Chapter 7: A Road Trip To the Capital Leads to What?!

After hearing what my parents had to say, it made sense that they wanted to protect me from this kind of vicious history. At this time, I’m two and half, but they know my intelligence is of at least a teenager. Everything seems so familiar to me, I feel like I’ve heard this history before and seen these names before. I just don’t know where. I’ve been ignoring my curiosity for two years at the request of my mother, but now it’s time to look into this sense of déjà vu a little more after this trip.

The days go by as we continue on this road trip to the palace, stopping at hotels and restaurants along the main road to the Capital. One day we even camped outside, it was fun being outside the village with my parents. They explain animals and herbs we see, and my mother sometimes hunts monsters that block our path and cooks them. They taste a lot better than they look, with proper seasoning. The last day before we enter the Capital City, my parents sit me down at a restaurant with a concerned look. My mother breaks the silence first, “This Interracial Summit is a big deal, all races will come together to discuss peace talks with the Empire and each other. Every royal family will be there, and their kids as well. Elves, dwarves, beast men and humans will be participating at this time. The elves and dwarves have previously helped out the Empire during the war, but we continued to fight wars with their support after defeating the monsters, so there will be a discussion about it. There will also be a discussion about beast men in human society and their ability to go unnoticed as humans when they shift into a humanoid form that are without animal ears or tail. There’s also the secret marriage between the youngest elven prince and eldest princess of the beast men, she apparently died while giving birth to his son six years ago. Their marriage was not agreed upon by the elves and beast men, so tensions are still high over their child and on who to blame for her death. Not to mention the resource exchange between the races. Just in general, watch out for any bad behavior and stay away from kids that cause trouble.”

“Yes, Mama, I understand.” I smile at my mother, putting my arms under the table to hide the bracelet I really want to use. My father chimes in, “You're planning something, aren’t you? You only say Mama and Papa when you're about to do something bad, or you're comforting us. I’m telling you now to stop while you're ahead, it's more trouble than it’s worth.”

“I’m not going to do anything! I don’t even know what I would do to cause so much trouble.” I pout my lips and stare right at my father, who is trying to hold back his laughter. My mother nudges my father to stop and starts to speak, “I know you say that, but you have played tricks on us and the people at the church, a lot recently. Now I think I should have made your middle name trouble or trickster.”

“When have I done anything to the people in the church?” As I say this, my parents both cut in and go back and forth with the pranks I’ve played on the Father, nuns, and town’s people. “Violet, you have thrown balls of compressed water at the Father, made it rain in the church, turn the floor to ice leading to all the nuns slipping and people being stuck for a few hours. Let’s also not forget the time during a service you used light magic to make the statue glow and everyone thought it was the Goddess divine judgment. Those are only a few of them, you have done more dangerous things in the past, and I’m telling you right now the Summit is not the place for those things.”

My father continues where my mother left off, “Violet, now that you know what you are walking into, we just want to caution you. Do not start fights amongst the people at the summit either, that one time you started a bar fight because you were bored was not easy to clean up!”

“That bar fight started because that old man with the eye patch had it coming for making perverted jokes about women! We only just walked in, but he already started talking about my mother. I’m glad I provoked the other patrons to beat him up.”

“Now the reasoning I do agree with, but I could have handled it and your mother is very capable of defending herself. This also wasn’t the only reason you started that fight, and you know it as well.”

“Your father is right, if I had heard those comments I would have thrown him in prison or beat him up myself. If you are bored, please be cautious and read a book instead. All we are telling you is not to do anything that could put you in danger.”

“Alright, I understand completely.” I nod, and my parents seemed pleased with my response. The next day, we make it into the Capital City. We are in the carriage going through the town, and it all looks very classic, like Europe in the 1700s. There are stores for miles, the roads and sidewalks were made of gray stones and the buildings were tall and different shades of whites and browns. You could see a marketplace in the distance where fresh produce is sold, around there were a few children begging for food while being passed by. I knew there would be a poverty gap and homelessness, but I didn’t think I’d see it with my own eyes. In my past life, homeless children were taken away by child welfare and put into adoption agencies or homes for troubled youth. Seeing children on the street just doesn’t sit well with me, so I turn away and look through the opposite window.

