Our beautiful princess

(Work in progress)
(Content warning: terminal illness) 
This story won 3rd place in DragonSiren22's writing contest.
==Prologue: In which the council discusses==
Starseeker could not believe what she had just heard. “What did you say?” she demanded. 
The doctor was silent for a moment. His tail twitched nervously. He inhaled, then spoke very quickly. 
“The princess has been diagnosed with a rare disease that sometimes afflicts hybrids. It works slowly. She’ll live another five years, maybe. There is no cure.”
As if he wasn’t sure that she had got the message, he said, “there's nothing we can do, your grace.”
Starseeker turned away from him, walking over to the sole occupied bed in the room. There, peacefully sleeping, was Princess Amber. Her tiny chest rose and fell slowly. The lights in the room had been dimed, and her gold-orange scales did not sparkle as they would have somewhere brighter. Her face was serene. 
When Amber came out of the pod, she was just a tool, a means to an end, thought Starseeker.  Now, she's like the dragonet I never had.
Fastitocalon, needless to say, did not take the news well. He stomped the length and breadth of the council hall, his thick blue tail slapping against the floor, snarling at nothing and everything.
“A disease? The dragonet has a disease? After all the work we’ve done, we’re going to lose our best hope to some cursed sickness?” 
Scorpion had been sitting at the big table, playing Nine-claws solo. “It happens. Sickness, that is. We knew there might be problems. I did, at least.”
Fastitocalon cast her a look that could have melted ice. Scorpion was not rattled in the slightest. There was a faint shuffling sound as she laid out a new line of cards. “Apparently it hasn’t occurred to either of you, but this doesn’t have to ruin our plans. We can make ourselves a new heir, if we need to.”
Fastitocalon nodded slowly. “Yes. Good. We’ll create a new princess, one without this defect.”
Starseeker had been silent, standing stiffly next to the table. She spoke now. “What happens to Amber then?  
Scorpion swept up the cards and began a new game. “Let me worry about that.”  
“Answer my question.” 
“We can’t have two heirs running around.” 
“You want to kill her.” 
“You heard the doctor. She’s already dead.”
“That,” Starseeker said, “is a disgusting thing to say.”
“Why, Starseeker? Why are you so attached to the princess?”
“Perhaps I simply have principles.”
“Not likely. You’ve grown fond of her, haven’t you?”
Starseeker said nothing.
Fastitocalon growled. “So that’s it.”
“I suspected that you might have developed some sentimental feelings for the heir. But having it confirmed is still a disappointment,” Scorpion said. She was not looking at Starseeker, but at the cards before her. 
“I used to look up to you, Starseeker,” Fastitocalon said in a low voice.
“How touching,” she replied icily. Her uncertainty was ebbing away, replaced with anger. “Well, I may have made myself lower than dirt in your eyes, but I am still a member of this council, and I will not simply stand witness to the needless death of a dragonet.”      
“You call it needless, Starseeker?” Scorpion said. “This has to be done.”
“I can raise the current princess in secret. Give her a good life.”
“And how can we be sure you won't try to contest the legitimacy of the new heir?”
“I think we both know I’m not that stupid.”
Fastitocalon snorted.  
Scorpion looked up for a moment, then returned her attention to the game. “You seem quite determined to make things difficult for us.”
“If you mean that I’m trying to get in the way of your plan to murder her, then yes, I am. But I think you knew that already.”  
“Indeed. Well then, perhaps I have no choice but to find another way.”
Fastitocalon struck the table with a clenched talon. “We can’t just go along with this… this idiocy!”
“I will deal with this, Fastitocalon,” Scorpion said firmly. “Now Starseeker, you can keep your ‘daughter’, but I intend to take a talon in arrangements just the same. I advise you don’t argue this point.”
“Very well,” Starseeker said. I’ve got what I wanted. It was inevitable that I’d have to make concessions.         
“I’ve had enough of this,” Fastitocalon declared. He turned and walked towards the room’s metal doors, which hissed apart in front of him. He exited without a backward glance: the doors slid shut. 
“Now,” Scorpion said, triumphantly putting down her last card, “this is what we’re going to do about Amber…”
End of the prologue 
==Chapter One: In which all is well==
Unity was happy.
She had everything. Literally everything. The whole vast city of New Pyrrhia, from the largest factory to the smallest ration store, was hers. She was beautiful, her scales a lovely grey, her eyes the most perfect shade of blue. And her subjects loved her. They loved her and rejoiced to have her as their queen. 
Except one.
Her name was Starseeker and she was one of the three council members who were tasked with guiding and aiding the queen. And recently, Unity had began to grow increasingly convinced that Starseeker hated her. 
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Content (WanderingRaven)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)