by Shelby Hild
She sighed. The voice was right.
“I think Darissa should be the one to get our prompt,” Marisol suggested.
When no one argued, Darissa smiled and nodded. Then she stood up and skipped to the front. After a quick curtsy to both the queen and the princess, the three of them chatted for a few moments, laughing. For a moment, Vivilyn wondered if there would ever be a time she was as at ease with the royal women as Darissa.
Clara was chosen for her table and Amber was chosen for hers.
One by one, the three women picked cards at random.
“Once you get back to your tables, set the cards face down and don’t peek. Then please circle up within your groups on this side of the room,” Princess Elissa said.
It only took a few minutes for everyone to circle up where they were supposed to.
“Now,” the queen said as she directed three of the cameramen to point directly at the groups. “Everyone reach forward and grab two hands, not of the same person.”
“Oh no,” Jolene cried, holding back laughter and shaking her head. “We’re playing the human knot game.”
“That we are,” Queen Boudica said, as everyone went to hold hands. “What better way to help promote communication and teamwork?”
“This isn’t fair,” Lena said. “This will be easier for the groups that have more people wearing pants than dresses.”
“Things aren’t always fair in life, no matter who we are nor how much we wish they were,” Princess Elissa said. “And there will be times that what you wear either has an advantage or disadvantage along with it.”
“When you’ve managed to get untangled, the one of you who grabbed the prompt will come back here and grab a hoop.” The queen pointed to three large hoops leaning against the wall. Although they were all large, they were different sizes.
The queen finished up the instructions when everyone looked back at her from the hoops. “You will then move the hoop from one side of your group to the other also while holding hands. When you are done with that, you can go back to your table and discuss your prompts. The sooner you complete these tasks, the sooner you can get to discovering what your prompts are. When we say go, we will flip this sand timer and you’ll have until the sand runs out to make your decisions.”
“Get ready,” Princess Elissa said.
“Get set,” the queen said.
“Go!” They both said at once and flipped the sand timer over.
The other two groups started moving immediately, but Vivilyn’s took a moment to examine the puzzle before them.
“Trina,” Darissa said, “your hand is on top right?”
Trina nodded.
“She has mine,” Entra said. She raised hers up causing both of their hands to rise.
“And I think I have her other hand somewhere in the middle,” Jolene said, moving hers slightly to try and figure out exactly where it was.
“And I have your hand,” Darissa said.
Vivilyn looked to where her own were. On one side, she held Marisol’s and on the other, she held Louise’s.
“Is there any way we can open our arms wide enough that I can fit through?” Darissa asked. “I think that’ll clear up a little bit of the tangle.”
And so they began trying to unknot themselves. While they were concentrating, they didn’t pay any attention to where the other two groups were, despite overhearing random squeals and peals of laughter.
Vivilyn was the only one in a dress in their group and when she was bent backwards while attempting to get from one side of the circle to the other, she was relatively sure that her dress pulled up high enough to expose half of her thigh to the camera.
Hopefully that wouldn’t be shown to the people watching throughout the kingdom.
After a few false tries, the group eventually saw the path to untangle themselves.
When they managed to finish the first task, somehow, Vivilyn, Trina, and Entra all ended up facing the outside of the circle.
As soon as they got the “all clear” to send Darissa to gather one of the hoops, Vivilyn looked around.
They were the second to finish the knot activity. In fact, Clara’s group was already more than halfway through with the hoop line. It seemed to be stuck between Macy and Sarah.
A few seconds after Darissa began running, Amber’s group finished. She sprinted up right next to the wall. Darissa barely beat her. She only made it there first by a single hop to the largest remaining hoop.
“We should stand in height order,” Vivilyn suggested before they reconnected to start the challenge. The other group hit a block as they continued to struggle with getting the hoop over the head of Sarah who towered over Macy. “Tallest to shortest, that way we don’t have to try throwing it up and over.”
“Good idea,” Darissa whispered excitedly.
“We weren’t told anything about being able to change our order,” Trina said anxiously.
“We weren’t told we couldn’t. All that we were told was that we needed to be connected while completing the tasks,” Vivilyn countered.
As they discussed it, the other group lined up and started moving the hoop along.
“We’re wasting time arguing about this,” Louise said. “Let’s just line up like Vivilyn suggested. We will either get congratulated for thinking outside of the box—or circle—or we will get a few seconds added to our time or something. I doubt they’ll add much of a penalty if we’re doing this wrong.”
With everyone else thinking lining up height-wise was the best option, Trina relented and they all reorganized.
Vivilyn started the line as the tallest and Darissa ended it, very obviously the shortest. There were a couple members of the team that they couldn’t easily determine who was taller, so they did the best they could without sacrificing time.
“Are we ready?” Vivilyn asked.
As soon as everyone nodded, she tossed the hoop over her head and quickly stepped through it one foot at a time. As soon as the hoop hit her wrist, Vivilyn and Trina both threw their hands up at the same time causing the hoop to effortlessly go over Trina’s head.
