Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the sun, it falls tenderly,yet sadly,on the heart. -Washington Irving
The main hall was full of children whether being girls,boys, or hermaphrodites. They were all considered children anyway. They were all from all over the world.
Some were from Africa, some Asia and some were even from Antarctica, which has gathered quite a bit of a population since the magic kingdoms were unified by the current emperors' great great grandparents. That is where our protagonist happens to be from. Uriel larkspur Evans was born on the year of the flake on the last day of the month of the cat on an extremely cold morning.
He was born to the very bright and beautiful Lily Elizabeth Evans. Unfortunately, his father, a rich noble, who was afraid of the consequences of sleeping with a commoner, left him and his mother on the fourth month of her pregnancy. So thenceforth, His mother had to take care of him all by herself. As he grew older, his mother discovered something strange about her son, his hips were curved. She didn't waste time going to the town doctor though had little money. As they discovered,he was a hermaphrodite.
Over the years,when he went to the Weasley family house and worked alongside his mother as they swept and vanished snow for hours and crystallized the snow flakes that overflowed the continent of Antarctica.
The Weasley patriarch, master Weasley, was very kind. He let Uriel stay in for little mistress Ginerva's lessons. Because Uriel's mama was a very resourceful lady, she was often needed in the main house to oversee household matters that Mistress Molly was too busy to deal with.
When the day for selections came, all of Antarctica was buzzing with chatter, some were happy and most were sad, but none rivaled the sobriety that hung over the small servant quarters that belonged to the mother and son duo. Two years ago when Hadrian turned five, Lily took ill. Her illness has not improved and it gets worse with the endless snow and cold wind that blows in each day with no mercy. The doctors said that she worked herself too hard. No amount of soup kept her warm and no concoction helped her recover. For two years, Uriel, who everybody but his mother called Harry, because he always wanted to protect his mother, took on her responsibilities.
He cooked along with the chief and the kitchen staff, vanished the snow, helped wipe and sanitize the manor, and also sat in for lessons of etiquette, dance, speech and singing. He didn't want to remember the fact that his mother might die one day without warning. He set a goal in his mind that he would make his mother proud by doing everything he could and do it excellently. And so he did. Until the selections came. His mother wanted him stay, and so did he. But both and mother knew that with the way things were going, their only chance of survival was the forbidden city. Lily didn't like that place. In fact, she detested the place. In her opinion, it was full of selfish people who has lived in fear and cruelty their whole lives that they didn't know how to live with a conscious.
As Lily looked at her sweet seven year old with sparkling emerald eyes that shined with quite grace and intelligence, she felt like this was a moment she should remember. She might never see him again after all. When he turns ten in just three years, he will be a maiden. Until then, he was going on a lonely journey to England.
The land which had the biggest city known to man. The forbidden city. A city that is said to be modeled after a previous city in china during the old ages. Just imagining the sorrow and betrayals her beloved son was going to go through in that treacherous place just brought up fresh tears to her tired eyes. Uriel looked at his dear mother and embraced her for the last time, for he could hear the chatter of the already gathered entourage going to the palace.
He kissed his mother four times. One on the forehead for good luck, one on her left eye for good fortune, one on the right eye for blessings, and on her cheek for her warmth. He bowed once to announce his intention to depart and curtsied by placing both his hands on his waist and perching his hips to the side with his legs out and his knees bended to show his filial piety. He caressed her hands and stroked her wet cheeks before showing his mother a watery smile before finding the courage to leave their quarters with his head held high, mouth quivering, and eyes steady. He closed his eyes momentarily when he heard a wretched sound come from behind him, knowing the sound were from his mother.
He hastened his pace less he turned back and run to her arms like he so wanted to do. He reached the main hall where the entire Weasley family,all nine of them were waiting for him with suspiciously wet eyes. Ginny wasn't even hiding her tears. He was the same age as him. But she wouldn't go to the palace until she was 17. He, being a tad shorter than her, stood on the tip of his toes and wiped her tears with his green sleeves and gave her a his quiet smile before bowing to her. Then, he rose and curtsied. He kissed molly twice, for though she was his mistress,well former mistress, she was still close enough to be considered a second mother.
