Let Them Have Their Elephants

Let them have their elephants and sequinned palanquins. Let them have their phalanx of camels, their dancing girls, their fortunes poured into pageantry. They would never have a wedding.

It was a farce to betroth an infant to a prince who would be more than three times her age by the time she was marriageable. It was an insult that the whole court knew she'd been born of a concubine of questionable lineage, and her own paternity dubious at best.

Let the realm mourn, then, and flaunt their tragedy. Those who knew the bitter truth would keep their tongues still.

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Leafykeyboard, Scytale, tyanite, Minutia_R, littlerobbergirl, Suzume, Zdenka, xenoglossy, Nary, Katherine, and Kaesa as well as 13 guests left kudos on this work!

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Kaesa Wed 25 Sep 2013 10:09PM UTC

Ooh, I love this explanation for why she's dead. It's dark and creepy and decadent and terrible, which is exactly what I wanted for this prompt.

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1. Measured_Words Wed 02 Oct 2013 03:30AM UTC
  
  Yaay, I'm glad you liked it! I hadn't heard the different theories in your prompt before, but this one decided it would fly off the page :)
  
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Morbane Thu 26 Sep 2013 01:55AM UTC

Ooh, I like the motivations sketched out here.

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1. Measured_Words Wed 02 Oct 2013 03:31AM UTC
  
  Thank you! They kind of hopped out at me from the prompt :)
  
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Diaphenia Mon 30 Sep 2013 04:43AM UTC

I'm such a fan of 100 word fic, and this packs such a punch into a small story. Very evocative.

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1. Measured_Words Wed 02 Oct 2013 03:33AM UTC
  
  Thank you very much - I love the format too, and trying to see what I can wring out of the economy of words. I'm glad this one seems to have worked so well!
  
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Dancer (Guest) Thu 13 Apr 2023 09:21PM UTC

Oooh, this is so interesting! In my head, I theorize that the killer is perhaps even the child’s own nursemaid, or someone else allowed close access to her. I particularly think that the killer is a woman who has personal experience with the cruelty of arranged marriages, and wants to save the infanta from such a fate.

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