I'll See You When I'm Queen

“I can’t do it anymore, Mira. I’m gonna go out there and he is going to baby me and treat me like shit, all while forcing me to be his perfect little princess and I just can’t take it anymore. I won’t.” Taryn flopped onto their pastel pink canopy bed, with their bright green empire dress following shortly behind. “And this dress,” Taryn sighed, picking up the front of the dress laying on their legs, before slamming the fabric back down again in a humph, “its the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.” 

“You’ve got to have a better outlook on things, Taryn.” Mira walked over to the bed and pulled Taryn off of their back, making them sit upright, and sat down next to them. “You’re about to be queen, the handmaiden has a right to be a little more pushy than usual. Also, I thought you liked green, your dress looks perfectly fine.” 

“I understand him being pushy but that doesn’t explain why he treats me like a little kid all of the time.”

“You did break the entire royal washing machine that one time, which left the whole kingdom smelling like a rotten foot for almost a month. And you punched the King of Naqimos in the face.” 

“ Okay, first of all, the royal washing machine was just sitting in the middle of town, it was inevitable that someone would break it. It’s also stupid that there’s one washing machine for the entire kingdom. I was pretty much doing everyone a favor, now we all have our own washing machines for our own clothes. And then the King of Naqimos just deserved it. He has a creepy face.” Taryn crossed their arms across their chest and raised their chin slightly as if to say so there, I’m right your wrong and that’s that, but once they saw Mira still judging them, they spoke up again, “Plus, I literally was a kid when I did those. The washing machine was when I was maybe seven or eight and then Naqimos was when I was 13. I’m a fully-fledged adult now, Mira, 18 years old and counting.” 

Mira sat up from the bed and crossed her arms across her chest, chin in the air, mocking Taryn. “Hm,” She hummed, in almost a sing-songy sorta way. 

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Technically your brain doesn’t fully develop until your 25, meaning you aren’t quite yet a fully-fledged adult.” Mira put air quotes around the words “fully-fledged adult” to mock Taryn once more. 

“Oh shut up” Taryn picked up a pillow and smacked Mira across the face with it, and before Mira could react, someone called from outside the room.

“TARYN! You need to be out here now! Your coronation starts in 20 minutes!” Taryn’s handmaiden yelled, his voice sounding frantic, as usual. 

 “OKAY, I’ll be out in a sec!” Taryn yelled back, before facing Mira again. “Guess that’s my cue” 

“Ok, but before you go, I want to give you a coronation present. But no opening it until after you’re queen!” Mira took Taryn’s hand and brought them over to the other side of the room, where she gave them a small green box, wrapped in an off-white bow. “It’s nothing too special, I just wanted to get you something. I’m really proud of you. I love you, you know.”

“You’re not dying, are you? This is extremely cheesy and cliche and I don’t want you to die.”

“No, I’m not dying,” Mira and Taryn both chuckled, before Mira continued, “But I do have a plan, which involves you not opening your gift until after your coronation. Speaking of, you should’ve been gone ten minutes ago. I’ll see you when you’re queen.” 

Taryn grabbed Mira close and held her tight for what felt like not quite long enough before letting go, putting their gift into their brown satchel slung on their shoulder, and walking out the door. “See you when I’m queen.”  

Taryn saw their handmaiden standing near the coronation stage, nervously tapping a pencil on a clipboard. “Taryn! There you are! We were supposed to do the check-in almost 20 minutes ago where were you?” He seemed like he should’ve but madder than he was,  but even the frustration and anxiety in his voice couldn’t overpower his poise. 

“You said I had to be out here in 20 minutes. It’s barely been ten.” 

“I said your coronation starts in 20 minutes but it doesn’t matter, we need to move on.” He looked at his checklist clipped to his clipboard and read them off, as Taryn confirmed they had done them, 

“Dress?” 

“Check, obviously”

“Hair?

“Check again, can’t you see what I look like?” 

“Shoes?”

“Dude seriously-”

“Speech?” 

“I’m just gonna wing it.”

“You can’t just wing a speech to the entire nation- you know what? Do what you want but please for the sake of my sanity and the reputation of our kingdom, at least pretend to know what you’re talking about.” 

