9. Alessia
It’s time to make my big first move as queen of Celestia.
I’m going to talk to my sister.
“Um…Alessia?”
“Yes?”
“Why did I not know you had a sister?”
I frown, glancing at Aurelio over my shoulder as I walk. “Did you seriously pay that little attention in school? Every royal family must send off their second born to the Holy Church to be trained as the Hero of Celestia. Daelia has been training to defend the nation and uphold our religious values since the day she was born.”
Aurelio chuckles nervously, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t pay attention to anything in school, actually. The political system is self-explanatory, but I’m missing the finer details.”
I roll my eyes. That sounds in character for him, as far as I can tell. I grab his hand and pull him under a tavern’s gazebo, where a few people are eating an early lunch at one of the many round tables. I choose a seat by the exit and signal for Aurelio to join.
It’s only ten in the morning, but the city streets of Celestia are jam-packed with people. Here on the main street, which leads directly up to the steps of the palace, merchants are hard at work selling their wares, the smell of fresh-baked bread fills the air, and trickles of music intertwine with the clamber of footsteps, conversations, hoofbeats, and clattering utensils. There must be a few live musicians playing in the nearby taverns this morning.
The main street is one of the oldest parts of Celestia, so it makes sense everything is constructed out of polished oak, the original building materials of Celestia. We carved our nation’s capital out of the Wendigo forest where it meets the rolling hills and grassy meadows of our farmlands; all that wood was put to good use constructing our nation. The two-story buildings are pretty much the same throughout this first block: tile roofing, wood plank flooring, magically reinforced exteriors, and plenty of flower boxes outside the windows. The second floor of every shop is the shopkeeper’s apartment. I see the daughter of a well-known baker running around with her older sister just across the street, her laughter floating through the open window and making its way to me.
The sound tugs on my heartstrings. I wish my sister and I had moments like that growing up.
“Alessia, why are we here?” Aurelio asks.
“Let me explain this to you, since you’re sorely lacking important information,” I sigh impatiently. “My twin sister, Daelia, was born after me, making her the second born of the family. The firstborn is trained as a queen, but according to the deal struck between the church and the royal family while establishing Celestia, the second born must be raised as a loyal religious servant of the Church. Over time, that religious service came to be the defender of the Church, and by extension, all of Celestia.”
“So…you didn’t grow up together?”
“No. Instead, we got birthday and holiday visits, and that was it. Daelia was busy training to be a hero, and I was busy training to be a queen. Our paths diverged in the most opposite of ways.”
My chest tightens, but I force a deep breath through my lungs and ignore it. Instead of looking at Aurelio, I stare at the group of men drinking firewhiskey across from us. They’re clearly adventurers, judging by their dirty cloaks, well-maintained weaponry, and athletic physiques.
“Drinking this early in the morning? I wish that was me,” I grumble.
“Do all adventurers turn into drunks, or is that just the adventurers I’ve met?” Aurelio asks.
“If you killed monsters for a living, you’d be a drunk, too. But to answer your question, no, most of them just drink while they’re in town. The Adventurer’s Guild pays for three drinks per person if they come back with a completed A-ranked quest or higher.”
“Lucky. I wanted to be an adventurer,” Aurelio mutters, slumping into his seat.
“Get over yourself. You’re the future king. That’s a much better job.”
“Not even close. This is boring. Going on quests sounds fun.”
I deadpan as I watch him pretend to pout, sticking out his bottom lip in the most pitiful way possible. I hate how adorable it makes him look. He’s making it hard to concentrate.
“Shut up and pay attention. I’m giving you a crash course on the country you’ve agreed to be the literal monarch of,” I growl.
Aurelio begrudgingly sits up. “Fine. Please continue.”
“Anyway, the Adventurer’s Guild kind of runs the show around here. Without them, merchants wouldn’t survive, so they trump the Merchant’s Guild when it comes to making new policies, maintaining laws, presenting quests, or answering the public’s requests. That’s not to say that the Merchant’s Guild doesn’t hold considerable power over the economy; they do set the fair prices of goods, hold shopkeepers to certain standards, and enforce regulations on employee treatment and pay. Almost everyone in the city works for a merchant or a trade company if they’re not employed in construction or mining.”
“The aristocrats are the exception, I’m assuming,” Aurelio says.
“Not just the aristocrats. The scholars, scientists, engineers, and teachers all belong to the same Guild you do: the Inventor’s Guild. Their information, production processes, and knowledge seeking change the way the other two guilds operate. All three hold each other accountable.”
“Ah. So it’s the same way the Church and the royal family hold each other accountable.”
“Exactly. That’s part of why the second born is sent away to the Church in the first place. In the event that I or Daelia would gain too much power, whether it be winning the hearts of the people or taking military power too far, we hold each other accountable. We stand on equal footing.”
“Okay. That makes sense. But…why are we going to talk to your sister, exactly?”
“I can’t do anything further to establish myself as queen in my own nation. The meet-and-greets and paperwork will run their course in due time. While I wait for them, it’s imperative that I meet with the leaders of our allied nations, or at least visit cities within their borders.”
“And to do that, you need an official escort,” Aurelio gathers, his face lighting up. “You’re going to ask your sister to escort you to the other nations, aren’t you?”
“I am. I haven’t seen her in months. I’m sure she’d be happy to have an excuse to see me,” I say.
“How do you know she won’t be busy?”
“I sent Mina to visit the Church yesterday. Daelia returned exactly two days ago from a light missionary escort duty. It was uneventful.”
Aurelio grimaces. “That poor girl. Her life must be boring as hells.”
