2. Aurelio
Ican’t believe that worked!
I chuckle to myself, practically skipping around the bottom floor of Alessia’s bedroom, grabbing book after book from the shelves. My steps are lighter than they’ve been in ages. I have nothing to do, nowhere to be, and no one depending on me. If I read for hours, no one would bat an eye; I’m the future king, after all. I get to do whatever I want now!
My dream has finally come true: I can live out my days reading, horseback riding, and sword training for fun in the summer breeze. The life of a second-rate royal is finally mine!
“Thank goodness Celestia is a matriarchy,” I sigh, speaking to no one in particular. “The King doesn’t make any important decisions. I can kiss responsibility goodbye!”
Just last night, I’d been a hardworking aristocrat, bogged down by responsibilities, family duties, and aristocratic social life. Now, I have no one demanding my time, no collections to deal with, no women throwing themselves at my feet, and no men begging for sparring sessions. I can be left alone forever!
I didn’t want to go to the Coronation Ceremony at first, but I’m glad I had no choice. All aristocratic families are required to attend the ball, and I, in particular, was compelled to be there because of my selection as a candidate for marriage to the queen. My family’s bloodlines are still strongly connected enough to the Founders of Celestia that we can keep the royal family “pure.”
I shake my head, flopping backward onto my bed, which sits on a raised nook in the left corner of the room. I stare out the window, wondering how I got lucky enough to pass that bloodline test. I must be the only one left in the Autumnspell family with over ten percent imperial human blood.
See, the royal family of Celestia is a direct descendant of a group of ancients called Founders, the people who founded our great nation. From their bloodline came imperial humans and imperial demons, which are related but separate races from regular demons and humans. Imperials retain the ability to use ancient magic, and some say they have uncanny intelligence and ridiculous physical strength compared to non-imperials. I have yet to believe those tales, but I’ll get the opportunity to put the strength part to the test during a training session with Alessia later today.
Anyway, all aristocrats in Celestia are non-imperial humans, but have some traces of imperial human ancestry. The king has a duty to perform a test on aristocratic bachelors between the ages of 22-30 at the time of his daughter’s coronation. Fortunately, I met the quota for imperial ancestry, so there I was, presented with the opportunity to marry Alessia.
At first, the idea of marrying a woman I’ve never met disgusted me, but after thinking about it, I realized this was a golden opportunity to do nothing for the rest of my life, and jumped at the chance. I put on the charm, and now here I am, set for life.
“It can’t get any better than this,” I remark, watching a bird land on the window ledge.
I think back to last night, recalling the way Alessia snapped at me and stormed off after I untied the back of her dress. I figured she wasn’t the type to believe in love at first sight, but I must admit, it stings a little to be rejected so hard on the first night. She was stone cold about the sleeping situation, too. She has her own bedroom, and I am not to go in there under any circumstances, even if her life is in danger. I am to sleep down here, in the corner, where she can easily avoid me.
Ouch. Daggers to the heart.
The way she looked back at me on the stairs was different from her demeanor the rest of the night. It was strangely warm, almost embarrassed, if I didn’t know any better. With her long, wavy black hair swept aside, I had a perfect view of her full, adorable face. My eyes flickered to those soft pink, petite lips, then the slight freckles on her face. Her arms are toned like mine, just smaller. Against the backdrop of her copper-mocha skin and dark facial features, her bright eyes stood out like sunflowers in a soybean field. Their stunning blue—compliments of imperial human blood—stunned me to my core. I felt as though they were silently analyzing me, challenging me, and begging me to come closer all at once.
Whatever her true intentions, she ran off and didn’t speak to me for the rest of the night other than to set expectations for sleeping arrangements. I barely glimpsed her this morning before she hurriedly left for breakfast.
So much for learning to love each other.The thought makes me snort.
It’s not like I want a real relationship with her, anyway. Relationships aren’t my style. Women are a lot of work, and I’m sure I’m even more of a piece of work for them. It’s better if we just leave each other alone. That way, she’ll never interrupt my peace and quiet, and she can go on doing as she pleases without my interference.
