Rebel Lies

Chapter 5; First night

The courtyard looked like a landscape from a fairytale...a scene from a forgotten dream. The grass was greener than anything I'd ever seen, with cherry blossom trees seeming to blend in seamlessly. There were bushes of pink roses expertly scattered throughout, and none of this seemed to affect the perfectly clean stone pathway. However, none of this compared to the marble fountain in the center of it all. It was a majestic seven-foot tall four-tier structure with the national Amalian flower, an orchid, growing on the topmost tier with white water lilies scattered on the surface of the water in the other 3 tiers.

I always found it ironic that the orchid was chosen as the emblem for Amal, it somehow perfectly represented the royal family: seemingly angelic and beautiful on the outside but with deceptive ulterior motives. The orchid deceived bees by taking on the shape of the females giving them absolutely no nectar just like the Royals take on the court representatives from the lottery then no one ever hearing about them again. Even the courtyard was deceptive, no garden could ever look so perfect without massive pruning and effort, it felt unnatural to see it in real life.

"There you two are! " Rarity said appearing out of seemingly nowhere, " come on, hurry up, everyone is waiting to see our new lady of the court!"

As we followed her, I couldn't think about anything except how confusing everything had been so far. The chauffeur had told me that Rarity would be mean, even I expected her to be cruel to me, but so far all I've seen from her was kindness except when her son was around. I expected the princess to be snobby, but she seemed so pure, I almost felt sorry for her. Sebastian seemed to be the truest to form so far. I didn't know what to make of it, it all seemed so genuine...

" Royals are masters of acting! Never believe anything they do, they always have ulterior motives. No matter how nice they seem, you must remember that it is all an act to get the people on their side! People aren't that stupid so the Royal have become masters in deception, but you my darling, you are smarter than them, aren't you?" I knew I shouldn't have even questioned her, but I couldn't help it I was still only 7.

I MUST remember that it is all an act, I can't let Diane or Ophelia down: I am going to find out what happened to them. Once we arrived at the raised balcony that shot off from behind the main floor entrance, You could see the great dark cherry double doors through the open ivory ones. Somehow, the fancy marble brown and ivory floor design in the middle of the entry matched with the heavy ivory curtains that led to the balcony. All of this was made with money they collected from US, from taxpayers, from workers. I held on to that bout of motivation since I was gonna need it to power through the lavishly decorated event filled with expensively-dressed royals and businessmen. As Rarity stood beside her rarely-seen husband, she motioned for me to sit beside her as her children took their usual spots behind them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Dear citizens, " Mires announced, " as your king, I am proud to be here today to announce the 16th royal lottery court addition, Ms.Athena Devon!" the crowd applauded and cheered, but that bit of effort that he'd exerted in saying those two lines caused Mires to cough, which elicited subtle concerned looks from Rarity and her son.

Mires waved the applause down and went on, " Just like before, Ms. Devon still has to earn her title in court, so she will be beginning her training very soon and as usual," he paused and I could see his chest aggressively rising as he stifled the coughs and motioned for me to go kneel in front of him. As the guard that was standing in the corner handed him a sword, he continued, " Ms. Athena Devon, do you swear to me your loyalty and absolute honesty?"

"Yes, Your Majesty"

" And do you swear to work hard in your training to serve our country and its citizens?"