Cecilia POV:

I’m currently looking at myself through a mirror. I’m wearing a dress, the regal kind, not the ones that courtiers or shit stirrers wear. It reminded me of what a proper queen or princess should wear at events, as my mother described it. No skin showed aside from my head and my hair was tucked within my hood, gloves covered my arms up to the sleeve and the hem of the gown kept everything hidden. The only reason I’m not wearing something that looks slightly more imposing. I got to keep my pants, thankfully, so that’s a plus.

I let out a breath. Today's the day. In a few hours, I am officially no longer free of the nobility. Then again, I was also on the fast track to become the youngest Ranger Captain in history. Wait, scratch that, I am the youngest Ranger Captain in history, so I wasn’t going to get out free anyways. Come to think of it, I seem to be a magnet for this crap.

“That's annoying.” Cecilia

“Hmm? Did you say something milady?” Ti’sha

I shake my head at her.

“Just thinking out loud, I suppose.” Cecilia

Ti’sha, as a trustworthy woman, was allowed into the spire. She had helped me with dressing myself, though it consisted of just handing me the garb. My own dignity didn’t allow me to stand there and be dressed like a damn baby. I turn my head to the side, and take a look at the capital. I don’t think I’ve actually paid much attention to the city much up till now. I had a shit all view of it when I was a kid, and mom never let me out into it when I was a kid. Come to think about it, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. I was the daughter of the head servant. She essentially ruled the palace, so she could be one hell of a target for leverage. Drop bit of poison in the right meal, and the country is in need of a monarch.

I looked over the city, though a portion of it was obscured by the walls surrounding the palace. The majority of the city I could see comprised of wooden housing with stone bases and corners. There was one section that looked rather shitty, in my opinion, since the houses had holes and caught a whiff of particularly bad smelling crap in that direction, which was mixed with musk and a fuck ton of flowers. I could tell where it was coming from because the wind was blowing towards me and that was the faintest smell in the direction, which is only really useful when it's the farthest thing away from you.

“Hey, Ti’sha, what’s that section of the city called?” Cecilia

I had moved towards the window a while ago, and was simply surveying the city. Ti’sha walked up to my side, following my gaze.

“That, my Queen, is the Flower Road, I believe.” Ti’sha

“Oh.” Cecilia

In Eria, we don’t call the section of our cities which hold whore houses redlight districts, or scarlet districts, or rose districts, we call them flower districts. Every whore house in these districts has a crap ton of flowers on them, and the women have multiple flowers in their hair each. Helps to diminish the scent of shit and every other man that they’ve had that day. The reason we call the one in the capital the Flower Road is simple, the whole district follows along single, albeit large, road, and was the first to start using flowers, if my civilian history is correct. No real symbolism, though if you’re looking for symbolism in a whore house, I’d advise you go to a Nariadan one, apparently it’s seen as an art form or something. Weird pieces of shit, those Nariads, but that tends to happen when you’re whole society has no price on life. Same with the Raiis, which makes the whole situation with the Suana being in between them gets even weirder. Suana are basically a dark skinned version of the Erians. Their tribes were the only other ones to accept refugees of the Great Upheaval.

Other than the Flower Road, the rest of the city looked, and smelled, fairly nice. The merchants district was as busy as always, and the King’s Road, the main road in and out of the city, was being covered in decorations and performers of every type. Everything from firespitters to fortune tellers to even sword eaters. I could see a large camp of nobles and their personal guard forming outside the large, stone, city walls. They were only allowed to start coming in at midday, and that was an hour or two away.

Many onlookers had already gathered, waiting for the parade to begin in earnest; or there to watch the performers and eat foods that were both traditional and foreign. I caught whiffs of spices, meats, cheeses, fruits and pastries from that area, enough to make me want to start gorging myself on them. I also caught a whiff of blood, meaning that a few robberies had already gone wrong and other forms of crime were spreading in the great confusion that is a celebration like this.

“Milady, it would appear your siblings are entering the city.” Ti’sha

Ah shit. I guess I have to start talking to them now. Yaaaay~, I’m so excited~.

I looked in the direction Ti’sha was indicating. The crowd had begun to part and I could see a squadron of knights in ridiculously polished, and bulky, armor on steeds surrounding my eldest sister of about twenty years. I couldn’t see her quite clearly yet, but the scarlet red clothing she was wearing and pretty much everything else about this whole group screamed Talia and her vanity. I know for damn sure that she realizes just how impractical and cumbersome their armor is, but just doesn’t car beyond the point of it looking impressive.

