by s. Behr
“Just get to know them. If you find something you think we should know, then I guess that would be up to you to inform us. I know I have lost your trust. You are not of full citizen age yet, and you have every right to say no. But I think you have proved you can handle yourself. I will not command you as your queen or your mother. I only hope you do what you believe is right for your people. Things like this are not black or white; there is no right or wrong answer. But the best decision is the most informed one.”
She scrubbed her forehead. “I had hoped you would never have to make these kinds of sacrifices or such tough decisions. I only want your life to be filled with happiness and joy. But I know that is a mother’s dream. Even if my intention has failed, I want to protect you. But I know I can’t protect you from everything. If it does come to that, I hope it might help you understand me a little better, and that you will forgive me one day.”
She wiped her tear-streaked face and said, “Violet, I am willing to wait for however long it takes to get back to where we were, move forward and be the family I know we are.”
We stared at each other for a long time. My chest ached as I sat there nearly suffocated by all the emotion and words clogged up inside me.
With a sigh, my mother rose to her feet. “I have to meet the high queen to discuss a few things. I have been informed that you plan to join Leo, Penelope, and Kai on a tour of the Ancient America’s Archive. Is that true?”
I nodded, unsure of how she would have known, but there were dozens of innocent ways she could have learned. “That was on my schedule for today.”
“And the game tomorrow?” she asked.
I looked at her, wondering how far news of that had traveled because it certainly wasn’t on the schedule.
“Well, I think as representative of this realm it’s my duty to make sure everyone stays civilized,” I said, worried that the next world war was going to start over a game of soccer.
“That’s my girl.” A ghost of a smile formed on her lips. “I will be in the throne room all day if you need me or your father. We will be taking our meals there as well.”
She turned to leave, then said, “You may not have the abilities you think you need because of this serum, but Violet, you have the greatest of all abilities—the capacity for boundless love and understanding. You are uniquely qualified to understand both sides of this coin. You have the advantage here. Use it. And Petal, even though you are angry at me, and these days are uncertain, find some joy in them.”
Her lips tugged into a small smile, and without waiting for a reply, she left.
I stared at the cup of chocolate, the symbol of an era of lies. I took another bite, frustrated that I still loved it. I still loved her.
I pushed the rest of it away and stood to face my day. One Archive, one Yzer twin, and one day full of questions.
I readied myself, and Hailey, then we made our way to the Archives to find some answers.
The Archives of Ancient America were housed in a building full of answers that always began with the same question. Where to start?
When I first saw the schedule for this week, I had no idea how or why so many things were packed in a day for me to be a part of. Lunches, teas, brunch, dinners with this court or that one, countless tours and meetings. I didn’t know who thought it was necessary for me to be a part of it all. I had never been before, but I guess this was like no other time before.
After a few days with this half of the Ameran Royalty, I began to dread what the other half would be like. I had to admit I was relieved the rest of my week of entertaining had been canceled.
My new schedule was still filled with meals and tours, although it no longer included so many of the Ameran Royalty. I would be spending more time with the Hg-1’s counterparts. It was exactly what Hailey and I had planned on.
Today’s tour of the Ancient Archives was like a breath of fresh air. With purpose, I arrived an hour earlier than I was scheduled to meet the others. The scent of freesia wafted in the air as I crossed the lobby, and I was struck by the resemblance to the Ark.
The surprise of seeing Lance and meeting his doppelganger Kai last night left me with lots of questions, and I couldn’t help but wonder which one of them would show up this morning. In a building full of knowledge, I was determined to find some answers.
“Good morning, Princess Violet, how may I help you today?” The holographic curator appeared. I smiled at the plain and simply-dressed male hologram who looked like a young, kinder version of my grandfather Illtyd.
“Good morning, Higgins.” My lips tugged into a sideways grin when I finally understood his name: holographic interactive guided navigator. After spending so much time with Hailey, I saw the curator I had spent so much time with over the years in a whole new light.
“I’m wondering if you might be able to help me with some ancient tech I found in an old library. I was so clumsy that I dropped it, and the screen has been damaged. I’m hoping to find a way to transfer the information from this tablet into my old citizen’s bracelet. They seem compatible, but since it’s such archaic technology, there wasn’t anyone I could think of that might be better suited for the task than you.”
Higgins smiled with a hint of pride, and I laughed, realizing that using flattery had the same effect on this A.I. as it had on someone else I knew. “Well, I am not one hundred percent sure I can be successful, but I would be more than pleased to try. Let’s have a look, shall we?” He walked toward a long marble table and took a seat, despite the fact he didn’t need one, and gestured for me to join him.
As I settled into the chair, I produced the tablet and the bracelet, showing them to Higgins. He inspected them for more than ten minutes when finally he rose.
“Why don’t we bring it over here and see what we find?” he offered. I followed him toward the wall. A glass drawer slid out from its hiding place in the wall. I placed Hailey’s tablet on the glass as Higgins’s projection appeared now wearing spectacles as if it somehow helped him see better.
