Prologue Three
It took three days before Sera was ready to return to speak with Frank. She had already determined that she really couldn’t do anything to prevent Frank from sending Choice to his horribly traditional sister. However, if Frank was going to prevent her from raising her daughter, he’d better pay something on his end.
This was why she walked briskly into his study at two in the morning. It only took her twenty minutes to do so. Sometimes she fantasised about putting a bell around his neck so that she would know wherever he went. Frank could be surprisingly sneaky when he wanted to be.
“Frank we need to talk further about our discussion three days ago,” she spoke loudly as she entered his study. There was a shuffling noise and she looked amusedly as Abigail tried to rearrange her clothes to prevent her chest from being seen. Abigail.
Sera snorted at the sight before her. Abigail sitting on their king’s lap bare chested and trying to button up her top. It wasn’t that difficult. She had tiny tits. She knew that it was very stereotypical of the first wife to despise the second wife but she disliked her. Even though she no longer had any feelings for Frank, she still found it humiliating to be replaced with a younger prettier woman. A fair skinned woman from his kingdom who seemed to have never held a weapon or damaged her skin before. Particularly when this woman had a child- a male heir to be exact- before she did.
After looking at Abigail for a few moments, Sera looked at the king expectantly. She was here to conduct a private conversation and didn’t see any need for outsiders to be involved.
“What. You don’t want Abigail to be here? But she’s completely trustworthy.” Ugh. He smelled of alcohol. Another thing that was denied to her.
“I’m serious, Frank.”
“Alright, alright. Abigail. I would like you to go back to your room and wait for me. Wear that outfit. You know the one.” Abigail stood up from his lap smiling seductively.
“Of course,” she said with honey in her mouth. “Whenever you are ready, I’ll be there.” She walked with a sway in her hips, her brown locks floating behind here. A promise of youth and fertility. Sera grabbed her hand as she was about to walk past her.
“If you eavesdrop, I’ll make sure to scar that beautiful skin you’re so proud of,” she whispered, “So be on your way and go make your bed.”
“Of course I won’t eavesdrop,” Abigail replied smiling, “After all, the King ordered me to leave and I always obey my husbands commands. Maybe that’s why I’ve been blessed with the first offspring.” Abigail turned back to smile at the King and then shook Sera’s arm off. Then she left the room and closed the door behind her. Gently.
‘Ugh. I swear she must have been trained as a comfort woman.’ Sera shook her head and refocused on her husband. She was going to be very blunt.
“I want Choice to have a coronation. With silver decorations.” Frank sat up quite startled.
“Yes, if you want me to accept your decree without making a fuss. She will be coronated. Of course she won’t be King but I want her to at least get one of her dreams before the world crushes her and makes her realise her ‘place’. If coronation bothers you too much, think of it as an initiation. An official initiation into being a member of the Royal Family.”
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Choice woke up from a dream she couldn’t remember but knew to be a bad dream. With a hint of sleep in her eyes, she couldn’t recognise the royal chambers and thought she had been caught by the people chasing her. I have to run. However, she blinked and remembered where she was. A breath in. She was relieved. She was safe.
Choice got up from her bed and pushed open her doors. Oddly, there was no one in the halls of the palace. She kept on walking but saw no one. Now she knew that there was something off. There was always someone in the halls of the palace.
“Now what do we have here,” an unfamiliar voice called out and instantly Choice started running. It wasn’t as if Choice knew all the voices of the people that worked in the palace but everything was strange and all of a sudden there was a strange voice. Choice didn’t even think to turn back and ask who was there. All she knew was that she had to run and deal with it later.
“You’re running? How rare,” the voice said amusedly still close to her then in a dark voice, “How rude. Didn’t anyone teach you to question things first? Come back here.” Choice ignored the voice and kept on running. She knew that if something seemed dangerous, it was better to run first and ask questions later when you were safe.
“Don’t run from me. I have snacks. Children like snacks. Don’t you like sweet things.” Choice ignored whatever the voice was saying and kept on running. The Royal Palace was too big and had too many routes.
“Oh fine. Enough of playing with my food. It’s been a long time since I last consumed royal brood. Come back here” Choice kept on trying to run but felt a force pulling her backwards. As the force pulled her backwards, she rose up in the air. Above the palace. Above the capital. She went passed the clouds and kept on screaming.
She knew that she would get eaten soon but she didn’t want to get eaten. She had done nothing wrong. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to wake up in her own room and see her mama. Choice kept on screaming-
-and woke up in her bed.
She gasped and sat up from her bed. She moved as if to open the door but paused a few steps away. What if she opened the door and that thing came back. What if it came back to eat her.
It was in this confusion that Sera found her when she came into her room. She looked at her daughter who looked very scared and then looked at the door she had just opened. Was there a frightening picture on the door. She didn’t find anything, it looked extremely normal.
“Had a bad dream darling?”
“Mama,” Choice cried, leaping into her mother’s arms, “I was so scared. The voice was going to eat me.” Sera could not really understand what her daughter was talking about in between the tears but she understood that Choice had had a nightmare.
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“Don’t worry my dear. It was just a bad dream, nothing more. Nothing would dare to eat you. You’re such a lovely and beautiful princess.” She was lying. Choice was definitely not beautiful. Her mother was beautiful, her step mother was beautiful and so were her brothers. And her father. Choice seemed to be the only member of her family that was ordinary. But she was a child and her mother had told her she was beautiful and so she believed she was.
“Really, nothing is going to eat me.”
“Of course. Your mum won’t let them.”
“Really, you’ll beat them like you’ll beat that man.”