Their hoop continually moved. They didn’t have an issue of it losing momentum and getting stuck like the other two teams had to deal with.
A quick shout stole Vivilyn’s attention from her line as one of the other groups finished and dropped their hoop. They ran back to the table with cheers and celebrations at being the first ones done.
The remaining two teams finished about the same time. They raced back to their respective tables, trying to avoid running into objects and each other in the mad dash to get there first.
“What’s our prompt?” Jolene asked, slightly out of breath. She was the last one of their group to sit down at the table.
Darissa flipped the card over and began to read.
“The Island Nation of Crente is sending a delegation in order to start an alliance. It is a big deal as in the past, the island has only dealt with our kingdom via pirates. They are accustomed to big parties, lots of hearty food, and loud music. They consider yellow and blue to be bad luck.”
She set the prompt back on the table, this time face up so that everyone could see it.
“What are we supposed to do with this information?” Louise asked, as she picked up the card and held it close to her face to reread it.
The ideas started coming out so quickly, Vivilyn wasn’t entirely sure who actually said each of the possibilities. They grew easily upon each other.
“Well,” Entra said with a smile, “obviously we throw a huge party.”
“And keep anyone from wearing yellow and blue.”
“A fancy black and white party!”
“With lots of food and good music!”
“And all the important people!”
“Does anyone know anything personally about Crente?” Darissa asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
Darissa bit her lower lip as she tried to think. Then she said, “My father used to
buy things from there before the pirates got too bad. They don’t have Ranks among the people.”
“So, we could throw a city-wide party,” Vivilyn suggested. “Invite everyone, not just those of Rank. Most cities have a town center, you know, where the Administrations Office is.”
“Ettravil even has the huge statue of Wizard Vic. Isn’t he a heroic figure world-wide, not just here in Etilidus?” Marisol said excitedly.
“Time is almost up,” Princess Elissa said over the noise of the room. The group discussed a few more details before the last of the sand fell through the timer.
“And that’s a wrap,” the queen said. “Everyone, stop talking.”
The silence that overtook the room almost seemed as though a bubble filled the room and the pressure caused all noise to evaporate.
“Do we have any volunteers to go first?” the princess asked.
“We do!” Darissa jumped up before anyone even had a chance to comprehend the question that had been asked.
“We do?” Jolene asked, shaking her head and lowering her eyebrows as though she wanted to argue.
“I guess we do,” Entra said laughing.
The women in Vivilyn’s group all stood up and went back to the front of the room, avoiding tripping over the hoops that remained on the ground where each of the teams had dropped them before running back to their tables.
As she passed them, Marisol picked them up and leaned them against the wall again. She received a nod of thanks from Queen Boudica.
“What was your prompt?” the queen asked.
“Our prompt was the island nation of Crente is sending a delegation for a possible alliance,” Darissa said, standing in the middle of the group.
“And how will you handle this delegation?” the princess asked, as she flipped through a few cards of her own.
“We throw a party!” Entra exclaimed.
“A themed party, black and white only, because we don’t want to risk anyone accidentally wearing yellow or blue,” Jolene added.
“And since the Crentians don’t have people of Rank, we don’t feel it appropriate to block anyone from attending this party. So it will be held at the town center in Ettravil. Anyone who can’t afford a black or white outfit of their own can borrow one from any of three designated areas through town. And the outfit is theirs to keep,” Vivilyn added. “Although to keep from having a huge issue funding the extra clothing, it’ll be donated from any people of Rank who have extra clothing available.”
“Any and all chefs from across the nation will be invited to cook whatever they feel is their specialty all across the city,” Marisol said.
“There will be storytellers expanding on the legends of Wizard Vic since there is the statue of him in the Town Square,” Trina stated.
“And there will be an area to discuss similarities and differences in culture for those who want to discuss them,” Louise added.
“Very well thought out plan,” Princess Elissa said with a nod and a smile. “Now what would you do if someone from another delegation shows up? A delegation that although we do have an alliance with, it is a shaky alliance. Someone in this delegation didn’t get the memo about the black and white theme and she is wearing an outfit that has both yellow and blue on it. How do you proceed?”
The group looked back and forth at each other as they each thought about the situation.
“Can’t we just ask her to change outfits?” Entra asked.
“That would be risky depending on where she’s from,” Darissa said. “Some places it would be fine, but others… No. Other places with Ranks would never want to wear things that those who aren’t of Rank would have and asking them to borrow clothing would be on par with asking them to murder their grandmother.”
There were a few moments of silence.
Vivilyn’s mind filtered through multiple different options before a quick memory of Prince Aiden with a blob of cyan paint on his cheek popped into her mind. She spoke before she could stop herself.
“Paint war.”
It felt like everyone’s eyes were burning holes through her flesh.
“Please expand on the idea. How could that help?” Princess Elissa asked.
