It was a joyous day in the Queendom of Aldoah. The first princess, Reha, on this day would be married to the third prince of the neighboring country, the San Selina Theocracy. The preparations started almost a year ago, and during the final week before the wedding, it was as if the entire nation was holding its breath in excitement and anticipation.

Starting today at dawn all the servants and slaves were moving about with haste, but not unlike a well-oiled machine, with purpose, and without confusion, carrying out their tasks to the letter with the precision, speed, and professionalism expected of them. Everything had to be perfect. All surfaces were cleaned all over again, flowers, and pictures and banners and ribbons were placed to their designated spots as decorations. Plenty of food and confectioneries were cooked and baked, enough to feed an army for a week. Barrels were rolled out of the royal basement containing the best of wines saved for only the grandest of occasions, for which the first princess’ wedding certainly qualified.

Reha herself was getting ready in her room. She too rose early, a day of pampering waited for her before her big moment. With a squadron of maids tending to her, she first had a rosewater bubble bath. She relaxed in the tub for a while before her body and hair were washed by gentle yet expert hands. After this, she was dried off with the greatest care, then massaged from head to toe. Following, she had a light breakfast, though she only took in a small amount of the offered food, as she knew that she must leave room for the feast held after the wedding ceremony. Afterward, she was provided full dental care, consisting of her teeth and tongue being brushed and flossed with the highest grade silk thread, all of which was done by the most trusted maid with the most careful and skillful of hands. Her nails were filed down to shape, their surfaces buffed smooth to a shine. Then her entire body was given a thorough skin-care treatment. The maids used various tonics and ointments and moisturizers to make her skin refreshed and dewy.

Her makeup and hairdo came next. The maids worked on the two simultaneously without getting in each other’s way. For her face, they opted for a youthful, glowy makeup look with peachy undertones. Her hair woven into a long intricate braid with pearls and tiny flowers worked into the folds, reached down to her waist. Her jewelry, which would also become part of her dowry, adorned her ears, neck, arms, fingers, and ankles. And finally, she was helped into her wedding dress. A dark red outfit, that had a backless top kept in place on her back with fine golden chains, and a legging, formfitting and tight, emphasizing her figure, that reached down a bit above her ankles showcasing the golden anklets. Both were richly embroidered with golden string. A wide, golden sash decorated with golden chains and beads and red pearls kept a skirt of the same color on her hips. This piece of clothing was shorter in the front and longer in the back, ending in a beautiful train decorated with red embroidery. Cleverly attached to the bicep cuffs on her arms, a mantle made of a transparent and shimmery red material with golden lace adorning its edges, trailed down behind her.

With the final addition of the golden slippers on her feet and her ceremonial sword attached to her back, she was now ready. The maids who up til now worked quietly, now stepped back to admire the results of their efforts. They praised Reha’s beauty, showering her with compliments.

Reha was then escorted to the waiting room, a side chamber next to the great hall, where the ceremony was about to start. When her guards first saw her, their eyes were widened to the size of saucers, and their jaws were dropped to the floor in awe and amazement. Soon she heard her arrival announced, and the guards opened the door for her.

She wasn’t nervous as she practiced going to the altar every day hundreds of times. She paid no mind to the guests who all stood in honor of her. She walked with short, measured steps to her designated place, not too fast, not too slow. When she arrived, she bowed to her mother the queen, who was standing behind the altar, then without a word, she turned toward her soon-to-be husband, whom she has never even seen before.

He was a young man in his late teens, the baby fat still on his oval face. He had a ruddy complexion, perhaps he was hot or maybe he was just blushing, it was hard to tell. He had short golden locks, falling flatly against his forehead as if cut along a ruler. His forehead was adorned with a silver circlet, his eyes, a watery blue. He wasn’t skinny nor was he muscular, though it couldn’t be said that he was fat either. All in all, he looked like he never lifted anything heavier in his life other than a teaspoon. He was wearing a dark blue brocade doublet, with black trousers, and shiny, polished leather boots. He had a sea-green half-mantle draped on his left shoulder, secured to his body under his right armpit with a thick, braided silver string. A ceremonial sword hung from his right hip, showing that he was left-handed. He looked at Reha with a wide smile and sparkling eyes, clearly pleased by her appearance.

She lightly smiled back at him, and listen to her mother’s speech. She said her lines of the oath when she needed to, exchanged the bracelets of fidelity with her groom when she was told. She pricked her finger and dropped a drop of blood into the goblet they both were supposed to drink sparkling spring water from when instructed. The ceremony was proceeding without a hitch so far. Everything was perfect, the day, the venue, the ambiance as they had to be.

