Uncle Michael

In a car closer to the front, Yuna and Sarah were giggling at a story the latter told about how their respective first days at Rimnan this year went. “I still can’t believe he got caught looking at the girls like that on his first day,” Sarah concluded her story with. “It’s like, come on. It’s your first fucking day, man. Are you really gonna start the year off with that shit?”

“Wow, that’s bad,” Yuna replied. “I guess even the children of the elite aren’t immune from acting stupid. Mrs. Danro was right about titles not mattering.”

“She’s a good teacher for that,” Sarah nodded. “I had her in my first year at Rimnan.”

“I wonder why she’s so insistent about that,” Yuna then pondered. “My mom mentioned that she went to school with Mrs. Danro, but that she went by a different name back then.”

“Mrs. Danro is a commoner now,” Sarah explained. “But she was actually born as a noble. She had to relinquish her place in her family when she married her husband because they made her. She was born into the Tammany family.”

Shocked, Yuna replied, “Wait, her father is the Marquess of Tammany?!”

“Yep, although he barely acknowledges her. The Tammany family is very much set in the old ways of doing things compared to other more liberal noble families, so they’ve been a massive headache for reformists in the government. They effectively disown daughters who marry even lower-ranked noble men, much less commoners like Mrs. Danro did.”

“Oh… I see…” Yuna looked down, remembering what she had heard about the Tammany family. “The Miller family doesn’t get along too well with them. They look down on lower-ranked nobles.”

“Trust me, I’m well aware.“ Changing the subject, Sarah then asked her, “Have you run into your brother yet?”

“I did towards the end of the day. Werner asked me how my first day went. He’s out with his own friends, though.”

“I’m glad he’s doing well after the accident. He’s lucky he was able to come back without repeating a yea-“

“Hey, asshole,” then said a man towards the front of the train as he and another man stared at each other in contempt. “What do you want from me?”

“Give me your wallet now,” the other man demanded. “Don’t make me pull out a knife on you!”

“Oh, come on,” replied the first man, clearly not wanting to give up his wallet. “I can give you the cash, but not the whole thing.”

“I don’t give a fuck. I need the entire wallet now, and you’re gonna give it to me.”

Yuna and Sarah looked at each other, neither of them wanting to get involved for fear of getting hurt but clearly not okay with what was happening. Staying quiet, they watched as the robber indeed pulled out a knife, with his soon to be victim replying, “Woah, woah, woah, chill out!”

“Give me your fucking wallet!”

At that moment, Lena had entered the car while looking for a bathroom in the train, but as she looked up, she saw the robbery in progress. Unlike Yuna and Sarah, she was going to get involved. She called out to the two men, “Excuse me, what’s going on here?”

“None of your damn business,” replied the robber.

“It looks like you’re trying to rob that other man.” Lena then held out her right arm, prompting it to glow yellow as she threatened the robber in a calm and elegant yet stern voice. “If you do not step away from him, I will be forced to use my powers against you. Doing this will most certainly result in your death, or at the minimum, permanent disability. Would you prefer incarceration for attempted armed robbery or losing your life?”

The robber, clearly outclassed by a magic user such as Lena, quietly dropped his knife and put his hands up. As he did, a conductor ran in from behind and tackled the robber, taking him down and pinning him to the train floor. “I got him! I got him!” He then held the robber’s hands behind his back.

“Good timing,” Lena replied before putting her arm down and smiling. “I can restrain him with a spell, Conductor.” Lena then walked over to the conductor and the robber, bending down before placing her hands over the robber’s restrained wrists and tying them up with a yellow ribbon that materialized out of her palms.

The conductor then asked the would-be victim, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“No. I’m fine. That girl with the uniform stopped him before he could attack me.”

Yuna was immediately taken in by Lena’s looks and the way she conducted herself. Enthralled by her beauty, she said to her somewhat timidly, “Hey, um… Thank you, Miss Vale.”

“Nice to meet you again,” she replied to her with a smile. “Hopefully our next meeting won’t be under dangerous circumstances like our first two.” She then turned to Sarah and asked her, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. “He didn’t try to go after us.”

Maxim then walked into the car, asking the trio, “What happened? Are you guys alright? I heard there was a commotion over here.” In his head, he knew exactly what had happened since it had taken place in the series’ canon as well. He had tried to make his appearance as nonchalant and normal as possible, but still felt as though it was awkward and stilted.

“We’re fine,” Lena assured him. “Just someone trying to rob a man of his wallet. The military police will deal with him very soon.”

“In fact,” said the conductor as the train pulled into a station. “He’ll be dealt with now.” When the train came to a stop, he told the attempted robber, “You’re getting off the train here. The military police will be here shortly.”

Another conductor soon came on board, taking the man away and telling the first conductor, “I just need your name and the names of the other witnesses to pass off to the military police.”

“Got it.”

