The clerk jolted it down.

“Thank you, Lady Ursa,” he said, his bored tone a clear dismissal.

Ursa lingered, unsure.

“Sir,” she began. “When can I expect—”

“You girls are so impatient,” the man shook his head. “Your candidature will be reviewed along with all the others. Perhaps a week or two.”

Two weeks!

“Thank you,” she said stiffly.

Two weeks!

This ordeal was humiliating enough, and now she found out they were going to drag it out for so long… Ursa marched to her temporary home, head held high, and then found her ink and pens and an empty scrolls. She was going to send a letter anyway, but had been hoping that she could get home long before it did. Her parents would worry; Ikem must have missed her terribly, just as she missed him.

***

“How was it?” Uncle Chen asked at dinner.

“Are you gonna marry the Prince, Cousin Ursa?” the girl, Rong, asked, while her brother’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Are you gonna be a Princess?”

“No,” Ursa laughed. “This isn’t why I’m here.”

“But all the girls keep talking about it!”

Ursa set down her teacup and smiled at Rong.

“Well, I’m engaged already,” she said. “To a boy in my village.”

She thought of Ikem’s pleasant voice and handsome face; none of the other boys had a smile this radiant, or could recite poetry with as much passion. He was so confident on the stage, and yet smiled shyly whenever she held his hand, and looked at her like she was something precious—

“Yuck,” Li said.

Ursa laughed to cover her embarrassment.

“Then why are you here?” Rong asked.

“You see,” Ursa said. “It’s an ancient custom in our Nation. When a Prince is of marriageable age, no girl of noble birth can marry without him getting a chance to consider her first.”

It set her blood boiling, to be paraded before the Court like a broodmare and await rejection. Alas, it’d be an insult to ignore this custom.

“Ooooh,” Rong said excitedly. “So he can still consider you?”

Ursa shook her head. “There are probably hundreds of girls in the city right now. Why would he consider me?”

“You’re pretty!”

She was definitely blushing right now. Ursa bit her lip, embarrassed.

“Thank you, dear.”

***

With all the time to spare, Ursa did her bit of sight-seeing. She bought gifts. She helped around the house whenever she could. She assisted the kids with their schoolwork.

By the end of the week, she received no clear dismissal from the office. Every day she spent here was another day without Ikem…

“You should go out,” her Uncle said. “It’ll take your mind off things.”

An Urzai Fic