“If we have a paint war,” Vivilyn said, trying to visualize the event, “then we can provide every color except for yellow and blue. It could be the reason we want a black and white theme. It’s a fun event where people just throw paint at everyone. Although it’s an absolute mess and would take time and effort to clean up, it would give us a reason to cover the delegate in paint without causing any questions. Since it’s the main part of the event, she wouldn’t be able to easily say no and… yeah.”
Vivilyn looked around at her group, hoping they weren’t upset she just gave an option without discussing it with anyone.
“That’s absolutely brilliant,” Marisol said. “Yes. That is exactly what we’ll do.”
The Royal Women were busy writing on notepads when they concluded their prompt. After they had been silent for a few moments, Queen Boudica looked up.
She smiled.
“Thank you, Ladies,” she said, with a brief nod. “You may be seated.”
The other two teams gave well thought-out ideas as well, at least from what Vivilyn could tell.
Amber’s team went second. Their prompt involved a meeting that happened once every decade for the PrEtAh Alliance in order to recreate and format the terms for the trade agreement. The group said they would have to listen to all the terms given and respond with their own. Obviously, they would want to get the best deal, but they knew they needed to think rationally.
The problem that arose was that Praytha was threatening an overwhelming tax among their grown goods unless Etilidus removed the tax on livestock.
“Can’t we grow our own food?” Amber asked. “Etilidus is fertile. Who needs to get food from outside that we can grow ourselves?”
Her group muttered, but no one disagreed or offered another resolution.
Praytha’s foods are much more diverse than ours. They can grow things on the islands that we’d never be able to even attempt growing because of our climate. Vivilyn’s mind turned to Duncan and Iza traveling the Port Shroe in hopes of getting naner trees. And not all of Etilidus is fertile. Half of the kingdom is a desert and a good portion is too rocky to grow enough food.
Clara’s group went last and they had to host a winter festival after a very difficult year with droughts and disease. Raising the people’s morale was the most important thing for it. They decided to host their festival up north, near Lake Lusithan so it would freeze over as it did every year and they could have ice skating.
Vivilyn wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought she saw Queen Boudica whisper something to the princess. After flipping through the cards she held, Princess Elissa dropped her hand to the side and agreed with whatever her mother had told her.
“Instead of the original issue we were going to have for your festival,” Princess Elissa said, “what would your response be if the ice cracks?”
“What do you mean?” Clara asked.
“You are planning to have skating be a big factor for this event, correct?” Queen Boudica asked. “And everyone who attends the festival will likely be going on the ice to skate?”
“Yes,” Clara said, drawing the word out uncomfortably long.
“So, what would you do if in the middle of this festival when most people are probably going to be on the ice something happened that caused the ground to start cracking?” the queen asked.
“That wouldn’t happen,” Irene said. She emphatically shook her head. “We would keep an eye on everything and only let people on the ice if we were sure nothing bad like that could happen.”
“One thing you will learn as you grow older in life is that no matter how hard you prepare,” Queen Boudica said, “things can always go wrong. And more often than not, they do.”
“We would have plenty of emergency personnel around,” Sarah said. “And the moment the ic
e started cracking we would start getting the people off the ice. If we weren’t able to get everyone off before the ice broke and holes formed….” She trailed off unsure how to continue.
“We’d work closely with the emergency personnel,” Macy said, quickly adding to the plan that was forming. “We aren’t trained properly to be able to handle an emergency of the scale that would end up being, so we would do what was asked of us.”
“Thank you, ladies,” the queen said, after she wrote for a few minutes. “You may be seated. Please excuse my daughter and me for a few minutes while we deliberate over which team we believe performed the best. We will be right back.”
There was silence for a few moments following the queen and princess leaving the room.
“I wonder who won,” Entra whispered, as they waited for the two to return.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Darissa said. Her mouth widened in a large grin. “I think we all did really well up there.”
Vivilyn couldn’t help but think the brightness of the woman’s smile could blind someone.
“I wonder what the date is,” she said, more to herself than the other women.
“It’s felt like forever since we did anything actually Trials related,” Marisol said. “It’s almost like we’ve been on pause since being here.”
“They’re still recording and showing our activities to everyone,” Jolene stated. “The public’s opinion has apparently been shifting pretty drastically since we’ve been here.”
“How can you have any of that information?” Darissa asked.
“I have my ways.” Jolene gave everyone at the table an overexaggerated wink.
“They have to let us see some of the show sooner rather than later,” Louise said. “I mean, we haven’t seen any of it yet. How do we know what they’re revealing?”
“I haven’t even had an interview in what feels like forever,” Vivilyn said, remembering the few interviews she’d had the first few weeks.
“They don’t often have official interviews,” Darissa said. “Mainly it’s just gained through conversations with our cameramen. They’ll say things that they think will affect us or get some sort of emotion and use those conversations as insights into our minds.”