Mother took a sip again, this time it's a long one. She might be quite thirsty after that explanation, whether she was aware how short her story was. She took and bit one of the biscuits on the plate, her way of eating it really was to the book and followed every manner of having a tea party.
"Honestly Eli, I'm very surprised you're very calm right now. I really thought you're going to burst at how amazing you are and how your father is wrong and threw a tantrum here, but you're very calm and collected, like an adult in fact"
Maybe because I was an adult...
"Mother" I called her with an idea in my mind.
She stopped eating for a second and looked at me curiously.
"Let's pay the temple a visit tomorrow"
"You want to pray? Maybe you're asking the goddess for guidance?"
"Something like that...yes..."
"Oh my....never have I thought my child would be so RELIGIOUS! I'm so happy Eli!!" she continued to pat my head from across the table, I was tall and the table wasn't big, so she had no problem reaching my head with her right hand.
We had another hour or so chatting, mother and daughter, face to face. Mother talked endlessly about how her friends, other noble ladies in the empire, had gossiped about the current prince or whatever, saying his very handsome or something. It was clear she is trying to hook me up with him, but I'm not falling for it. Once she realized I wasn't interested, we both went back to Castle Calenon to prepare for evening activities, and for me, that means I'm back to reading books on territorial management in my room.
===============================
The next day, mother and I were prepared and ready to head to the temple. It's just, she was eyeing me, or more specifically, my choice of clothes.
"Eli, why are you wearing men's clothes?"
I looked down, what I'm wearing was a standard elven noble garb, commonly wore by members of the elven nobility and elders.
The outfit were made tailored specifically for me. The inner shirt hug my body and cover it up until the upper arm. The light green robe that I'm wearing above the shirt had a nice silvery motive that added life to the otherwise plain clothes. My pants were white in color and extend up to my waist, however, most of my lower body were covered by the robe.
"What do you mean, dear mother? This is the outfit I usually wore during official visit.."
"WHAT? That is not very appropriate for a woman, young lady! You should wear a dress or something, it would show your feminine figure more!"
"Mother.... I'm the Princess-Apparent of this realm, I would see my future subjects today, it is best that I wore the official clothes for this visit"
She looked away, pouting. She hated to admit it but I was right. Her guards were stationed besides us in the carriage, which was slowly picking up speed and passing by the castle gate.
Calenon city was a quiet and peaceful elven city. It had prospered for hundreds of years under my father's rule. It was evident because the streets were paved with smooth stones. The hundreds of buildings in the city proper were constructed with marbles and and had blue roofs, which were painted to symbolize worship to the moon.
Hundreds of pedestrian looked towards our carriage as we passed the city center, which had a park in the center. Calenon didn't lack any greenery, the goddess loved nature, and Calenon reflected that by having plants all around the city. Trees lined up on either side of the walkway, just before the rows of buildings, making the city seemed like a big giant forest.
The city landscape did remind me of ancient Rome, where they had 3 to 4 story buildings made with marble in addition to the public forum, which acted as the central market. The only difference was just the colour, Rome had red as its primary color, while calenon swapped that with green-teal color.
The temple wasn't that far, it was still inside the city, just west of the castle. Our carriage stopped right before the entrance. In front of me were stairs with more than a hundred steps that climbed atop the hill, where the central complex could be found.
Mother assigned the guard that was sitting next to me as my escort, her name was Haril. She went ahead and exited first, after that, she extended her hand to help me get down.
I dismissed her offer at first, but at the sight of the height between the carriage and the ground, and the fragile child body that I'm currently in, I decided to accept her offer. She is more than happy to help me, her face might have that stoic mask, but I did glanced at her mouth curled upwards a little bit, briefly.
My mother dropped down after me and passed to see the head priest of the temple, who was patiently waiting for us at the foot of the stairs.
"Greetings Pontifex Telúris" my mom curtsied while holding her dress up.
"Greetings back, Your highness" Telúris bowed back to her.
"I hope you received prior news of our arrival today, and I hope we weren't interfering on any of your holy activities?"
"Not at all, your highness! Truthfully, we don't have that many tasks these days"
As they were chatting, I approached him by my mother's side and bowed deeply. I could feel the aura of my mother's stare, she wasn't happy I bowed to someone, instead of curtsying. I ignored it.
"Pontifex"
"My lady! It is very pleasant to receive you both here" He replied to bow with his own. "I must say, I almost didn't recognize you. you're very tall for a child, you're hair tips have reached your mother's shoulders, and your almost the same height as me!"
He gestured his hand parallel to his head as if to measure my height relative to him. My mother chuckled at the scene.
"She took it from her mother, Pontifex"
"Definitely your highness! I can clearly see the resemblance in your faces!"
He lied, my face didn't resemble my mother, nor my father. Mother dropped her expression for a second, before establishing it back.
"A-anyway, should we get on with the visit? I'm pretty sure Eli was very eager to come here"
"Truly your highness, let us escort you there"
Several temple guards, who were stationed in the temple, came to pick us up. They were nearly the same as Calenon's royal guard. The two bladed sword that resembled a staff, the abstractly looking armor that was distinctly Elven, and of course, the face mask to hide their eyes, it looked like a domino mask, except it was made from lightweight metal.
They cleared the way for us to climb the stairs, before following us from the back, all were done in unison, without additional nor lack of movements. It was really impressive seeing that much discipline, I wish my father would spare me a guard.
The temple took a page out of a Roman or Greek temple. The entire complex were surrounded by majestic gardens that rivaled my mother's. I could see several servants walking around and enjoying the garden, looks like they had a lot of free time. Terúlis did say that the temple didn't have many tasks nowadays, I wondered why.
"We will prepare the ceremony now, it would take several hours and in the night we will pray. The moon will be in full view tonight, so our pray will sure be blessed" Terúlis said to us as we entered the temple along with several servants.
The atmosphere was certainly very gloomy. The servants that came with us had their heads down and put up a pale face. The Pontifex also looked very sad and had that 'it is what it is' face. But it wasn't noticeable if you weren't keen enough to see it
The ceremony involves sacrificing cows in the night, before eating its meat. While doing so, the priest would mutter several prayers in ancient Elven while female servants danced in the moonlight.
But, we had to actually prepare the cow first, and the priests who were supposed to chant during the event, hadn't arrived yet. So we had sometime to spent. Me and my mother both watched the dancers practicing in the garden.
They wore tight revealing clothes and had their faces covered up by a thin veil. They each had a staff, or more accurately, a double-blade staff, the same kind that the guards were using. It wasn't out of the questions that the dancers were infact temple guards based on how toned and athletic their bodies were.
They each danced while wielding the staff in a definitive and elegant manner. But I did realize that it wasn't a pure ceremonial move, each movement carried a certain weight to it, and if I imagined an opponent in front of them, they might be having a hard time fighting the dancers. It was answered then, it wasn't just for show, the move set is combat based that was developed into a more beautiful dancing art.
"Haril, can you dance like that?" I ask my guard, who was standing beside me.
"Certainly your highness, it was the basic blade-dance all guards have learned since we were a toddler"
"You mean there are other type of dances using the blade-staff?"
"Off course your highness, this is just the basic one, easy to learn"
'Easy to learn'
The dancers move weren't definitely child's play, it was complicated enough to trap your eyes in the movement, making you haze and unfocus.
After a while, the temple was getting more crowded. A lot of commoners were also present to witness the ceremony, and to get the meat from the cow sacrifice. It was getting a little crowded, luckily, the temple guards setup a special place to accomade me and my mother.
We waited the entire day for the ceremony, and now it is about to begin.