There are three people staring at her when she finally gets a look at the damn thing. Two of them have swords, and the last of them is her father.

"... love letter," she lies, at their expectant gaze. "I think to try and enchant me to abandoning my fiance and running off with him instead, but it's not clear."

"Hah," says her father. "As if your opinion of the matter would change a thing."

"Quite!" she agrees, all smiles and acceptance. The seething anger at the dismissal stays buried deep within. "I think it is safe to burn, then?"

"No, not yet, I'll want to figure out who exactly tried to ensnare my daughter, this letter will be picked apart soon enough." He waves a hand dismissively, at his now irrelevant daughter. "You may go."

"Of course, father," she agrees, and then she departs.

Okay, so.

The obvious and safe thing to do, is to ignore this letter entirely, accept that it means she probably won't be kidnapped, and move on with her life. Go forth, marry Vasily Sevastyan Aliev, a man almost three times her age, spout out a couple kids in his little nowhere province, and maybe not even die in childbirth while doing it. As absolutely appealing as that is.

It's not the age or the marriage that's the problem for her, exactly. It's the irrelevancy. She's being awarded to a faithful well serving vassal as a fancy prize. The Aliev house has been perfectly loyal to Vasilrov and Anhalt, and would be without her hand being involved at all. While rewarding faithful service is one thing, selling your absolute catch of a daughter for pennies is another.

Because she is. She is a catch. She is known to be gorgeous (thanks, concubine mother), well read, and well spoken. She dresses well and makes friends easily. The lie of 'it's a love letter' came easily because she's gotten several from really good houses at her portrait alone. She could easily cinch an actual alliance that matters, if her father would just stop dismissing her as a pretty prize! Nobody of substance cares if she was born illegitimate, she is very obviously her father's daughter, with her bright blue Vasilrov eyes. She's been acknowledged as legitimate, and really, for a girl, no one cares all that much if her mother was a nobody or not, the marriage alliance would work just fine.

Svetlina (because she refuses to go by Anna the sixth, as they are now on) has tried to argue with her father on this topic. Tried to steer him towards someone attached to somewhere she will not quietly expire of boredom in. He has told her that she is a silly girl who does not know what is good for her, and that Vasily is a good and patient man, and she should thank him for being so thoughtful. About the marriage that he set up, with a man she hasn't met, without consulting her. She has since met Vasily, and he did not particularly win her over towards the prospect of being his lawfully wedded wife. She would not literally throw herself out of the window instead of marrying him, but she thought about it.

Or. Or.

She could reply to the dragon.

She could goad half the knights in the realm to come try to save her, and really impress upon the entire country that, actually, she is worth something, and possibly be ~swept up by romance~ or whatever and end up with someone who is, at the very least, willing to fight a fucking dragon to save her.

Which, you know, is an objectively selfish and horrible thing to do on purpose, but, also.

She doesn't want to be sold for pennies to an old man without even the faintest spark of ambition, and carted off to a tiny nowhere province to be trapped in his estate forever to take up knitting and embroidery. That is not the life she wants to live. More importantly, this is not a life that would let her improve the lives of anyone else at all. It is the one domain of power that a woman or a wife has, over the house and lands of her husband while he is away, and, damn it, she has been studying very hard to be fucking good at it. She can play smiles and daggers with the nobility, she can soothe and tolerate a youth's bitter temper, she can funnel money towards patrolling roads and building bridges and seeing to the sanctity and cleanliness of the well water, instead of buying pretty dresses! Which is all that Vasily thinks she wants! Pretty! Fucking! Dresses!

She would be wasted on the safe and boring and irrelevant house Aliev.

To the very well mannered Violet Dragon of the West,

Please send all future letters to me directly by some subterfuge; mailing through ordinary channels will and has attracted unwanted attention. I have attempted to ward off suspicion as best I can by pretending I received a love letter.

I am tentatively supportive of Your proposal, on the condition that You leave all knights who make attempts to rescue me alive and not permanently maimed. I would ask that You swear to their overall safety on Your name and Hoard before agreeing to be taken anywhere.


Your tentatively acquiescing potential kidnapped princess,
Svetlina Vasilrova

P.S. Should I endeavor to wear as many royal treasures as possible for my planned future abduction?

It takes only a minute for the owl to appear. It's brown and pretty unremarkable, except for its golden eyes, which almost glow as it looks straight at her upon landing on the windowsill. It doesn't linger for more than a couple of seconds, though, before flying off with the letter.

Good.

She tries not to think too much about how much this means she's been spied upon, and instead closes the curtains, and goes to bed.

The next evening, there is a shy knock on her window. The kind of knock an owl might knock.

She opens the window, of course.

The owl isn't there, but there's another letter lying on the windowsill. It's not a windy evening, but it looks really precarious even so.

Well don't keep her in suspense on its contents, narration, it's not like she was ever going to not read it immediately.

This time the letter looks at first like an unremarkable request for a shipment of grain to some port or other, but the contents shift before her eyes into the real letter as she looks.

