Chapter 2.

Chapter 1.

“Quiet now you're gonna wake the beast

Hide your soul out of his reach

Shiver to that broken beat

Dark into the heat…” Soldier - Fleurie.

February, 2137

Eveline

People in my position generally have to be strong and impenetrable, able to handle the biggest crises without losing their composure in front of their subjects, and to handle them as best they can in order to avoid further damage as a shield.

I was taught that a sovereign must be the shield of his people, that he must protect them at all costs and give them decent living conditions within his reign, and try his best to perpetuate this ideal for his successors, and I am sure that my great-grandparents and grandparents tried their best to make this clear with their reign, they reigned for the people and not against them as my father insists on doing.

And since I was placed in the weekly meetings I made a point of trying to be heard by my father and the counselors, but in the end the word that mattered most was the king's, not mine.

And lately not even the counselors' word was valid, we always ended the meetings with increasingly drastic spending cuts in sectors such as education, health and housing and this money went to the advertising and entertainment sector, which didn't help at all since in much of the territory people were stirring and every time the councilors brought news of the uprisings all my father would do was laugh and send a platoon over to the place and then he would say "Everything would calm down."

But I knew that this peace we lived in that had lasted a good fifty years was not going to last forever, especially with the news about the people's revolt coming.

My grandfather Charles Taylor had done a good job of rebuilding the country after the fourth world war, and after his father died in the conflict, he took the throne and used what was left in Waybrook’s coffers for it and tried to do it all to help the population with housing, food and work, and he did a good job and the people supported him in everything, and when he married my grandmother, Queen Celine, a commoner he had met while he personally helped rebuild the country, this increased the approval of the people.

But contrary to what everyone thinks, they didn't get married for convenience, he really loved my grandmother and she loved him.

After that they had my father, Derek Taylor, and his reign was one of relative peace despite some demonstrations and riots in isolated places, but some rebels who did not accept the end of the war on the pretext that our country's victory was not fair since many people had been subjugated, so they took advantage of the people's confusion and with their help they broke into the royal residence and murdered my grandfather and my grandmother nearly got killed.

The people felt lost after the king's death and the rebels retreated, and my grandmother took the reins of the situation as she could, however, a country undergoing reconstruction to suffer another important loss reflected in several sectors and the marks of his death still echoed among his subjects.

A few years later my father ascended the throne and my grandmother retired from the royal residence and went to live in seclusion in one of the oldest and most noble neighborhoods in the city, which was formerly known as Old Waybrook.

But in his first years of government the approval of the people did not reach even half of my grandfather's, and worried my grandmother tried to marry him at all costs but he was reluctant, however, seeing that the country was in turmoil he decided to choose someone so quick and opted to choose a commoner from the crowd, so my mother, before Marisia Wallace today Taylor, was chosen.

They got married and my brother Jordan was born and I came a few years later, and oddly enough at these meetings as the eldest son my brother was supposed to be there but he had made it clear at a dinner in the last Christmas that he didn't want to be the King, my father almost ripped his hair out in the middle of the table and in front of the servants and my mother tried to calm him down, it was not a nice thing to see as he started yelling at her and my brother had to get in the middle.

But despite all the confusion he was convinced in his decision and said that he had no interest in being king and that I was free to succeed my father, and that was what I wanted, and despite the weight of the crown being great, it’s the only thing I wanted to be since I was little, my brother always knew and my mother too, and with no options my father accepted but it was obvious that nothing would be that easy.

He said that when I turned twenty I would have to get married to be able to lead the country and unfortunately the country's archaic law said that an unmarried woman could not take on important leadership roles at work and in other fields we had available in the country.

Sexist? Certainly.

And if you guess who changed the law, you will feel the same anger I feel whenever I remember that my birthday is near and that I need to choose a husband if I want to improve the conditions in which my people live.

And many wonder if I would be able to sacrifice my happiness for others, I don't think much about it, I never liked anyone and I never knew someone who felt the same way about me, I just try to be positive and do what I need to do, and I need to help those people.

My mom gave me a chance to look for a candidate during the last year but I couldn't connect with anyone, all the princes and sons of other heads of state just didn't match, which didn't stop me from having some fun, amidst the stress of having to help lead a country.

