Queens, Servants, and War

Part One; Chapter One: Aquarius' POV

I stand in front of my mirror, looking at my body. Today is the day. I'm extremely nervous, even though it happens to everybody in Lyvier when they're 13. Here, since we're the richest state, we can have surgeries to make ourselves look more appealing. Once you turn 13, you get your first one, where they can change every bit of you, to make you beautiful. Most people come out looking completely different. I really don't want to go through this, but I have to. Anyways, I'm the heir to the throne, so Mother and Father expect me to be beautiful. A Queen has to look her best, they say, even though I don't believe it. I hear my little sister, Gemini, knocking on the door. "Quari?" she asks. That's what she calls me, since she couldn't pronounce my name until she was 6, and I guess it stuck. "Can I come in?". "Of course, ladybug." I say. I used to sing a song to her when she couldn't sleep, and it called her a little ladybug, so I call her that as a nickname now. She walks in, holding a teddy bear. "Good morning, little ladybug." I say, brushing the hair out of her eyes as she gets onto my bed. "Sweet dreams?". "I didn't have any." she responds. "Oh, well maybe tonight, my love." I say sweetly.

Just then Emily, our servant, knocks on my door shyly. She's afraid of everybody in this house, because they all treat her awfully. I try to be nice, but my parents tell me there's no need to be polite to 'scum like her'. I hate them for that. "Come in Emily." I say. She walks in, her small figure hunched over. "Y-your Highness..." she begins. "There's no need to call me that." I say. "We're equals.". I try to remind her she doesn't have to treat me like some kind of God, but she knows if she doesn't while my parents are around she could be seriously hurt. Probably starved, and if that happened she'd die. "Y-yes. Sorry..." she says. "Well, your mother wishes you downstairs.". That's when I notice how pale she is, and how she looks like she's going to pass out. She has a rare illness called Fire Beetle disease which causes her extreme pain and she catches bugs easier. "Oh Emily, you're sick. Really sick. We need to get you to a doctor now.". I say. "No. No, I'm... I'm f-fine." she says. She wobbles. "Emily, no. I'm taking you to the doctor." I say. She could easily die from any illness, even a simple common cold. "I'm okay, I promise.". "Now please, come. The Queen's expecting you." she says, We're on our way down the stairs when she loses control and falls. She has no extra body weight to protect her, she probably broke a bone or two. "Emily!" I call. I hear her sniff. She's gotten up before I reach the bottom of the stairs, but she's putting no weight on her left leg.

"Are you alright?" I ask. "Oh yes... I'm fine." she mumbles. "Aquarius, don't be nice to the street scum. She's vile and worthless and I demand that you stop talking to her. And as for you, miss Emily, it took you ages to get my princess. One more mess up and you'll be punished again. Far more severely than the last time." My mother says. No, I don't want her to hurt Emily again. The last time she was locked up for three days without food or water. She almost died. I think that my mother is the vile one. Avendor needs a kind leader, one who treats all as equals, not a ruthless queen who takes pleasure in causing misery. I can't say anything though. That's when I hear a sniffle coming from the top of the stairs. It's Gemini. I had no idea she was even there. She has no idea how cruel Mother is, because she never is in front of Gemini. "Oh, my little Ladybug. You're okay. Mother didn't mean what she said." I say as I climb the stairs and wrap her up in my arms. "R-really?" Gemini sniffs. "Positively." I say. Emily scurries off to another one of her jobs and Gemini wanders off. My mother looks at me. "It's a big day for you." she says. "Yeah, it's the day that the government is going to mutilate my body to look 'perfect'. How fun." I say. "No, you're going to be made beautiful. That way, you will look fit to run this kingdom when the time comes. And also, you'll be more likely to produce an heir." she says. Oh yeah, we're also supposed to look prettier so people will want to marry us. I never want to get married, or have children, or even be with somebody. I just don't feel that attraction. "Wow. How exciting." I say sarcastically. "Oh, speaking of that, it's time to get in the car. Out, now! We have to go!" she says. My stomach turns and I feel as if I'm going to be sick. I hate this idea. I think I'm beautiful already. But I climb into the car anyways.

