Chapter 4:

A Delay in the Plans

Face of Eternity : Garden of Eden


Now that mama and baby were reunited, I had a few questions for her…

“Um, why is your baby a bird person?” I asked.

She had a very uncomfortable look on her face, but let out a loud groan before deciding to tell the story.

“They’re called demi-humans. Although, others call them half-breeds.” She held Tori a little tighter. “He’s not actually mine, well, now he is.”

I’ve heard of demi-humans before in story books and anime, but I didn’t know they were real.

Yamin had something to add. “So, I’m assuming his parents are…”

“They were a wealthy family that came from the east, hunted by poachers who prize their feathers for extravagant clothing. I was one of his families handmaidens before escaping.”

“I don’t mean to point out the obvious, but your dark skin…” Yamin started, “you’re from the southern part of Arba, am I right?”

“That’s right,” she nodded. “His family lived in a lower country of Arba, hoping that they’d be safe there. You can imagine why nobody wanted to help me.”

I was clueless about that part. What about Arba made people not want to help this lady?

“I know our people are on very bad terms,” the lady continued, “but I’d heard that your church would take us in and protect this Demi-human child.”

“Peep!” Tori chirped.

Yamin smiled, nodding to her.

“Absolutely. The Ecclysian church is always willing to protect souls in need.” She turned to me. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but right here is the Eighth Star of Heaven.”

The lady's eyes widened with disbelief. She looked me up and down until shaking her head.

“No, that’s not possible. She looks just like a normal little girl.”

Right now, I was wearing overalls and a pink paperboy hat to cover my hair. You wouldn’t think someone like me was actually a real angel, and I’m not, but the humans don’t seem to know the difference.

Anyways, I took off the hat, letting my white hair flow down and shine in the light. That seemed to convince the lady that I was a lot more unique than most.

“A real angel…” she let her mind wander for a moment, inspired by how I could be the genuine article. “Now I have no doubts that I’m doing the right thing by being here.” She held Tori tightly. “If kind people like you exist, then we should be safe here.”

As happy a moment as this was, the train conductor stormed in…oh boy…he was miffed at us.

He was screaming at Yamin and I for all the noise we’d made on the roof, even threatening legal action. We were in a pretty bad way, but had to keep his focus off the lady and baby, otherwise they’d probably be in a lot more trouble than us.

Thankfully, Marek was checking up on us and said he’d handle the situation. Since he was a member of the Royal Council, the train conductor was more than happy to let him take the reins against us.

Of course, Marek wasn’t going to get me in trouble. He knew what we were doing, and obviously this was just getting the heat off our backs. I couldn’t wait to get off the train though. This has been enough of a crazy ride for a while.


~☆☆☆~


Just as we were returning to our seats, Marek unfortunately didn’t have good news from the Royal Palace about the meeting today.

“The meeting was moved to tomorrow,” he said.

“Did they say why?” Uncle asked.

“Well…” Marek pointed to a small television hanging above our seats. The news was playing.

“According to the footage, it’s very clear that the queen was quick to verbally assault the soon to be Prime Minister Hanol this morning,” the news anchor said. “It is unknown at this time what caused this outburst, leaving many to theorize a less than graceful continuing loss of power.”

Marek and Miss. Lauri were both very visibly upset about that news.

“I'm sure that you know more than the news is willing to tell,” Uncle deduced.

“We do.” Marek nodded, taking a seat in our booth. “Their exaggerated claim of 'verbal assault' did happen...which Her Majesty probably shouldn’t have done,” he said in a nervous tone, “but I can’t exactly blame her. What the Prime Minister said to upset her was…”

His embracement over the situation caused him to pause, creating a little suspense.

“So, what’d the stupid Prime Minister say to the stupid Queen?” Indena provoked him.

He closed his eyes and sunk his head into his palms. His words were about to storm us with controversy.

“He called her late mother a prostitute…”

Everyone gasped, even a few people eavesdropping in seats next to us.

How horrible! Who would say something so awful?

