I woke up late the next morning to the rain pattering the windows and roofs of the tower, it's methodical drill calming me as I slipped out of bed. Rose was gone, and so I slipped on a fluffy white robe and stepped to the window. The deep gray clouds were pouring water onto the panes, the drops trickling down in globs. But through the dim light of the stormy night, through even the foggy window, I could see a white dress in the garden plaza, dancing in the rain. She twirled before the large statue, and I smiled at the sight of her. Who else would dare dance before her one removed fiancé's dead ex-husband? No one I knew.
She flew around the flooded fountain like a bird, her soaked white dress spinning heavily with her. Rosetta always loved the rain, and I wondered if as she dance, if she cried, or if she smiled too. I wondered if she could see the white robe behind the cut glass window. No doubt she knew I had noticed the hole, and left it for her, even though I myself was not entirely sure whether it was a good idea to do so. I slid the robe off my shoulders and kicked the glass, letting the shattered pieces spray outward and the rain engulf me as I replaced smooth skin with blackened fur. I splayed my wings and flew down to join her, perching on one of the gargoyles that guarded my wretched family. She was smiling.
* * *
"A ball?" I asked, replacing my knight on the chess board.
"I can't imagine any other way we could get her to listen while also getting her to see us." Illy said, placing her queen opposite my knight.
"We'll have to be careful, we can't have our relationship go public before people know Rosetta is innocent. You'd be ripped to bits for courting the child of your mother's ex."
"I think it'll be fine. We can push the roles of slave and master without really evicting any real suspicions. If anything, it might help later when people are trying to understand what went on and look to the past for clues." She said. I moved my knight, taking out her bishop.
"Very well, when?" I asked.
"Tuesday should do, I'll call Ebony up tonight and have her select dresses."
"I can't get used to your eyes." I leaned forward and looked at them, their melty purple color was so pretty against her white skin and black curls. She smiled as she took her queen in her hand.
"Checkmate." She replied, taking my pawn as she placed her queen before my king, guarded by her rook.
"If it takes me a decade, I swear I'll beat you someday." I replied.
"Do you know what that mate's called?" She asked, and I shook my head. "The kiss of death."She laughed and leaned forward over the chess board, "Shall I give you one personally?" She pressed her lips to mine in a kiss.
"You're too smooth for your own good." I grazed my hand across her neck as I spoke. "So tell me, Illy, is the move really called that?" I said. She laughed.
"Believed me or not, it is."
* * *
If there was a time I was most inclined to pin that puny man to the wall, it would be now, in all his many years of service, and all his petty mistakes, this made me the most irate. "One, maybe two days after I gave you strict instruction to revoke all requests put forth by my daughter and come to me immediately, is you memory really that short Josh. I am beginning to think I've hired a goldfish, for at this point I don't even think you stand shoulder to shoulder with the most cowardly of dogs. She's a lightweight, would never do a think about it if you refused, but you are so cowardly and dim that you cannot even stand your ground against her tactless words?" I yelled, smacking my palms down on the table as I stared down on him, his pupils were so small I felt his wire specs might shrink with them, and his hair stood on end in fear.
"I," He stammered, simply to fill the silent, "You majesty, I can assure you I had not ill intent at might and thought you would have no interest in the matter, your elecelence. It's a ball, I thought it irrelevant from government and therefore allowed to fall into her hands." He said, his grumbled words rambled on like a speeding train on old, tattered, track.
"Irrelevant from government? Everything is government, even ground beneath your seat, or lack therefore, since you can't seem to stand your ground, so you must be lacking either in the ground or the feet. Perhaps this is one of the rooms I installed false floors in and I simply forgot. This deals with the public, I am their Queen, she is their Princess, and their viewpoint of us as individuals is a large portion of the glue that holds this kingdom together, Josh. A ball is a major government affair."
"I'll revoke it."