“Well, this is very old, pre-ice age if I am not mistaken. Where did you say you found this?” the A.I. asked, genuinely intrigued.
“Oh, um, in an old library no one apparently uses anymore. I found it while exploring an area that is normally off limits. I didn’t think anyone would miss it. I had been using it and was careless and cracked the screen during a fall. Do you think it’s salvageable?”
He looked at me with uncertainty, but he didn’t pry further. “Well, the manual plug-in ports are damaged, all except this one, which is lucky because I have just the thing.”
A holographic tablet appeared, and he typed so fast his fingers were a blur. An instant later, a panel opened, and three cables and a small box appeared.
“Yes, this will do perfectly. Do you want to do the honors?” he asked, gesturing toward the cables.
“Of course.” I picked up the first of the three cables unsure of what to do.
He led me through the tasks, and I did as he instructed. After a few minutes, a green light appeared.
Higgins clapped, “Wonderful! The circuitry is in perfect condition. Truly remarkable.”
His eyebrows furrowed as he studied the unseen status bar. “There are a lot of data here. The bracelet has sufficient space and computing power, but it will take some time for it to complete the transfer. Would you like to leave it here? I will be happy to lock it down and inform you when it is ready.”
“You will let me know if there are any problems? I don’t want to lose anything from the tablet.” I was reluctant to leave Hailey alone.
“Of course, Your Highness. I will keep you informed of her progress.”
I eyed him when he referred to the tablet as female, wondering if he knew more than he let on.
“Thank you, Higgins. I’m expecting some guests. They’ll be meeting me here at the top of the hour. Will you let me know when they arrive?”
“Of course, Your Highness, happy researching!” And with that, the table
t, cords, and bracelet were sealed into the panel, and the hologram disappeared.
“Getting a little light reading in before the tour?” I spun around, surprised to see one of the two Yzer sons striding toward me. He stopped several feet away, but with his hair tied back, I knew instantly that it was Kai.
“This is probably my most cherished place in all of Hattan,” I said with the same awe I had the very first time I’d seen it when I was only four years old.
He took a good look around. “Yes, it is inspiring. We have nothing like it in the Homeland. All the Archives we have discovered to date in Ancient Asia either froze to the point of no return or were swallowed by the floodwaters following the thaw. It seems that the Ancient Asians had focused on space travel as a means of survival, rather than the colony approach that was popular here in the Americas.”
I saw the expression of sadness washing over his face as he talked about the loss of all that history and culture.
“There were things found intact, of course,” he continued, “and we find more each year, but the mountain range that had been treacherous before, turned out to be even more so with each warming year. I’m afraid we have been able to recover very little.”
“I’m so sorry, Kai. We know practically nothing about that side of the world. When it became off limits…” I stopped, remembering who I was talking to.
He laughed easily. “Don’t be sorry. Neither one of us were responsible for the choices our ancestors made or how the world was divided up. All that was done by people long dead and gone.”
Here in Amera, we held history in such high regard, I felt offended by that comment, but he was right, and he was hiding something. Arguing would not be the best way to discovering what he was up to.
“It would have been inspiring to have grown up in a place like this,” he added.
“Didn’t the original group of Hg-1 leave with the same digital archives, and technology?”
“To all accounts, the digital information was copied and what relics were available at the time were distributed evenly between the three groups,” Kai said, but I could hear the skepticism laced through his words.
“Everything digital.” I murmured to myself. That would explain how they might know the Ark was there.
“As much as they could fit onto the fleets that left these shores. Who knows what they decided was more important, old computers or food?” His smirk had a sharpness to it around the edges.
I didn’t like the direction of this conversation, so I tried to change the subject. “This building was a labor of love by my great grandfather,” I told him with pride. “I can’t imagine Hattan without it, but if he hadn’t been so in love with history, who knows what would have happened? This could have ended up as a factory.”
Kai had an amused look on his face. “That would have been tragic.”
“There has to be some kind of museum or archive in your homeland,” I pressed, feeling him beginning to thaw.
Kai’s expression softened, and a faraway look appeared in his eyes. “Let’s just say history and antiques are not a priority at home. But to ease your conscience, we do have what histories we have salvaged available to us in our personal coms.” He held up his wrist, showing me tech identical to what I had seen on his twin’s arm days ago at the Ark.
“A whole archive at your fingertips; that is impressive.” I nodded, knowing it took centuries for our citizen’s bracelets to become the version they were now, even with a head start from our ancestor’s schematics and recommendations. I wondered how much more advanced their technology than ours was.
“Well, necessity is the father of invention. It’s practically the Homeland’s motto.” His smile was tight, then the veil dropped, and his sunny disposition returned. “One day I hope you get to see our country. Despite its hardships, it is beautiful. Not in the same way that Amera is, of course. We don’t have violet-eyed princesses.” He grinned. His perfected smile and charm made it easy to forget he was hiding a secret.
I followed his lead as he walked along the outer wall, where copies of dozens of the most famous ancient paintings hung. He stopped in front of each piece, showing the proper amount of respect as we meandered the halls.
