[Novels] Elaina - Writing and Planning
“You will do this, Dryden if you love us.”
Protect the Prince. Protect our son.
But that meant the Commandant of the Sovereign Guard would be turning his back on protecting them.
His King and his Queen. The loves of his life.
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Dryden Atrious had loved his Sovereign (King) for half a decade when his adoptive son asks him why he takes Peter off and away at night. Away from his wife, the Queen, who often ends those nights with her pre-pubescent son wrapped in her arms in efforts to ward off the loneliness.
Elaina never showed an ounce of malice or jealousy. Atrious had wished to show his Queen the same love that he felt for his King but he knew politically, it would just cause more problems than offer up any solutions. Graciously has Elaina said time and time again that she does not mind. It has never done anything to lessen his guilt.
To the mind of a child, matters of the heart were simple. If Sir Atrious was Nathanael’s father too, as his father, Peter had decided that Atrious could be considered, then why did not all three of his parents love one-another? Why must his mother be lonely? It just was not right!
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The three of them being together does not change the central plot points, including the deaths of all three at Drefan’s hands. But it does allow Elaina to be happy. Why did she have to remain alone while Peter loved another?
Elaina is already treated poorly by the Arch-Deacon, and even though she knows being divorced by the King would see her be unable to face the court, she begs for Peter to leave her and take another wife. She cannot have another child, Nathanael a miracle, and Peter must have an heir that is not ill and dying. But Peter is a weak man, and he knows it. He depends on her for gods’ near everything.
Yet, I have come to realize that this was not about her strength of character, but a token tragedy of a woman loving someone who could not love her back the way she loved him. Peter is gay but he is King, and he is easily manipulated. Elaina marries him, her childhood friend, to give him an heir and someone strong to lean upon for support. But screw that trope that a Queen, a powerful woman is stronger alone and that as a woman, she must sacrifice her happiness for the greater good.
That she must graciously hide her bitterness and spend countless nights alone.
Peter, Atrious, and Elaina may only have 2 years together before they meet their end, but let it be two years not of loneliness.