Chapter 30:

Gladis

My will shall resonate in this stormy game


Over time, I knew we were doomed, my illustrious family had everything a noble family could ask for, a renowned surname, a castle, an unparalleled fortune, the appreciation of the people, until the cursed kingdom arrived, they were the end of everything there, my father the king was someone who liked to participate a lot in the activities of the town, as for the painting of portraits and the composition of choirs for the Holy Faith and when the cursed kingdom arrived, people began to question him, they sowed doubt in his actions and in myself.

In my sixteenth ritual we could no longer leave without becoming involved in insults and complaints, the merchants had raised their prices, seeing that fewer and fewer were arriving, the cursed kingdom arrived with its own merchants and we put an end to one problem, only to find ourselves involved in another.

The prices were lower, no one could deny that, the variety, even I was fascinated, the blue pigments, intense reds, the different palettes of bright and opaque greens, the shadows were easier to portray and my entry into the competitions ended in increasingly scarce victories despite the improvement of my technique.

“Father, look, with the mixture of these two tones, we don’t get the usual dull gray, but a different color.”

“I see it and I don’t believe it,” I said, surprised. “Where did you get the pigments, my daughter?”

“A friend bought them for me at my last ritual,” I mentioned, so happy that I had trouble remembering what else we said afterward and the presumption of a future contest win.

The surprise was seeing commoners wearing the winners medal, with works that left me breathless, one of them, showed what I could only call divine, fire, devouring a person, with crimson red hair and in that look, I could see daring illusions, I bought the painting with my money and hung it in my room, I simply could not stop imagining that person, even though he was in his last moments, he seemed so refreshingly happy, daring, that I even spent more time looking at him than taking care of myself and for a moment during the nights, I had similar dreams.

“Daughter, wake up, we have to go to your practice,” the woman of the house shouted.

“I want to sleep with my Alfred again.” I clutched that feather pillow, imagining his touch.

“Again with that, daughter.” He turned to the painting. “I’ll take it if you’re so upset.”

“No.” I lunged to prevent him from moving it from the window where the light hit it and it came to life.

In the sculpture contest, I never expected to win, I never had, but my bets were on the Cari house, its sculptors, they were unparalleled masters, although it took them time, they could carve a person without problems and again the prize fell to a commoner, with strange tools, what seemed to me rotten sand, due to the stone tone of the water and after he put it in he began to mold as if it were a vessel, a lady riding a horse, extending his hand and as if the sculptor were part of the same work, he shook his hand when he finished it.

The strange red liquid that I deposited from what seemed to me to be a small oven bathed some parts of the statue and with metal tools gave it shape, while I noticed how it was dyed with the colors of the stars and the new paintings, none of us had even finished our own sculpture and all the cries went to the young man who, if he had not seen how he made the statue, would have cried that he cheated by putting a woman riding the horse with the silk intended only for Alba herself.

"Beautiful." I left my sculpture half-finished and ran to the sculptor.

I wasted no time and requested their services even within the contest. I also wanted something similar, a statue of myself, of my family, and when it was in our yard, I knew we would be immortalized, no matter the time, a reflection of my youth. I imagined it at the time, while I looked in the mirror and noticed the many imperfections that were overlooked in my representation.

Things were getting worse very quickly, the Santa Fe and its cathedral, which had always been the most lustrous structure in the kingdom, even above our castle, was beginning to prohibit the participation of the people of the cursed kingdom in the contests or those who carried their tools, but soon they held their own contests, the means were so familiar to them, the prizes, perhaps even more desired than money and among so many things I found myself fascinated by the results there, from the nail tones and eager for light, to the wildest reds of blood and fire, the most vivid greens of nature, the radiant colors of shining gold, the blues of sky and sea conspiring so that no one would distinguish them and get lost.

But as a father, he always said, good and evil go hand in hand and with that came the time to choose our next king, in each ritual my father participated in all three art forms and as always he won, but for everyone it was a victory, because only the judges were present and a few nobles who had arrived.

When we realized the commotion we saw it in the distance, a festival, like I had only seen in the fifth ritual, people celebrating, giving offerings, putting order and most importantly, I didn't see faces forced to smile, even the most serious ones who usually don't praise anything, seemed so happy, that I envied not being there and at the head was the one dressed elegantly and with what were clearly the clothes of a knight and a nobleman ready to speak to everyone, those words I will never forget.

“Thank you, my people. Know that I have received your praise with the deepest admiration. My work has been chosen as the winner, and with it, my crown. Rhythm will reign with justice and rectitude. I will dictate the most pertinent changes and ensure that the scarcity of the past is only a bad memory. It is time for our admiration for art to be surpassed only by the joy in each of its viewers.”

The rhetoric, the way he carried himself, even the way he pronounced the words, was incredible and soon after I gathered my thoughts and my father, holding most of us back from going to take a closer look and possibly complain, we saw the work of art he composed.

“As my Magnus Opus dictates, back with the decadence, hello to the future.”

The black and white tones of us and the Holy Faith, next to our Saint on the right, were insulting, but what I found sad was seeing, like winged, the most colorful people, seemed to enjoy their daily life and with what I could only call joy, we left at the Saint's request, just in time we saw how the castle and the temple were being looted, wealth and fortunes thrown aside, the Saint left with us and we decreed Rhythm lost although I did not understand much at first, I knew that we could not return.

They were difficult days, father tried to earn a living with painting and sculpture, and although we managed to improve somewhat, the arrival of the same artists from Ritmo only cast doubt on their ability, almost all of us dedicated ourselves to crafts, which earned us a place in Ritmo as an artisan family and over time, I saw the joy that my wood carvings were so well received to the point where there were orders and soon workers for the family, I saw a bit of that old glory flourish again.

“Daughter, as you know, we've been looking for a way out of this predicament.” I gesture around the somewhat messy workshop. “And we don't despise your efforts, since you've shown dedication to the family, so we're sorry about what we must ask of you.”

Mother, I take the hand of my father, who gave the bad news, or so they felt, the truth is that at the time I did not care much about knowing that I would be the wife of a noble, on the contrary, knowing that it was the House of Sol and that soon our place in royalty would be restored, I could not help but get anxious and as a mother I specify, a child was necessary, I did not know how painful it would be to have one, but mother could get through it and so could I, although seeing so many direct children from previous wives was not exactly comforting for my self-esteem, I did not doubt.

Time proved us right, all the practice we had running a kingdom made us stand out far beyond any inheritance from the other houses that preceded our union, except for one single detail, the only son of my current husband and my predecessor, apparently didn't get along with anyone in particular no matter how much he smiled, I had seen many courtiers and servants give the same smile, but I wouldn't get in trouble for reporting him, after all it was the promise of a saint in the family, a rare thing for any family with two or three generations.

More importantly, the connection with the Holy Faith would secure our position in ways we couldn't even imagine. Still, it was a tough nut to crack; in the complicity of an act, we managed to bring out genuine smiles.

“Lady of the House, remember to keep an eye on the courtyard during your tea time.” I point to the cloth.

Our secret code, to tell me where to leave the cake and the object, in this case the tissues, where I would find the cake. "I won't forget, young man, and thanks for reminding me, here it is for next time." Of all the coins, only a couple would go to him as a reward for his help.

“I thank you for your generosity, if you please.” He left gratefully.

The days went by as they should and on his return from the trip, he arrived with good news, a mine in the name of the family, two tribes subject to the house and one of warriors, the child promised so much that I considered him to be the new head of the family once my husband died, above my children, I had already found out that with his fifth wife, when giving birth to the fifth child, he would die, I considered him my new consort for the future.

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