The Mad Queen
The aged queen sat in her once-noble throne, staring at a marble wall lavishly inlaid with gold. The throne room had once been a marvelous place, in the days when the queen was young and vital. Now it seemed a sleepy memory of its former magnificence. Though the traffic brought by official royal business had never dwindled, the splendid fetes and balls and masquerades had diminished to practically nothing over the years. Oh, the queen still had her royal gatherings and celebrations on occasion, but nothing ever to rival the old days.