“You may kiss the groom” ‒ her mother said according to their customs, as the ceremony was nearing its end.

Sure enough, the man in front of her became even redder in the face and puckered up. She too leaned forward, when suddenly, a brutal, stabbing headache struck her head in the area of her right temple. As it was sudden, she couldn’t control herself entirely, so she winced a little bit. Her mother glared a warning at her as if saying ‘don’t you dare screw this up’ with her eyes. She continued to lean in, slightly opening her mouth. Their lips almost touched when…

“Gahh! ¤×#@&>Đ…!?” ‒ her mouth exclaimed in a strange foreign language. She saw her own hands shove the man away from her. She felt her legs stagger backward a few steps.

For a moment the hall quieted due to the suddenness of the situation unfolding before their eyes. If one strained their ears hard enough, perhaps even the fall of a strand of hair could be heard.

Reha looked at her own hands in confusion. She tried to move them and they responded to her like usual. The third prince startled opened his eyes and looked a bit muddled.

“Are you shy, my love?” ‒ he asked in a raspy voice. “Let us seal our wedding with a kiss!” ‒ and he approached again, reaching for Reha’s hands, to hold them.

“#$Łł@&×Đ!” ‒ Reha shouted and shirked back from his touch. Now the prince’s expression turned to one of shock and bewilderment.

“Reha” ‒ the queen stared at her with a stiff smile plastered on her stony face, now a threat in her ice-cold eyes. “Kiss. The. Groom.” ‒ she punctuated the words while she ground her teeth with a low growl. Someone awkwardly coughed in the silent audience.

“Y-yes, I-I’m sorry, liege Mother, your highness. Just wedding jitters...” ‒ she tried to explain herself to placate them, as she tried to move forward the prince. She barely took a single step, when it felt like she hit an invisible wall. Her feet wouldn’t move, no matter how hard she tried, and all she could do was to squirm awkwardly in one place.

“Nnghh!” ‒ she grunted, as she tried to inch forward. “#@!” ‒ she heard herself yell again, as she leaned backward from the prince, who in the meanwhile closed the distance between them and puckered his lips again to smooch. Reha willed herself to stay there, and she felt her leg tense and twitch as if wanting to kick the other in the balls. She hit the twitching leg with her fist to numb it, but her movement ended up jerky, as something from inside of her tried to steer her hand toward the prince’s abdomen.

“Oofh!” ‒ the prince gasped even though Reha’s fist merely brushed his side a bit, and therefore shouldn’t hurt that much. “Sh-She hit me!” ‒ he exclaimed pointing a finger at her accusingly.

“REHA!!!” ‒ the queen has finally lost her patience. She opened her mouth to start a possibly very long and very humiliating chastisement, but Reha cut in first.

“I’m sorry, mother! I swear, I’m not doing this on purpose! There is something inside of me!” ‒ she jabbered in a panic.

“What in the name of the ancients are you talking about? Seize this nonsense immediately, and get on with it already! We talked about this.” ‒ by this she meant the political nature and necessity of her marriage to the prince of a country, one, who didn’t mind certain peculiarities of hers.

“I’m not lying! And I do want to go through with this. It’s just… I think I’m possessed or something!”

The moment Reha uttered those words she knew that she was right. She felt the presence of the other inside of her, squirming and panicked, shocked and confused. She felt the other’s fear and revulsion at the prince’s approach. She felt his need to get out of and run as far away from here as soon as possible. Her body jerked and shuddered as she tried her best to stop and remain where she was standing.

“Enough of your excuses!” ‒ her mother slammed down her fist and gestured with her jaw towards the paling prince.

“You… you are possessed? Are you a witch?!” ‒ the prince hissed in dismay, still pointing at her. Reha froze as she realized, she declared her predicament in front of the worst people ‒ the San Selina Theocratians, who were the most superstitious, the most ignorant and bigoted and prejudiced towards anything that differed from their normal. They were the likeliest of believing her in this hall and also the fastest to condemn her for it. Reha’s people, on the other hand, though more open-minded, preferred reason and logic, and generally didn’t accept anything as real, unless proven otherwise.

Soon, ‘witch, witch, she is a witch’ whispers could be heard across the hall from the guests on the prince’s side.

“I’m not a witch! I can’t even use magic! This is happening to me, please help!” ‒ Reha looked at her mother pleading, but she only found scorn there. Reha blinked, not understanding for a moment, then it dawned on her, that she just uttered that which mustn’t ever be spoken out loud in foreign company. It was the greatest disgrace for any woman of Aldoah, royals especially, to ask for help in the presence of a man or from one. The mood has become even worse than before, as the women on her side of the hall quietly sneered at her with disdain.