But my time was running out and I was sure I would have nothing left but an arranged marriage, but as I said, if it would free the people from my father and his tyranny I would be grateful to be helping and to be able to take the reins of the country.

And as I reread a budget report for the next afternoon meeting I heard a knock on the door and as I looked up from my papers I saw one of my chaperones, Eylisha, put her head in the crack of the door and smile at me, I smiled back to her and motioned for her to enter my bedroom.

“Are you going down for breakfast, Your Highness?” she asked and I rolled my eyes at the use of the treatment pronoun everyone was required to use in our presence.

“I'll come down if you call me by my name Eyshila, otherwise I won't grace my dear father with my presence, not that he'll miss me,” I said, turning in my chair and standing up, feeling the fabric of my nightgown rustle against my skin.

“Okay Eve, you win!” She said as she walked towards my closet with her brown hair tightly tied in a bun at the back of her neck, far between the chaperones I shared with my mother she was the strictest of them but a good friend in her spare time. “Trousers or a dress?” She asked, looking at me over her shoulder and I bit my lip as I thought for a moment.

“Trousers, please!” I said and she smiled evilly and I started laughing inside the room knowing what she was going to do next without even having to ask.

Despite being strict, she was great at breaking protocols regarding the clothes my mother and I wore, and my brother always joins us in the game, and her valet followed to the letter Eylisha and the other chaperones requests to torment the most annoying counselors.

As I had already taken an early shower, I just wore the clothes she had separated and laughed when I saw the tailored suit that had been chosen for me, the vest had flower designs and the tie was red with the design of birds but they look like a Phoenix design and to accompany it I wore black high heels.

She quickly helped me with my makeup and hair, holding my black hair on one side as if it were shaved and putting a diamond clip in the shape of a dragonfly on it and then after this she smudge a brown eyeshadow that brought out the violet tone of my eyes, something strange for most people since there weren't many people with that shade of iris out there.

Finally I put on some red lipstick and gathered my papers and I thanked the brunette who was smiling at me as she finished straightening my jacket and I remembered something important.

“Have you heard from Nick?” I asked hopefully since his last letter had arrived a week ago and I would like to know if the trip I gave him as a wedding present was going well.

“He and Eileen sent me a letter yesterday, apparently Venice is a beautiful dream for both of them and she asked me to thank you again Eve!” She said and it made me even happier for having given them this treat.

Nicholas and Eileen were servants of the monarchy but we're close friends as she was one of my closest chaperones and Nick was my personal guard and we were always together at all sorts of events and he always knew how to make me laugh in the middle of a rally or event of the monarchy, they even considered a romance between us which made my father almost lose his mind but we denied everything and the king calmed down, after all, he had someone.

He and Eileen had been dating for a long time and when he told me he was going to ask her to marry him I made a point of helping them and I was the bride's godmother along with my mother in a private ceremony at the abbey of the royal family, the guests were all palace staff and we were happy to give away not only the trip but the party and whatever else they needed.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and they would be gone for a while, but I didn't care, they both deserved it.

“I’m glad to know, in the afternoon I'll write to them again, now I'm getting going because I need to eat and face this damn meeting!” I said with a dramatic tired tone and she laughed, which made me laugh too.

“Wish me luck Eylisha!” I said waving goodbye to her who was organizing my pillows and she mimicked my action.

“Good luck Miss Taylor, you know you don't have to!” She said and I laughed as I closed the door and headed to the downstairs dining room.

As I walked I greeted the palace guards and staff who roamed the corridors receiving nods and smiles from them, but as I approached the dining room I heard raised voices and saw the guard at the door looking at his partner with raised eyebrows and the other laughed at my father's hysteria, I laughed too, and they both looked at me in concern.

“Hi boys, good morning, I didn't see anyone laughing, did you?” I said pretending that I didn’t hear anything and they smiled relieved and opened the door for me wishing me good morning too as I saw my father shouting something to one of the counselors I identified as one of the twins.