As the first conductor began to get everyone’s names and contact information to pass along to the police, Maxim checked the time on his watch, noting mentally that this would probably delay the train by a few minutes as it had in canon. So far, it seemed, everything was working out for him.

…

At Chanan Central, Maxim, Lena, and Paulo all got off the train together. As they walked into the exquisitely-designed and well-built main hall of the rail terminal, Maxim felt as though he had taken a step back in time. People around him smoked, ticket windows were bustling with people clamoring for rides, and a board containing the next trains to leave and arrive contained a wooden split-flap display, something that he had never seen in person in the more modern real world.

Maxim looked around in awe of what he saw, prompting Paulo to ask him, “Are you that amazed? I’ve been through here plenty of times. What about you?”

“None befo-“ Maxim then stopped himself, realizing that he had been at this station before… Although he had not really been there. In fact, he began to feel memories of going to this station twice before flooding his mind. “I mean… Yeah, I’ve been here before. Only twice, though. It’s been a while.”

“It’s a beautiful station,” Lena observed. “It’s always fun to come through here. Tamara Railways spared no expense in making the crown jewel of the capital’s railroad system.”

Then, a man dressed as a bellhop, complete with a red uniform and cap, walked up to the three of them, bowing in front of Lena before asking her, “Welcome to the capital, Your Grace. We have a ride waiting for you.”

“Thank you very much,” she replied. “I look forward to meeting my uncle.” She then turned to Maxim and Paulo, telling them with a smile, “This is where we part, I suppose. I will see you two tomorrow at school. Farewell.” She then bowed to say goodbye to them.

“Bye, Lena,” Maxim replied with a wave, immediately earning him a glare from the bellhop at how he addressed her. Confused, he asked Paulo, “What’s his problem?”

“Dude,” he said as he facepalmed. “You really shouldn’t address a noblewoman by her name.”

“She said it’s fine, though.”

“Yeah, but her family and her servants might not agree.”

“But-“

“You’re not gonna win this battle, man. Just take the L and move on.”

Defeated, Maxim sighed and moved on from what happened. “Alright, alright. Let’s go do what we came here for.”

“Sounds good to me. I can’t wait to see the lightball game.”

Maxim knew what this game was based on what some of the people in the series talked about. Strictly speaking, it was essentially baseball but with a ball formed out of magic, nothing too special. “Hopefully we see the Chanan Yellowjackets take out the Huma Snowmen.” This was a stroke of luck for him, as Lena was in fact having her meeting with her uncle right across from the lightball stadium the Yellowjackets would be playing in. This meeting was a crucial moment early in the show, and with hindsight in canon, was the true start of darkness for the story.

…

Lena walked into a well-furnished reading room about forty-five minutes after arriving in Chanan. The shelves all around her were stacked with a variety of books, while her uncle, Michael Vale, sat in one of three chairs inside the room, reading a book on magic for self-defense. He looked up from the book and set it down, getting up from his chair and greeting Lena with arms wide open. “Good to see you again, my beloved niece.”

“Good to see you again, Uncle Michael,” Lena replied as she gave him a hug. The two then sat down in separate chairs across from each other before Lena pulled out a folder of documents from her bookbag. “So, let’s go over a few things. Not to cause a confrontation so soon, but I have some… Questions about some recent votes you undertook in the House of Peers.”

Interested in what Lena had to say, Michael replied, “Go on.”

“I know that for the next two years, you’re the one in control of our family’s seat,” Lena explained. “But it’s a long-held custom that the regent of a noble title that sits in the House of Peers keeps the actual holder of that title aware of what’s going on and, most importantly, consults them before casting a vote on a contentious issue. I may be sixteen years of age, but I am not a young child. I am acutely aware of what’s going on in the world of politics. However, it seems as though you have not consulted me for a few votes in the last few months.”

“I see. My apologies, Your Grace. It’s just been that things have been rather hectic in Parliament as of recently. You probably know all about the recent push to expand the voting franchise beyond property owners.”

“I am.”

Michael then explained what had bothered Lena. “I voted against a motion to advance such a bill beyond committee when it was proposed in the House of Peers, and I understand that my vote was the tiebreaker that killed it.”

“Exactly. I want to make it known that I do not endorse such a vote. I supported the bill, and you went against my wishes.”

Her uncle felt as though this was going to happen. He sighed and explained to Lena, “I understand you have your beliefs, and I will not fight you over them. However, you have to understand that most of our family has different beliefs on how things should be run in Tamara. We feel as though property owners have the best interest of our empire at heart.”

“I understand that many in our family are opposed to expanding the voting franchise. However, I am still the Duchess.”

“But you’re not eighteen yet.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Lena sternly replied before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. “Uncle Michael, you need to take my feelings into consideration. After all, you do only have two years left before I take the seat in the House of Peers for myself.”