“Excuse me, your majesty” ‒ a middle-aged man cleared his throat, stood up, and bowed towards the queen respectfully. This person was the prince’s uncle and the grand bishop of San Selina Theocracy. “If I may, it couldn’t hurt to check, whether what her highness is saying is true. If it is, she needs help right now, before the entity in question takes root in her. Afterward, she could go through with the wedding with no problems.”

“And if she isn’t possessed? Or if you fail?” ‒ asked the queen.

“All I can say right now majesty is that we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Will your method harm her?”

“She may experience some headaches, but other than that no.”

The queen pondered for a moment, then permitted him to proceed. The grand bishop exited the pew with frequent apologies as he brushed against others by accident. He walked up to Reha and pulled a medallion from around his neck. The ornament on the chain was a straight piece of thin silver that crossed the intersection of an infinity mark made from the same metal. Tiny, clear, and colorless gemstones decorated them while there was a bigger one, the size of a thumbnail, in the middle.

“May I, your highness?” ‒ the grand bishop asked politely, slightly bowing.

“You may.” ‒ Reha assented.

He started chanting in the tongue of faith and sorcery of his homeland. The medallion started to glow with a white-silver light which started to become brighter and brighter. Reha winced as she couldn’t look straight at the glowing jewelry when a sharp pain stabbed into her right temple. She grunted, and the grand bishop also closed his eyes, his face frowning in concentration. As the minutes passed the pain got worse and worse.

“Ngh! How… much… longer?” ‒ Reha asked, gritting her teeth.

“Not much...” ‒ the man answered as beads of sweat rolled down his cheek. And sure enough, he was done with his examination a couple of minutes later.

“Well?” ‒ the queen inquired from behind the altar.

“I found nothing, majesty. Her highness, the first princess is clean of demonic or other malicious presences. Her mind is human.”

“Are you calling me a liar?!” ‒ Reha snapped at the man.

“Not so, highness. I’ve honestly not found anything indicating that you are under any sort of supernatural attack.”

“Then how do you explain what’s happening to me? I’m telling you, there is someone inside of me!”

“…Perhaps it is just stress, your highness. Perfectly understandable to be nervous on your wedding day. I assure you, everything is going to be alright as you go through with it” ‒ the grand bishop tried his best not to sound threatening. The situation was delicate, and neither country could afford a war with each other right now. “My prince, if you would be so kind to take your place...” ‒ he said to his nephew as he gestured elegantly toward the altar, who at his request hesitantly stepped forward.

“Reha, you too” ‒ her mother told her. And Reha lifted her feet one after the other with great difficulty, swaying and staggering in the process. She somehow managed to arrive before the prince. Her mother waited a bit to establish an air of pathos before she directed them again.

“You may kiss the groom.”

And Reha tried. She did. Constantly fighting the presence inside her, she raised her trembling arms to hold the prince’s head in place. He in return closed his eyes and offered his slightly parted lips, this time without the ridiculous and childish puckering. Reha’s head jerked back and forth and shook to the sides as she fought with the other person in her head for supremacy. She finally closed the distance and she felt the man’s breath in front of her. Now only their lips had to touch. She was almost there.

But instead, her hands slid down the prince’s neck and squeezed him hard till he gagged. Her head swayed backward on its own, then gained momentum as the other inside of her headbutted the man she was supposed to kiss. Her right leg shot up and her knee found its way to the man’s crotch, kicking him painfully. Then she felt her body muster all its strength as it prepared to toss the prince aside by his neck, which it did. She heard her own voice shout something in that foreign tongue as the man soared through the air, and flew out the tall, colorful, stained glass window. The audience exclaimed in horror. There was no way the prince could survive such a fall, as that particular window overlooked the edge of a cliff with a deep chasm beneath.

The Theocratians drew their blades to avenge their murdered prince, while the warrior women of Aldoah rose to protect themselves and their queen, who was so mad, she practically frothed at the mouth.

“LOCK HER UP!” ‒ she roared as she drew her sword to parry a cut aimed at her chest.

As chaos erupted, Reha stared at her own hands, rooted in place. She couldn’t believe that this was happening. What pissed her off more, however, was the fact, that the other person was horrified by what he had done, screaming incoherent things in that weird language of his. Reha felt his nausea, and she felt herself bend forward as her body dry heaved. Yet she didn’t throw up. She couldn’t.

She suddenly felt a blunt pain on the back of her neck, and she vaguely registered that someone had hit her to knock her out. Then all turned black, and she collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

MikciTheGreat

Here is another one, I hope you like it :D