So... The Derderiáns invited my parents and my little sister to the engagement dinner and ball at the mansion.
Lady Dederián was very nervous because they would be visited by the Duke Al-Thule from the South and Duke Soto from The North: the collector of wives, the latter, one of the most powerful men in Alba Terra. The news of Marco Derderián's engagement had reached the farthest corners of the Kingdom, which had aroused a morbid curiosity among society.
After dinner, during the dance, the band began to perform the melody of the song "The Tears of the Coast", inspired by the tragedy of the Costa family.
Marco looked at his father, who gave him a mocking smile. It was clearly a provocation.
Yes. This is how the rest of my life will be.
A constant provocation.
I noticed that Duke Soto talked a lot with my family. I asked myself what were they talking about. I never thought my mother or stepfather would have much to talk to a highborn nobleman.
Let me tell you something: the balls were more than just entertainment events where you dance. No. They could change the life of a young woman. When a family wanted to introduce one of her daughters into society, they did so at a ball, so that all the men would find out that she was available for marriage. And then, thus began a long courtship.
Nadia, my little sister, was very excited about her first dance, as she was going to be presented in society as the younger sister of Marco Derderián's fiancee.
She was very excited because she thought that she would finally meet her prince charming.
"I hope he is handsome and tall, just like Marco," she would say to me and my mother.
I thought that she shouldn´t make many illusions, but I was not able to express it in words. I didn't want to break her heart.
"I am satisfied if he has money," our mother replied.
No young man invited her to dance the whole night.
Nadia was so devastated at the end of the ball that she ran out into the gardens to cry. I followed her to comfort her.
"I'm ugly! That's why nobody loves me! " She was sobbing.
I hugged her very tightly.
"Of course you are not ugly! Don't say that! These things take time, not that they are going to ask you to dance at your first ball. Remember that they are not used to ...," I stopped.
"Dark-skinned like me ...," Nadia completed.
I nodded.
"This world is changing, Nadia," I hugged her again. "Give it time to change."
My little sister returned to her room and I stayed a while longer in the garden, bathed in the moonlight.
I looked at the white ribbon on my wrist. I thought of Delilah, how much I missed her. I imagined the two of us dancing in front of all the nobility. They all saw us delighted, applauded our love.
How beautiful it is to dream ...
When I entered my room I heard a knock on the door. When I opened it I found Nadia, full of tears.
"Nadia? What happened?" I asked worriedly.
"Bachué! Don't let them take me away!" She sobbed inconsolably.
"Who are you going to take you? Where?"
"Duke Soto! He wants to make me one of his many wives!"
"What?"
«No, no, no, no!!!»
That was simply not possible.
"Who told you such a thing, Nadia?" I asked hoping it was all a misunderstanding.
"Mother told me!" She confessed. "She said I'm leaving with him tomorrow."
«No, no, no, no! NO!»
"Wait for me here," I ordered.
I left my room and strode to the guest room where my mother and stepfather were staying. I didn't want to knock, I wanted to lunge the door open, but I held myself back, I just opened it without announcing myself.
My mother jumped out of bed. She was alone.
"Where is Torum?" I asked sweeping the room with my eyes.
"He's outside, with Duke Soto," my mother replied.
"With Soto? Finishing negotiating Nadia's virtue? "
"Ah ... you know that..."
"Yes, I know, because I have my sister crying in my room."
"She… She will not cry for long when she realizes what a luxurious life she will have."
"Did you lose your mind? How do you think of delivering Nadia? SHE IS A GIRL! SHE IS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD! "
"A girl? She has already blossomed. She is already a woman perfectly capable of having children. "
I couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"What?"
"I was a little older than her when I married."
"Are you a monster?"
"Please, Bachué. Think," my mother's tone was no longer confrontational, "do you think she's going to have a decent life with us? This is the best for her. "
"For her? Or for you? "
She did not answer me.
"Don't you realize? Soto is disgusting! They call him the wives collector! "
"You think I don't know that?"
"Then why do you allow it! You are our mother! You must protect us! "
"Hasn't it occurred to you that this is my way of protecting her?" She asked me, "Hasn't it occurred to you that in this life we have to make difficult decisions that we don't always like?"
I knelt before her. Begging was the only thing I had left.
"Mother, please, I beg of you, decline the Duke. Nadia doesn't need this. I will marry Marco and you will not have to go through difficulties anymore. "
My mother shook her head.
"It is done, Bachué."
«It is done»
Three words that I hated.
I went back to my room and tried to comfort my sister, but she cried and cried without consolation.
"Imagine this is like your dream, Nadia," I told her.
"This is not like my dream!" She replied. "It's more like a nightmare! Soto is not handsome, nor young! He's a filthy old man! "
"Think that you will live with servants who will do your bidding," I continued trying to comfort her without listening to what she was saying. "Think of all the dresses you will have. Think they will call you "my lady" "
But none of that helped. She cried herself to sleep.
The next day, Nadia set out in Soto's caravan back to the Northern Region.
I was not able to attend the farewell. I couldn't.
It was not fair. Nothing was.
It wasn't fair that I had to marry Marco and not the love of my life. It wasn't fair that my little sister had to go off with a disgusting man. It wasn't fair that I couldn't do anything.
That night, there was a lunar eclipse. I went out to the balcony to witness it. I found it beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Like the world I lived in.
I prayed to The Supreme. Asked him to protect my sister.
May the happiness greater than her sorrows. Please, Lord, may she find the strength to face what is to come.
Poor girl. She would have to mature before her time.
Suddenly, I felt the air pressure change. Everything began to spin.
«What's going on?» I Wonder
I knew that feeling. The first time I felt it was when I saw our neighbor Ita, days after she passed away.
«Is it going to happen again?»
Oh, I had no idea what was going to happen next.
Do you remember what I promised at the beginning of my story? The moment that changed my life forever?
Well, good. You are about to find out.
A crimson butterfly, whose wings glowed like candlelight, landed on top of my bed. Then another identical butterfly landed next to the first. And then dozens of them flooded my room.
I had never experienced anything like it. It seemed like magic. At first, I thought it was some kind of response from The Supreme.
My prayers have finally been answered, I thought.
How wrong I was.
A blinding light invaded the room. The radiant butterflies went wild to flutter around the light.
And then ... it materialized in front of me ...
I recognized her immediately. Her pink cheeks… her curly black hair… Her emerald green dress… It was Queen Catherine of Alba Terra.
How was it possible?
There were only two options to explain such an impossible event: either I had finally gone insane or Queen Catherine had passed away.
She stared at me and gave me a good-natured look. I was petrified. I said nothing and waited for her to disappear or say something.
"Tell me, dark skin, would you like to be Queen?" She asked me.