Unsettled by this remark, Michael paused for a moment, forming a response in his head before he sighed and told his niece, “I think as you get older, you will understand why things are the way they are. You’re young, so you think you’ll change everything, but trust me when I say that as you get older, you’ll be more conservative.”

Lena realized at that point that she was going to get absolutely nowhere in this meeting. Her pattern of speech also changed to one that was slightly less formal, using contractions where she previously did not as her tone of voice got more annoyed. “I see. You have your own opinions, and I won’t chastise you for thinking that way. I just want you to know I have mine, and I won’t change my mind just because the rest of the family thinks a different way. That said, I’m still sixteen, like you said. I’m in no place to condemn you for your own thoughts from a familial perspective anyway. Why don’t we move on to another topic? Something that’s less… Contentious, maybe?”

“Agreed.”

“On the twelfth day of Menses Aprilis,” Michael explained. “Prince Gannon Ren will be meeting with us at the family’s estate. The meeting will be around noontime, so be in the building by ten in the morning so you can be ready.”

“What does he have to discuss with us?”

“He seeks to discuss the planned wedding of my own daughter to his older brother in the Ren cadet branch of the Imperial Family,” Michael explained. “That will be in one month’s time, and we expect you to be there.”

“Of course,” Lena nodded.

“I’m starting to think he wants to take your hand in marriage, too.”

Lena was clearly hesitant to accept such a proposal. “I am still in high school. I will not drop out just because someone wants to marry me. Besides, I do not know him particularly well.”

“I know, but we have to keep the family name going. After all, you are the Duchess of Vale, and as of now, I’m your next-in-line. I cannot be that forever. Do you not want children of your own?”

“I do,” Lena assured him. “Trust me, Uncle Michael. I would love to have children, and more than just one. To be honest, I care not if I were to get married now, but I know that there will be pressure for me to end my education early if I do. If I am to get married now, I must be allowed to stay a student at Rimnan until I graduate. Even if I were to have a child before then, I will do everything I can to stay a student.”

“You’re very determined.” Michael thought to himself how many, though most certainly not all, noble girls would often stop their education around Lena’s age so they could be in arranged marriages without any commitments to anything else besides their husbands and their future families. “Anyway, let’s discuss a few more minor things before we wrap this up…”

…

At the lightball game, the first inning had just begun after a slight delay, with Maxim and Paulo watching the players take their positions on a pentagon-shaped playing field. Unlike baseball, lightball had four bases known as points plus a home base known as the home point, with a pitcher in the middle throwing an energy ball at the batter, who used a metal bat that could make the energy ball bounce back with a hit. Also unlike in baseball, lightball players would keep running throughout the pentagon until a player was called out, sometimes leading to multiple runs scored by one player.

As the Chanan Yellowjackets’s first batter took to the mound to start the game, Paulo remarked to Maxim, “I’m surprised they sent him out first. This is his first game since he got hurt a month ago when the season started.”

“How did he get hurt?” As soon as those words escaped his lips, Maxim was flooded with a memory of seeing a news report regarding the aforementioned player, realizing that he had known all along what had happened.

“Well, he got hit with a ball by a bad pitch and got some bu-“

“Burns on his leg,” Maxim then finished Paulo’s sentence.

“…Yeah, he did…” Confused by Maxim, Paulo pointed out, “I feel like you should have known that already. It was big news when it happened, man. Are you sure you’re alright? You’ve been acting a little odd today.”

“Like I said, Paulo,” Maxim explained. “It’s my first day. Cut me some slack. I’m glad we were able to catch a game, to be honest. It’s a nice distraction from the stress of actually making it to Rimnan as a student.”

“Fair enough.”

“Now, let’s do what we came here for and enjoy some lightball.” Maxim then thought about another source of stress as he turned his focus back to the game: That everything would soon go horribly wrong, and he was not sure if he would be able to change any of it.

In another part of the stadium, Lena had just walked to a seat, accompanied by Victoria. Though they were a bit late, it did not matter to them, and the two chatted about the meeting the former had with her uncle. “He’s being difficult again about the voting rights law,” Lena sighed. “But what else is new, huh?”

“It feels like you’re trying to talk to a brick wall,” Victoria replied with a shrug. “Maybe it’s like when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object or some shit like that.” She then offered her a bag of popcorn. “Want any? I got two bags.”

“Just a little bit,” Lena replied before taking a handful. “Also, you got two bags, Victoria? Really?”

“A woman’s gotta eat, you know.”

Lena looked at her with a raised eyebrow and replied, “Yes, but you eat like you’re two men and yet you barely gain weight.”

“That’s just what I can do, I guess.” Victoria then sat down in her seat next to Lena, with both of their seats being much lower and also much closer to the home point than the balcony seats Maxim and Paulo had, making them more expensive. “Aren’t you glad I came to the city on a hunch and picked you up after that meeting?”

“I am,” Lena replied with a smile. “You’re a welcome sight after that forty minute meeting. Honestly, it could have been a letter correspondence instead.”