"You'll do no such thing. After it's been announced? You might as well just shout to the streets that their monarchs are braindead. We'll hold that ball and make it one of the best yet, I want new curtains for it even, perhaps you can clean out the large ballroom, the one that's been neglected for the past decade or two. In fact, I'm ordering it now. If this ball is not the most extravagant that this country has seen since the days of the war and creation, you will be fired on the spot and hanged in the maids garden where you belong." I yelled, stomping out the door before he could respond with a word. The people of the hallway had big eyes and trembling hands but they stood their ground.
"What's your name?" I stopped before a short woman, her short black hair was pinned up in curls by her ear, and her deep brown eyes complimented kindly to her smooth brown skin and crisp suit. She stood her ground, even attempted to look me in the eyes as I spoke.
"Alex Trovcovsky." She replied, her voice stiff and pronounced. I looked down at the pink pads of her clasped hands, they were still.
"I like you, and your name is much better that Josh Kovenson. We let him go the day after the ball, whether he does good or not, bring me a resume by then, if it's good, and you are capable of reaching a higher standard of capability than a goldfish, you're hired." I said. Her purple lipstick was splayed in such a shocked smile, she was not even able to reply with more than a bow as I walked out.
* * *
I slipped the dress up to my waist, my arms through the golden tool sleeves, and felt Rosetta's warm hands zip up the back. I shook out the dress, it's white took bosom and back were adorned with a large white skirt that blossomed out into gold feathers, layered upon each-other until at it's base, it was simply a flurry of gold. I turned and took my crown from Rose, pressing it upon my head. It had been a while since I adorn my head with a crown, but it felt good to have one again. As I turned I heard the feathers clink like wind-chimes.
"You're going to wear something so lavish one day that you'll never be able to outdo yourself again." She laughed.
"That's the goal." I said, "Do you worry about it? Worry I'll reach my peak before our wedding."
"No, and there's not pressure to have one." She said, a light blush on her cheeks.
"We're having one, although I suppose you'd prefer me in a tux for that, wouldn't you." I took her hand as I started down the stairs.
"What are you doing?" She asked, "Aren't you going to the ball?"
"Yes, but surely I need some company for the time before I enter." I practically dragged her down the stairs.
"Then let me get a cloak, I can't go out into the public castle like this. I'm dead, remember."
"You don't actually believe I expect to keep you cooped up in here like a damsel in a witch's tower, do you? The public's got to realize you're alive someday, and why not today?"
"I can't," She began.
"Yes you can. I made sure you were dressed plenty nice. There is not reason not to, and I'm not even asking you to join the ball itself. All I request is for you to traverse the halls and sit with me in the waiting room, no more." I said. She formed her lips into a pout but didn't object, her stride matching mine as I walked through the halls. The white lace of her shoulder-less dress swooped around her arms and swayed as she walked, the bright blue of it's slim skirt stopped so the lace petticoat was visible at it's edge, jumbled as she walked. I stopped at the door and leaned forward to kiss her.
"You'll get lipstick on me," She protested as I leaned in, pressing my lips to hers.
"It's matt." I said, turning to open the doors. I let my hand drop from hers as they swung open to the bustling corridor. I saw the fear on her features as the eyes turned our way, but the maids scattered like skittish birds at the sight of me, regardless of whether they saw her.
"You've been treating them badly again, haven't you?" She narrowed her eyes at me.
"I'll do better." I sighed, starting off to the left.
"Isn't the ballroom to the right?"
"The small one is. I had the large one cleared for this occasion, although I'll admit it was just to give Josh a hard time."
"Have you threatened to fire him again? Is that why your dressed so extravagantly?"
"More than threatened, he's gone. He's outlived his term, we both know it." I said.
"Your paying him good retirement, Mine. Until he gets a new job, he'll have enough money for his family."
"I'm started to miss your timid bout of shyness. You were so docile." I joked as we approached the waiting booth. I held it open as Rosetta walked in.
"It's already started." She said, looking down at the ballroom through the one way window. It was a large circular room with marble walls, obsidian floors, and a spiraling glass ceiling that left off a circular hole in the center. Previously it had been used for flight shows, fireworks, and other festivities, but now it was simply a decorative measure, remembered by few.
