Lucian and Arianna's Betrothal Pact

Lucian and Arianna's Betrothal Pact is a royal marriage agreement made when Lucian and Arianna Kinsley were children, intended to reunite Paegeia under one ruling family. Its force reaches beyond court politics: the prospect that Lucian will be required to marry Arianna in two years threatens his relationship with Elena and shapes their choices, conversations, and periods of separation.

Origins and Political Purpose

The pact was made between Paegeia's two ruling kings while Lucian and Arianna were children. Their stated aim was to unite the kingdom once again under a single ruling family, making the future marriage a tool of dynastic politics rather than a choice made by the people expected to enter it. Arianna is the Princess of Areeth, and Lucian is expected to marry her after he graduates from Dragonia Academy.

Elena regards the arrangement as ridiculous, but its political logic is clear in the conflict it creates: Lucian objects that alliances are unnecessary, while Elena points out that Paegeia needs one ruler. The pact therefore makes the question of who should rule inseparable from the question of whom Lucian must marry.

The Pact and Lucian's Relationship with Elena

Elena learns that Lucian will be forced to marry Arianna in two years, and this—not simply the difficulty of finding time together—is the main reason she has stopped speaking to him. She cannot imagine life without him, yet the pact makes their future seem vulnerable to a decision reached before either of them could choose for themselves. The deadline gives their romance a political obstacle with a specific horizon: Lucian's graduation and the marriage expected to follow.

Their relationship is already constrained by Lucian's parents, who have not approved of Elena and make it difficult for the couple to see each other during the summer. They are even apart on Elena's seventeenth birthday, when his parents take him on an unplanned two-week family vacation near the Wall. The location's poor phone reception leaves calls impractical. These ordinary separations intensify Elena's fear that, in less than two years, their time together will have been for nothing.

Resistance and Compromise

In a conversation with Elena, Lucian says he wants to come home and complains that his father needs to change his attitude. He rejects the need for alliances; Elena answers that Paegeia still needs a single ruler. Lucian then says Arianna can rule if that means he will not have to marry her. His response exposes the personal cost behind his political objection: he is willing to imagine Arianna's rule as an alternative to a marriage imposed on him.

Elena does not treat that remark as a settled solution. She tells him he does not mean it, while continuing to fear the wedding itself. At another point, she says she hopes Lucian's parents will change their minds once they meet her, and he agrees that they will. That hope concerns their acceptance of Elena, however, and does not establish that the pact has been cancelled or altered.

Consequences and Unresolved Future

The pact keeps shaping the couple's relationship even when they are not discussing royal politics. Lucian's parents' restrictions, his frustration at being kept away from Elena, and her dread of the approaching two-year deadline all make communication feel precarious. Their phone conversations are sometimes interrupted just as they become more candid, leaving the conflict without a resolution.

For Elena, Arianna's freedom to do as she likes is beside the point so long as she may marry Lucian. For Lucian, the pact is an unwanted obligation that he openly resists, but the evidence does not show him escaping it. The agreement thus remains an unresolved pressure on their relationship: a childhood political bargain whose intended unity for the kingdom threatens to divide the people bound by it.