A faint breeze coasted through the window. She turned over and searched for any hint of light on the horizon that would indicate dawn. She threw back the covers when she spotted the first tendrils of dawn creeping over the skyline. She dressed in a hurry and scurried down the hall. Her father was just leaving his room as she rounded the corner. Something brought her to a halt before her father spotted her. She crept back around the corner and peeked around it. Her father was speaking with her mother at the door to their room.

“Seona, don’t send her to that place,” he was saying. “She won’t fit in there.”

“The point is not for her to fit in Loxley, the point is for her to gain some manners,” her mother sighed. “Heaven knows she refuses to learn from me.”

“Seona, Kira is smart but I feel like she should have been born a boy. She is too wild to be a girl so you say she must be tamed. I disagree. I don’t think she can be tamed nor should she. And that’s what will make her the best archeologist, better than even me. You take that away from her, Seona, and we won’t have a daughter anymore. Take that away and she will be nothing more than an airhead who has no opinion of her own.”

“Loxley, you’ve indulged her for far too long! It is time Akira learn her place in the society we live in.”

“Says the woman with the chemistry degree.” He sighed. “I do not condone what you are about to put her through, Seona. Nor do I understand why you cannot encourage her love of archeology as I have. I agree she needs to learn to hold her tongue at times but sending her there of all places? Really, Seona?”

“Loxley, I had no other choice. I come from a family of means. I wasn’t expected to continue my education as far as I did. My father indulged me and my mother permitted it as long as I was a lady who could manuever in polite society with grace. I will do the same. Society has expectations of women that must be met…”

Akira couldn’t take anymore. She ran to her father.

“Society is wrong!” she practically shouted. “And if society is wrong I don’t want to be a part of it and I don’t want to leave Papa’s digs!”

By the time she had finished, Akira was panting. Her father put his hand on her shoulder.

“Kira, you are a part of society whether you like it or not,” he told her gently. “That is sadly something you cannot change.”

“If I must be a part of society, then I shall change it!” she snapped indignantly.

Her father had smiled and tousled her hair affectionately. They left for the palace not long afterwards. Her father had to speak to the king about his new dig site.

Akira had been to the palace only once before, that she could remember anyway, yet the grandness always made her stare open-mouthed. Her father always chuckled at her awe of the palace before nudging her back into the present. Father had been here so many times that he didn’t need a servant to show him the way to the throne room. When they entered the room, the king was nowhere in sight. On the daisis, sat four chairs. Only one was actually occupied. Akira cocked her head. Normally, her father met the king alone. Today should have been no different but the person in the chair was decidedly not the king. It was a boy, not much older than herself. He had hair the color of onyx and eyes so dark she couldn’t fathom their depths.

“Prince Ehren, will your father be joining us this morning?” her father asked the boy in the chair.

“Of course Lord Eames,” the boy replied. “He is running late.”

“Obviously,” Akira muttered.

The boy looked at her sharply.

“Lord Eames, who is she?” the boy asked.

Before he could reply a jovial laugh came from behind them.

“Ehren, you don’t recognize the Lady Akira?” the man laughed. “Why you’ve only known her all your young life!”

“King Eero, they are both young and may not remember the last time they met,” her father pointed out.

“Wait,” she said, moving toward the daisis. “I remember you. We had a pony race and you were a sore loser when I won.”

“You won because I permitted it.”

That made her laugh. Her laugh startled him obviously but made both of their fathers snicker along with her.

“You didn’t permit me a thing your highness,” she replied wiping tears from her eyes. “If you had, you wouldn’t have been pushing your pony so hard.”

This made both of their fathers laugh even harder. The young prince glared at her.

“Don’t glare at me!” she snapped. “I am not the one who cannot handle the truth.”

She turned to her father.

“Father isn’t it time you discuss what we came here to discuss in the first place?”

Her father looked at her stunned.

“Are you surprised that I know big words or that I know mother is sending me away to a church full of nuns to become a part of society?”

“You have need of manners if you are to appear at court, Lady Akira,” the prince sneered.

“Haud yer whist!” she snapped in return. “Our business is not with a prince who sneers and disrespects his subjects.”

“Our business you say?”

Akira’s temper was nearing its boiling point and her father must have noticed.

“Prince, I suggest you go break your fast before my daughter does something she regrets,” her father told him.

“I will not be ordered around by a man who plays in the dirt,” the prince snapped.

Both Akira’s father and the king heaved great sighs as the prince’s words unleashed the full force of Akira’s fury. Granted, she was taking some of her anger at her mother out on him but not all of it.

“You goatish, lilly-livered, pick-a-ninny!” she growled. “If you become half the man my father is you would be lucky. He’s a brilliant man and archeologist and you have no right to treat him like you just did.” The prince opened his mouth to reply but Akira cut him off. “No, don’t you dare say it! You are not king. You are a PRINCE. One of two, if I’m not mistaken. You do not own this kingdom nor do you rule it. Your father will decide if you are fit to rule and at this point I wouldn’t blame him for making your brother his heir. You obviouly don’t respect your people and you think everyone is beneath you. Let me tell you something Prince. While you sit on your throne all comfortable, millions of YOUR people toil away in the searing sun just to eek out a living. While you have a lavish feast, they have practically nothing to eat. Mothers and fathers go without just so their children can eat. If you intend to be king, then you need to ACT like one.”

This was the last time her temper would be allowed free reign. It was also the last time she would not be punished for it.