Duty

Nominated for the 2011 Summer Ficship Competitions & eventually got 5th place.

A/N: After reading the judge's comments, I reread this and made some alterations. I still couldn't quite find the right curse word for Sandry to use, so I just went with "damn."

XO, Queen of Tortall

Sandry had always known that they expected her to marry a noble. Even those closest to her probably imagined her to fall in love with some foreign duke or prince (though maybe they had second thoughts about that after Namorn).

Perhaps her duty was to provide her country with a wise, fair, noble Duke, but that reminded her too much of her old fear, that she was good for naught but to marry.

Well, she was better than that.

Because when she fell in love with Briar, she saw everything in perfect clarity. She knew her duty, but she also knew her heart. Though he frequently protested that she should look for someone of her own station, she always smiled in response and placed a finger on his lips. Eventually he would smile too, but she could still see the shadow of self-doubt that lay hidden in his emerald eyes.

She'd ignored that. Because he couldn't see that he was her equal, that he wasn't a street rat anymore, and that there was no higher station than that of a mage. He'd only seen her noble birth, and feared to love her.

Duty. Oh, how she hated that word. It was a burden upon her shoulders, but a burden she was born to carry. Damn duty, she thought, annoyed. Her people did not need a Duke to rule them, for they had their Duchess. And Briar… well, marriage was some time away for them. Lady Sandrilene fa Toren knew her own heart, and she knew her own mind, and from now on, she was going to make the decisions.