Seven maids came in bearing dishes, each toppled with exotic delicacies. Mother and Father and I sat around a moderately big table in a gazebo built over a pond, admiring the view while the maids served us. I was reminded of the time I spent at the Tarnn manor. Shaking my head slightly to dispell the memories, I turned to face my food.
Savitria came forward to check if the dishes were safe for consumption. After nodding to the maids, they all retreated.
Father lifted some portions out of his own plate onto mine, and I smiled at him, as I recalled Thzarmir Hakorhi used to do the exact same thing. Deep down in my mind, I suddenly felt sorry for Iria and Rudolph. I had miraculously gotten my parents back; they only had memories; Rudolph didn't even have any.
Mother noticed my melancholy expression.
"What's the matter?" she asked, concerned.
I roused myself and smiled.
"I'm fine, Mother," I promptly picked up the chopsticks and ate, though my mind was not on the food.
Suddenly, an eunuch rushed in. Throwing himself facedown to the floor, he cried in a frenzy:
"Your Majesties! Your Highness! Royal Lady Alexandria is approaching!"
Father and Mother's expressions darkened considerably. I wondered who Royal Lady Alexandria was, and why she had enough guts to barge in on the Emperor and Empress without being summoned.
But I should not have bothered guessing. About a dozen guards rushed out of practically thin air and drew their swords with their backs to us and restrained the person who had now arrived at the entrance of the gazebo, face flushed and livid.
"My lady, please do not go any further," Ao-ye said with as much politeness as he could muster. I looked between the spaces the guards made and glanced over the so-called Royal Lady.
She glared at me before I could finish looking. Her eyes were bright red, eyebrows slanting, strands of hair creeping over her face. She was huffing, and seemed to have run here.
"Your Majesty, Your Grace!" she cried, "tell them to lower their weapons!"
"You are being too wilful," Father replied, now eating as if nothing was happening.
"I just returned from Province Eight! Is this how Your Majesties will welcome me?" she went on. I frowned slightly. What?
"You should go back to your palace and rest," Mother finally spoke, not looking in Lady Alexandria's way. "Ran-jin, escort Royal Lady Alexandria to the Moonlit Palace,"
"Yes, Your Grace," a tall handsome guard behind Lady Alexandria bowed, "My Lady, please," he gestured.
WHAMM! Lady Alexandria slapped him full on the face, the next moment charging through the guards who were being careful not to hurt her.
"I demand," she stood menacingly over me and pointed her finger in my face, "to have this impostor kicked out!!"
"Alexandria!" Father was real angry now, "how dare you? This is Neiman, the Imperial Princess!"
"No she's not! Royal Father, Royal Mother, she's a scam! Iriadne Hakorhi, that slut, made this all up!"
I rose to my feet. I was half an inch shorter than this walking troublemaker. She glowered at me, her chest heaving as she raised her hand. Did she want to hit me too?
"You will be sentenced to execution for taking the Emperor for a fool!" She cried, fisting her hand and swinging it at my face, "you and that slut! Go die!"
WHAMM!
"Your Highness!" Ao-ye pushed her aside roughly and rushed to my side. I raised my hand to my nose. It was bleeding.
"Guards!" Father yelled, "seize this crazy girl this minute!"
With a dozen guards pinning her down, Lady Alexandria couldn't struggle. She continued to yell and curse at the top of her lungs though.
"Throw her in the Cold Palace!" Father had really lost his temper now, and he clutched at the table in anger, "flog her until she recites her errors!"
"Yes!" The guards dragged the screaming lady away. Mother had already rushed to my side, fretting.
"It's just a bruise," I said to her, putting my hand over my face and healing the bruise with my healing aura. I laughed in my heart. It was all bluff. After I had seen that this wicked lady had come to cause trouble, I had let her hit me without defending myself. Else, could a mere sixth rank mage hit me without my permission?
The meal was ruined. Mother took me to her sleeping chamber within the Floating Paradise Palace and even summoned the Head Physician to make sure I was alright. Father had already stormed off to morning Court in a foul mood, so I stayed back with Mother to get more information. Especially as to who that spoilt brat was.
Mother sighed, sitting by my side on the lush couch and taking my dry, rough hands in hers and patting them as if they were the most delicate things in the world. While she was distracted, I gazed around me, shocked at the splendor and opulence. Of a truth, my Palace of Tranquility did not light a match to the Floating Paradise Palace. I wondered what Lady Alexandria's Moonlit Palace was like; and why she had a Palace in the first place.
"Your Father and I," mother started in an unhappy tone, "thought we had lost you forever. At one point, we even thought," she gripped my hands tightly, "that that sick in the head man had killed you," she sighed, "so, about when you would have been five, we held a memorial--"
What???!!!
"--and announced that we would be taking in bright, brilliant and well-mannered children, instruct them, train them; and hold the final assessment when they were grown-up. The most outstanding would become a Royal Child,"
I nodded to show I was listening.
"Not that we ever gave up on you," Mother gazed at me with teary eyes, starting to go off course.
"I know, Mother. So, that lady, Alexandria became a Royal Child?" I prompted. Mother nodded.
"She was given her title three years ago. She's not the only Royal Child. There are five others,"
I wanted to groan. I really, really wanted to groan. On the other hand, I thought about running away to Hakorhi and leaving this so-called Royal Children to fight it out between one another without involving me.
"Your Father and I treated them just as we would have treyared you. But, unknown to us, Alexandria had amassed a following circle in Province Eight, which she oversees. These past few months, she's grown irascible," she turned her face to the other side, "and due to the fact that We dote on her the most, thinks she is the law. That's why you witnessed her stubbornness today," she looked at me, those green eyes so pure, "but be rest assured that We will deal with her sternly as she dared to hit you," she reached out to caress my face, which was back to normal now, while I forcefully suprressed a grin.
Royal ladies, conmandery princesses, foster princes...
Now that I was here, they could all get lost!