It wasn’t the first time that Choice had thought about being King. Ever since her childhood, she had wanted to be the person on the Throne. She couldn't tell you why she wanted to be the King except maybe for the fact that she didn’t why not. Her brothers wanted the throne as well, no one asked them why they wanted it.

Anyway, the thought of inheriting the throne had come frequently to her mind, mostly when she felt desperate or in despair. Every time Aunt Bas came up with a creative mode torture which she called punishment, she thought about how things would be different if she had more power than her. Every time something went wrong at Perpetual, which was often, she thought about accumulating power.

However, she had grown up from the child she once was and had thought it impossible and silly to be the ruler of her Kingdom. The real truth was that somewhere in her mind she’d always thought that if things turned really bad, her mother would protect. That’s why when things went pear shaped at Perpetual, she always thought it wasn’t really bad. If it was her mother would have intervened. Right?

But now she knew. Her mother had abandoned her. As soon as she had been sent to her aunt’s her mother had written her off as useless. She would never really have any power. The most she could have was what her aunt had. A dead husband who’d left all his influence and power for her to manage in his name. Well...until his sons grew up and took control of everything. Maybe that’s why Aunt Bas didn’t have children with her husband before she killed him. Officially, he died at sleep in his bed but everyone knew she’d killed him.

Choice had made up her mind. She was definitely going to get that crown. She respected herself too much to let herself be traded without putting up even a fight. But what to do? How do you ascend a throne no one wants you to have? Particular when nobody ever considered you to be in the race in the first place?

“- Choice, are you listening?” a voice asked breaking her introspection.

“Hmm? Oh yes of course. I was just admiring this lovely gown you are wearing. It looks quite eye catching. The purple and blue. It is a very impressive dress and if you don’t mind me saying, you look very fetching in it. I admire your boldness and vision.” It was an impressive dress. It was also god awful ugly and made Mina Ken look like a fat cow. But I would never say that to her face. I have manners.

Mina flushed looking quite pleased with the compliment. She must have known that she looked outrageously horrid but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Women had been able to make other people look atrocious in public for decades by making them feel beautiful.

Why was Choice here, someone might wonder? Why was she giving compliments that were clearly untrue and laughing at horrible jokes and boring stories? Well the truth was if Choice wanted to be Queen, she had to know what was happening in the Kingdom. She had to know who to trust, who to trust, who was weak, who was influential. She wasn’t going to get any information handed to her or get fed curated information by teachers specifically chosen to help her.

So this was where she needed to be. This place, this circle of women, this gossip. People underestimate the power of gossip and exactly what you could get from listening to what a group of powerful women say behind each other’s backs. These women were important enough to get invited to the nineteenth birthday of the only Princess of Legume. They must have money and some influence. Listening to them, chatting with them would definitely help her someday. It was already helping her today.

She was already aware that George Ballon, one of the richest cotton farmers,  was openly having an affair with his stable boy, annoying his wife as well as his mistress in the process or that the Prime Minister had recently acquired more money than was expected because he’d bought his wife a diamond bangle to placate her from his rampant visits to the local brothel. It was very likely that her father didn’t know that.

Who hated the King, who supported which prince. These women knew. Their husbands might think they didn’t see what they were doing but these women definitely knew what their husbands were doing in the shadows.

The problem was that this information was generally useless for them. Oh, they stored these pieces of information for a rainy day. But that day usually never came because what’s the point of information if you don’t have the power to execute it. But Choice was sure that she was going to put it to good use. So she’d get acquainted, she would play the game. And at the end they would all thank her. After all, her ascension to the throne will be good for all women in the Kingdom.

Besides she didn’t mind it. Choice liked the politics game. It gave her such a rush. Sometimes, she thought it was better than sex. Admittedly, that’s probably because she’d had a few crappy partners in the past.

“Thank you so much for chatting with me but I have to excuse myself. I think I see one of my brothers waving at me so I have to see what he wants.”

“Oh it was my pleasure. You were a delight,” Mina replied and the other women nodded in agreement.

“No it was mine. I really enjoyed it. I learned so much.” She really had.

As Choice walked away from the group of women she had been speaking to, her eyes took in the decorations and ornaments that were hung around the grand ball. The shine of the gold tiara matched well with the gold earrings dangling on her ears. The sparkle definitely made sure that everyone was aware of wherever she went and they watched her like she was treasure that had be admired in person. Choice wondered if this was how wanted criminals felt when their faces ended plastered around the kingdom.

Choice walked around greeting people until she realised that everyone had turned looking at a spot behind her. Choice had a premonition and turned to look to see what had taken everyone’s attention off her. Or more accurately who.

It was as she expected, her older brother, Cedric. The primary heir of Legume. Cedric had grown up as well as she could expect or even better. She was not going to lie though that sometimes (many times) she’d hoped he’d died in a ditch somewhere far from Legume.

