The AFTER Trials #wattys2016

Prologue

Lucia Fay walked the halls of her home, stopping before the portrait of her mother in law. Delevine Fay had been a cold and ruthless queen. Lucia shuddered. Delevine was still around the palace, scrutinizing Lucia's leadership silently from the East Drawing Room all hours of the day.

"Your majesty?" A girl of about sixteen now stood beside Lucia. The wild head of flaming red hair was enough for Lucia to guess the girl's identification.

"Roselle Grimm?" Lucia asked, smiling.

"Yes, your majesty. If you would kindly follow me to the Court Room." The girl, Roselle, had a way about her that was extremely familiar to Lucia. She was much like Delevine, Lucia realized. Silently condescending towards everyone she met. She felt the girl judging her as she walked to the Court Room.

As they entered the big round room, Lucia's attention was caught by the six women sitting around a round table. One chair remained; it was hers. She walked to it, and sat, completely poised and composed.

"Good afternoon, ladies." She said politely. She hated these meetings; they bored her immensely, but she was grateful for the distraction from her mother in law, and her children. "First order of business today is--"

"Pardon me, Lucia." Tessa Celesta interrupted. Being the youngest queen, she usually had to speak last, but she was taking initiative today. "But, I have some imperative news for the Court."

"Proceed." Lucia said, slightly irritated by her fellow queen. Tessa smiled and cleared her throat.

"For the past few years, I have been getting special students at Cadence University to work on a very important, very secret project. I call it the AFTER trials. It includes a Portal to another world, where we can send dead souls into to live as we do. We may visit them, but they cannot leave."

"Incredible!" Lilith Grimm exclaimed. Tessa stood up taller, gaining confidence.

"How?" Marianne Willen inquired.

"Well, we have created a sort of humanoid robot that can extract a soul from it's dead body, but only within a week of their death. Anyways, it can carry the soul through the Portal." Marianne Willen's body drooped, just a little bit at that bit of information.

"So, you've created a new dimension?" Lara Xiu asked, completely entranced.

"Yes and no. We have created a way to access a dimension that existed long before we made the Portal." Tessa answered proudly.

"Tessa, cut to the chase. You obviously need something, otherwise you would not be telling us of this 'super secret' project today." Lucia cut in. She had to get this situation under control.

"I'm getting there. So, in order for the trials to begin, we need trial subjects. I would like to ask for one child from each of your families." The room exploded in a wave of shouting and accusations.

"What is the meaning of this?" Genevieve Garrett screamed, her black hair flying from its neat bun.

"I've only got Elijah!!" Harriette Marin cried, sobbing violently.

"Everyone stop!!" Lucia screamed over everyone else. They all stopped. "Sit down." She ordered. Everyone obeyed. "We should put it to a vote. All in favour of abandoning Tessa's idea right now." Hariette put her hand up, as did Lara. No one else did. Tessa smiled wickedly to herself. "All in favour of further discussing this." The remaining five, Tessa, Lucia, Lilith, Marianne and Genevieve, raised their hands. "Then it is decided." Lucia said. The seven women eyed each other. All of them wondering what the outcome of this particular meeting would be. For once, Lucia was in no way bored.