Soon to be

The old 80/20 rule applied to basically all aspects of my life, especially when it came to work matters. Unfortuntely, due to the nature of my work, it meant that the public and private sectors of my life often blurred together and thus I was left spending 80% of my life preparing and 20% of my time actually doing anything.

As the heir to the Fae's throne, every move I made was watched...every statement I was made was quoted and spun around with the potential to bite me on the butt someday totally out of context. It was this fact alone that made me feel the most lonely, the most constrained. When you spend your whole life being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it...you start to form a little bit of a complex. 

As a child I was fine with this...I wasn't an adult so what did I know? As a teenager...sure I was annoyed at the situation but then again I still wasn't an adult and until I outrightly knew that I was right I wasn't going to say anything and risk disrespecting my parents, the Monarchs of Fae. 

Now that I was 25, the only thing holding me back was being a  'respectful' young lady and making my parents 'proud'. Despite spending over 8 hours a day for the past quarter of a century being raised to one day take over the throne, I was still not allowed to speak my mind...even on important things that I should have a say in like the passing of animal protection laws or policies regarding the education of Fae's youth. 

Everytime I even attempted to speak up in these council meetings or press conferences I was interrupted by the misogynistic ageing white headed elderly male Fae who sat on the royal council just like their ancestors had done for centuries. Although I knew this job had been handed to me through blood, I was under no impression that this was going to be an easy role. My ancestors had fought hard for their beloved Fae and had made it into the incredible country...the majestic world it was today. My parents had done them proud and as the next generation I was going to continue the tradition. 

Spending most of my life carefully researching everything I could about Fae and then practicing speeches only to have to keep quiet as to 'not interrupt my elders' was infuriating on a core level. What was the point in the years of hard study and hours upon hours of honing my 'one day future ruler' skills if I could not even utilise them? Everyday I went through the same battle...the same internal struggle, was I going to be a good ruler or a respectful and obediant 'princess.' 

Although the Fae had very long, bordlerine immortal lives. It was a long standing tradition that the Monarchs could only rule for a maximum of 800 years before passing the reins on to the next generation. As my parents were reaching into the 798th year of their ruling next year, I would be crowned as Fae's new monarch before my 30th birthday..something that had never occured in the 20 000 years of our nations recorded history. 

I had always known that my parents were older compared to my peers parents, but I had scarecly given it a second thought until earlier on this year when they had both gently pointed it out that I would be ruling in less than 5 years...singlehandedly if I couldn't find my soul partner by then. On one hand, the only children I had spent time with my age had been approved by my parents and the myriad of staff that looked after the Palace and it's royal occupants so I didn't have a large scope of people to compare against. 

On the other hand though...my parents were the rulers of Fae and understandably were probably too busy in this day and age to worry about procreation, well until they realised that they were approaching the end of their reign and still didn't have an heir. It was hard being a single child...especially one from the Royal family. Everyday I had to double heck my privledge, I had seen the way my cousins acted when they didn't get their own way and I refused to ever come across as that shallow and arrogant.

Yes, I was wealthy. Yes, I was incredibly privledged and fortunate....and yes, one day...one day very soon I was going to rule Fae. Yet all these reasons were not an excuse to be bratty or take advantage of my situation...in fact it was the exact opposite. It was because of my status, my wealth...my family. This was why I worked so hard to one day become the Monarch the Fae needed, a modern Monarch for a modern world. What was I meant to do?

So here I sat, in the middle of yet another lengthy council meeting that could have been a 15 minute catchup over morning tea rather than listening to these ageing counsellors inflict their opinions on one another for hours on end. Whilst I respected them, I was looking forward to being able to elect my own council when I was offically crowned. Like the Monarchy, members of the royal council could only serve for a maximum of 800 years...which normally coincided with the Monarchs reign anyway. 

Yesterday, my Father had requested me join him for a private party in his personal rooftop garden. Whilst my Father and I were close and I loved him, he was usually too busy with his job and I was too busy preparing to one day do his job to catchup for one on one chats. I saw him most mornings and most evenings for our family meals which was more than adequate to keep the connection close and our family functioning healthily.

Whilst I went into this unusual meeting feeling an intense mix of unease and discomfort...I left with an exhilerating mix of adrenaline coursing through my veins. The King had basically just given me permission in these tedious meetings to pull rank as the future heir. I was allowed to basically...but politely tell the counsellors to shutup and actually listen to me for a change. My silent prayers had been answered. Now I could achieve my goals without disrespecting my parents and upsetting their royal advisors. I could now actually put into practice what I spent 80% of my life planning and I could not wait to started. It was time for Fae to see what the next generation was going to bring...it was time to introduce me as the heir and soon to be ruler of Fae.