We drive smoothly across the flat terrain. We live on an island. Apparently there used to be beautiful trees and crystal clear water all around, but now it's just concrete and a murky green body of water. We reach the gigantic building where I'll be transformed. I'll spend the next few days here recovering from having chunks of plastic shoved underneath my skin. I look at my frizzy brown hair for the last time and feel my scrawny arms. Goodbye, me. Mother has already picked my looks out from a catalog. I will have silky straight dark blonde hair, brown eyes, pale, flawless skin, and a perfect hourglass figure. I take a deep breath and step out of the car. Mother gets out of the other side, and we walk towards the ugly building. I take a deep breath before I walk through the glass doors. When I'm inside, I look around. It smells like bleach and is all perfectly white. I dart my eyes around. All of a sudden everything is swaying and I can't breathe. My hands are sweating like crazy. My stomach is doing frontflips. "Are you alright Aquarius?" my Mother asks. "Oh, she's just nervous. Big day!" the woman at the front desk butts in. "Is that it, hon?" Mother asks. I nod. "Aquarius Jameson. We've been waiting all day." the woman says. Her dark brown skin is without a single blemish, and her curly brown hair bounces with every movement of her head. Her deep brown eyes are smiling. Not in a fake way. She's genuinely happy. I love seeing other people happy. It makes me feel all warm inside. "You're in room 5A." she says. Mother and I stride down the hallway looking at each door. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B. Finally we reach 5A. It has a clean white door, like the rest of the rooms. I push the heavy door open and inside there is a white hospital bed with white sheets, a metal table with a drawer, a sink with a bottle of antiseptic beside it, and fluorescent lights. It looks identical to the hospital room I was in when I was four and broke my arm. I was jumping around my room, pretending I was in battle, when my legs got caught in my sheets and I fell off my bed. I cried for 20 minutes until I was given medicine that completely numbed my whole arm at the hospital. I was in a plaster cast for three weeks. I shuffle over to the bed and perch on the edge of it. My mother leans against the wall. Finally, after about ten minutes of the awkward silence, a doctor walks in. He is handsome, like everybody else in the state. "Hello, your Highness. How're you feeling about the big day?" He asks me. I hate people calling me that. "Oh, um... I'm slightly nervous but excited." I respond. That was a huge lie. I'm dreading this. "Well, don't worry. You're going to be in great hands." he says with a charming smile. He then begins to explain the procedure to my Mother and I, but I'm not listening. I'm more focused on something else. I see a small scar, right above his eyebrow. I then look at my Mother, and she has one too. Now that I think about it, everybody over the age of 13 has one. Everybody who's had the surgery. I shake the idea out of my head. Nothing's going on. It must just me an implant they put in. "Are you okay with all of that your Highness?" the doctor asks. I didn't hear a word he said, but I just go along. "Oh, uh, yes. Perfectly fine." I say a bit too fast. "Then let's get started!" he says far too cheerfully. "But, your Highness, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room." he says to my Mother. "Of course." she says and scurries out. He pulls a needle out from a drawer in the table and cleans it with the antiseptic. He then fills it with a purple liquid and injects it into my arm. "Now your Highness, this is going to make you fall asleep. Please cl-" he says. But I never find out what he wanted me to do, because I'm already gone.

***

I wake up three days later. I'm not supposed to be awake for two more days, but I apparently had an extremely speedy recovery time. "You look absolutely beautiful." my Mother says. "Go to the bathroom and look in the mirror." I try to get out of bed but I fall to the floor as soon as I put weight on my legs. I'm going to have trouble walking for a bit, so I get in a wheelchair and my Mother pushes me. We open the door to the bathroom at the end of the hallway, and she helps me stand up to look in the full length mirror. I have the exact description she chose. I'm not me. I'm... I'm beautiful.

And I hate it. I hate it with every ounce of my being.