I couldn’t get a good look at her face though, but sue me, she’s on the other end of an entire damn city. From what I remember, she was also quite beautiful, so don’t think of her as the ugly on the inside, ugly on the outside. Though don’t think I never considered ripping some parts off. Especially those damn ears she was so damn proud of. She’s her mother has half Wood-Kin and half North-Kin, so they may outlive me if nothing gets in the way, which something will.

After her was another sibling who I detest, Trevor. Even from this distance I could tell that he was eyeing his sister, the sick craven shit. He was the cunning of those three, and unlike his siblings, didn’t trust a man who pampered their ego. Though he was also the most sickening of them, in my opinion, because of whatever it was that dad found out about his activities with the old Queen, he never regarded Trevor as family again.

Next came Riker, unmistakable in the fact that he was goddamn huge. Bastard was similar to his brother in his treatment of those who catch his eye, but he only grew more bullheaded as he grew bigger. He inherited the Blood of the North-Kin strongly, meaning he grew in physical age as he grew in strength, which is why some mistake him for the eldest sibling. he and Trevor were twins, and both are 18 years old. It appeared as though they were going in order of age, but instead of Jeremiah being next, it was instead a carriage that came next. Jeremiah and I are equal in our age, so everyone in the carriage must be my three younger siblings. I don’t really know all too much about them aside from what Ti’sha told me, they were too young when I left for them to have become too mentally independent.

All the commoners bowed their heads to the presession, and I left the window before any of them could see me. I turned to Ti’sha, who had already gone a few paces back, a grin on my face.

“I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they find out I’m the new Queen.” Cecilia

She just grinned at me. She doesn’t pull the innocent act anymore, meaning she learned that I just don’t give a damn.

“Now are we to wait here or should we leave? I doubt that I’m just supposed to stay cooped up until the Choosing begins.” Cecilia

“Yes, actually, the King doesn’t want his Elysia and Susana to realize you exist just yet. Apparently Elysia has Trevor’s wit, and will notice that the room just above hers is occupied.” Ti’sha

Ah right, there are more rooms than just mine in this spire, this one is just the smallest, the one at the top. The one below this one is much larger and meant to be occupied by the other two, apparently Dad wanted them to share a room for one reason or another. I believe that it also has a star stone story written on it, but I could be wrong, I didn’t actually look at it all too much.

“So where are we going to then? Also, where did you put the cloaks? I think I’ll put one on, it’s getting rather cold.” Cecilia

She turns to one of the closets and begins explaining.

“Gabriel wants you to report to the council room. Nobody will be allowed in there and he wants to give you some info about some of the diplomats, they managed to hide their identities since they never went into the Marian cities after arriving. They were waiting to the last possible moment and were trying their damndest to keep us from discovering their identities. We only found out this morning when they arrived at the outskirts of the city.” Ti’sha

Oh great, wild cards. They must really wanna keep us on our toes then. Ti’sha hands me a robe, it’s grey with silver trimmings, the pattern is distinctly Erian. When I put it on it comes down to the middle of my shins, and doesn’t restrict my movements, like a gown would. Ti’sha kept arguing with me to wear a gown, but I refuse to wear one. Damn things are just so stuffy, then there was the corset, and she even tried to get me to wear a tiara! What am I, some damn foreigner! I’m Erian for God’s sake, we don’t wear Tiaras we wear hoods! So what if the tradition is mostly dead, I refuse to back down on it.

We exit the spire and start towards the council room. The trip was uneventful except for the servants running around all over the place in the second and further rings. They didn’t have as much time as they would’ve liked for the preparations, so some of them are still getting work done. A few were so busy that they forgot to bow to me, which I’m fine with. The only real problem is when they try to pull that with the others, my siblings that is. My elder siblings I know are going to cause a scene, the youngers… no clue, they didn’t get brainwashed by that hag, but they’re still liable to have some problems.

I get to the council room without incident. When I enter, I see Gabriel pacing around with a thoughtful expression on his face. He was wearing a far fancier version of his usual robes, which still make him look like a tired teen who could care less

“Okay, the principalities didn’t send any warriors who could threaten you or challenge you for that matter. Though you do have a problem, the Alliance and Elven Council diplomats refuse to be in the same city as one another and demand that we evict the other. Your father wants you to handle it and if I agree to the solution you can do it.” Gabriel

I frowned for a moment, before going over events out loud for him.

