Firelight

ROWAN Age: Nineteen

"Do you swear?" The booming voice of the king echoed in his ears as Rowan knelt before him. Rowan's eyes focused on the king, trying his best to ignore the eyes of the many knights surrounding him.
"I swear to uphold the knight's code, to protect and serve with all of my ability and my life. I pledge loyalty to the throne of Camelot, and swear to use my title for good. I swear to be reverent and generous, a shield to the weak, and to uphold and obey the laws of Camelot." As he spoke, he placed his right hand over his heart and bowed his head.
"I, King Eridian Windsor, accept your oath, and name you," His sword came to rest on first his right shoulder, then his left. "Sir Rowan Desmond, knight of Camelot." A relieved grin spread across Rowan's face as he rose, turning to face the men that would now be his brothers, the knights of Camelot.
There were cheers, smiles, laughs, and pats on the back, and even hugs, but one person caught his eye, not a knight, but a girl, only a year or two younger than he. Her hair was long, the color of champagne, and her smile was beautiful, but it did not reach her heavenly green eyes. The Lady Sofia Giovanni, the King's ward. No one knew much about her other than her name, and that was how the king liked it.

SOFIA Age: Nine

It had started out as a normal night in the house of Giovanni. Her father, Lord Cedric Giovanni, was entertaining friends, and many of them had taken too much to drink. Her mother, the Lady Yvette Windsor, sister of the king, had instructed her to go to bed, but, unable to sleep, little Sofia had crept back down the stairway and peeked through a crack in the door. All of her father's friends had left, save one, and as he rose from his seat, discreetly pinched Yvette's bum.
"You would do well, sir, to keep your grubby fingers away from a lady." Her mother's words were clipped, irritated, and that's when a perfectly normal night became one of great sorrow. This man, drunker than usual, drew a knife, stabbing it into her chest.
"You speak out of turn, mi'lady!" He slurred, laughing. Sofia gasped, watching fearfully as blood poured from her mother's chest. Frozen with fear, she did nothing as the man left, swaying, and her father drooped, passed out in his seat. Her mother was dead within moments, and the next morning, she was sent away to live with her uncle, the king.
The next day
Sofia entered the room where the king awaited her, her eyes slightly red and puffy. She would not cry in this castle, she had done enough of it on the way there. When he saw her, Eridian swept the young girl into his arms and held her tight.
"Oh, sweet darling, I am so sorry." He whispered. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. "I swear to you, you shall want for nothing, you'll be a princess."
She knew that there was a difference between a King's ward and a King's princess, but she did not correct him, she was very sad that her mother had been killed, but she was, at the same time, happy that she was away from the monster that was her father, an abusive drunkard of a man.