Rummaging through the files with tensed eyebrows, jogging down numbers on a sheet at the right with an ink pen dripping all through the dip at the glass holder to the layers of paper with dirty handwriting. Athelia wearing a low ponytail shifted to the left, unkept hair and reading glasses sitting behind a desk filled with a mess that only a time machine could fix. It might look clumsy but she was actually very meticulous with her work and every one of this mess was actually in order inside her mind. A male servant in his mid 30's knocks on the door, like being shaken awake from a trance Athelia looked up with a frown and shouted, " what? "
"Marquise Ventura has asked for you presence at lunch, my lady"
" Tell him I'm busy and don't bring any food" Athelia said as she wrote some more illegible data with the half dried ink on her hand leaving prints, making it even more disturbing to look at. " I beg your pardon my lady but he said to tell you it's urgent " Said the servant, his stomach churning and his extremities feeling chilly and sweaty reminding him of the severe pneumonia he had at ten. After five minutes which felt like an eternity for the scared servant Athelia opened the door looking annoyed by the brighness that struck her tired unslept eyes, this made the middle aged servant almost piss his pant after almost 25 years.
The overly lit sap green carpeted corridors leading to a chamber resembling a greenhouse surrounded by clear glass windows curving upwards to the ceiling doubling the length of the day almost competing with the length of night which lurks in the hidden caves beneath the building, shadowing traces of every ruthlessness inhumanity is capable of. " Why are you letting the calihan slave's children leave? Are you finally going senile Marquess Ventura? " Says Athelia as soon as she pushed open the britz layered door which ironically contradict the vulnerability of the fragile glass windows. "Athelia don't talk grim, come and sit" Says Marchioness smiling amicably. *cling*
" I asked father, children don't talk they don't deserve that... fate" Inhales deeply " Father said we can send them to our relatives in Masai clan" says Bartloy in a confident voice but restless legs and inability to maintain eye contact till the end of each word. His father after giving a look of approval says " Yes Athelia since today is a happy occasion we must celebrate first". He stands, pulls the chair and make Athelia finally play along with the facade. Athelia smirks as she sit in her bottle green thight fitted gown with collar neck and a loose dark real coat with velvet lapel, crossing her legs, leaning back anticipating the calamity that brought forth this joyous occasion.
" Prince Stephen met his demise, your plan worked Athelia, even the Elvian shield couldn't protect him from his father's stupidity " Marquise said in an elated voice " They denied him aqua Salvia just as you predicted, who would believe that the benevolent Prince caught the curse of Godess Helena. It is even rumoured Prince Marvrick offered the cure secretly but his guilt made him succumb to his dimise" Marchioness Ventura after joyfully taking a bite of plum cream cake utters with a smile" Poor child, he was kind enough to offer us the Saint Brendon island after banishment now we have to visit the Royal Palace for his final rites at noon. But how did you knew death from roots of Ather tree resembles the curse of Goddess helena? "
" There is no curse, it's just symptoms from overconsumption of Bajong tree leaves as Viagra by the Helen tribe. The same compound is found in the Ather roots in much higher concentration, Prince Stephen was given enough to kill ten horses in a blink, the Elvian shield saved him from it but couldn't remove the curse marks and the guilt of mistaking a civilian ship as enemy because of blue capes and forest fire, what actually killed him was the news of his aide going crazy from having killed his own family " Says Athelia while serving herself some custard tart with blueberry filling. Marquise after taking a moment to grasp the situation " So that's why you told me to give Prince Marvrick Aqua Salvia from the holy sanctuary secretly to gain his trust" ... "Trust? No to gain leverage for hiding the circumstances related to Prince Stephen's death more importantly..." Athelia stops as whimpering Bartloy now starts vomiting pastries crumbles unable to hide his disgust towards his sister. " You, you killed those pilgrims, my friend's parents died because of you, uck" Shouts Bartloy as he continues to vomit. Athelia pokes on the blueberry on her tart with her fork totally unbothered by the childish tantrum. Her parents trying to calm their child who can't seem to stop crying, marquise " No dear it was necessary we talked about this, we are even letting equal number of slaves go as I promised" Marchioness " Yes and would you rather we get deported by that stubborn Prince who refused to reason". Athelia finishes her plate, keeps the fork neatly, pats tissue on her maroon lips and let's out a chuckle " You know basi-lunar children are considered delicacy in Masarti right?". It was true base-lunar people who don't cultivate their lunar organ (which are used to control lexels, lexels are blocks made from imaginary grids which can be felt and manipulated by trained lunar users) are considered a waste and their lunar are extracted and consumed without killing the person, but Athelia skipped that part leaving a broken 12 year old Bartloy in shambles.