I pick up a book, noting the wear and tear on the spine and pages. Someone’s used this book a lot. Skimming over the title, I flip to the table of contents. My eyes land on an interesting section.
“Secrets of the Palace of Celestia,” I read aloud. I arch a brow. “Now, this seems interesting.”
I flip to the page where the chapter starts, then read through the sections, excitement bubbling up in my chest. Apparently, there’s a historic dungeon that’s been sealed below the castle, along with a haunted kitchen, both of which hail from a time centuries ago. They’re bound to be musty, unsavory rooms full of old knick-knacks and forgotten tools hanging all along their mossy stone walls. Additionally, the book speaks of an ancient add-on that’s supposedly been used for visits from the goddesses, a place built of pure marble, quartz, and glass, rumored to shine so brightly in the sunlight, a mortal would go blind trying to look upon the goddess. The book continues on to mention a burial chamber for the Founders, a highly decorated room filled to the brim with ancient treasures that magically shifts location each night.
Then, most intriguing of all, the book describes a secret garden full of rare, exotic, and blessed plants somewhere in a hidden courtyard.
“Oh, now I have to find that!”
Reading the rest of the descriptions as quickly as humanly possible, I take note of the clues of a seemingly dead-end hallway, silver-laced floors, and a surprisingly cold draft, like the breeze coming from the rings of Hell itself, meant to send away prying eyes. Snapping the book shut, I run out of the room, my heart pounding in my chest.
A secret garden sounds like the perfect place to disappear!
I laugh hysterically as I run. If anyone sees me right now, they’d probably think the prince has gone mad already, but I don’t care. I wish I could call my brothers to dinner and rub it in their faces that they’re stuck running errands for merchants while I’m laying in hammocks, soaking up the sun, and reading my days away.
That’s what you get for being bullies all your life!
It truly brings me satisfaction to know that after all this time, I’ve gotten the best of those five jerks. My older brothers never stopped teasing me for my “useless” intellect as compared to my insufficient strength, but I knew that one day, I would best the both of them. That day has finally come.
Who knew a little patience would bring such a great reward?
I hardly dare to even call them brothers at this point; my older brothers are dead to me, and I’ll even go as far as to say I have no siblings when others ask. I was happy to be the doormat of my family until I wasn’t. An arranged engagement to a woman who told me I wasn’t worth the air I breathe, a demanding mother, and a hypocritical father will do wonderful things for an attitude adjustment. My life of being the ever-faithful, hardworking, dutiful son was over the moment that woman laid a hand on me. The engagement and my presence as an Autumnspell both went up in smoke that same evening. I moved into the knights’ quarters and dedicated my life to training and horseback riding forever.
Or, at least, I’d thought I could dedicate myself to my passions forever. A compulsory genetic test later, I’m here, my knighthood replaced by the life of royalty. I can’t complain, really. I get to continue training as a knight—it is a requirement of all royal family members—and now, I can rest and recover in the lap of luxury, every book I could ever want to pass the time at my fingertips. This is luck at its finest.
I wander the many corridors of the castle, noting the layout as I go. This side, the west side of the palace, appears to be the living quarters for all the royal family members, the royal advisors, and the palace staff. It is at least three times the size of the east side of the castle, with long hallways, sprawling bedrooms, and numerous tower suites. The corridors feature ancient decorations of all kinds, with most of them being encased in magically reinforced glass called spellglass. I’m pretty sure the displays will curse me if I touch them, so I give them at least five feet of clearance when passing.
All the corridors of the palace are open to some sort of open-air courtyard. The courtyard nearest Alessia’s bedroom appears to be a Zen garden, but the one I’m passing now appears to be a cherry blossom grove. I see many wildflowers in the grass below, and there’s even a bubbling stream running through the space, probably recycled by a magic charm.
There really is magic all over this place.
