A few days after receiving the good news from Abigail, Choice was given permission by her mother to come visit her. She’d been trying to speak to her mother since then but the Queen had refused to let her into her section of the palace.

Unlike usual, Choice was not led to her mother’s chambers. Instead, Rachel handed her a change of clothing, a cloak with a hood and a mask.

“What are these for?” Choice asked.

“You would not want your identity to be known where we are going,” Rachel responded. Choice accepted that simple response intrigued at the mystery and secrecy. She changed out of the simple yet luxurious skirt and top she was into the one piece clothing Rachel. It was very uncomfortable and the material of the fabric chafed against her skin. This better be worth it, Choice thought.

Rachel directed her to a side entrance she had not noticed before and they sneaked out of the palace.

“Is it safe to travel outside of the palace without guards,” Choice whispered. Rachel glanced at her in a way that made her feel as if she had asked something ridiculous yet still answered patiently.

“Your guards makes your identity very obvious, your highness. Don’t worry we are two normal people walking in the streets. As long as you’re not too obvious, nobody will pay attention to us.”

Choice wanted to argue with Rachel because she did not want to agree that Rachel was correct about anything. Before she could say anything, Rachel took her hand and sped up. She probably thought that Choice would be a burden but looked approvingly at her when she realised that Choice was easily keeping up with her.

As they kept walking, Choice noticed that they were leaving the parts of the capital considered proper and were heading towards the so-called unsavoury parts of the capital. The parts that were considered full of crime and refugees and people who were generally not rich enough to live in a better policed area.

Choice expected to see people robbing other people in broad daylight or see dead bodies lying on the floor as expected but it had none of that. In fact, it looked normal. Maybe not as rich as in the centre of the capital or with as many massive houses but it looked like a normal place with normal people and she wondered why she had been warned away from places like this.

Rachel caught her looking around in surprise and grinned.

“Not what you were expecting is it?”

“No it’s not,” Choice replied absent-mindedly.

“It used to be like that, you know. Never as severe, people didn’t kill rampantly or in broad daylight. But this was the den of crime. No one up there cared as long we kept out of the way. They came down here for some fun but when they were bored of playing normal, they returned back to their positions. But your mother changed all that.”

“My mother the Queen, is involved with this area.”

“Aye. Improving her was one of the first things she did when she became the Queen. She helped reduce the crime and the death. We still have brothels and debtors but they are better regulated. Things aren’t perfect but they are certainly better.”

“You say we a lot. Do you live here?”

“Used to before I started working for the Queen when you were five. I was ten then and there was nothing for me here so I decided to go work for the palace.”

“I think I can barely remember that. Wow.”

“Yeah, you really didn’t like me as a child. You thought I was stealing your mother,” Rachel said and laughed. Even now I still don’t like you, Choice thought and laughed along with her. “Anyway, I owe the Queen a lot,” Rachel continued, “So don’t be angry with her when she doesn’t see you often. She’s got a lot she’s dealing with.”

For a split second, Choice could feel the blood rush up to her ears. How dare this girl interfere in her relationship with her mother? How dare she be close to Sera than her and know her better than she did? What was so special about her that her mother chose her to be her confidant? She raised her hand to do something she didn’t know what. At that moment, Rachel turned to her side and saw her hand. She looked at it quizzically.

The moment of anger passed and Choice gave an awkward smile as she brought the hand down on Rachel’s head.  She gave it a little pat and smiled more genuinely at the confused look on Rachel’s head. She stroked the platinum blond hair for a moment before responding.

“Don’t worry, she’s my mother. I won’t forget that no matter how angry I am.” Rachel gave Choice a puzzled look but chose not to comment on her actions.

“Okay then,” she exhaled and then looked at a plain door. “We are here.” Here? Where’s here. Rachel walked to the door and gave it three short sharp raps.

“Password,” came a voice beyond the door.

“The frog jumped far down the well but got caught and fell.”

There was a pause and Choice heard Rachel mumbling to herself that she had given the right password. Choice tried to listen to what was happening behind the door. Her senses had been heightened since her awakening at the forest and even though it was not as good as it been then it was still much better than usual.