To Her Royal Highness, the Princess Svetlina Vasilrova of Anhalt,

 

We are overjoyed to learn of thine interest in Our proposal! We hope through this letter We may assuage some of thy concerns and come to a mutually satisfactory commitment.

Leaving all knights that come to thy rescue hale is not altogether out of the question, though it would be difficult to explain their safety once they were returned. Would it be agreeable for such knights to remain Our guests until such time as a worthy opponent bested Us and rescued thee, at which point they be released?

If not, mightest thou elaborate on the nature of thine objection to their misfortunes, that We may better attempt to seek an acceptable solution?

 

Thy hopeful admirer,
The Violet Dragon of the West

P.S.: There is no need for thee to divest thy father's estate of its riches. We hoard not gold and jewellery.

To the very well mannered Violet Dragon of the West,

My concerns are primarily of the quality and length of their lives, though secondarily I would not like it to be known that I agreed to Your proposal, as it would both incite fewer knights to challenge You, and also cause some rather large issues to me politically and personally.

Claim their weaponry and armor as the prize of Your victory, to join Your Hoard, then expel them to spread tales of their defeat and Your victory. After a knight defeats or impresses You, the arms and armor would go to the victorious knight with me, as fairly won. I can see You making it clear that the ones so expelled might try again, thus why you leave them alive, since You seem to be searching for a challenge.

I do hope that You know what You're getting into and are not overmuch bothered if one of them happens to kill You, because I cannot beg for Your life as I can for theirs.

Your nonetheless still likely abductee,

Svetlina Vasilrova

To Her Royal Highness, the Princess Svetlina Vasilrova of Anhalt,

 

We commend thy creativity and problem-solving acumen! That would be acceptable to Us as a solution. 

Unfortunately, We cannot with this missive swear to Our ability to keep thy knights safe. We would need magic beyond Our current ken. 

However, by the time thou hast received this, We shall be on Our way to meet with a scholar of Our acquaintance whose skill in magic is unparalleled. We believe They shall provide Us with a spell that should heal thy knights from all manners of damage and hurt as if nothing had occurred. 

Our voyage thither and back should take no longer than a quarter moon. We will be able to confirm to thee that We are able to honour the terms of this agreement then.

 

We have the honour to be thine obedient servant,
The Violet Dragon of the West

To the very well mannered Violet Dragon of the West,

Then, conditional that my primary concern (that of the lives of those who might challenge You) be accounted for with magical healing,

I agree to your proposal.

I will take being snatched as confirmation that you have gained healing powers,
Svetlina Vasilrova

There is no owl this time, but as soon as her letter is on the windowsill, a sudden wind whisks it away, and it flies off into the distance.

Eight days later, Anhalt is hosting a small jousting event in the capital. It's not a big tourney with the whole army invited, just a small one-day exhibition event for the best knights of the kingdom as well as the most promising young sons of nobility to show off and jockey for status and marriage prospects.

Naturally Svetlina is also required to exist in public.

It's normally the sort of thing she'd have fun at. She's not particularly into jousting as a sport (and in fact, thinks it's kind of disproportionately deadly compared to other tournaments), but parties of this kind are a good way to keep informed of the goings on of the kingdom. Learn what's going on in the farther reaches, who's having an affair with whom, the economical state of the surrounding populace, that sort of thing.

If one is allowed to, you know. Socialize. At them.

She is seated next to her ~wonderful fiance~, who has all of the conversational skills of a block of wood. Her father made it clear that she is not to wander to do such silly vapid things as gossip (nevermind the information that gossip might hold!) and is expected to be a dutiful partner to Lord Aliev, and stay beside him, in the section of the stands that is, oh, you know. Right next to the royal one. With her father.

Who has also made it clear he's keeping an eye on her.

So. No socialization, really. Just sitting here, in the stink and the heat, watching people ride really fast on horseback to poke each other with sticks at top speed. And if they splinter horribly and kill someone despite being blunted and everyone wearing armor, well, that's just excellent bloodsport, isn't it.

It goes predictably. Starts in the morning, before the midday repas, with the inspection of helms and crests. The knights ride, displaying their banners and shields down the tilt in a procession so that everyone knows who's there...

...there's a knight she hasn't seen before. Not that she can exactly tell, under the armour, but he's not wearing the banner of any of the houses she knows. And his build doesn't remind her of anyone's. Maybe he's a son of a very minor lord? Or perhaps a peasant who got their hands on very high quality armour somehow?

... That's an interesting mystery. Because she does, actually, know the banners of all of the houses in the kingdom. She takes being a princess very seriously. How did he afford that armor and horse, if he's no one she knows? Is he someone's bastard son, come to try and win glory to, well, rise above the station of being born out of wedlock?

The horse is a little odd, too. She has a basic understanding of the typical breeds used in Anhalt, and that - is not one of them. Anhalt tends towards stocky breeds, often with longer pelts, and that one is more of a racer. Thin and lithe and comparatively delicate.

Who is that guy??