For My Sister

Chapter 8

We had a semi-restful night. It was nice to sleep in a real bed after a night of sleeping on ice. However, I kept waking up from nightmares about killing Bhavani and then her appearance to me later. I did not want to be caught off-guard if her ghost actually meant everything that she said. It was a comfort to at least know that Jolene was also nervous for the morrow. We would be seeking out our parents at long last and that was a very scary thing. We knew they wanted us but how do you approach somebody and say, "Hey, we're your kids that you gave up to protect. We killed the witch, but not really, and now we're back. Ta-da!" Really? Would either my mother or father or any person in general take kindly to that?

The jitters increased the following day. We barely ate any breakfast and I called Jolene out on hogging the mirror.

"I just want to look nice for when we meet our parents." She said before giving me a look and continuing with: "Besides, I'm not the one that didn't button my buttons straight this morning."

I looked down at my cloak and was horrified to find that it was indeed buttoned very badly and definitely not straight. "Does my nervousness show that much?" I asked my sister carefully re-buttoning the cloak correctly.

"Oh, yes." Jolene said smiling as she tied a dark blue ribbon into her hair. "And did you know that you put salt on your toast this morning?"

"I did what?"

"Apparently not. So are we going straight to the castle?"

"Actually, Jo, I'd prefer to go to the Regency Chamber first. I have no idea if they just let visitors in at the Ice Palace but I'm pretty sure we can get into the chamber without spending too much money. Once we're inside, maybe we can sneak past security and find Mother's office. If we are with Mother, they would most certainly let us in at the Ice Palace. I did see a greenhouse down the way and would like to get Mother some flowers as well."

"Aw, that's sweet. You never got ME any flowers."

"You're my sister, that's different. I'm not supposed to get you flowers. If you're finished doing what you're doing, I would like to be on our way. And we speak of salted toast to no one on pain of a bloody nose."

"Null and void. You can't hit girls."

We stopped at the flower shop and picked out a small bouquet of snowy violets, forget-me-nots, and white irises before hitching a ride from someone to the Regency Chamber. The rather plain building itself was kind of square-ish with towers of ice at each of its corners. The only thing impressive about it was its size. To sit in on the grand meeting did only cost us a small sum. I had no idea how many shapes, sizes and colors people really came in. There were some humans among the regents and lords but there were also men who seemed to have bull's horns and creatures that looked like they were a mix of octopus, human, and scaley green snakes. There were creatures who looked like their hair was on fire but you could tell that there was no danger of being burnt by it. When Jolene and I entered the room and sat down there seemed to be some sort of argument happening. We didn't follow most of it for a whole five minutes until a human woman strode to the middle of the floor. She looked young, late twenties maybe, and wore snowy violets in her hair and wore a sky blue dress with silver trim. I had no idea who she was, but she looked oddly familiar and very beautiful.

"Fellow Regents!" She called out in a strong voice. "Let us put this in perspective for a few minutes. The system is already in danger as is. Do we go a step further and worsen the situation by pushing this on the people of Lieydan's Republic? Remember, we only keep the republic flowing smoothly. It is the people who ultimately run this world!"