“I hope you solve this by the afternoon meeting Morgan, otherwise I'll have to take other measures!” He said loud and clear and I saw my mother smile wearily at the counselor who rubbed his red hair awkwardly and nodded before excusing himself and withdrawing. “Morning sweetie, have you decided to grace us with your dear presence?” I heard him ask and I rolled my eyes without even bothering to answer and I went to kiss my mother and sat beside her to wait for my brother.

A servant put my food in front of me and I started to eat ignoring the hostile look my father was giving me. I was tired of retorting him and I knew the best thing to do was to leave him talking to himself, since he never listened to anything we said.

“Did you prepare your report for the meeting, Eveline?” I heard him ask and I sighed wearily before lifting my gaze to his direction and setting my fork down on the table.

“Yes dear father, and I hope that this time you will hear the proposal before completely ignoring it as you always do,” I pinned him and saw his expression change and I smiled going back to eating as if nothing had happened and my brother finally arrived and greeted my parents before sitting down beside me and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Look at the way you talk to me child, you don't know what you're doing, that's why I don't bother to look at your report,” he said dryly as he sipped his glass of juice and I saw my mother sigh deeply as she ate in silence and her cheeks became red.

“You should give her credit, father, who knows, maybe the country would come out of the hole that you yourself are digging by using the people's money for what it shouldn't,” my brother said and looked up at my father and the two stared at each other murderously.

Another normal Taylor’s family breakfast.

Although my brother and father are physically the same, with brown hair and blue eyes my father's temperament was not inherited by him or me, and even though my brother didn't want to be The King he had everything one needed surely.

“Jordan!” My dad caught his attention and I saw my mom take one last deep breath before slamming her hands flat on the table and drawing my dad's attention to her.

My dad fell silent and stared at her stunned that she'd interrupted him, and even though I knew she was always quiet and passive, just like my brother and I, I knew when she was near to lose her mind all the shit tends to hit the fan hard.

“That's enough Derek, stop insulting our daughter as if she were inferior just because she's a woman and because she's going to succeed you, and don't think about following through on what you asked Morgan, you'll have to go over me first!” She spoke with her dark eyes flashing with anger and her hair as dark as mine falling out of the pegs she wore.

My father didn't say another word and continued to eat like the rest of us in perfect silence, the only sound in the room being our cutlery clattering against the crockery of dishes and the footsteps of servants on the marble floor. When he finished eating he left like a storm without saying anything and leaving us alone, my mom let out an even more tired sigh and finished eating without talking to us and just said goodbye with a kiss saying she would see me at the afternoon meeting and left with her beautiful blue dress rustling behind her and the clink of heels against the marble floor.

My brother and I finished eating after this and he stared at me and I understood right away what I needed to do.

“I’ll see how she is, I hope you detonate daddy at the meeting this afternoon, I'm sick of this shit,” he said angrily with bloodshot eyes and I nodded because I’m sick of my father’s shit too, especially when it involved my mother.

He stood up and held his arm out to me, I put my arm through his and we walked out of the dining room arm in arm, my hair bumping against my back.

“Go to see mom, and it will be a pleasure bother father in the meeting, brother,” I said and he kissed me on the cheek and smile before heading up the stairs towards the Queen's office.

While waiting for the meeting I decided to take a walk around the palace to the Winter Garden at the back of the property, the weather was freezing as always despite it being late summer and I regretted not having gone to get an overcoat before leaving.

I passed some guards and waved to them as I walked and missed Grandma, she was my safe haven at those times, I always went to her when I needed to talk about my father or discuss some agenda or just talk about life, I was sad when she told me that she would never go back to the palace because Daddy prohibited her, so I always went out with Nick to go see her in hiding, but without him I didn't know how.

As soon as I got to the garden I took my place by the fountain and kicked my heels off my feet and left my briefcase on the grass and hugged my legs as I looked at the patch of hydrangeas my mother asked to be planted for me, they were one of my favorite flowers and I always picked up some of them to put in my room.

To had your proper flier bed and being a princess could be a lot of girls' dream but sometimes the position demanded much more than what I had to offer and I always gave my best in everything I did but I felt that even that wouldn't be enough for everything I planned and I was hoping that the small changes I had in mind would have some effect if they were approved, and if they bore good fruit I would try to follow that same line when I became the Queen.

After all, I had to be the people's shield.