Ch. 27: Salila and Uriah (2)

Naturally, after reading the letters sent between Amanda and Adrian, and learning about their plan to break off the engagement, the Urian king had gone absolutely ballistic. The first letter that Amanda had received from him after Adrian's disappearance had been a total denial of the situation, and a desperate plea for clarification. He'd even gone so far to ask whether the letters that he'd read were fakes that Adrian had written up in order to weaken the relationship between Uriah and Salila, as if the prince was planning to have the country surrender to Illreya and become a vassal state or something. 

The blatant idiocy that must have been going through that king's head in order to lead him to the conclusion that Adrian wasn't totally committed to Uriah absolutely infuriated Amanda, but she'd sat down and penned a letter explaining that Adrian was a very close friend, and she'd been conducting a large-scale search effort across her entire domain, as well as the neighboring domains in order to find him. Though she and Adrian did not love each other romantically, the countries of Salila and Uriah would always have a close partnership, and she looked forward to a more natural union between her and Adrian's future offspring if the opportunity arose. 

It'd been a really polite letter that she'd placed a lot of thought into.

The next letter that she'd gotten from Adrian's father had been far less polite.

It'd been an incredibly rude demand. He'd immediately told her that the marriage between her and Adrian was a part of a longstanding agreement between Salila and Uriah, and breaking it off was tantamount to declaring war. It went on to threaten military action, and even gone so far as to imply that Salila was responsible for Adrian's disappearance in the first place, and that 'if that were the case,' then she'd be best suited to sending the prince back immediately and unharmed.

It'd infuriated her even more than his first letter. First, he almost declared Adrian a traitor, then he declares Salila a potential enemy. The idiot didn't seem to comprehend the fact that Uriah and Salila's alliance was the only thing keeping Illreya from invading the both of them. By destroying that bond, Salila wouldn't gain a thing. On top of that, Adrian was Amanda's friend, and she was not going to betray him under any circumstances.

Her response to that letter had been an absolute denial of any allegations of Salila's involvement in the kidnapping, a demand for a formal apology for the insult to Salila's honor, and a reminder of the imminent threat that Illreya was. She even implied that she was 'redoubling the search efforts' for Adrian, in order to 'ensure that the Urian royal family's honor doesn't devolve any further, as evidenced by the king's prior letter.'

Apparently, Amanda's response hadn't been well received... The king's next letter was utterly devoid of any semblance of decorum. It was simple and to the point. It told her that she can keep 'the garbage,' and demanded that she stop bothering him with updates of her 'search' for Adrian, with clear sarcasm behind the word 'search.' 

This time, though, the letter was followed closely by a second letter with the Urian royal crest. This time, the letter was from Sydney, who Amanda had a fairly good relationship with. At the least, the two girls respected each other. Sydney's letter was similarly devoid of decorum, but it had the bare minimum, showing that this time, it was due to urgency, rather than disrespect.

And Sydney's urgency was well-deserved. The contents of the letter were disgusting, and the paper was torn in places where Sydney's quill had ripped right through the page in frustration. Essentially, the useless garbage that called himself the king of Uriah was going to officially disown Adrian any day now, calling off the search effort in its entirety in order to set Sydney up as the next monarch instead. 

Adrian had worked hard for the future of Uriah, and Sydney'd spent her entire life working hard behind the scenes because she believed in her little brother's leadership potential. It was far beyond her own. If she were installed as queen, the harsh political climate in Uriah would eat her alive, and she knew it. In order to delay the proceedings even a little bit, Sydney had hatched multiple plans, but without any allies, even the princess's most well-laid plans were doomed to fail. 

Her only true allies in the kingdom, those who genuinely believed in Adrian's potential, were the Elder mage Malachi, and Jasper Hunter, the former Elder Mage, Hat's apprentice. Unfortunately, neither of them were able to help her, since Jasper had been bedridden with some mysterious illness, and the current three Elder mages were only keeping him alive via magic.

Amanda remembered the last time that Adrian's qualifications as Crown Prince had come into question. Sydney had begged the Elder Mage Hat to cast some sort of spell over Adrian, which had been the cause of the boy's drastic personality change. With Hat dead, Adrian's position was even worse off than it'd been back then, and that idiot king was using that fact to make his move. 

"It's that bad, huh?" Gayle asked, rubbing Amanda's back. Even though nothing had actually happened between them other than a few chaste kisses, he was allowed in Amanda's private chambers without question. He had entered while she'd been engrossed in reading the letters.

Amanda rubbed her forehead. This was giving her a headache, but she had to make a decision.

"Sorry for doing this without you, Adrian." She muttered to herself, before she penned her orders, "This is the official announcement annulling the marriage between Adrian and I. We'll wait six months for the news to settle in, then you and I can get married, alright?" She told her lover.

He nodded. He understood the pressure that she was going through at the moment, "There's no rush, Amanda. We have all the time in the world to get married." He told her. She was grateful to him, but she shook her head,

"Let's only hope. Meanwhile, let's redouble the search efforts. I'm going to send a few spies to the neighboring kingdoms, including Illreya and Uriah." 

"Are you sure?" Gayle was surprised. He knew how much Amanda respected Adrian, but the situation in Illreya and Uriah was incredibly volatile. If their spies were found, then it'd spell a major disaster no matter which country found them.

"Right now, nothing's more important than finding Adrian. Once he gets back, everything else will sort itself out." She could only hope.