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Lym had grown into a lovely queen, one the entire queendom had adored. In many ways she was like her mother: wise, kind, and loyal to a fault. Armes stayed the hell out of the country, and every home damaged in the war was as good as new. The only thing that dissatisfied her people were all of the suitors she had turned down over the years, and her refusal to reinstate the Sacred Games.
Rumors started to run amok. First the nobles thought that she'd end up marrying her brother, seeing as he commanded the queen's knights already and did a darn good job of it. Then, they thought she was having clandestine relations with the queen knight's second in command, Miakis.
Though the rumors were a little... unsettling, Queen Lymsleia was having far too much fun making her most determined suitor earn his place. At first she looked Euram dead in the eye, told him to scram, and he was escorted away by the guards.
Ten attempts to gain her audience later, she thought it amusing to send him out on "odd jobs" for her. In all of that he'd been kicked in the face by a dragon horse, mocked horribly by nobles from whom he had to take coats, fallen into every body of water in the queendom and even attacked by a few sea monsters. Though no matter what travesty he had to endure, he kept coming back. Lym put him through it all to discourage him, but he always came back. She started to wonder if he would have won the Sacred Games with his bare fists out of pure determination and endurance alone.
By then she chose to use him within the castle. He did everything she requested of him. Carried her to her sleeping quarters, scrubbed her royal feet, told her she was the best queen ever, and he had to get on his knees and elbows and be used as a foot rest while her maids did her hair and changed her attire. Of course, he wasn't allowed to look up.
He was so determined to win her hand in marriage he even endured training with the queen's knights. Euram had put her through much during the war, on top of him being a man after his sister's hand in marriage, so the prince didn't go easy on him. Granted, the prince had a kinder face, and a more direct way of doing things, Euram thought there was an element of vengeance and cruelty to the prince's methods. Having both Miakis and Lyon fly after him with slash after slash made his body ache in places he didn't know existed. When he asked for an easier task he was set to running laps around the castle in his sister's clothing. And on top of that he still had to carry his precious Lym up to her sleeping quarters and act as her foot rest.
Though one night she hinted, merely hinted that she may allow him to be her footrest in the throne room if he became as strong as her brother. He had a long road ahead of him, but he would have her hand in marriage no matter what! If there's one thing Euram Barows wasn't, it was a quitter!
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