"Well, it was orchestrated by Illy, I'm just a guest." I replied, lining up to the door.
"Good luck, and don't threaten to kill anyone too gruesomely." Rosetta said, shielding her face from view as I took the door handles in my hands. I rolled my eyes but made no protest of her hiding her identity, instead swinging the doors open and slipping through. I paused while people took notice before closing them and starting down the stairs, which were opposite that that Illy had descended earlier. By the time I reached the base I could already hear the murmurs about a mystery woman in white and blue lace.
She may have shielded her identity but it had only added gasoline to the fire. I shifted through the crowd in my gown, stopping once or twice to speak with old friends like Madam Vitiosus, before finally setting food before the daughter herself, though it was rather difficult to get near her. The crowd around her was thick and I realized that she had reached another one of her popularity booms. When I got to my lowest, the public always clung tighter to the dutiful daughter, Ilustra. But I recognized as I caught sight of her face that there was more reason than one for her popularity tonight. Her golden monocle sat upon her cheek, but behind it, was a ghost I had not seen since my husband was alive.
Upon her pale face, was a complete pair of glowing purple eyes. And that was not the only change. She wore a slim red dress to accent them, it's smooth fabric sparkling in the moonlight almost as much as did the network of silver jewelry around her neck, but what struck me most about the dress was it's counterpart. Elly, was wearing the exact same dress but in a deep blue, and the exact same jewelry. If there was anything that could have angered me more, made more of a statement, and caused my fists to clench tighter, I did not know of it. I pressed through the crowd smoothly, landing at their side.
"If I had known we were all wearing dresses, I would have chosen a suit to offset this trend." I remarked as the crowd dispersed a bit to give us space.
"I know, even your's is wearing a dress." Illy replied smoothly.
"Well, enough with the small talk, where is your eye?"
"Ah, I wish too that we might speak of it here, but I don't think it's in the public's knowledge yet to understand. But I will inform you that spite could not have been further from my mind as I decided upon it." Illy ran a hand through her hair, placing her other on her slave's waist.
"It was your doing, wasn't it, wisely little snake of a girl. I'll do all I want to you now, and want you to know that you would never have gotten the best of me if I had been in my right of mind." I snapped, keeping my voice low.
"Actually, I petitioned against it, thinking it would upset you that you were not consulted in the matter, but Illy insisted." The girl said.
"Illy, you really cannot believe that this girl is who you are destined for. She's a sole-blooded devil and thinks you are too."
"What are you talking about mother? Devil?" Illy furrowed her brow.
"I suppose you wouldn't know, would you? You never read my books about sole bloods."
"I know what a sole blood is, I just don't understand what you're saying about us being devils."
"Then you don't understand what a sole blood is." I replied coolly, looking around. The crowd looked to be getting nervous. "I'll tell you later but right now I'm trying for a new image and this isn't it."
"Alright mother." Illy said sighing. "Have you hear anything about Master Clementia?"
"No. I sent him home under threats a couple days back. Is he here?"
"That's the thing that's got everyone talking. He isn't, and people have caught on that he wasn't home for a while. They think he's being successful. I had to shoot down three people asking if I was beginning to like him, one even suggested it might be you he was here with."
"I'll get someone to clear it up, but right now I ought to go." I turned after saying farewell and made my way back through the crowd.
"My Queen." I heard someone call from behind me and turned to see someone I had not met in quite a while.
"Why, if it isn't Rendell. I've been meaning to write you." I said, turning to see him. He was a tall black man of very muscular build, wearing a deep purple suit with black edges and a yellow striped tie.
"Yes, yes, yes. I saw your dress and was wondering who put the chandelier near the floor until I realized it was you, always have a way of pulling the most outrageous things off. Now what's with this new plan, the countries got it's Queen back, they say your taking over the government again, kicked Illy out on her ass, and now you've got a special lady up in your waiting room. Just last week I heard you looked horrible at your waking ball, and yet now you've go the youth of a child in that skin." He said.