We start to see the palace getting closer, there are fewer shops. They are completely faded away as we see greenery surrounding us on the same gray stone road. Once we start seeing the large gates, the road color changes to a golden tan, almost reminiscent of the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz. We get to the palace gates and the guards stop our carriage, with one wave from my mother they bow and open the palace gates. We were led to a smaller castle with butler and maids waiting outside to greet us. My father opens the door and ushers my mother out first. He holds out his hand for me, and I take a deep breath and put a smile on my face. Just like my mother showed me, a graceful step down and another step, and now I’m on the ground. The butler smiles as he bows once more and begins walking us towards the small castle. “Welcome back, Mistress Virac, I’m glad to see you again. This humble butler has been keeping the place organized while awaiting your glorious return. Everyone has been awaiting your return with fated breath, we all missed you very much.”

“I’m happy to be home again as well, Sebastian. I want to have a meeting with all the staff after we settle in to introduce my daughter, Violet, to everyone. I assume you have her room arranged already.”

“Yes, Mistress, we have everything ready for the young lady. I will prepare a meeting at the main entrance in 30 minutes.” We move up the large stairwell that splits into two sides, we turn left into a hallway full of rooms and at the end of the hall there's a door leading to more stairs. At the top of the stairs, I see a short hallway with a two doors across from each other. My parents walk to the one on the right and point that the one on the left is my room. When I open the door, I see a large blue room. Filled with extravagant decorations, it was a room for a princess. On the other side of the room were glass doors leading to the balcony. I ran to open the doors to see a beautiful garden filled with flowers as far as the eye could see. Out of the corner of my eye, there was a training ground in the distance.

Coming back into the room, Sebastian starts explaining everything in the room, “This is the Cerulean room, we heard from your parents your favorite color was blue, so we put everything into remodeling it to be perfect for you. As you can see, there's a lounging area for you with a fireplace in the room and at the end of the wall opposite to your bed, you see three doors. One is a bathroom, the other is your closet and the final one is your personal study and library. The study has a balcony as well, but the balcony looks over the very top of the green house.”

“Thank you for showing me around the room and helping me settle in.” As I say this, the butler looks flustered, I know I’m not supposed to be polite to staff, but I said it out of habit.

“Young Lady, you need not be polite, we are here to serve you! You and the Mistress have the habit of being polite to people.” He clears his throat and regains his composure, “We will meet in 20 minutes at the entrance hall, you will have personal maids assigned to you immediately. I will take my leave.”

With this, Sebastian leaves, I sit on my bed and think about my journey so far in this life. I’ve found out a lot of information, but my goals are clear, living a happy life with my family and anyone that gets in the way of that will be eliminated.

I hear a knock on the door, it’s my parents, so we all walked down together, and they introduce me to the staff. My mother announces, “It’s nice to see everyone again, I’d like to thank you for keeping the place the way it has always been. I’ve called this meeting to introduce my daughter Violet. She is my heir, so treat her with the respect you would give to my husband and I.”

I start speaking, “Hello everyone, my name is Violet Ellenor Virac and I will be in your care for the foreseeable future, so please guide me well.”

The staff starts to clap and that was the start of the Summit for my parents and I. The next day, maids came to my room to wake me and get me dressed. They start dressing me in a violet dress that matches my eyes, once they finish, they start on my hair. I’m given full bangs and two ponytails with small violet flower hair clips. All the maids are gushing about how adorable I am, but all I could do was look at myself in the mirror. If I think about it, I look like my mother if she had different color hair and eyes. This brings me a sense of happiness, a reminder that I’m finally her real daughter.

