Vulcan awoke to the sound of dishes clinking. She immediately raised a hand to shield her eyes from the light that quickly flooded into the room. Veni, her valet had pulled the curtains open. Vulcan let out a grunt of disapproval.
"My lord." Veni began, "It's time to get up." He crosses the room to Vulcan's bed side and stands over her. He places his hands together in front of his body, elegantly, as if he were waiting patiently for an order.
"Vulcan. You know your father is coming to see you about that incident with the Duke's son."
Vulcan lazily props herself on both elbows. She lets out a long sigh. "I'm awake, I'm awake." Vulcan rather preferred to sleep for a bit longer before the "trial" with her lordship father.
Veni had put a plate of poached eggs and bread on the table by the window, before pulling the curtains apart. A food cart with a tea set and a kettle with steam coming from the ide, was next to the table. Vulcan forced herself climbed out of bed and crossed over to the table. She pulled the chair closest to her out from under the table and sat down to begin eating.
"Is this some kind of insult?" Vulcan asked Veni, staring down at the food in front of her. "I'm a prisoner in my own room and I get meals that the peasants eat?" Veni winced at using that word. She didn't like calling anybody of the under class "peasants". She felt wrong for doing so.
Veni went over to the chest that was in front of Vulcan's bed. "My lord, your father has requested me to make you meals of the lower class until trail to teach you a lesson." He bent down and pulled the lid open. Vulcan scoffed in response before Veni began picking an outfit for Vulcan for the day.
Veni wanted Vulcan to look presentable as possible. Vulcan was hardly able to take care of herself, so Veni had to help her. He was Vulcan's valet. He did nearly everything for her to insure that nobody found out about Vulcan's secret.
Girl weren't allowed to have male valets because it was inappropriate. Nobody but Vulcan's family, wet nurse, the women who assisted with her birth, and Veni knew that Vulcan was born a girl. All Vulcan's life, she had to hide it because she was regent lord Nakamura's first born and heir. It was taboo for a regent lord's heir to be born female.
Westerlyn mainland, the emperor disapproved women to be leaders. The kingdom of Hiyatian believes that women are weak minded creatures. Uncapable of ruling; only to bare children and to be used for a man's pleasure.
Vulcan trusts Veni with her life. Though, she is surprised that Veni has never told a soul about her secret. Veni is a sly man and is driven by revenge due to his faily being murdered by a group of hired mercenaries when he was a child. Veni was never open about his past and Vulcan didn't blame him. She just hoped that Veni wouldn't turn on her and tell her secret to anybody in the kingdom. Rumors tend to spread fast throughout the kingdom.
If anybody knew, Vulcan would be declared as a witch and be burned at the stake or be thrown into a pit to be tortured.
Vulcan's home was called the reign of Vorgalla. It was a huge land surrounded by water in the south side of the Hiyatian Kingdom. The Vorgalla was the Empire's source of of marketing. Selling goods, fishing, sometimes the creation of weapons. There were only a handful of blacksmiths here. Usually we had to get our supplies and weapons from the blacksmiths in the western reign. the reign of Luirian.
Luirian was the western reign. They were the empire's main source of technology and defense. It was a place full of vampires, werewolves, Nagas, Dracotaurs, and other creatures who reside there. Vampires were mainly elected as lord reigns over there. In the east, is the Ephesan reign. Half of the reign is of forest and the other half is made of desert. Their regin was the empire's source of agriculture, farming, and mining. The empire loves their jewels. Lastly, there's a center reign where they make sure each reign is doing what they are supposed to be doing. Basically. The fourth reign is called Govia. The other half of that regin is the empire's graveyard. Everybody in the empire tries to steer clear of that place. The empire's graveyard is extremely eerie and those who have to attend a funeral there is on edge the whole time they're there. It's a graveyard, of course.
The Emperor enjoys using fear to control people. Their greatest weapon is not the swords and shield that they have the reign of Luirian make. It's the creatures of hate that they posses. These creatures are called the Yaikesse. They used to be human. Sort of like the way some vampires used to be human. But the Yaikesse are monsters who are driven by madness and hate. Ghosts of the past coming back to haunt a person, in a way. They are stronger than the vampires in the reign of Luirian.
The empire found a way to summon these creatures through rituals and were once idolized as gods by some. Really, they were only doppelgangers to be used as a companions or for destruction. Or to replace someone.
Centuries ago, the Yaikesse were used as weapons of war by the Hiyatian empire to have the upper hand or to keep enemies out of their land. Other kingdoms became terrified of the Hiyatian empire, that they negotiated a peace treaty. The empire had no enemies to worry about for awhile. Shorty after 7 long years of war, the empire would get bored and bully nearby kingdoms who were small. To start some kind of excitement.
Soon, the empire started sending the Yaikesse on their own people. Rebel within the empire begin to rise up to fight against the empire, but they were quickly killed off. After that, the empire established four reigns of territory to make sure the citizens didn't rebel against them again. Though, if as reign lord didn't do his job properly or if they rebelled against the empire, they were replaced. Either by another human or by a Yaikesse. Over the years, the empire made sure that the citizens forgot about their deed by allowing the citizens to participate in festivals and holidays. Over time, it seemed people really started to forget about their empire's dark ages.
After Vulcan finished eating her morning meal, she stood up and went over to her bed. Veni had laid out an outfit for her on her bed to wear. It was a charcoal colored low-cut neck tunic and a pair of black trousers with a silver neckless that bore her reign's and family's crest. On the crest, it was a scarlet ibis. It was required for royalty to wear a neckless or a broach with their house and reign crest to tell them apart from the commoners.
"Step out, please." Vulcan ordered Veni, who was standing near her with his hands placed elegantly in front of his body. Vulcan felt uncomfortable showing her body around people, including Veni. Even after knowing Veni all her life.
"Yes, my young lord." Veni bowed before leaving the room.