Galaxies for the Guilty: The tears of our Queen

Chapter 3: One last exam

Amaris sits in front of her desk, just staring at the blank monitor of her ITC. A device at the peak of the FREE's technology, interconnected with the universal internet, its less real hardware, but more of a name for virtual profiles that link each and everyone in the system of the FREE to the internet. Naturally, it comes in many forms, from PCs to watches to glasses. All things with the right chip integrated can be called an ITC.

It has been a long night, and Amaris's eyes are falling shut every few seconds. It all started with learning for her final exam which takes place tomorrow, but she got distracted two hours in and as always got soaked into the fictional worlds of some drama series.

STOP

Nervously, Ira takes a look around her. There is a terrifying iron door in front of her with a brown-golden inscription "final exam". Behind her are 8 out of her 9 siblings, all waiting anxiously in line behind her. "We all studied for years for this exam, our last exam before we can finally be adults. I can do this!" Ira repeats to herself. She turns around again, taking a deep look at every familiar face, slowly becoming paler. "I hope Amaris learned last week, haven't seen her at all in the last 10 days."

After four hours of waiting, the door finally opens. Ira and her siblings, being drowned in boredom, were not able to leave. Each of them could be the next one after all, and not a single one of them learned for their last 15 years to miss this exam.

The iron door gets pushed open, one tanned hand grabbing tightly onto the adjacent wall. Ira takes a good look at the hand: chewed nails, some tiny scars, and of course no rings. "Amaris, how did it go!" Ira screams, fueled by excitement and fear equally.

"I haven't learned at all." the rather deep voice of Amaris shimmers through the open door. She then takes a few big steps forward and stands in front of Ira with a big smile on her face "But I think I've done my best." She taps on Ira's head.

Ira then plunges onto Amaris's breast, hugging her sister tightly. "Amaris?"

"Yeah, I know how important this was." she mimics Ira's high voice jokingly. "Just promise me you finish this with zero mistakes, like you always do."

A tear drops down Ira's cheeks. "I promise, big sis!"

The voice of their father then speaks. "Next one!" Cold-like always, it echoes through the waiting room like an anti-emotional hurricane taking everything in its path.

"As always there is nobody else wanting to go, except me?" Nohej's bright grin isn't just mocking his siblings, it's a sign of disrespect. How he doesn't even acknowledge them as a threat at all. "I'm going to ace this test and become king only a few years later."

He knows as well! 

"What's up brother?" Gabriele asks. She isn't the only one confused by her brother's last words, but she is the only one to speak.

"Gabriele I'm being honest to you." Nohej stares into her yellow eyes which have been genetically modified before her birth. "I like you the most so you deserve to know!"

Shattering breaks out as he is speaking. 

"Don't forget how we were raised."

"Right!"

A giggling voice almost screams through the room. "You love her, we know that!"

"Disgusting, I will have to tell father about this!"

There are so many voices from the crowd Amaris has a hard time recognizing the voices at all. Recognizing faces was quite difficult for her in the past, but things have changed and she passed that, but recognizing voices. Both works fine, but as soon as the stress adds up, she can't concentrate.

"My head!" she whispers, but nobody listens. "Can you stop?" Still, nobody listens. She would scream, but it would make things only worse.

"Oh no, don't go!" Nohej grabs the cloth of Amaris's right arm. "We want to hear how hard you failed, I'm sure you did your best, how much did you even try ?" Nohej takes a look into the crowd. "Brothers and sisters I will do anything in my power to get this trouble maker away from the bloodline!"

She takes one look down to his face just to see the expression. He's a bit smaller than her, has the same tan as her, even the same polished nose. This fraction of a second seeing his self-loving smile is enough for her to know exactly what's going on.

"Let me go!" Amaris tries to shake his hand off. "I don't even care if I'm the next Queen, just let me be!"

"Luckily, just imagine that someone like you would even dare to think to have the slightest chance to rule." Nohej points at his wrist. "You see without any Kenton's there is no possibility for you to even qualify." A Kentoon is a traditional form of public recognition in Eitin. It resembles a form of tattoo, but is imprinted onto the skin of any Eitin worthy of it. A Kentoon is only recognizable if it is made with a fine tuned laser, a painful process altering the skin on the quantum level. 

Often Kenton's are stitched only in parts, and should resemble a whole picture in the end. Soldiers have to work their life to get a full Kenton, and depending on the rank some have more than others.

"Give me six years, till I have finished it!" 

"You are really full of shit, aren't you!" Amaris looks at his Kenton again. Its the royal Kenton, we all have parts of it, but he has probably the strongest. She takes a look at her own hand marked by only 4 lines.

Amaris stands still, she knows exactly what Nohej is going to say.

His words won't be repetitive.

They will only strengthen what he is.

"As soon as I'm finished, I'll be the sole king of Eitin!"

The crowd is silent. "I thought we rule as one big royal family?" Is the only thing every single one of them can thin about.

"I know the news are a bit shocking." Nohej smiles, but its not this arrogant smile this time. Its a more sincere, even a heart warming smile. "I will rule this planet for you, for all of us, the brave soldiers, the working class, and of course us!"

A different voice, a deep manly voice echoes through the hall repeating only a few distant words. 

"The bloodline must rule Eitin!"