Noblesse Oblige

The Noblisse Oblige

It will have blood they say. Blood will have blood.

It is the first time Emily truly understand what love is. And her fiance has nothing to do with it.

It is their final semester at the Nation's Royal Academy. Emily's birthday is early in the year, she is already seventeen by the time graduation draws close. Violet and Andre are still only sixteen. They are part of the senior class, the elite strata of teens poised at the very brink of graduation - and freedom. They are well-educated in both the hard sciences and the soft: versed in classic literature and philosopy and able to speak to either; capable of explaining the world through engineering and arithmetic. Even so, these seniors have little to offer but condescension to the younger students and apathy toward their few remaining lessons and eagerness for the grass that is far, far greener on the outside of the Academy's pristine fence than it is within.
However, as the senior class, there is still one last trial they must go through. The final exam for the entirety of the senior class is a closely-guarded secret. The pupils who had passed through before them maintain a fierce silence - it is rumored that this was because the exam changed every year to prevent word from spreading. So like anything that is enigmatic by nature, theories and rumors and legends begin to grow - from the day they first step foot within the Academy, the whispers compound exponentially until they are practically their own classroom subject by the time the exam is administered.

Emily doesn't care.

The whole thing is ridiculous and utterly boring, and besides, the single known fact about the exam is this: that it is designed to be intentionally easy, almost insultingly simple - just one last haze they must pass through before graduation. It is impossible to fail. Until it isn't.

Ten students at a time. They are pulled out of class at random, seemingly to stump those who might attempt to gossip or cheat - though Emily wonders, with what little interest she can summon about the matter, how one can cheat at a test that is impossible to fail - and sent out into the courtyard that stands in the center of the Academy.

Emily automatically clusters together with Andre and Violet; it is second nature by now and she does not even consider standing elsewhere. Together, all three friends turn expectant, impatient faces toward their instructor as she begins to explain what their exam is. ...

Fact: Dragons is their nations ancestors. And later on passed their crafts to humans. How it is passed on, cannot be decided with certainty, but many suspects the ability lies within the blood.

A conjecture: It is implausible though not imposible, for a citizen of their nation to never have- atleast one in each family- golden eyes in their ancestral line. Highly highly highly implausible but not impossible.

A theory, to be explained into law: However, if you are a true noble, it is impossible to not have golden eyes in your ancestral line.

The nobility is split into two factions: the blood nobility and the new nobility.

The blood nobility are the families that have kept the King's court and lived within the capital city for generations. As stated in the description - 'blood nobility' - they do not define a noble by title, but by bloodline. They are well-established and deeply entrenched in the politics and plots of the court, and guard their noble status jealously.

The new nobility - indeed, often called the 'ig-nobility' in a sneering tone by a blood noble - were those who worked or bribed or had otherwise wormed their way into the good graces of the King and thus had been awarded a title and all the privileges that came with it. What they did not receive was the loyalty and support of those whose families had been nobles for decades; indeed, the blood nobility saw these persons as trespassers whose presence was not even tolerable, let alone desired.

Fact: The Nation's Royal Academy only accepts the children of nobility. The rest will be titled fraud and will be thrown out of the Nation's walls.

So, if you were a student at the Academy, this test was simple. Easy. Too easy. Insultingly easy. For you had at least five generations of noble blood in your veins - and as such, you were a blood noble - and all this test consisted of was sacrificing three drops of blood and watching the fire dance for you and going on to graduation next week. Ridiculously easy, and impossible to fail.

Unless you could.

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily watches Andre as the instructor speaks. The girl's face is held still in intense concentration - and then quicker than she can take a breath, Emily sees the following: growing concern. Trepidation. Dawning horror.

Utter hopelessness.

Neither Violet nor Emily asked Andre about her hazel eyes. Andre had been Violet's friend for ages. She had gotten into the Academy. They are too young to know anything about forged birth-papers, or backroom deals.

The exam begins. There is a natural order to things in the Academy just as there is in the wild, and it goes like this: Violet is always first, royalty is always first. Emily, with her family one of the most powerful and prestigious in the Nation, goes next. Andre goes third - her father is a nobleman of middling status and no great conviction but the mere fact that she is favored by the king's daughter grants her precedence.

This is the way it has been since the first hour of their first day at school and this time is no exception. Their teacher gestures to a small pile of kindling on the ground and sets it ablaze. Three drops of blood, come the instructions. Then you may proceed to the other side of the courtyard and sit quietly until your classmates are finished.

"Don't worry, Andre." comes the reassurance from Violet - but all three know she speaks false.

First, Violet never offers encouragement. Second, if Violet ever does speak words of comfort, they are the thinnest of ice over the deep waters of her machinations. The inflection of her voice makes it perfectly clear - this is nothing less than a test.

"You can't possibly fail this."

She's right. It's easy. Too easy. Insultingly easy. Impossible to fail.

All three girls hang back as their wondering classmates proceed before them. The Princess knows - she knew as soon as Andre looked her in the face and made clear her despair. Emily knows, and she feels like vomiting - pleas, excuses, threats, her breakfast.

As the King's daughter, it is not only Violet's right - but her responsibility - to denounce Andre as a fraud and a liar. Lies are coin of the realm in the world of the nobles, but to deceive the crown is an entirely different - and often fatal - matter.

"A knife, Emily."

Emily's pupils flare, and black overwhelms the royal gold that marks her a blood noble.

"I said a knife, Emily."

Emily opens her mouth to protest, but Violet will have none of it. She knows her friends well enough and quicker than Emily can draw breath, Violet has shoved one of her hands up Emily's sleeves and pulled a blade free from where it rests against her forearm. No - but she cannot openly fight back here, not without drawing more attention to a scene that is already wobbling on the precipice of full-blown notice. She makes a desperate grab at Violet's arm but the princess flings her off, an ugly curl of Violet's lip appearing momentarily before she locks her eyes on Andre, the gold of her irises churning like lava and ten times as heated.

"If it must be done, I'm glad it's you." Andre said.

"Idiot" Violet said.

She grabs her friend's right hand with her left; she spreads Andre's fingers open, exposing her palm. Violet's right hand is elevated above Andre's, her fingers curled into a fist - Violet squeezes as if forcing the pulp from a fruit; a vein on her arm throbs.

Andre's name was called. Emily already knows that Andre's palm is stained scarlet with borrowed blood. Andre places her hand over the fire, palm-down, and holds her breath.

Blood: one, two, three - and the fire twists around Andre's wrist like a manacle, or perhaps like Violet's own fingers curling around that delicate circumference. The edges of the flame are blue.

Emily finally understood what love was.

A blood for a blood, a limb for a limb, an eye for an eye, a heart for a heart.

Friendship.