Still, she was surprised she heard nothing coming from the house. Not even a scratch or whisper. Either there was nothing making any sound in the house, which was unlikely or there was something preventing sound from coming out from the house. Probably runes or somesuch.

After a minute of waiting, the door creaked open. Rachel looked to her right and left for a minute before entering the house, still holding her hand. The door shut behind them and Choice could hear no noise from the outside. There was clearly magic afoot.

The hallway they were walking in was dimly lit and headed downward. As Choice looked at her surroundings to find some information about where she was, she heard Rachel and the person that invited them whispering.

“You didn’t inform us you were coming with a guest,” their welcomer said.

“I didn’t think I needed to. The Queen invited her.”

“The Queen, really?”

“Yes.”

At this, the woman inclined her head slyly to see Choice’s features. She could see nothing as she already had a blank mask on in contrast to the patterns on the masks of Rachel and the welcomer. After trying for a few minutes to get anything, the woman gave up and turned back to Rachel.

“Who is she?”

“You know I can’t tell you that.”

“Oh come on R, I can keep a secret.”

“You definitely cannot,” Rachel scoffed. At this she held her hand again and pulled me in a different direction. They had reached the end of the corridor.

“Is there a need to keep on pulling me. I can walk quite well,” Choice whispered. Rachel looked at her and blinked as if that hadn’t occurred to her.

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t realise but we are almost there,” she said and released her hands. They walked for a few minutes in silence when Choice realised that they were walking at an incline. It looked like their destination wasn’t actually the house.

When they eventually levelled out, there was another door. Rachel pushed open the door and they stepped out into an open street. Choice looked behind her and saw another house which looked dilapidated and abandoned.

Choice drew her cloak closer to her and finger the three knives she had had gotten from the assassin. The street was deserted, something she had never seen before in the capital. It was very odd so Choice became more alert and she noticed that Rachel’s posture changed too. She stood straighter and her eyes were darting around their environs.

She heard Rachel mutter, “oh fuck it” to herself when she heard an wheezing sound coming from the distance. Choice pulled Rachel to one side and an arrow passed the space they had previously occupied.

“Shit. This is bad.” Rachel said and started running.

“What is bad?”

“There’s doing a welcoming ceremony. I can’t believe she’d let this happen on the day when you are supposed to come here.”

“What welcoming ceremony? Who’s officiating it?” Choice asked. Rachel wanted to respond to the question but couldn’t do so because a figure came out of the darkness and attacked her.

Rachel got a sword out of nowhere and blocked the strike of the masked person.

“Stay behind me,” She told Choice. Choice wasn’t planning on moving in the first place. She couldn’t fight and she didn’t have access to her magic at the moment so there really wasn’t anything she could do.

Rachel blocked the thrust of the other sword and sent an aggressive slash back at the figure. They jumped back out of the range of the attack and threw a blade at Rachel. She used her sword to block the knife and as she did so, the figure ran at top speed into the opening that had appeared.

The feint didn’t work though as another sword came to block the slash from the figure. Surprise,  Rachel was a double wielder! However, this didn’t seem to surprise the figure who used their other hand to slash at the stomach with a small blade. Rachel moved her waist so that the blade just brushed past her stomach.

At this moment, Rachel dropped her blade on the right hand and gave the figure a powerful punch, then put her blade on their neck while they were dazed.

“Okay, that’s enough. You’ve done well girls,” a voice said. Choice looked to her right to see a woman walking out of the shadows. It was to her surprise her mother the Queen dressed in a warrior’s garb.

“Your senses are still quite sharp, Rachel,” Sera said, “But you lost. It’s first blood remember and you are bleeding.” Choice’s eyes went down to Rachel’s bleeding abdomen. It looked like that previous attack had hit her after all.

“That’s is unfair,” Rachel complained, “If it was in a life or death battle, I’d have killed her when my blade was against her neck.”

“And if her blade was heavily poisoned, you would have died after. What is the number one thing I thought you.”

“Don’t be the first to get injured. Injuries slow you down.”

“That’s right. I’m trying to teach you girls how to win a fight not die with your opponent. Now girls, make the sign.” At her instruction, Rachel and the other girl trepidatiously towards one another and then shook hands.