Cedric was going to the biggest obstacle to getting the throne. He had a reputation of being a good, kind person. Incredibly charismatic and also handsome. Unfortunately, all of that was true. Her twenty four year old brother had inherited his brown hair and good looks from his mother. His gleaming brown eyes always made people think he was he was having the time of his life and not at their expense. It was very effective at making people relax and want to have fun with him.

Choice could not count the number of girls who had come to tell her about her  brother’s handsomeness, good fighting skills and exceptional ability to make people genuinely like him. That was how she’d that her brother was going to be difficult to fight for the throne. But who was she? She was Choice Annabelle Legume. She had royal blood in her veins from both parents. She didn’t mind challenges.

Choice smiled the most genuine smile she could give and hugged her brother in the middle of the hall. She had to make sure everyone felt that she had a close relationship with the heir to the throne even though they were half siblings. And that he had essentially stolen the spotlight from her at her own party. While she wanted to make sure the right people knew where she stood. It wasn’t time.

After hugging for a few moments, Cedric stepped away from his sister. He had just arrived at the capital a few hours ago and so was still dressed in military apparel. He hadn’t seen his younger sister for the past twelve years and was surprised to see how much she had grown. He was happy though that she was clearly happy to see him after all the time had passed.

“Oh, my manners. How could I be so impolite to the primary heir,” Choice said curtseying. Seriously, contorting her legs every time she met someone new who was higher ranked than her was becoming annoying particularly when the shoes had lifts but traditions were traditions.

“Choice, it’s okay. You know you don’t have to curtsy or use polite talk with me, right? I don’t care about any of that.”

“I can’t do that Cedric that would be weird. But I’m glad you can be so informal with me.” She tittered and whispered, “If you want to continue that step out of the hall for a bit so we can talk. I want to know everything about learning at the Internationale.”

The Internationale was an international school that admitted royal and aristocratic children as well as the children of wealthy, powerful non-aristocrats. The only common children admitted to that school where those who were talented in martial arts or in magic or abundantly intelligent children. Even though they only chose a maximum of fifty commoner children, their entrance exams were always flooded by parents looking to change their children’s fortunes.

Her mother and father were students at the Academy and Choice had thought that she would be able to go to the Internationale until she learnt that it was an unofficial tradition that the only school high class girls in the Kingdom could go to was Perpetual. Aunt Bas had insisted that she continued their family’s glorious tradition and her mother had not involved herself. So naturally, Choice was curious about the Internationale school.

“Well, I graduated six years ago but I remember that the Internationale was very beautiful. It was originally a magic school that expanded a hundred years ago and it shows. There are runes adorned all over the place. The most amazing thing there is the casual use of magic. Now, I’m no mage but I picked up a lot of things about magic there from my friends.”

“Friends! You have friends that are mages?”

“Oh yeah. Johnny, Lisa and Tom are apprentice mages although Lisa is real close to becoming a level one mage. Why? Is that surprising? Aren’t there any magicians at...what was it again?”

“Perpetual?”

“Yes,” he said and clicked his finger, “Perpetual. I heard it’s the foremost school for girls in our region. You didn’t learn about magic?”

“Magic? At Perpetual?” Choice said and laughed, “No, we didn’t have anything to do with magic. At Perpetual we learnt things that were within our capabilities. But magic is cool. So, I bet you were the top student at Internationale?”

“Me, the top student. No.” Cedric chuckled, “I was very good with the sword but not so much with academics. Hated the subjects. International economics was a pain. I mean I crammed for the exams but I bet I’ve forgotten it all.”

“You have?”

“Yeah. There’s no point in learning all that stuff.”

“What about when you are King? Won’t you need that then.”

“Please,” Cedric scoffed. “That’s the whole point of having ministers and aides. If I knew all about economics they wouldn’t have jobs. I wouldn’t want them to become useless. Don’t worry about me little sister. It’s going to be fine. Besides father isn’t giving up the throne anytime soon. I have time.”

“You have time,” Choice repeated, nonplussed. Surely, Cedric was just joking.

“Yeah, I do. To tell you the truth, Choice sometimes I don’t feel like accepting the scepter.”

“You don’t want to be King?”

“Only sometimes. I don’t want to become as insane as our father. That’s what the throne does to you.”

“What about the power? The influence?”

“I mean that’s all good but it’s not the most important thing in the world. Being King won’t make me happy. Frankly if living in a cave in a forest would be what would make me feel fulfilled, I would do that in a heartbeat.”

“Wow. Just wow. I’m surprised. I’ve never thought about things in that way.” Cedric smiled.

“Sometimes sis, you have just have to think beyond the capital. My time in the military taught me discipline. I got to travel to many places and I’m learning who I am. You should try that sometime.”

“Joining the military?” Choice was still confused at the way the conversation was unfolding.

“No,” he laughed as if I had said something silly, “Women aren’t allowed to join the army. I meant travelling.” Women aren’t allowed to travel willy nilly either, you privileged buffoon.

“I’ll think about doing that, brother.”