My mother knocks on the door and a maid opens the door. I run to her immediately and give her a big hug, she smiles and lifts me. My parents and I have breakfast together and after this we set off. Today is supposed to be a meeting with the Empress about the goals of the summit. As the carriage pulls over to the palace, my mother puts a veil over my face, and reminds me to never take it off until we meet the Empress. My parents exit the carriage and my father carries me. The palace was adorned with gold and full of white and tan walls, with a red carpet. We follow the butler, while my parents have serious faces. We stop in front of two very large doors, my parents are announced and the doors open to the throne room. For a moment I couldn’t hear anything, I just looked at the woman on the throne. She had blonde hair and piercing emerald green eyes, she wore a red dress with gold accessories. Her golden crown was full of many color jewels, she sat with the full authority of the Empress. When she began to speak, it was a commanding voice, “Rise my loyal subjects and follow me,” she gestured to a door to the side.

My parents lift themselves, I didn’t even know what was happening, but my parents started following the Empress into a hallway and enter the last room at the end. It’s a large study, with two couches across from each other. This room was different, it was full of browns and nothing shiny. My parents sit across from the Empress, who is already sipping on tea the maids just left. No one is in the room except for us, the Empress starts, “It’s good to see you again Vivian, I’m glad your home.”

My mother responds, “I’m glad to be back and see your still well, your Majesty. Let’s get into the summit, then we can talk about other things.”

The Empress explains that since we waged war, we have to placate the elves and dwarves, but not be extorted for a large sum of special mana stones. The Empire will have to make a contract with the continued support of the other races they have free-range to trade within the Empire. We have to establish the other races becoming dependent on certain resources from this Empire. As for the trade with, the mana stones, it can only be raised by 15 % before it affects the mines we have. The Empire must continue receiving support from the other races, or the Empire of Makaria will attack. The Makaria Empire is at a standstill with us because they do not want to offend the other races. For the other races, we have to play mediator between, the goal is to make sure they have a harmonious relationship because if they start making the Empire choose sides between them, one of the races could lend support to the Makaria Empire and restart the war.

After this, my parents talk about ways to aid in the Empresses goals. The meeting surrounding the summit ends and the Empress stares at me, who still has the veil on my head. The Empress points at me and says, “So this is your child? Seems a bit weird, you're hiding her face with a veil. There seems to be something about her that’s important enough to hide from even me.”

The Empress raises her eyebrow at me and my mother quickly speaks, “We hide her because it is such an important secret that we can only share with you. As you know, both Edwin and I have special backgrounds that would make our child gifted. What we didn’t expect was her gift with water, light and dark magic. Apparently, she was blessed with not only the Goddess’s blessing, but Lucifer's as well.”

My father slowly lifts the veil and the Empress’s eyes widened in shock for a moment until she quickly regains her composure. My mother continues, “We need help to hide her eye color from the Duke with magic items and also books on dark magic, so we can teach her how to utilize her gifts. I know what her violet eyes mean in the grand scheme of our current political situation. However, I can assure you we don’t want to be involved and if we are, she is a part of the imperial faction.”

The Empress thinks for a moment and nods, “I agree that she must be hidden from that family, so I’ll agree to give the magical tools I have. However, when it comes to the dark magic books, I can only give them to you if she is going to become an ally to my daughter in the fight for the throne when the time comes.”

My father quickly speaks after the Empress finishes, “We have been loyal to you and the imperial faction for all our lives, I can guarantee that our daughter is the same. We do implore you to only call upon her in dire situations because we don’t want her to be too involved in the struggle.”

The Empress sighs and starts speaking, “I understand, but this concerns the fate of our country and the royal bloodline. I must think about that first. I also know you are making promises, so I don’t lock her into a binding contract through magic.”

My mother hesitates and turns to my father, “Edwin, can you please give me a moment with Her Majesty?”

My father looks into the pleading eyes of my mother and sighs, he picks me up and we both walk out of the room, leaving my mother with the Empress.