Inside the Royal Palace

The meeting was quickly approaching, and we were well ahead of schedule to make it there on time. We were so good on time that we stopped for brunch. Marek said that these meetings can take a while, so getting fueled up with food wasn't a bad idea. He also made sure to pack some extra water, double the amount for Indena, since she was a fire mage.

The walk there was a literal walk in the park. However, past that though was a small town's worth of buildings almost completely circling around the Royal Palace. A lot of wealthy people lived there, many of which were related to either the royal family or worked in the parliament, of which Marek said consisted of over a thousand people!

Then one final obstacle awaited us just at the edge of the place's perimeter… A mote.

That's right. A big ole’ mote full of sea water and sharks surrounded the palace. “Don’t fall in!” A massive stone bridge was the only way to safely cross over and into the grand sized building. Two stone archways acted as guard checkpoints for those coming through. A few riflemen in gray coloured military uniforms investigated us each time and let us pass when they discovered we were good and welcomed here.

“They really take security seriously, don't they?” Yamin mentioned.

“This is the heart of our country,” Miss Lauri said. “There's a lot of very important individuals who meet here every day. If they didn’t take that seriously, we’d all be in trouble.”

“It's the most secure place in the whole kingdom,” Marek claimed. “That’s partially why the parliament holds meetings here too.”

“Remind me again how this country has a monarchy and a parliament,” Indena requested.

Marek explained that there had been a shift in power happening over the years. The royal family's bloodline dated back to the original leaders of the Elken tribe that founded the country, and for many generations they ruled unattested. But after a particularly ironclad queen, who was nicknamed “The Widower ” for how many father’s she sent off to war, people around the kingdom wanted more say in political matters.

With some strategic planning, a few representative aristocrats were sent to the monarch of the time and brought up their grievances. The queen tried to deny them, but they threatened to make the people revolt against her. She was backed into a corner and allowed them to form the base of a parliamentary system.

The parliament proper has existed for a little over a hundred years, making this country a constitutional monarchy, but until the previous king and queen suspiciously passed away, it had been a big game of tug of war between them with the royalty holding a slight edge in power.

Because the royals were smart, they formed their own political party known as the Queens Party. Even if they lose their status as a monarchy, they'd at least still have a way to push their interests. Currently, they were the minority party in the council, also known as the opposition.

The other party was the Poles Party, which was mostly aristocrats who had enough influence to get elected in their home districts. They had a majority, which was also known as the Government. As the majority party, they had the right to elect the prime minister from their ranks.

“Prime Minister Hanol hasn't been sworn in yet, but it's obvious he'll hold that seat very soon,” Marek said. “When he does, it’ll symbolize the queen fully handing over her country to the people.”

“I can see how the news would assume she’s upset about that,” Uncle commented.

“That’s right,” Marek said. “It’s not wrong to say she’s upset, but the way they bring it up makes her sound childish.”

I think I would be upset about that too. If someone just came along and took control of The Hive and bees back home, I wouldn’t be princess anymore. Well, technically I’m not a princess, but I liked to think it was the case.

A lot of this political stuff went over my head though, so I spaced out and thought about how cool it would be to live in a palace of my own. Did The Hive count as a palace?

“Will we be seeing both parties at this meeting?” Yamin asked.

“Very likely. The church is also sending the Pope too.”

“So we’ll see a queen, a pope and a prime minister,” Indena commented. “Sounds like the start of a bad joke.”

“Is the pope really going to be there?” Yamin said as she clenched tightly to her shield necklace. She looked a little excited.

“Of course,” Marek nodded. “It's imperative that he meet the Eighth Star.” He gestured his hand to me.

As I understand it, the pope is the highest figurehead in the Ecclysian church, so I expected to meet him eventually. And given how big the church here was, I absolutely wanted to explore it if he’d let me. Maybe it held more secrets to my purpose?

While talking, we continued walking toward the palace. The doors here were surprisingly humble compared to the scale of the building. A guard kindly opened the way and allowed us to enter into the peak splendor of human architecture.

The halls here were big and tall, full of extravagant decorations like paintings and crystal chandeliers. Just down the main hall was a bridge that overlooked a huge ceremonial chamber. People down there cleaning looked like ants!

As expected, there were guards posted all over the place. Some were stationary, staying in their respective spot and watching vigilantly around for any trouble makers or issues, while others patrolled around looking in places their static counterparts couldn’t.

As we passed over that bridge overlooking the big open space below, we entered an intersection. Looking to the path on the left, I happened to notice a thin man in a suit drop something as he exited a room. A small entourage of people followed him out, but were too busy chatting with each other to notice. Two guards were in that hallway too, but they were too impressed with the suited man to notice either.

“Do you believe it’s true?” A woman with a clipboard asked the guy who dropped his card. She was very quiet, but I could still pick up on her voice. “If this is the real thing, we could be in trouble.”

“Relax.” The suited man waved his hand at her. “You know that all that spiritual nonsense is just a hoax to keep people in line. I doubt the queen actually found him.” He snickered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought in a fake. It wouldn’t be hard to find a demi-human with wings.”

If I had to guess, they were probably referring to the Eighth Star, which was me. Boy, was he in for a surprise, because I was very much real. Maybe not a real angel, but certainly the one who held that title.

“Hell, we could probably get the public to believe he’s fake even if he is real.”

“But, if he is real, that means that Deus is…”

“Your point?” The suited man interrupted as he raised a brow. “If we haven’t been stopped yet, then we never will.”

I did not like their conversation in the slightest. Something about it made me feel very icky, like I probably shouldn’t even go over there and help that guy out. But he’d lost his card, and I didn’t want to be caught not helping a human in need.

As he walked away, I picked up his blue crystal ID card then gave it a look… It belonged to Damian Van Hanol.

Wait, Hanol? Wasn’t that the name of the soon to be prime minister?

While I was pondering over the name, his gaze darted back as if looking for someone taller than I was, then it went down to me in surprise, like he didn’t expect me to be here.

Without hesitation, I held up the card toward him and kept a blank stare.

“Where did you get that?” he asked, carefully taking the blue card back.

“You just dropped it,” I answered.

He holstered the card back into its rightful place in his wallet. His brow furrowed as he continued looking at me.

“I suppose I should thank you. I never would have noticed.” he kneeled down and looked a little closer into my eyes. His intense focus was making me uncomfortable. “There’s something about you…” his confusion quickly turned into a smile. “You're going places, kid. Keep being helpful.” he patted my shoulder and stood back up.

Me, going places? I’m not sure if I liked this guy at all, but I couldn’t deny that his words were a little inspiring.

“Come on, Jessie.” the man said to the clipboard woman as he continued walking down the hall. “We don’t want to be late for that meeting, do we?”

His people walked away with a confident stride, leaving me alone.

“Hey, what are you doing over here?” Uncle startled me as he came up from behind.

“Oh…” I pointed down the hall, but the man had already turned a corner. “Somebody dropped their card. I gave it back to them.”

“I see.” he held out his hand for me to hold. “Stay close, alright? We don’t want to get lost here.”

I wouldn’t get lost, since I already had the schematics of the palace downloaded. I don’t know if that was legal or not, but who cares? That didn’t mean I knew where we were going. We all regrouped back at the intersection and Marek continued to lead the way.