“Yeah. Just remember to ask father for permission. Or your husband. Whichever one. Just remember to enjoy seeing new things.” Choice wondered if Cedric’s time with the military was an extended vacation. He sure talked a lot about travelling the world and finding himself.

“Wait. Ask my husband?”

“Yeah, I heard you are going to get engaged in two years to Matt Colburn. I don’t really know him cos we were at different circles in the Internationale but I didn’t hear any bad rumours about him. Also, I know he had a close friendship with one of the excelling mage apprentices. Maybe Victoria would show you some magic after you get married to Matt.”

“I haven’t chose a fiance yet.”

“You haven’t,” Cedric said looking confused. “That’s not the way it sounded when father was talking to Lawrence.” Lawrence was Matt’s father and Choice couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She thought she had the choice of person. Why are you so surprised. Did you think that you’d really be given a choice. Father probably said that to sound diplomatic but unofficially the choice was already made. How revolting.

Frankly, Choice’s dilemma wasn’t that unique. Throughout history countless women had married men only because they had been commanded to do so by their parents. But Choice did not want to be ordinary. She wanted to be able to make her own decisions. She wanted to follow her name and choose for herself. She felt that she was ready to bear the consequences.

“Sis, I think it’s time you go back to the hall. I can hear people wondering where you’ve gone. You’re the birthday girl, you should go and have fun. Don’t spend all your time entertaining your boring older brother.”

Choice looked at their surroundings. Their environs were lit by firelight so she could see quite clearly that while they could still see the party they were far enough from it that Choice could only hear the raucous cheering and combined laughter. Nobles and alcohol should never mix. They were definitely far away to not hear anything and yet Cedric had heard people talking about her?

“You can hear them talking about me?!

“Yeah, I can. Everyone’s curious about what you will be like.”

“How can you hear that?”

“Not to boast little sis but your bro is really really good at martial arts.”

“Ah,” Choice said only that and nodded. “I’ll go back soon. Just want to gather my thoughts for a bit before I go back to the party.”

“You sure?” Choice nodded in assent to his question. Cedric continued, “Okay then. I’ll see you later cos I have notice a some friends I haven’t seen since I left Internationale.”

“S’alright brother. Catch up with your friends. We can talk more later.” Choice waited until Cedric was far away in the distance before she threw the fan she’d been gripping tightly at the wall. Choice raised her face to catch the cold breeze in an attempt to calm herself. Even though she knew he hadn’t, Choice couldn’t help feeling that Cedric had ben mocking her

She’d been very calm and very patient. But she was about to explode. She remembered very clearly nights at Perpetual being forced to stay standing in the chilling air on tilts until she could maintain the proper posture for hours on air. She remembered dancing until her feet bleed. Being healed and forced to do it again. And again. Until she could not only dance but do so perfectly. Healing was the only branch of magic she’d being exposed to and she hated it. Perpetual had had one of the best healers of the century and the teachers had always boasted about it.

And yet on top of that, Choice had piled on extracurricular activity just to understand the mindset of her citizens and those in other nations. To understand the reality of her Kingdoms existence. She’d done things for that knowledge. Humiliated herself. Groveled for days before her headmaster had agreed to add more subjects to her schedule and was despised by the rest of the school because it got added to theirs as well. There were no optionals at Perpetual and everyone had the same subjects.

And here was her brother who had the privilege of all the knowledge he wanted and he played around and ignored essential information? He was content with not knowing how things worked and leaving it to his aides. He doesn’t even want to be the bloody King.

The fact that someone would reject the dream she’d had for all her life and still be receive it infuriated her. So Choice was well and truly angry.

As she was having these thoughts, she didn’t notice she’d been walking further and further into an unlit part of the palace. Weirdly, she didn’t have issues seeing even in the darkness. And so even though the two participants were very careful to make any noise, Choice was still able to see her supposed fiance in congress with someone else.

Ah so this is why I haven’t seen Matt at the party. I’d been trying to gauge what sort of person he is.  You can’t really have any expectations for other people. Can’t be people be polite enough to hold their libidos for the official four hours of my birthday celebration.

Usually, Choice would have done the polite thing which was to walk away but maybe she was still feeling some annoyance at the previous conversation and that’s why she did what she did next.

“Sorry to disturb you guys. I hope you aren’t busy, Matt because I really need to speak with you. So if you could hurry this up, I would be very grateful.”

At the sound of her voice, Matt and the man he was with sprang apart. The other gentleman didn’t even wait for her to verify his identity before he ran in the opposite direction pulling up his trouser as he went. How rude. As for Matt, he hurriedly pulled up his trousers and buttoned up his ornate top. He must have been dressed to impress. It obviously wasn’t her.

He looked at her in shock. Did he really think no one would come this way? There were a thousand staff in the palace and even though it wasn’t well lit, the place they were using wasn’t very well hidden.

“I don’t really think this marriage is going to work,” Choice said. She was going to take control of her life from now on.