“They are asking us to evict the other, meaning that they want to see where they stand in importance in comparison to the other. They are going to then see if they can pull us into that war in any way feasible. The question is, should we pick a side, or choose neither? I’m inclined to give them both an ultimatum to either stow it or leave, this is their war not ours.” Cecilia

He nodded, an approving look in his eyes.

“Word it a bit better when we get there and we’re good. I share your sentiments about the war, we’ll give them the ultimatum right after the choosing, it’s as good as a coronation and they don’t expect the decision till afterwards anyways. It’ll look good as your first act as Queen of all Eria.” Gabriel

At the last part he was grinning his usual grin. It was a mix of sadistic and mischievous, depending on the angle you were looking from. This guy loves screwing with nobility about as much as I think I will, and I’m pretty sure he’s a bit too excited for me to become Queen. Apparently dad and him don’t see as eye to eye as we do. Call me a shit stirrer... and end of discussion, seriously, that is exactly what I feel like at the moment.

I think I unintentionally let a grin of my own slip. I could here Ti’sha muttering something along the lines of us being two pups in a litter or something, I just ignored her. His grin disappeared and he went back into business mode.

“Now then, out of all the nations diplomats, you can only trust the one from the Suanarin Confederation and the Kembos. They’re the only allies who are actual allies in the grand scheme of things. Plus their ambassadors are good people, to us and that’s just because we are all actual friends and the like. If you see someone badmouth those ambassadors, help them out, even if they’re not around. We weren’t on speaking terms after the coup six hundred years ago, but things have gotten back to good relations after your father’s reign. Now, the Kembos ambassador is a Kembosi, and the Suanarin ambassador is a dark skinned Plains-Kin.” Gabriel

“Anything else?” Cecilia

He looked up at the sky as he scratched a small bit of stubble in need of shaving. Gabriel doesn’t wear a beard, unlike most that I’ve met.

“Nope, you remember your lessons on the political landscape?” Gabriel

“Yup.” Cecilia

“Then just wait here for an hour. Those the clothes you're going to wear for the ceremony? Fitting that you're not wearing a gown or anything of the like. Very traditional, none of that foreign crap everyone’s wearing these days.” Gabriel

“Thanks.” Cecilia

It's refreshing to have someone feel good about our culture, too many people in Adria have been adopting other ways of life. I personally think this “multicultural” shit breeds weakness and division. We’re all Erians, and it’s damn time to start acting like it already. I guess I have a new objective for my reign then. I look back at Gabriel as I go to take a seat, the sound of his prosthetics clanking against the floor as he paced filling the room as his Warg was off somewhere, probably sleeping. I decided to start a conversation with him once I had sat down.

“So, and I mean no offense, do you do anything when you're not working? All I’ve seen out of you is either sleeping, teaching me, council meetings and passing papers with the Dorwings.” Cecilia

Dorwings are an omnivorous bird that looks like a mix between a white feathered dove and a rather fierce hawk. They’re used mostly for passing messages, since runners are slow, horses are costly and Elk a bad experience for any who try and mount one. They can go ridiculous distances because they hunt any food they might need on the way and are quite fast.

“Eh, I like to study alchemy and the like, finding a way to fix my leg problem is a rather important thing for me. Other than that, I usually just talk with Saran, exchange letters with a fellow alchemist with similar research and am friends with one of the Spymaster’s assassins. Otherwise, I don’t really have a form of social life. It’s impossible trying to get close to commoners who can’t protect themselves from the nobility and I can’t stand most nobles. Tan’s sister, the assassin I mentioned earlier, is a decent enough sort but we don’t really talk much, ‘cept when it’s about Saran. Apparently she likes him, no clue exactly, I’m not good with crap like that.” Gabriel

Huh. That's both interesting and a little disappointing. Then again, I suppose I’m not one to talk. Great, now I feel even more pathetic than usual. Here I am, Queen of Eria and I have zero friends! HA! Take that world!

Actually, does Gabriel count? I trust him, but then again I also trust Y’sar to make a sexual comment, and we aren’t exactly friends. Actually, is it common for someone to be cordial with a person they contemplate killing every so often? I get the feeling it isn’t. Gabriel went over to the seat opposite me and sat down, placing his head on top of his crossed arms to make a cushion.

“Are you going to sleep?” Cecilia

He poked his head up.

“Yup.” Gabriel

He then put his head back down. Haaahhh~, I’m going to be bored for the next hour aren’t I?

*****

And I was!