape from these stone walls. The more we spoke the more I fell in love with her. It all came to a boiling point after a week.
“So tell me, Mari,” Edana said, crossing her legs under her, “Where do you come from?”
Mari was her nickname for me, mine for her was Eda.
“Well, when a man and a woman-“
She laughed and pushed me, “You know what I was talking about. Tell me about where you were born. Where you grew up, because I’m sure it was not here.”
“Well, it is not a very long story, but the way I tell it it probably will be. I was born in a farming town where two hundred people lived with a total of fifteen gold pieces between us all. It was a simple life, but it was comforting. My parents were pumpkin farmers and I was their only child. If they had another I don’t know how there would have been enough food. But no matter the struggle, I loved that town dearly.”
“Why did you come here then?”
“When I was eleven, a bard came into town. We didn’t get very many visitors so naturally, the townsfolk were interested in him, but I was more in awe of the music he played. After he left, it was all I could think about. My parents noticed this and bought a lute from our neighbor who could no longer play. They told me that they didn’t care about the price as long as it made me happy, and it did. Over the next five years I practiced tirelessly. Making music, writing stories to sing, it all was perfect.
“Then one day at a town hall meeting, the steward pulled me up to the front and handed me a bag of coins. He said, ‘Marius, we all know you are a performer and have a talent that needs to be shared with the world, so that is why we scrapped together what we could to send you to Rosefort. In that town, there is a school for performance. We want you to go,’ You know how much was inside of that bag? A total of seven gold pieces! I tried to give the money back, but the town refused, saying I needed it more.
“The next day as I swung a bag over my shoulder to leave, I said my goodbyes to my parents and promised to write to them often. Then I walked away from the only life I had known. I got rides where I could and in three days I was in Rosefort, auditioning with the same lute my parents got me and the same one I play today. I got in on a scholarship and only had to pay six gold coins. So in my letter to my parents, I sent it back. And know what they did? Sent it right back to me saying it was mine to do what I wanted.
“I studied there for a year and learned much. When I got out though, two months later the country was told that we needed a stronger military and to serve would pay well. While the friends I made rushed to enlist, I was skeptical. We never needed a strong military, why did we need one now? When four months later all of those who enlist started to come back in coffins, I knew they weren’t telling us something. They announced a draft, and I knew I was not going to fight. Then came along the announcement that the King needed a new jester, the sixth one in four years. He killed all the rest for reasons unknown to the public, but I figured it would be better than military service so I went over to the castle town next to Rosefort and auditioned. I was practically hired on the spot. It was not my first choice, but I took it with open arms.
“The staff told me I would not last more than a year, but look at me now! Five years under my belt, the longest to serve the King.”
Edana got closer to me, “Do you still write to your parents?”
“Of course! I promised them,”
She laughed, “Because you promised?”
“Yes, what is wrong with a promise?”
“I don’t make them unless I’m sure of something. A promise is a pointless way to break someone’s heart.”
“To each their own I guess. What about you? How was your upbringing?”
“Really boring. Sure, I got the luxury of tutors and wealth, but I’m the youngest daughter of five older brothers. My only real purpose was to marry another prince. When my Father heard of the opportunity to marry me to Reginald for gold and a fight, he practically hopped on a ship that moment. He has always wanted to get rid of me.”
I huffed, “The only gold we have is in the castle, the villagers get nothing but the lies of the king. Yet it is still our most ‘precious commodity’.”
“I’m my country’s best commodity apparently, well at least to my father. But not good enough to Reginald” She exhaled, “I wanted to marry for love Mari, isn’t that silly? I wanted to find my true love and have a garden behind a small cottage where I could grow any plant I could imagine. I should have known that it wasn’t in my cards.”
“You are much more than what they think of you.”
She looked away, “It sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.”
I took her hand to which she looked at me with her jade eyes reflecting the sky, “Eda, you are perfect and deserve the world. From the moment I first saw you I knew that. No matter what they tell you, I will do everything in my power to prove that to you. You want a cottage with a garden? Done. A cup of raspberry tea with mint leaves? I’ll always have water in the kettle. A star from the sky? Just point and I will pick it for you.”
She got close to me, “What about true love?”
Our faces were almost touching, her eyes looked into mine. Her jade to my topaz. I brushed her hair away from her face with my hand,
“Always.“
Her lips met mine just as the word left my mouth. It was wrong, I knew that, but why did it feel so right?
