The King and Queen sat in council.  Or rather that King led council and the Queen sat silently at his side.  The alliance negotiations between their small island of Everton and Tortall weren't going well.  Despite their younger son serving at the palace to become a knight they needed something to clinch the deal.  Usually it would be a marriage between an elder princess and an heir but with their two elder daughters already married in Yaman and Carthak and their heir already married to a Yamani princess (that negotiation had been rather complicated), that only left their two youngest children.  Aranias was out of the question because marriage to a Tortallan princess would ruin his knighthood which was vital for the negotiations.  And besides, it seemed that, unlike those of Everton, the Monarchs of Tortall really didn't want to loose their daughter.  All that was left was Everton's youngest daughter.

As the council reached this decision, the Queen sighed.  Noticing, the King gave her a silent look of agreement.  It wasn't that they didn't want to loose that daughter, to be honest she was shameful to them, but it was just that she was far less shameful confined to the palace in Everton than she would be representing Everton. 

The two Monarchs excused themselves and walked out onto the balcony.  Looking out into the garden they could see the girl discussed sitting on the grass with what looked like a huge wolf.  It licked her face and she laughed quietly.  But as always the sound seemed slightly weary.  The Queen turned to her husband frantically,

"Guillaume, we can't betroth her to a Tortallan Prince.  Look at her.  She acts like a child.  Or she acts with knowledge far past her age.  And what about the screaming at night, the visions, her impropriety.  It's impossible.  The alliance of two countries resting on her shoulders?  I don't think so! Look at her!" 

The King called his daughter to come to the council, surveying her as she walked up the steps, plain dress hidden by a soft shawl that covered her like a shroud from head to toe.  The wolf bounded off across the garden as she walked up the steps to the balcony resignedly. 

Watching her, the King knew it was true.  She'd always been a loner, was never sociable unless Aranias was around.  And since he had left for Tortall seven years ago she had hardly spoken.  The loud laughter that had so vexed the monarchs was gone.  She walked around in a dream, hardly returning to the real world.  And the visions and prophesies had increased. 

She had reached the balcony now and the Queen was berating her for "letting that mangy wolf in again."  The girl took it in silence then followed her parents into the meeting room.  More negotiations followed, before the king looked once again to his daughter, sitting silent in the corner, her shawl hiding and shadowing her face.  She gave no sign that she had heard anything, but then you could never be sure with her.  With a quiet sigh he turned back to the Tortallan delegates.  "It's settled then.  To finalise our agreement, Prince Liam shall be married to Princess Asina."  The delegates nodded and the two parties bowed.  "She shall be presented in Tortall in a month."

Nobody heard the little sigh from the figure in the corner, nor saw the slight look of distress that passed across her usually blank or dreamy face.  And nobody noticed the sixteen year old princess slip out of the room, to once again meet the coal black wolf.  She returned, sad, to her room later that evening, the wolf having abandoned her that night.  And once again, nobody noticed.