“That’s the plan” Taryn smiled at her handmaid until he scanned her up and down with hawk-like eyes. 

“What is this?” He said pointing at their brown satchel and pushing it with his pencil. 

“It’s mine is what it is and it’s staying with me. It’s important” 

“So is becoming queen but…  whatever. You’re supposed to be out there. Now.”

“I thought I had ten more min-”

“GO!” He pushed Taryn onto the stage, making them stumble a bit in front of the crowd. Luckily, they caught themselves before they fell and made it to the middle of the stage, where a microphone was waiting for them. 

They stood there holding the microphone for a second, taking in the crowd and the scene. There were people filling every corner and crevice of the stadium, with every kingdom in the land in their own respective section. There was the kingdom of Ceovaria, the land of warriors, all standing with staffs in hand. They didn’t look ready to fight now, they were smiling up at Taryn, the staff’s and weapons more a sign of royalty and respect. The Ceovarians were Taryn’s strongest and oldest ally, and one of their teal blue flags read Glory to the Queen. Next to them were the Teven’s, a group of Nomad’s who slowly grew their kingdom from the ground, literally. They weren’t considered a kingdom until recently, where their population outnumbered almost every other kingdom. They were all wearing colors of the earth, as well as their sage green flag that read, Glory to the Queen. Finally, of course, was Naqimos. The King of Naqimos sat in the front row, sitting like a five-year-old throwing a temper-tantrum. The entire kingdom wore all black, but not as a sign of disrespect, that was just their color. No one really spoke of Naqimos too often, mostly because they never spoke to anyone else. They didn’t have a sign offering respect to Taryn, but instead, the Queen of Naqimos waved a handkerchief that said “Glory be to Taryn.” 

The flags and the handkerchief should’ve probably felt more welcoming to Taryn but instead, it just made them more anxious. They finally leaned in closer to the mic and started to speak. “So, um, hi. If you don’t know me already, I’m Taryn and I’m about to be the queen of everybody. To be honest, I don’t want to be the queen of… everyone, but I guess that’s where this all has to start. I think it’s best if your queen is honest with you from the get-go.” Taryn was talking slowly, taking anxious breaths between almost every word. They were starting to get more confident, before feeling anxious again, and light-headed. “And um…  you all… “ Taryn tried rubbing their eyes to get rid of the haze in their mind, but it didn’t work. Their mind went black and their eyes were becoming blurrier and blurrier by the second. The only thing that snapped them out of it was a large boom and crack in the distance. “I’m sorry,” Taryn said with their eyes closed, rubbing their eyes one more time, preparing themselves for getting back into the speech. They took a deep breath, smoothed down their dress, and opened their eyes. Everyone was gone. 

Taryn blinked a few times to see if what they were seeing was real. Nothing changed. Taryn was staring at an empty stadium. They were alone. 

Taryn ran off of the stage and went to find someone, anyone who could tell them what was happening, what had happened. They looked around for their handmaiden, but he was nowhere to be found. After Taryn had given up searching for the handmaid, they went back into their room to search for Mira. She wasn’t anywhere either and didn’t usually go anywhere unless she told Taryn. What is happening? Taryn thought to themselves, plopping onto their bed and holding their face in their hands. It was then that they remembered their satchel and the gift that was in it. This has to have something to do with Mira and this stupid gift. She was acting all weird before I left, Taryn thought, and figuring that their coronation had technically ended she opened the satchel and unwrapped the gift. Inside was a ruby red necklace with a black chain attached, and it looked expensive. Taryn was confused though, this wasn’t anything they would want and they’d been with Mira for years. 

Underneath the necklace was a piece of paper. A note. Taryn picked it up and read what it said. Hey Taryn, it’s Mira. I know you are probably really confused right but you just have to trust me. Meet me at the grove and I’ll explain everything. Love, Mira. Taryn flipped the note around to see if there was anything on the back, but there was nothing, so they flipped it back around and read it one more time. “The grove,” Taryn said out loud, “Meet me at the grove.” They thought it was weird, obviously. Mira never acted like this, she was the poster child for perfection and she couldn’t be behind the disappearance of thousands of people, she couldn’t possibly be.  But she sounds so sure in the note, Taryn thought, she clearly knows something. Taryn stood up from their bed and quickly put the note and the necklace back in the box and shoved it in their satchel. They pushed the door open and made their way to the grove. 