Although the entire palace is made of marble, as I approach the center of the castle, more limestone appears between the marble. The cracked floors, which had been worn from years of weathering, are filled in with pure gold. Overhead, they attached light charms encapsulated with spellglass to the ceiling, ready to light the pathway when night falls. There are far less decorations here, and the pathways are wider, as the public regularly passes through the central columns of the palace to reach the central hall, where they lobby for new laws at the Protestation Stage before the queen.
Huh. The cracks are filled in with gold, but that book talked about a silver-laced path,I note, tapping the floor with the heel of my boot. Interesting. I think I know what I’m looking for.
I make it to the entryway of the palace, which is just a giant arch overtop of the steps that connect the mainland of the capital city to the palace. I stare at the people bustling below, taking in the view.
With my vantage point at around fifty feet above the city, I can see the high-rise modern brick apartment buildings straight ahead to the north; block after block of two-story, polished oak storefronts on the street leading to the palace; the rolling hills of the aristocrats’ neighborhood off to my left; and the enormous swath of townhomes off to my right, making up the entire east side of the city. The marble, brick, limestone, wood, and cobblestone constructions of the buildings give the city a vibrant mix of color when looking at it from afar.
“You never fail to impress, Celestia,” I murmur, a smile working its way across my face.
Then, I turn and walk further into the palace. It impresses me even more than the city, as it has every time I’ve walked these ancient, sacred halls.
The limestone bridge connecting the entryway to the banquet hall crosses over an enormous courtyard filled with well-maintained shrubs and statues from across the many centuries of Celestia’s existence. I follow the bridge, then take a left and pass by the hallway that would take me to the central hall. Since I had more than enough of that place yesterday, I pass by it hoping my presence isn’t required in that gilded, obnoxiously bright hall for many more months.
I continue walking into the east side of the palace, taking the stairs down to the first floor as I explore. Most of these rooms are storage rooms or sealed rooms, meaning they’re ancient and being preserved for historical purposes. There are more decorations in the halls than I can count. I continue onward, finding more convoluted hallways down here, the usual rectangular layout of the palace abandoned for diagonal and crisscrossing corridors. It gets darker the deeper I go into the palace, and the floor slopes downward until I’m certain I’m underground. The spellglass lights glow a faint yellow overhead.
“This can’t be right. I’m searching for a ground-level garden,” I mutter.
Just when I think I should turn around, in the dim lighting, I catch a strange glimmer out of the corner of my eye. My head snaps in the direction of the shine, only to discover that the gold of the floor has disappeared here, and silver is in its place.
No way. Down here?
I turn the corner, and sure enough, the silver of the floor leads onward, even deeper underground. Abandoning all logic, I pursue the silver-laced pathway, noting the ancient architecture around me. This must be the oldest part of the palace, judging by its many sealed doors and centuries-old painting styles on the walls. I shiver as the corridor gets even darker.
Wait—it’s not darker, it’s just colder. I shiver again as a small draft comes out of nowhere to freeze the surface of my skin. I draw my arms to my chest, suppressing the urge for my teeth to chatter.
“Must be getting close,” I mutter.
I continue walking, and walking, and walking for what seems like forever, then suddenly, I’m presented with the wall of a dead-end hallway. I stare at it, puzzled, wondering what to do next.
“The book said a dead-end hallway. I wonder….”
I reach out, attempting to touch the wall, only for my hand to pass through it. I gasp, suppressing a panicked yelp as my hand disappears on the other side of the illusion. Surprisingly, I feel a warm breeze beyond it, a breeze that can only be from an outdoor space.
“Well, I’ll be damned. You were right, book.”
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and bravely step through the illusion, subconsciously bracing for impact.
But the impact never comes.
When my eyes flicker open, my jaw drops to see a scene straight out of a fairy tale sprawled out before my eyes.
But before I can explore it, I freeze in my tracks.
Because another set of eyes is on me. Beautiful blue eyes. Ones that I recognize.
And they are not happy to see me.