“Good,” Choice’s mother replied clearly pleased and then looked at her, “Choice. It’s really good to see you. I heard you were trying to kill yourself.”

“What? No. That’s just an exaggeration I would never try to kill myself and definitely not over a boy like Matt Colburn.”

Her mother hummed at that and gave her a blinding smile. “Good, I would be embarrassed if you ever did that. I would make sure you didn’t get buried in the family plot. Come in.”

Sera walked ahead and Choice looked at her open mouthed. She’d never seen her mother look freer and happier than at this moment and Sera just had to go and ruin it. Choice ran to catch up with her mother and saw a wall that she’d overlooked sliding up. This was the entrance to whatever her mother was hiding.

Sera, Choice, Rachel and the other woman walked in and the entrance slid down behind her.

“Mother, Abigail told me that father’s let me go with Cedric to the Internationale.”

“I know that’s why I called you.”

“Mother I’ve been trying to meet up with you for three days. If you wanted to speak to me, you would have responded.”

“I was busy,” Sera replied nonchalantly. Choice bit her lips at that casually dismissive response. Sera continued on “I am your mother and we may not have a perfect relationship but I know you and I know you did something to make Matt Colburn want to stop his betrothal.” Choice stayed silent and Sera looked at her pointedly until she spoke reluctantly.

“I caught him having sex with someone else on my birthday and accused him of actively trying to humiliate the Royal Family. Surprisingly it worked.”

“I thought it would be something like that. You know there will be another, right. Another man, another marriage. Extra money for our coffers.”

“I’ll deal with what happens then when it happens.”

“Still eventually, you’ll get tired of refusing and being portrayed as selfish. You will give in just to have a peaceful life but it never becomes peaceful.” As they were walking, Choice saw rows of people training in the fields. They were many of them and they were dressed in well kept uniforms. They had formations and were so organised that she knew what she was seeing. This was a militia. A well funded, well kept one. Her mother was raising an army under the King’s nose.

“Is that what happened to you, then. Did you give in to have a peaceful life?”

“A little of that but mostly I loved your father. He wasn’t such a dick then. Anyway, there will be someone else. It will always happen but as long as your brother becomes King, things will change. Things will be better, for women and for men. But for women especially.”

“Is that why you are raising an army? To make Cero King and improve the status of women in this Kingdom.”

“I can only do so much. We need someone on the throne to make decision.” I could be that someone on the throne, Choice thought but did not say out loud. She looked around her and saw the young men and women practicing and duelling.

“Isn’t it illegal to do this,” she asked her back facing her mother. “I could have sworn there was something preventing royal member from doing this.” She turned around and looked dead straight in her mother’s eyes. “Aren’t you afraid of father finding out?”

“Oh my darling, that only applies to male member of the family. It’s actually quite specific. ‘Let no male heir or member of the royal family raise a militia or engage in common commerce so as not to distract from the crown.’ They didn’t even think about women being able to raise an army or make money so there’s nothing against that in the Code of Conducts.”

Choice nodded her head. There was still something weird going on. If her mother felt it was important for her to know this, she’d had a year to tell her. There was another reason for her summoning and she felt that she would not like it.

“Okay mother, this is cool and jazz but tell me the truth. Why am I here? Why have you called me here.”

“I am limited in how much money and power I can give to this. We need to help your brother take the throne so things can be better and for that things have to be done. Sacrifices have to be made.”

“Okay I’m getting where you are going with this. You want to sell things from the palace we no longer need like jewelry, dresses?”

“No, any half decent jeweller will recognise royal jewels and will not get further involved. No that’s not it. I need you to get married to someone wealthy and important.” Sera said the last sentence gently as if breaking bad news to someone with a fragile mental state. She shook her head in disbelief.

“No.”

“I know you don’t want to do it but nobody said you have to live your whole life with him. You can do what your aunt Bas did and end him. Sun knows I would have killed your father ages ago if I could get away with it.”

“No.”

“Now Choice, don’t be like this. This is for the greater good. Think of all the women you’ll be helping with this.”

