Queendom at Dusk

Chapter Three: Leerie

Leerie stays in the interrogation room for a bit after the young girl leaves. This engulfing silence and the dim light cast by the bulb help her focus, as the situation is difficult. She doesn't know what to make of such nonsense: Gemma cannot be pregnant, it's simply impossible. Leerie recites the words of the Ancient Pact in her head: "Ten girls shall receive Hera's blessing when their Matriarch falls on the Summer Solstice." Not before. And Donja didn't even die, Gods be good. But the girl has ruined the chances of nine others by saving her Matriarch. How can she be blessed with pregnancy?

The Holy Book of Gods surfaces in Leerie's mind. She read it a long time ago, when she ascended to the throne and got access to the only original copy of the book in her private royal library. Its account of how the Queendom was born had completely dismantled the stories she heard during evening gatherings in her childhood. She thinks about how ignorant she was back then, and it is hard for her to imagine that she is the only person in this whole world, alive, to know the truth.

She thinks hard, trying to put all the pieces together. Could Gemma have bled with the moon phases, like the ancestors? Leerie recalls reading about the mutation women had undergone: Hera had made sure females would never be able to create life without a sacrifice. She wonders if witchcraft has ways to get around this mutation. Despite her feelings for Donja, she is convinced her daughter is hiding something.

Just before she yields to panic, Leerie enters decidedly in her scientist's lab. Serena is still busy, her grey gloves holding vials again. This time they contain blood. One nurse is cleaning up the examination bed and the speculum, and the other is putting the ultrasound machine back into place. They bow furtively as they notice the Queen has entered, but she joins her scientist.

"I've never doubted your skills, Serena," Leerie says, "but this time it's not just about brewing a sleeping draft for my husband. Is the girl really three months pregnant?... With a baby?"

Serena leaves the vials on the rack, not surprised by the Queen's question. "I'm afraid she is, my Queen." She smirks. "A healthy human baby, it seems."

"Have you run all the tests?" Leerie asks, pacing again.

"I'm not a Midwife, my Queen, and there's no pregnant women to compare her with in the palace," Serena says, taking her gloves off. "But I guess the only place we haven't looked is her brain."

Leerie considers a moment. She doesn't like this anomaly at all, and control might slip out of her hands if other villages hear someone has found a way to be pregnant without the Rite. She laces her fingers together nervously – she has to contain this before it's too late. She didn't want to make use of those forbidden books in her library that date back to the ancestors. She remembers coming across titles mentioning "technology" ... She has never dared open them, but they could hold the answer. Serena notices Leerie's distress.

"You're the boss, my Queen. Your word," the scientist says. Leerie meets Serena's eyes. She sees in her more than an employee – Serena has become a partner, as she has always followed her blindly in her projects. But this time the Gods are challenged. The whole order of things is at stake.

"I'll provide the resources," the Queen says at last.

Serena nods and goes back to her blood sample. Leerie is about to walk away, but something crosses her mind.

"Serena?"

"Yes, my Queen?"

"Would you be able to reveal a spell with... technology?"

"With technology, my Queen?" Serena looks puzzled, but tries to remain professional. "I only know what's in the books you give me, but witchcraft is a whole different practice."

Leerie stares at her entangled fingers. She has access to almost all the knowledge of the previous world, but has never found one book about witchcraft in her entire library. And yet, she knows it is very much real.

"I'll have to go through the titles again..." Leerie mumbles.

"My Queen," Serena says, "the best way to learn about witchcraft is to ask the witches themselves."

Leerie is brought up short. She had wanted to ignore that truth. She decided to forget the existence of the witches long ago, when she swore the oath to enforce the rules of the Queendom. The practice of magic is explicitly forbidden in the Ancient Pact... The Gods never trusted humans, Leerie thinks, and they are right not to, just look at what's happening. When she became Queen, she tried to tell herself the fascination for witchcraft she had as a child was just a silly daydream. Or at least it's what she wants the Gods to think when she prays.

"Bring all of them to the basement. I want no word of this to get out."

"Very well, my Queen. Consider it done."

Leerie leaves the lab and closes the door with renewed confidence, but she is still worried. Will the Gods know what she is up to? Will they react to the girl's pregnancy? How will they make their opinions known? The Queendom hasn't had any sign of the Gods for decades, everything was going well... She paces back and forth before deciding she will not go back to her room; instead, she makes her way to the library.

Only Leerie has the key to the great tower of the palace in which the books are kept. She walks through the silent hall and reaches the entrance to the tower, protected by an intricate lock, next to the patio doors. She fits the fine golden key into the lock and turns it, listening to the satisfying "click", then climbs the few spiral stairs to the library.

The ceiling's height gives her goosebumps, and she feels dizzy following with her eyes the crooked wooden shelves going up and up in spirals. She turns around and her eyes chase the whirls of books that twists and turns in countless rows and columns. She almost loses her balance seeing all these books that ask for her attention, but the one she is interested in lies in the middle of the room, on a white marble pedestal, preserved inside a glass bell. The sacred book lays right in front of her, at eye level, calling to her, glowing with an eerie white light emanating from its cover: the Holy Book of Gods.

She realises its significance right at this moment, when a pregnancy challenges the Ancient Pact itself. Scanning the huge book behind the glass, she notes the marks of time on its cover, the scratches and spots of mould. It came from a time when the ancestors lived in a dark world without the light of the Gods. She wonders what difference it would make if her people were aware of their past. The stories they tell during gatherings are much less troubling than what she read in there.

Leerie lifts the bell and slowly brushes the cover with her fingers. This ancient material is heavy with memories. She closes her eyes to focus on the rough touch under her skin, and begs Hera to give her answers. She absorbs the ancient words inside the book, each meticulously written by the Messenger, the last human of the ancient world, who dedicated himself to the Gods. The villagers that gossip about the Book of Gods say he got to live in the ancestor's era as well as in the Queendom. They are right about that at least.

She ends her prayer with an acknowledgment to the Gods. She thanks them for having created such a peaceful Queendom and allowing her to be its ruler. But she wishes this order never to be disrupted and this anomaly to be resolved. She opens her eyes and puts the bell back in place.

Deep down, she thinks of how many laws she would be ready to break in order to get to the bottom of this unexplained pregnancy.