“I see the tour has begun without us,” Siri boomed as he entered the lobby with Leo, Lily, Princess Camelia, the Exa’s King’s son, Prince Barton, the transporter twins from Ico, the Queen’s Court, Prince Clark and Princess Aspen, and for the second time in twelve hours, the striking Francesca surprised me as she came in behind Penelope. This was twice as many people as I expected, and my easy day became a heavier load to carry than the one I had planned.
“With our match tomorrow, I wanted to spend as much time with this treasure as I could,” Kai retorted, smiling pointedly at me. “She might find it harder to be around us if we win.”
“Well, we will have to do our best not to displease the lovely Princess Violet.” Siri smirked.
But before they could kick the imaginary ball back again, Penelope took all the attention as she bounced up to me. “Good morning, Your Highness.” She curtsied. She had clearly practiced for some time and was eager to use any chance she got.
“Violet, please.” I kissed her cheek as she gave me a huge bear hug that seemed impossibly strong for such a tiny girl.
She laughed. “Okay, Princess Violet.”
“My sister adores your customs and the archaic titles of a monarchy, even if Amera really isn’t one,” Kai said with masked cynicism.
“Oh, pish. My brother would love to be addressed as Prince Kai.” She bowed mockingly low in front of him.
“Pen, please,” he said with a stern look.
His sister’s smile faded, and she straightened with a blush of embarrassment.
“An elected monarchy is nothing new,” Leo said in Penelope’s wilting defense. “When it was time to choose titles of leadership, many felt we needed a change and a bit of nostalgia that wasn’t tied to having lived underground for so long. After the Amerans were liberated, I think we chose our system of government well.”
“The son of the High King would say that,” Kai said, straightening his spine.
He was tall, but Leo still had a couple of inches over him. Of course, that didn’t seem to intimidate the ambassador’s son in the least.
“In the Hg-1, we prefer less antiquated, or as you said, nostalgic approaches to life. We look forward to the future, rather than waste time looking back.” Kai stared at Leo with a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes, while Leo returned an unruffled stare.
Finally, Siri interjected, “Now, now, boys, there will be plenty of time to take it out on each other on the playing field. We came here to learn something new, and we’re being rude.” He turned to me, executing a sweeping bow. “Princess Violet, thank you for taking the time to share this marvel of Neyr.”
Everyone let out a tense breath. “It will be nice to share it with someone other than Lily,” I said, hoping my smile was bright enough to distract them, “who by now knows this tour by heart.”
“I have had the pleasure more than a dozen times,” Lily responded on cue. “But Violet always finds a way to keep it interesting.” Lily winked, both of us knowing full well that I usually found her napping in a hidden alcove somewhere on an upper level.
“What would you like to see most?” I asked with a smile.
Without hesitation, Penelope said, “Everything.”
As requested, we embarked on a three-hour tour of the lower levels of the Archives.
“…and as I am sure you know, Ambassador Kai, many works were lost in the sister colonies in Ancient Europe, but I do believe some of our greatest artists have done a fair job of recreating what they could, based on descriptions as well as the millions of images we do have,” I said as we walked the hall of surrealism.
He nodded with a look of interest that seemed practiced. Kai said nothing as he stopped at each painting, giving each the same exact twenty seconds before moving on to the next. It
was Francesca who appeared far more interested, almost mesmerized by each and every piece of work. She seemed disappointed each time Kai pulled her away to the next one where her interest would reignite, and the cycle of longing for more time would begin again. The warrior I saw at the Ark was not someone I would have taken for an art lover.
As I continued alongside the Hg-1 couple, as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t ignore Leo with Princess Camelia, lagging just a few paces behind us. A strange warmth spread across my back when I saw how familiar they were with each other, and I turned to focus on the painting in front of me, trying hard not to remember my dance with him the night before.
By the look on Princess Aspen’s face, she didn’t approve of how little space was between Leo and Camelia either.
Right now, more than ever, I wished I had my inner voice to keep me focused.
“It’s a talent I wish I had. A way to express myself the way these artists had,” Leo said, surprising me as he approached alone and admiring the perfect recreation of Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies.
“Monet is Lily’s favorite artist,” I teased loud enough to catch her attention. “She believes he somehow imagined these would be here for her one day.”
“The man did create over two hundred and fifty paintings of lilies,” she returned with a pout.
“Well, Lady Lily, if I may say, you are far more beautiful than any painting could ever be.” Kai grinned.
Francesca looked between the two with a glance of indifference.
“You are quite charming, Mr. Yzer.” Lily beamed and blushed as she crossed the room and took Kai’s arm.
The way Francesca seemed to know Lance, I expected her to put up some kind of fight for Kai’s attention, but she walked on as if she hardly noticed. Lily and Kai strolled down the hall with giggles, and smart remarks as Siri took Penelope’s arm and they followed her brother, doubling the laughter echoing along the paintings on the walls.
“I can’t imagine that any daughter of Neyr would be very impressed by paintings of flowers,” Leo said as I stood in front of a collection of paintings by Monet.