Athelia leaving the chaos fully satisfied now that the scene perfectly matches with the reality of the Ventura family.The Ventura marchy protected the southern west border of the Ela Tor kingdom, they have rose through the ranks due to their successful business empire extending from hotel chains, leather, timber to private security. But the real reason for the sudden sore of success in this generation is the marchioness being the direct deciple of the head of masai clan. Masai clan who control Masarti, a land quater in size of Ela tor kingdom, the clan masters in lunar cultivation an ancient technique which utilizes the inner potential of an individual to feel the lexels and manipulate the size and structure of the lexel. For example a neo-lunar has the ability to increase or decrease the grid lines making the controlled area cooler or warmer respectively because the air inside the grid expands and cools, also change the shape from cubes to triangular prisms, the point at which the lines touches causes a blast. Going further a pre-lunar cultivator can utilize even human tissues within their lexel zone, they can manipulate the grid lines into a rhombus without causing a spark which act as a strong hold moving things in the particular lexel to different locations and so on. The skill is very hard to accomplish so much that even the clan head is just at one level higher then pre-lunar, the lunator (2)bilex. He can exchange position of two lexels and the content within, his lexel zone is wide enough to cover the Royal Palace.The predecessor of Ela tor empire, the founder of the Elvian belief, Elvic was said to be at lunator (256) level which is only three level higher than the masai leader. It goes as multiple of two. It is believed that at lunator (4)quadlex you can control the time within the lexel practically reaching immortality but of course there are many repercussions to all this power. But how is an ancient skill which is vanishing due to onset of new technology relevant? It's the books from masarti which marchioness brought with herself that teaches alternate lunar cultivation, these are banned art of controlling the lexel of the own body accessed by lunar organ from a sacrifice, combined with the luna stone tech Ventura family used it to make impregnable shields for their army providing them with strength enough to climb the ladders of nobilty. Athelia's head tilted towards the closed window trying to stick her head close enough to get hit by the shaking carriage, which seems to reduce her headache from the lack of sleep. Outside a overdecorated courtyard leading of the palace ground and inside her overdecorated family shouting in whispers meaning to reprimand their daughter about not lying to their kid who apparently got sick after all that commotion. Bartloy was born weak and almost died when he was two months old so her strict overambitious parents went too soft on him which totally backfired because now they have to explain all their sins to softhearted Bartloy which they practically made their daughter commit at that age. And somehow it all became her fault, like how they said in front of Bartloy how it was Athelia's plan when it was the marchioness who got too talkative and told Duchess Britney about her possession of original gential diamonds which linked her to the death of Viscountess Orneal and the Marquise who panicked and ended the duchess too fast after returning to her estate ,leading to Prince Stephen handling the case himself, eventually finding out about all the grave stones Marquise has placed in order to hide the previous ones. Athelia sighs and says under her breath " Dying would be so peaceful I'm jealous of him".
screech The carriage stops, the Marchioness falls while exiting and few people gather to help her up, the Marquise puts her hand on his opposite shoulder and says " Get up dear we need to go solace the queen" while pulling her up as she wipes tear from the handkerchief given by an onlooker " I can't imagine loosing my son ahh how my heart bleed for her".
Athelia waits a few seconds for everyone to leave behind them before exiting the vehicle and entering the mourning hall with a white flower, silently placing herself at the back seat. The king and queen were visible, they looked poised with an uncanny stare, the second Prince was attending the people visiting the casket of Prince Stephen. He keeps giving excuses for not opening the casket for the final offering while the crowd whispered speculations. Athelia was too far off to listen to either but something caught her attention it seems Princess Claudia has come back from her recovery home. Athelia remembered the time when she saw her as a child and thought it was a doll and it still hasn't changed. " Why does, that girl, not blink? " She whispered angrily, Princess Claudia was an illegitimate child from the Queen's most trusted lady-in-waiting who died under mysterious circumstances after giving birth to Claudia whose wavy chestnut hair and bottle green eyes was the hammer to the nail of all the rumours regarding the King's affair with Countess Amydia. While Athelia was gazing towards Claudia they locked eyes, Athelia abruptly turned her eyes elsewhere but it was too late.