"You flatter too much." I said. "I do hate to disappoint but I'm afraid this time you're going to have to wait for the press to take hold of it, although I'de love to share under a strict swearing of secrecy in a padlocked, soundproof room."
"I'm not good with secrets but I'de be happy for you, Mortemine, and that's not just the fear of death speaking." He laughed.
"I'de love to stay but I can see that we're heading for the stairs and I ought to join. Farewell."
"Farewell." He replied as I turned to follow Illy, catching up to them.
"Don't tell me you're going to walk up the stairs with her." I groaned.
"Relax, I haven't cleared that boundary yet." Illy replied, waving goodbye to the girl as we began our climb. At the top I let Illy through first, but made sure to leave the door open a while. Rosetta, not realizing the danger immediately, hadn't hid her face until after a good deal of people had seen her. I smirked as I sat down beside her, thinking of the rumors the press would produce. Illy took the seat opposite.
"Are you going to tell me now, why it is you've done away with your eye. I gave you that as a sign of solidarity in the royal family, as a symbol of your existence as a child of me and my late husband, and it seems to me that doing away with it, is similar to doing away with your mother." I said as the door opened, the girl came in and sat beside Illy.
"That is not true and you know it to be. You gave me your eye out of fear, fear that I was not your's, and fear that someone might realize. I am your daughter, with or without it, with or without your genes, with or without your relation to me. You may not have been the woman who raised me but I can assure you that no woman influenced me more. Mother, of all those that made me, you were who I looked up to, to your strength and confidence, dominance and intelligence. A girl will always look to her mother for what she should become, and I looked to your. You are my mother weather or not your eye resides in my head."
"But couldn't you keep it, just for me, for my comfort, for that of the press?" I felt myself cracking under her words, I wanted to deny them, but could not. "Why did you need to do away with it, I know there are other ties that link us, but I wanted a solid one, and now you've cut it."
"I know, I'm sorry." She replied, leaning forward on the opposite chair. I felt for a moment like our roles had reversed, like she held the power, and I was simply a protesting child. "I didn't do it thinking of any of that. I did it as a test, and one of the most utmost importance. I did it because I once lied to you, and I needed to know how it was I did that. Back in the beginning of this whole ordeal, we told you that Elly broke all the chains in the dungeon. And that is somewhat true, she broke her's, she broke her mother's, she bent the bars. But when she arrived at my cell, she told me that I could surely break my own chain, that I was in no way weaker than her. I freed myself from that dungeon, knowing full well you had told me it was impossible.
"The issue was, that I did it with much more struggle than Elly. I remembered chasing her through the sky, when you were asleep, and how I toiled to keep up with her, but I did keep pace with her. Than Rosetta finally said it, she told us about sole bloods, about what we already knew to some extent, and told me that the only way that I could have kept pace with Elly, have broken my chains, have come up with DNA unrelated to my own mother's, was if I too was a sole blood."
"No, you are not a devil, I swear to it that I did not raise a devil in a costume, and will let no one believe it so." I cut her off, slamming my fist onto the coffee table so a long crack spread across the wood surface.
"A devil? I still don't understand what you mean." Illy replied.
"Sole bloods are devils, and I suppose I couldn't of expected you to know this, but I'll tell it to you now. When they first appeared, with Pharaoh Menkaure and the Fables of the People, everyone presumed sole bloods to be sent from god, but the story goes much deeper. It was only around a hundred years later when mythical species began being targeted. A new leader arose, a man history had forgotten the name of, but at the time everyone knew it. He was the second sole blood history saw, named by those few permitted to know him, Rupture the Great. This man differed from Menkaure greatly, although he began his live with a vivid conquest towards good, but fell flaming from the heights he reached.