“NO,” Choice shouted, “I’m not doing that.”

“Now Choice, don’t be selfish,” Sera snapped out.

“Selfish, I’m selfish! Because I don’t want to whore myself out to the highest bidder, I’m selfish.”

“Don’t be dramatic Choice Annabelle Legume. You’re not whoring yourself out. But you are not considering the wider impacts of your sacrifice.”

“If not wanting to get married to someone I don’t love or desire is selfishness, then I will be fucking selfish but I know damn sure I am not giving myself to the highest bidder to help further your desires. I know for certain that I don’t want what you and father have.” Choice finished this rant, her chest heaving with numerous emotions. She looked at her mother with unconcealed disdain and disappointment.

“Very well,” Sera responded, “I didn’t really think you would say yes but I had to give it a try, you understand.” Choice didn’t say anything to her mother but looked at her with contempt.

“If you won’t take the simpler option then I guess we’ll have to go for the harder one.” Sera rummaged in her bag and brought out a heavy envelope. “I want you to hand this over to Librarian Perry when you go to the Internationale. They’ll know what to do with it.”

“What’s in it?”

“You don’t need to know. After you hand it over, you’ll have nothing to do with it. Also, don’t try and open it. It has a seal and there’s a rune of protection on it. It self destruct and hurt whoever is opening it if it is done without the proper process.”

“Mother, I am very upset with you. How can I trust that I won’t get in trouble with this.”

“You won’t…” Choice took a breath in. The next question had to be asked delicately.

“Does this mean you’ll help me with my wedding woes?”

“Are you trying to bargain with me?”

“Not at all mother. But there are so many things that can happen on a journey to a far away place like Internationale and having to think about what is waiting for me at home could cause me to be empty minded and misplace some things. I think I’d be so much more alert if I didn’t have any unfortunate things waiting for me when I return.”

“You are negotiating with me.” Choice smiled cynically at her. She should have expected this when she told me to do something she knew I didn't want to do. After telling me how horrible it was to be forced to do something you didn't want to do. Did she really think I would just follow her commands? My mother really underestimates me.

“Fine,” replied Sera, “I’ll talk to your father and ask him to hold off on the betrothal. But It won’t work forever. One day you’ll be asked to marry someone and you’ll have to say yes.”

“Then I hope to put that day off for as long as possible.”

“Brat.”

“Thank you mother. I learnt it all from you.”

Sera handed her the envelope. When Choice reached to take it, she held on. “Be careful at Internationale. It’s beautiful but it’s more dangerous than they make it sound. You’re my only daughter so I want you to be careful and safe.”

“I will be mother. Thank you for worrying.” Sera handed her the envelope and rustled her black hair. Sera was complicated. Sometimes she would be very cold towards her and sometimes like now, she would be very openly loving towards her. Choice thought that she would never truly understand her mother.

“Don’t forget, Librarian Perry. If she’s not around, hand it to the main Librarian and say ‘For official eyes only, from custard’. You must say exactly what I told you. Most likely though, Perry will be there. You don’t need to say anything when you meet her. Just hand her the package. You say the code word when you meet other librarians, got it.

“Got it but mother I will I know who Librarian Perry is?” Choice didn’t want to give the envelope to the wrong person, she took deals seriously and didn’t want to renege because she didn’t know who the recipient was.

Sera chuckled and said, “You’ll know when you see her. You should go back now. It’s getting late.” It was but Choice wanted to stay more with her mother and observe this hideout she had. Still it was obvious that her mother was done with her for that day. “Take Rachel back with you. She knows the way.”

Rachel came up to Choice side and smiled at her. “Ready to go back.”

“Mmhmm,” Choice responded then suddenly called out to her mother who was leaving, “Mama, when I told you as child that I wanted to be King. Did you ever think I could do it.”

Sera thought on this for a moment and responded, “No. I never did. But I just didn’t want to ruin your dream in your childhood. Now that you’ve grown you know that it was just a dream.”

“Yes Mama, it is a dream.” Sera nodded and walked away from her. Choice looked at Rachel and gestured to the road they had just come from. She nodded and took her hand to lead her on the way home. This time, Choice did not say anything.