Cassiopiea

I dodge my mothers wide arch swing at me with her rapier by by rolling to the left and then I quickly pop onto my feet and try to counter her attack by jabbing at her still open left side caused by her wide arch. But she quickly recovers and parries my attack with a backhand stroke and uses the momentum to carry her forward and counter with a jab to my abdomen. I parry and attack her with set of consecutive jabs and strokes forcing her into defending while moving backwards. Which would trap her in the corner and will give me the opportunity to deal the final blow. But she sees this and she parries my attacks easily, sidesteps towards my sword arm while feinting an attack. Then she leaps into the air towards the wall, bounces off the wall with her feet and somersaults over my head lands behind me and puts her sword on my throat. This happens so fast that I hardly see it and have no time to react.

“Yield.”

I respond by raising my arms and slowly putting my rapier on the floor. She won’t allow me to simply say I yield and put my sword in it’s scabbard ever since two years ago I tried a sneak attack. Of course she saw it and easily stopped my attack but since then she has been more careful. She was proud of me for seeing the opportunity and acting on it but since then she has been gradually going harder and harder on me while training. The pressure on my neck disappears and I turn around and face my mother with my arms crossed.

“You know the somersault was unnecessary” I Say in an irritated tone whilst giving her a death stare.

“Oh stop being such a sore loser you sound like a pampered princess that just stepped into a muddy puddle.” She says this with one of her famous beautiful smiles that makes most men lose track of their thoughts and mumble. It’s actually quite amusing when I see it happen.

I roll my eyes while picking up my sword and putting it in it’s sheath and then turn around to face my mother as she is about to brief me on how I did during training by telling me where to improve and the areas that I still need to improve in. I used to hate this part of training when I was a kid To me it used to feel as if my mother was in a cruel way bragging about how much better she is than I in fighting and just lifting her already huge ego by rubbing salt in my wounds. I used to cry in my sleep after training in the evening since that has always been the time that she had time to train me since she was busy throughout the whole day going through paperwork, attending long meetings with the kingdoms treasurer council members discussing whatever it is they discuss in there. I’ve never been allowed to attend these meetings and it used to irritate me but every time my mother came out of those meetings she was either very tired or angry. So I lost interest in wanting to attend these meetings, rather wait till it’s my turn to be Queen but for now I’d rather enjoy my freedom. And I eventually stopped hating my mothers little lectures after training because I started to see that she was just trying to help me improve and that her advice was really helpful.

“And you still swing a sword like a pampered princess, you’ve improved in the speed and strength of your attacks but you still need to work on your technique.” She says this while releasing her hair from the ponytail she had put it in. I release my own hair as I listen to her tell me all the areas that I have improved in and those that I still need to work in more detail. But as we change out of our training clothes which consists of light knee length leather boots with trousers tucked into them and a long sleeve t-shirt with leather chest plate and hard leather arm braces worn over the t-shirt. I can’t help myself but to admire my mothers beauty. In her younger years she used to known through out the kingdom as the fairest of all. And over the years her beauty has not left her, even with a couple of slight wrinkles that are barely visible and in my eyes she is even more beautiful now than when she is in her portraits of her younger self. She has beautiful light brown skin with, long dark curly hair that touches her shoulder blades. She has a curvy lean figure that turns heads when she enters a room and makes most women in the kingdom jealous. She looks soft but super fierce at the same time and those foolish enough to think that her looks mean that she is weak and can be easily killed have either never been seen again or have been lucky enough to been allowed to live are to weak to ever walk again.

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People that have known my mother for a long time say that I look exactly like her when she was my age. But I doubt it, sure I have the same curly brown hair but mine lighter, and my skin tone is more caramel than brown and I’m much skinnier than my mother and my eyes are a light hazel color with a twinge of green. I got those from my deceased father, although he died when I was two my mother says that he had the brightest green eyes she had had ever seen. She says she could stare at him for hours while getting lost in the bright green forest that are his eyes. I don’t actually remember him I just get warm fuzzy feelings when I try to think of him and very blurry glimpses of a man standing over me with a smile on his face. But when I try to put more detail on his face I can’t and the memory slips away. I used to think of him a lot when I was younger but over the years I gradually stopped. Now I only think of him a couple of times every two months. Apparently he had died fighting trying to protect my mother and I from five assassins disguised as servants. I can tell sometimes my eyes remind my mother of him, when she does she usually looks at me with a sad smile on her face as she is now.

“You remind me of him a lot you know”. She says this while adjusting her strapless light green gown with tiny dark green gems in a beautiful pattern around the edges of the dress whilst checking herself in the full length mirror directly opposite the secret door which blends in perfectly with the white walls in the windowless training room. If you look carefully you can see the outline of the door but you can’t see any doorknob or handle because the door only opens when you push on it and it pops out inwards making a small clicking sound. The door leads to the series of secret passage ways around the castle, no one knows or is allowed to use them besides my mother, a handful of trusted cleaning servants, my moms head adviser/personal assistant and I.

“I know mom you’ve told me countless times before.” I say with a small smile and a light tone.” We look at each other for a couple of seconds in silence then my mother says: “I’ll miss those beautiful eyes of yours and your voice when you leave for the Academy.” She says with still the sad smile plastered across her face and with her eyes slightly watery.

“I know mom I’ll miss you more.” This rewards me with on of her famous smiles before she leaves the room to go and do whatever a Queen does during the evening after dinner and training with their daughter. I follow her shortly thinking about tomorrow. She hasn’t been taking me leaving for the Academy to well. When I had asked her to leave for the Academy a year ago she was completely against it, she said that it was unnecessary for me to go to the Academy because she could get me a private tutor to teach control over my stones but I reminded her that only the tutors at the Academy only how to train people with powerful stones and since I’m royalty my stone is more powerful than average people who attend the Academy. She also argued that my safety is at risk at the Academy but thankfully her head adviser was present and he backed up my argument saying that at the Academy I’ll be perfectly safe since that a lot of royal children attend the Academy the security is only second to the safest place in the kingdom with the our palace as the first. It took months of begging but eventually she caved in and allowed me to go to the Academy but only if my identity is kept secret to ensure my safety and to make sure that I don’t receive any special treatment. Only a few of the educators will know of my true identity. Tomorrow I will leave in the afternoon in a carriage with bags filled with my stuff. I will be going to visit my very ill grandma at the country side and stay with her until she is better. Well at least that’s what we want everyone else to think while I actually go to a cabin that’s an hour away from the Capitol. There I will get a complete makeover which will change the way I look then I will head off to the Academy with my fake father.

When I finally reach the secret door leading into my room I pause and peep through the spy hole before pushing the door open and entering my room. The door from inside my room is actually a fire place with a little shelf above it and a beautiful painting of a ship with people on it heading off to a tropical island. On my left is a double door that goes to a balcony overlooking the circular courtyard. On my right is my walk in closet filled with my ball gowns, dresses and shoes. I head off to the closet. When I reach it I take off my slippers and my dress then put the dress on it’s hanger. Then I take my night gown and get out my closet and go to my bed. I put the gown on the bed. From there I head off into the bathroom on the opposite side of the closet and go take a nice hot bath. I know there will be water inside because my servants know that every evening I like to have a bath before I sleep. I put my left hand first to test the water first and its a bit too hot which is exactly how I like after training because it eases the pains and clears my head. I take a towel, wrap my hair in it and slip inside the soapy water and give off a sigh of relief.