Ever since she was a little girl, Westalia had dreamed of being queen. She wished to be clothed in dresses of the most delicate make, to be attended by scores of servants and knights, and to face the world with unmatched dignity and noble bearing. She wanted to be the kind of queen who would support her king with wisdom and devotion, show love to her subjects, and be respected by them in turn. Any little girl would have dreamed as such, and Westalia was no different.
When she was, in fact, chosen to be the next queen, Westalia was ecstatic—her dream was really coming true. However, when she actually became the crown prince’s fiancée, it was not a sparkling life that awaited her. She was confined to a solitary palace...under the guise of receiving a thorough queenly education.
She had been cut off from all human contact, except for her teachers and servants. Just once, however, a young boy of roughly her age had wandered into the royal villa, and Westalia, on a whim, had spent a little bit of time with him. It had been almost ten years since that day, but she could still remember it. It was rare to have had such a pleasant experience during those suffocating days.
“All I desire is to be a wonderful queen...but it feels like I’m not doing anyone any good right now, not with how my life is going. It’s painful. I cannot bear it,” Westalia had said, somehow finding comfort in the boy’s presence despite never having met him before. She’d never been able to speak so candidly with anyone else before.
“Your efforts will eventually bear fruit, in one way or another. You will be a good queen. I... I will always support you,” he had said. His response touched her deeply. She had been alone all her life; this was the first time someone other than her family had expressed such support for her. In her earnest pursuit of becoming queen, Westalia had endured so much loneliness, never uttering a single complaint; the boy couldn’t have known how much his encouraging words meant to her.
She had hoped to thank him someday when she became a great queen, should she ever see him again, but that wish would never come true. Her efforts would not bear fruit, and in the end she would be beaten, trampled, and left to wither away. She was to be convicted of a crime she didn’t commit and sentenced to death before she could be crowned queen.