The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 4

 "What do you mean?" I asked angrily, "My mother was kind, caring, but I can assure you she was not lier." I spit the words out angrily before I could stop myself.

"You said you don't know anything about her," The princess replied, turning to look at me in this strange all-knowing way that made me want to back away and run. "Your grandparents did not die in a car crash, your aunt didn't die from cancer, your father didn't die from a heart attack." She said, a confident sternness in her voice. "Your name is not Elizabeth Greenwood, nor is your mother's Mabel Greenwood, and in fact, there is no such thing as the Greenwood family at all." I was beyond enraged, but I seemed paralyzed in my seat, unable to stand or scream or say a word.

My grandparents in a car crash and my aunt of cancer. My father was killed by a sudden heart attack.

"I know your mother wanted to protect you but she could have at least told you your real name," The princess said, turning away and talking quietly, mostly to herself. "Well, you'll have to know it one way or another, so I shall tell you." She turned towards me and staked forward, her long black loose curls seemed to spread out from her head and her eyes glowed as she approached. I felt the urge to pull back, but fought it. "You are the daughter of the Rosetta Clementia, daughter of the royal Clementai family line. You are the forsaken child of her own selfish desires. The lost relic of your mother's dreadful mistakes. You are Eleutheria Clementia, the disinherited child of that family who lives on it's knees." Her voice was soft and smooth, mocking my confusion in a glittery dance, and I could see her anger in her speech, and it seemed to deprive me entirly from mine, replacing it with a deep fear I felt I had not know for a long time, yet had know before, although I knew not from where I knew it.

"But," I stammer out.

"You wear the engagement ring my mother gave Rosetta, embellished with your family's crest. In your belongings there is your wretched father's golden pocket watch, each day you drink poison as your ancestors have done for eternity, and your eyes pour out their blue hue just as your mother's did so long ago." She seemed to calm a littler after this, and I felt an urge to bury my face in my hands. I wanted so badly to say that my mother never lied, that I only didn't know about her because she was busy at work, or something else normal or human like that, but I could deny nothing. My mother had never had a standard job, because she left the house very rarely, always hidden under a veil or cloak, and often dressed as a man. She had always looked sorrowful and regretful, and when outside, skittish. She had never told me anything of any one, and seemed always to be holding her tongue. I could deny nothing.

"Poison?" I asked suddenly, recalling her words.

"ricin, brucine, arsenic," The twins said in unison, "They are all deadly poisons, and at how much you drank, you would have been stark dead seconds after consuming it." I looked around in shock.

"Then I," I stammered out, "Am I human?" At this is seemed everyone laughed.

"No," The Princess replied, "You are a rauzire just like your mother was, your whole family is." I looked around and saw the world almost like a new place. I wasn't human. I was a creature, one of those forsaken creatures I had always shuttered to read about, was me. I felt it all too much to take in, and stared at those around me, I felt like fainting. My mother had lied, and beyond that, she had done something, something that warranted all of this.

"But why," I asked, but the words faded away before they reached my lips, coming out as half muted shapes, void of all conviction.

"Your mother was not a bad person," The Princess replied, "But I am obliged to hate her. She betrayed my mother in favor of a wretched man of no class, and killed to get her and her child out of it.You are the daughter of a runaway, and she did all she did to protect you, and atone for her sins, and for that she is a good person." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and for comfort's sake, I drew back the cap of the brucine bottle and chugged down the remainder, forgetting for a moment I had just been told it was poison. But it was poison, and because I was still alive, I was a rauzire, and because I was a rauzire, I was not human, and because I was not human, my mother had lied. I felt tears gather in my eyes and rush down my cheeks.