I realized this might look like I think a villain of Carmelinda, rather than the tragedy that I really do, so time to do a POV swap.
Carmelinda is not raised knowing she will one day be a royal. She is born a duchess and married in war, partially for love and partially for politics. And what a love it was, to have been taught magic that she carries with her more than a score after the tragedy that split them, for her marriage to Lazuli is set in stone during the same war that ends it.
A war that only lasted 5 years.
How long of that before they met? How long before it ended? How much of that time did they truly have together when Lazuli was, by the end of her life, losing track of time due to her visions and losing time to spend due to her duties?
How crushing, to be married to your love and still be left so alone.
How cruel to, so soon after, be married of to your brother-in-law.
A man that, though raised as a royal, never expected to get the crown, and was obviously neither trained nor prepared for it.
And so, in her grief, she finds something she can devote herself to. The kingdom her wife left her. The home she cannot leave behind. The land her husband will ruin, if she does not step up.
She cannot have Lazuli back, but maybe, in those quiet nights in the study, she can pretend. Can act like she is not so, so alone. Can reminisce of nights long past. Can imagine any presence to be there, to lean on or comfort her.
Eventually, she has her daughters. Candia has its heirs. Carmelinda still has yet to truly grieve. After all, there is so much to do and so little help to do it.
As time passes, the duties pile on, never ending, rather growing. In addition to the meetings and policies, she must keep track of her husband, who shirks even simple responsibilities, and her daughters, neither of whom care for the role Carmelinda has held onto for so long. That she tries and tries to prepare them for, and they continously turn their backs on.
What does she have, truly? A dead wife, a neglectful husband? What friends surround her, and what enemies hide among them? She keeps up the study of the magic that is demonized outside the country she cannot leave.
If she does, after all, who can she trust to actually run it? To protect the home of the life she never got to live?
And so, Carmelinda melts away, and the Queen of Candia takes her place little by little, as she keeps giving and giving.
And then the heirs are 18. It is their Saint's day, and they should be crowned. Granted new authority, and responsibility. But they are so clearly not ready. Look how fast they jump at the chance to leave, after all.
In another life, her and Lazuli's child would be ruling. In another life, she could rest easy.
But this is not that life, and she must stay behind as her whole family leaves her behind without a spare thought.
And when they return, it is with danger imminent. She has lost what is dear to her once again.
Her daughter, assassinated. Her home, taken. Her crown, revoked. Her husband? No, an oathbreaker and a secret finally told.
And how could they not trust her? Had she not devoted enough? Had she not given everything to House Rocks?
Amethar, never ready to rule, she could understand. A political marriage neither truly wanted. But Lazuli? Her precious wife? The woman she loves with all her heart, that she still has not spent a day without missing ardently?
All that is left is pain as her world crashes around her. The past 20 years of labor, for what? For who?
And now they desperately lead her around to new schemes and plots, but, what keeps her here?
She has no husband, no title, no love.
One daughter dead and the other lashing at her.
She goes along for a love she has just been told did not trust her.
House Rocks gets its victory.
The Queen becomes the Empress.
Carmelinda lives and dies by a life she never wanted.
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
dededos