“Of course,” the Undying gave a forced smile. She hadn’t really beaten the intruder. She was rusty and he had escaped. Not before giving her a particularly bad injury. She had made sure no one, not even her husband knew that it would be very difficult for her to use her staff as well as she could for the next few years. And by the time she recovered, it would be too late. She was forty one now. How old would she be by the time she recovered. In her late forties? Would she still be able to fight like she did in her prime. No. she had to get used to the fact that fighting was a young person's game.
But Choice didn’t need to know that. Choice needed to feel that her mother was invincible so she would be for her. Sera put Choice down and knelt next to her.
“Mama has got a surprise for you. Guess what it is.”
“Did you buy me a toy. Like like the doll they made in Cen- twoo-lum.”
“It’s Centrum. And not that my darling. Something you really really want.”
“To have more friends?”
“Not that either. Okay I’ll tell you. I’ve managed to let you have a coronation.” Choice looked at her in confusion. “Don’t you like that darling?”
“I was going to get that anyway. Did you get anything else.”
“Anyway? Do you know…”
“Does it have silver decorations?”
“Silver decorations?” Sera looked at her daughter in exasperation, shook her head and then smiled. She hoped her daughter remained like this not doubting that she would be treated differently from her brothers. But that would never happen. The smile on her face became sad as she thought about Choice’s future.
“Yes darling, there will be silver decorations.”
“Yay,” Choice shouted, jumping up and down. The silver decorations are to show it’s not official or important. Not because you prefer silver. Sera didn’t tell her daughter that though. There was enough time for her to learn the way the world worked.
“Baby, this will happen later this week. And I really need you to listen to me carefully.”
“Yes Mama,” Choice said calming down.
“You are going to your aunt Bas’ in three weeks.”
“What,” Choice shouted.
“I want you to be well behaved and calm when you’re with her.”
“But mum, Aunt Bas is really mean. And very very mean. She doesn’t like me playing with my brothers. Or anyone.”
“Choice Njideka Legume. You will listen to your mother.” Choice immediately shut her mouth. Whenever her mama called her full name, she knew she was in trouble. “Now I never taught you to say mean things about other people, did I?”
“No mama,” Choice said but her pout and puffed up face showed her displeasure with what was happening. Sera breathed in. This was difficult for her too.
“When you go to your aunt’s, you will curtsy everytime you see her. You will learn what she teaches you. And, this is important, you will not raise your voice. You will never get angry. At least on the outside. Do you understand.”
“Yes Mama.”
“Okay then. Repeat after me. I…”
“I…”
“Will never…”
“Will never…”
“Show anger.”
“Show anger.”
“Good my daughter. Just remember that. Okay. I have to take you to the room. We have to choose your dress for your coronation.”
“Okay mum...Mama?” Choice asked hesitantly. Sera turned her head to look at her. “What if I get angry at someone though.” Sera crouched and whispered in her daughter’s ear.
“Well then. You hold it in and pretend it doesn’t affect you until one day you can get back at them. And then you make sure it’s worse than what they did to you.Patience my dear. That’s always the answer. Okay.”
“Okay, mama,” Choice replied in a hushed tone. She felt that she had received really important. She didn’t know how important yet. But she promised herself not to forget what she had just learned.
“Now let’s go look for what to wear. You have to look your best on your coronation.”
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Regardless of all that happened later on in her life, Choice would always remember her coronation as one of the best things in her life. For the first time, she was the most important child in the palace. Everyone attended her coronation even her brother Cedric (who was going to go the next day to the International Academy), although her father frequently called it an initiation. It didn’t matter, it was a coronation. It had silver decorations just like she wanted. And she wore a beautiful dress made out of silver. She wore diamond earrings - she liked diamonds, it just like silver wasn’t as obvious a colour as gold - and had a silver coronet on her head. She felt important and beautiful. And when she got initiated as a princess in the Legume family, all she could do was imagine the day she would sit on the throne as King.
However, she didn’t have time to indulge in that dream because three weeks later, she had to go to stay with her aunt Bas. Even then she never why she had to go live with her aunt. She was a princess shouldn’t stay in the palace and learn her heritage. She told her mother that often but her mother always replied with a sad smile that she just had to go.
So three weeks later, after one of the best days of her life, Choice left her home and travelled to her aunts. She was well guarded so that what happened during her planned trip to the prime minister would never happen again.
The Kariot travelled for five days before they arrived on the outskirts of her aunt’s town. Ever since Aunt Bas’ husband died, it had rumoured that she was the one in charge of the town of Gwilym. It wasn’t a big town but it wasn’t small either.
In the eyes of Choice however, it was smaller than the capital and so was incredibly tiny. She already hated it. At the town gate was, waiting for her, Aunt Bas. Aunt Bas had waist length red hair with dark green eyes and was dressed in green. She was beautiful as well. She stood ramrod straight and looked straight at Choice without a change of expression as Choice alighted from her Kariot accompanied by her attendants and walked to her.
“Good evening, Aunt Bas. I am pleased to meet you and I am glad to be under your care,” Choice said, curtsying as she tried to remember everything her mother told her to do and say. Bas hmphed after seeing her.
“At least your posture is passable. That barbarian mother of yours hasn’t ruined you at least. But I promise you, I will make sure that you are brought up properly. When you are introduced to the public, you will be a respectable young lady. Now, doesn’t that sound lovely.” Bas said and touched Choice’s dark curly, thick hair. Choice immediately felt a chill in the air but knew the response she should give even though nothing Bas had just said sounded like something she wanted.
“Yes, Aunt Bas that sounds nice.”
“Good. At least you’re obedient. Now come with me child. Come see your new home.” Bas turned around and walked home and after hesitating for a few moments, Choice followed after her.
She looked back for a brief second to see the Kariot returning back to the palace and leaving her there. Choice turned back to her aunt. She didn’t want to get in trouble. This was to be her new life.