"Once he was in power, he began to see those about him as a lowly class, began to think of himself as superior to all about him. This man was not Anirline in nature, but Vampiric. He craved more and more blood, more and more lives, until the area over which he ruled was so taxed they could do nothing to stop him. He had the power of millions in his hands, and at night people hid in their cellars, garlic about their necks, in hopes of surviving their ruler. No one had the power to stop him. He spoke of the fires of hell, or the devil and the devilish kind, their sheiks of pain as they roasted, swore he would never return. Rupture the great would call to the streets for purification, that he escaped for earth and transcended to mortal being to save the earth from those that held mythical powers, as way of passage to heaven.
"In reality, he was trying to secure his eternal rule, so that he might never have to die again. He succeeded until a group of thousands of us band together and became the first to finally succeed in stopping him. It took hundreds of lives to kill him, but we succeed, and expected our reacceptance into society for it. Stupid humans saw our power and thought of how it might be used against them, and continued their plight for our destruction. It was then that I took head of that army and began the great war." I said.
"But what does that have to do with us. A sole blood goes crazy and terrorizes the world, how does that relate us to devils?" Illy asked.
"Don't you see. Sole bloods are powerful because they are devils who have escaped from hell, and they transcend to morality to earn their place in heaven. They are petty people of sin who wish an easy route to angelic being. This girl here, is the same."
"But Menkaure was great, he upheld his actions nobely, seeked reverence. Sole bloods being devils may mean them not as noble as once was thought, but their actions still can be. I took out my eye because I thought it was restricting my powers, I was right. Mother, whether you still denounce them as devils or not, I am one, and I will not abandon Elly for being the same."
"You don't know that."
"You know as well as me. And since when is the devilish the enemy Mother. How many people do you threaten to kill each day, how many have you, think of how merciless you were at war, think of yourself. I have not done half as bad, and she had neither, surely you cannot denounce us for what little action we partook in, when you have partaken in so much."
"But you still don't know, it could be plenty else, anything else." I lashed out again.
"If it is something else for me, if you intend to believe in Rosetta you cannot exclude me. Don't you understand mother, I'm telling you that you will either accept Elly and I as a package, or ostracize us as one." She said. I was quiet for a moment, a shiver traversed my spine as I narrowed my eyes into a scrutinizing glare, but found neither ill will or wavering intension upon Illy's face.
"That's political blackmail." I said slowly. She laughed.
"Like you care, you'd lock us up in a dungeon and bring us out for parties with ear pieces and shock collars if you wished it."
"I considered it." I replied, but there was no conviction behind my words. All I could see was Rosetta beside me, and those two, their bright eyes beaming, their dresses and jewelry match. Perhaps I was getting old, perhaps it was getting to morning, but for whatever reason, loosing this battle didn't seem so daunting. It felt like throwing in the towel, no strings attached. "I'll think about it in the morning," I said, picking myself up and starting out, Rosetta followed.
"Are you alright?" She asked once the door closed behind us.
"Yes, I just realized, that perhaps it's time I retire. Perhaps it was time long ago, and I only didn't because there was no one to take my place. I was just thinking, that perhaps this isn't bad, perhaps it's alright now, safe now." I smiled sadly.
"What are you going to do?" She asked.
"I'll run the country for a couple more years, clear all this debree up, get my prestige back, and hand it over. It's about time this kingdom got a new ruler." I stretched my limbs as she locked the door to my part of the castle behind us.
"Are you lying?" She turned to me, her big blue eyes questioned my expression
"You know I'm not." I said, pulling her closer as we walked.
"Isn't this strange, being like this again, but having everything be so different?" She asked suddenly.
"Yes, it's very strange, but to me, I don't really think it feels strange." I squeezed her hand.
"Your right, it doesn't feel strange."
"What does it feel like?" I said. She paused
"Like the snow melting in spring, if you think, it's incredibly strange that once a year, the white blanket that covers the foliage, slowly slips away. Even when I know fully what's causing it, it's still strange."
"Do you like spring?" I asked, leaning closer. I saw a blush form on her cheeks.
"Yes." She replied, "I love spring." I leaned down and felt her rise on her tiptoes to meet my kiss.