Or, it would be awful if I knew what that word meant. I was just reading the room and reacting like everyone else. I glanced at my hotbar and opened up the HELP menu. There was a dictionary there, so I looked up the meaning of that word.

oh my…

“Why aren’t people reacting to what he called the late queen?” Yamin asked. “Seems like a scandal of its own.”

“Why do you think, Yamin?” Miss Lauri spoke up. “He’s popular. With popularity comes followers, and they’ll spin anything he does to make him a hero.”

If he’s so popular, why is this the first I’m hearing of him? He sounds like a real jerk.

“Still think the queen’s stupid for that one?” Yamin asked Indena.

“Nah,” Indena said. “Good on her for, cussing that dude out. Mad respect.”

According to what Marek was told, the queen speaking out so vulgarly against the soon to be Prime Minister caused a PR nightmare. The Queen’s Party, who Marek was affiliated with, was busy trying to apologize and make right with the rest of the kingdom. They didn’t have time to meet with us today.

“This meeting’s important though,” Uncle said. “Shouldn’t they make it a priority?”

“Not unless they want to look like a bunch of degenerates in the public eye,” Miss Lauri said. “The royalty of this country have been battling aristocrats for power for generations. They can’t afford to lose any ground.”

“Aristocrats?” Indena’s brow raised. “Isn’t a Prime Minister supposed to support democratary?”

Oh my gosh. And here I was thinking I was the only one who could butcher words.

“Democracy.” Miss Lauri corrected her, also serving it with a stink eye. “And that’s what they claim they're doing, but they’ve just flavoured their battle to make it look like people are gaining more power.”

“Not that the Queen's party doesn’t have aristocrats like myself in it…” Marek started, “but the queen is our head, and many of our members are loosely related to her family. The Pole’s party is just filled with aristocrats who want to hold power.”

“Damn…so why’s it called the Pole’s party?” Indena asked.

*Snicker*

Hey, if you abbreviate their name, you get…

“They’re founder was named Paul Pole,” Marek answered. “He was infamous for betraying the royalty and leaking information to our enemies.”

*Snicker*

With a name like that, I bet he was a pretty leaky guy!

Uncle gave my head a playful chop.

“Care to share what’s so funny?” he interrogated.

Uh-oh, if I told him what I was thinking, I’d get in trouble. But if I didn’t say anything, they’d think I was making fun of something serious. Oh, what do I do?

Uh…” I smiled, trying to keep cool. “I…uh…

“Out with it,” Uncle ordered.

Man…it looked like I just had to tell him the truth.

“Okay.” I slouched in my seat, very disappointed in myself. “His name is…”

“Attention all passengers!” Saved by the intercom! “We will be arriving in Little Conberg city shortly! Please remain in your seats until the train has come to a full stop.”

Little Conberg was the city just next to the capital. It’s very loosely connected to it, as I’ve been told.

“Oh thank the gods I can finally get off this damn train.” Indena stood up and stretched her arms. "I can't stand sitting anymore..."

CREEE!

“Ahh!” everyone on the train screamed as it came to a sudden stop. It's original motion became our enemy as we were flung forward.

Uncle protected Yamin and I by shielding us from hitting our heads.

BAM!

Unfortunately for Indena, she fell forward and landed on the table.

“Woops! Sorry folks!" The intercom voice apologized. "Little malfunction with the brakes!”

"Malfunction my ass!" Indena swore out loud.

“The conductor did say to stay in your seat,” Yamin scolded her.

“Can it, Sparkle Face…” Indena grumbled while we tried to help her recover. "Something doesn't feel right..."

I was actually with Indena on this one. I hacked into the trains system and didn't see any sort of malfunction at all. The train was purposefully stopped here.

Taking a glance out the window, I noticed a group of guys approaching the train. They were all dressed a bit like Uncle. All fancy striped suits and fedora. They were heading into one of the cabins ahead of us.

If Marek hadn't held me back, I would have went up there to go and check out what was going on, but he was very stern about keeping me here. That made me want to find out what was going on even more.

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