“So was mine until you showed up and set it on fire. Now it’s too not-boring for my liking,” I sigh.
Before he can respond, I stand up, leading the way out of the tavern. With my cloak drawn over my face, I don’t get any second glances from the commoners we pass by. Aurelio instinctively loops his arm through mine when we reach an extra-crowded portion of the main street, which earns him a glare. I’m already struggling as it is to keep my cool with the prospect of meeting my sister. I don’t need him scattering my thoughts by touching me when it’s completely unnecessary. Even the slightest brush of his arm is sending my heart into pandemonium.
These feelings are highly unbefitting of a queen,I scold myself. Knock it off. You’re acting like a schoolgirl.
Further along the main street, the oak storefronts fade away, replaced by limestone and brick event centers, office buildings, and eventually, the Guilds themselves, which take up an entire block between the three of them. They begin the marble-limestone construction era, with the rest of the main street beyond them glittering bright white in the sunlight. I spot many adventurers wandering about, a few professors chatting together, and a group of merchants huddled by the front door of their Guild, casting furtive glances over their shoulders every so often. It’s an odd collection of some of the most standout personalities in the country, but it represents Celestia’s eclectic people like no other city block can. My people are as diverse as they are interesting. They make ruling them a rather challenging, but rewarding, lifelong effort.
At long last, I see the Holy Church of Celestia up ahead. The main street forks off into northeast and northwest diagonals at the front entrance to the building. Towering many, many stories above the rest of the city, the Holy Church is the only building allowed to be taller than the palace. Its ancient limestone construction mingles with marble the further up I look, each century’s worth of construction visible for onlookers to admire.
The Holy Church is a series of four rectangular wings conjoined by a series of towers between them. The wings of the Church point exactly in each cardinal direction. The spires of the towers end with a stone carving of one of our most ancient gods, including Atena, Zealeus, Persofina, Hira, Hodenes, and Aires. Their stone carvings have weathered over time, but meticulous care by the mages has kept them from deteriorating further. The roof is the same tiling found everywhere else in the kingdom, but the windows are different, as they are all made of spellglass and contain defensive magic in the event of a natural disaster or an attack.
I walk up to the front doors of the Church, craning my head back to look at the spire ten stories above my head. Even the doors dwarf me, being twenty-foot polished birch doors, a wood that comes from a faraway land. Two knights, dressed in perfectly polished decorative metal armor, greet me at the bottom of the steps leading up to the Church doors. The female knight addresses me first.
“Greetings, Queen Alessia,” she says, kneeling before me. “We have prepared for your arrival. Daelia is waiting with the Holy Mother inside the Prayer Hall.”
She gets up, following her companion to the front doors, where they whisper prayers to their goddesses and use magic to open the doors. Seriously, why do they keep these heavy doors around if they’re only able to be opened by magic? I’ve always wondered that, especially since we have the technology to make wood ten times lighter, but just as strong. The palace doors have all been replaced with the newly manufactured wood.
“That’s a different type of magic than yours, right?” Aurelio whispers, nudging my side.
“You’re talking about the magic they used to open the doors? Yes, that’s divine magic. It comes in the form of a blessing from one of our gods, usually a goddess. They have to say a certain prayer out loud to use specific spells. It’s a lot easier to use than my ancient magic, but far less effective.”
“I can see that. You barely bat an eye using their magic, and they have to summon all their energy and focus just to open doors,” Aurelio says, snorting. “That would be pretty unfortunate if someone with divine magic ever faces you.”
“Their goddesses’ protections can only take them so far. My power is only limited by my mind.”
“Now I’m intrigued. You’ll have to tell me more later.”
Aurelio loops his arm through mine again before I can stop him. Feeling the giddiness bubble up in my chest unbidden, I stare straight ahead, trying to focus on anything but the electrifying touch of Aurelio’s skin on mine.
The inside of the entrance hall is the same as I remember: a collection of ancient tablets, old statues, and public prayer books, containing all the stories of our gods and our religious history between their pages. A few commoners roam the hall, but mostly, all I see are mages, their traditional white robes fluttering in their wakes.
When the knights take us into the central hall, where the main staircase spirals all the way to the very top of the building, I spot even more mages on the staircases. Is it just me, or are there suddenly a lot more mages than I remember? It is the graduation season of all the commoners in public schools, so it makes sense that there would be an influx of graduated students into the ranks of the mage society, but these numbers are unheard of. Young men and women appear wherever I look.
The Holy Mother must have upped recruiting efforts after the recent population boom,I note to myself. Daelia came along during the largest generation Celestia has ever seen. It increased the capital’s population by double.
As if my thoughts summoned her, the moment we step into the northern wing of the church, a familiar face appears before me. Although that shining armor, pure white undershirt, and those travel boots are completely different from my dress, her blue eyes and dark, wavy hair are a mirror image of my own.
“Daelia!”
The excited shriek escapes my lips before I can stop it, and I take off running toward her. She opens her arms to me, and I crash right into her, nearly bowling her over in the process. She holds me up, laughing good-naturedly as she pats my head with her hand.
“I missed you too, Alessia. How was the coronation?”
“Boring, exactly as I predicted.” I stand back, squeezing her hands as I search her face. “What about you? How was your recent trip?”
“Boring, exactly as I predicted.”
We both laugh, our voices echoing off the stone flooring and the ceiling far above. I hug her again, then leave my arm around her shoulders as I turn to present Aurelio to her, unbidden excitement hurrying my words.
Is this how everyone feels when they present their significant other to the family?I wonder.
“Daelia, I’d like you to meet Aurelio Moonbreaker, the future king of Celestia.”