The grove was a collection of trees behind the castle, where Mira and Taryn would spend most of their time if they weren’t in Taryn’s bedroom. It was quite a trek to get there, not only was the castle massive, making it take a decent amount of time to walk to the back, but the entryway to the grove was covered by rocks. To Taryn though, it wasn’t that difficult. It felt natural almost, just because they had been there so many times. Once they moved the rocks out of the way, they walked in and could see Mira’s silhouette in the distance. 

“Mira? Is that you?” 

“Taryn!” Mira sounded excited, happy that they saw each other, but Taryn felt off. They couldn’t be happy with so many people, their people, being missing without an explanation. Mira reached out to hug Taryn, but they refused. 

“Mira, tell me what’s happening. Right now.”

“Okay, okay so you know how I said I had a plan earlier?”

“Yeah?” 

“So you are always telling me about how unhappy you are and how much you don’t want to be queen and I found a solution.” 

“Mira… what did you do?” Taryn was confused, and maybe a little angry, but was hoping with all of their will, that Mira hadn’t done anything stupid. 

“You know the sorcerer, that we always read about in books, Saless. I went looking for him, looking for something to make you happy and I found him!”

“Mira please just get to the point.” 

“I made a deal with Saless and now we can be free.”

“What ?” Taryn was noticeably angry now, but they kept their composure.

“ I fixed your issue. No kingdom, no queen. Just us” 

“Mira. That wasn’t your decision to make. How could you ever think this was okay? Just so you-”

“We. I did this so we could be happy, so you could be happy, Taryn. I was tired of you complaining about being queen all of the time. I was tired of seeing you miserable. Is that too ridiculous of me? That I care?” 

At this point, Taryn was holding back tears, “Just because I complain sometimes, doesn’t mean I want you to go and murder my people.” 

“ Oh come on stop lying to yourself. You complained. Every. Single. Day and these “people” weren’t your people until two seconds ago. Plus, I didn’t murder anyone, they’re not dead, they’ve just disappeared.” 

“So I can reverse it.” Taryn wasn’t looking at Mira anymore but instead down at the grotto grass, looking too perfect. 

“Why would you want to? Taryn, look, all of the time that I have known you, you have been dreading ruling, you hated even speaking about it. I don’t know why you are so mad at me when I just gave you a break from it all.”  

“Mira, my feelings don’t matter when there are thousands of people gone. So how do I reverse it?” 

“Taryn, I love you I just-”

“Mira, how do I reverse it?” 

“Break the necklace. The one I gave you.” Mira looked small now, and melancholy, which made Taryn even angrier. She shouldn’t be the one that’s sad, she had caused this, she was the one to blame. Taryn grabbed the necklace out of their satchel held it up in the air, ready to slam it down and bring back everyone. 

“So I just break the necklace and everyone is back and everything is back to normal?”

“Kind of.” Mira almost whispered it, her no longer looking at Taryn either. 

“What?”

“If you break the necklace, everyone comes back except for me. That was the deal. It’s me or your responsibilities I guess.” 

“Mira, I-” Taryn paused for a moment, and they both looked up at each other and shared a mutual lost-ness, “Mira I have to. I have to break the necklace. I- I love you but it’s thousands of people versus one.” 

“I get it, you’re a queen. It’s what’s right. But can we break it together? One last goodbye hug?” Mira wasn’t crying, nor seemed sad really. She looked content. Like she knew this was coming, that she knew this was a risk in taking the deal and that it had come true.

“Mira…” Taryn didn’t know how to feel. They didn’t know who to blame or if Mira loved them too much or not enough. They wondered if they were making the right decision, it had to be right? They didn’t know if they loved Mira anymore. 

“Please”

Before Taryn could say anything more, they hugged, and cried together, letting out everything. They let out the pain, the sadness, the anger, and the memories. And without saying another word to each other, they clasped both their hands around the necklace and smashed it together.