Faerypin Contest!

And, at the eleventh hour, I finally have my entry for @ruanna3's Faerypin contest (at exactly 300 words)!  Enjoy!
Oh, and here's my inspiration pic:

Marvelous Light

They said the place had once been magnificent.  On fire with color.  Now everything about the castle, the whole land, really, was cold and grey and full of shadows.  The windows, intricately designed, let in watery, colorless light that did little to actually brighten anything.  Every now and then, though, a flash of the most beautiful colors could be seen, flashes of the glorious past destined to remain only ever in the past. 

I had never seen this myself, but the servants occasionally brought it up for entertainment.  I would pace up and down the hallways, hoping for a glimpse of this colorful light, only to be disappointed day after day by the stalwart grey glass.  It was clear glass, actually, but it was so wavy and everything was so bland outside that it appeared to be grey.

I was making my usual rounds through the castle hallways when one of the servant girls rushed up to me, breathless and slightly fearful.  Or was it tearful?  I waited for her to catch her breath before speaking.

“What is it?” I asked. 

“Your father,” she said, “has fallen ill, and the physician fears that….” she trailed off at this, but it was all too clear.  

My father was not a young man.  He would most likely not recover.  I stood there in shock at the realization that I was to be king, and in that moment, the sun broke through the constant cloud cover and the halls lit up with glowing colors: scarlet, magenta, gold, purple, emerald, azure.  It was breathtaking, and we both stared in awe.  I thought back to the last time the servants remembered seeing the colors.  It had been when my father’s reign began.  When there was the potential for change.  And so there was once more.