He kissed Ginny once on the forehead because she was his peer but still still in a higher position than him. For the remaining boys and men, he hugged them because though they were his brothers in a way, they were men of maturing age, plus they were in a higher position than him. He looked at them one more time before he curtsied low and asked in a soft but desperate voice
"Master, I know this servant has been nothing but trouble for your family, however, may I ask you to please take cake of my ailing mother?"
"of course Hadrian, do not concern yourself too much over your mother's illness, she will be fine."
Uriel kept the curtsey until the Weasley patriarch said in a fond exasperated voice, "rise."
He bid his last goodbyes to Antarctica as he walked down the snow paved sidewalk near the white cherry blossoms. He shivered and bowed for the last time to the Manor that has house his mother and him for seven years. The walk to the waiting center wasn't long, and he wished he could delay it as late as he possibly can. Alas, it would not be wise, for once the queue of sedans were gone, the ones that were not on it better be dieing or dieing already. The emperors did not like late or slow people,even children.
Speaking of sedans, there were a remarkable amount parked in the middle of the streets. It seems that the most parents opted to bring their children there themselves.
Hadrian forced himself to swallow the ugly feelings of jealousy that suddenly seized him. He shook his head and recited the quote his mother use to say about jealousy.
She said "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is a green eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on."
he didn't know what it meant, but he was pretty sure that jealousy wasn't a feeling he wanted to feel very often.
Three palace ladies and two eunuchs were waiting impatiently fir the parents to release their children. Two guards were already checking the sedans for any loose links and the like. Finally, thirty minutes later, they finally were loaded into the sedans. There were three people in each sedan and four footmen were carrying them on their shoulders. One of them had a peculiar scar behind his ear, not quite horrid, but noticeable. Apart from that, he had a lovely face. Brown hair with strong cheek bones and golden eyes.
Uriel smiled shyly at him.
The footman smiled back briefly before he set his eyes back on the road to the "Forbidden city." The ride was bumpy and made Uriel feel like he wanted to vomit. He held it in though.
The other kids in sharing the sedan talked among themselves to relieve some of the anxiety that permeated the air. Not knowing what to say and when to say it, he just put his head against his corner of the moving sedan and tried to slow his breathing. He thought of his poor mother who will benefit from the money the palace will pay for his services.
He thought of the debt he owned the Weasley family in which he could and will repay over the years. With the thought of doing whatever is required cemented deep In his mind, he fell into an uneasy slumber full on white snow and crying lilies on a pond. He woke up to the sound of whimpers and he looked for the source . It didn't take long. The source was the girl sitting on his left. She was crying softly and rubbing at her eyes furiously when she saw him looking in her direction.
"Are you alright?"
Hadrian asked quietly as to not gain the attention of the sleeping girl on their right. The girl didn't reply verbally, but her whimpers became full blown sobs and she shook with sobs. In this situation, there was nothing he could do for her, so he just touched on of her balled fists and patted it twice before letting go and going back to his corner.
After an hour, the sedan grew quiet. When he turned to his left, the crying girl was soundly asleep. He sighed with a touch of envy. He wished he could cry as hard as she did, then go to sleep peacefully like nothing was wrong. With a hint of annoyance, he noticed that he was again feeling envious.
"Hmm, it seems ridding myself of this emotion is much easier said than done."
He opened his eyes wide in alarm when the sedan came to a halt and the footmen set it down gently. He shook the other occupants awake and looked straight ahead, waiting for someone to instruct them on what they were supposed to. He didn't have to wait long.
A minute or so later, a pretty lady with a silk Chinese robe embroidered with white doves with a leaf of some sort in it's mouth told them with a small closed smile to get out and join the other children outside. Harry hurried to comply. It turns out that 'outside'. Was the entrance of the forbidden city, also called "A shameful place" by his dear mother. The children outside were a little older than him and much taller than his measly 4'6in.
He pouted a little. It seems he's the smallest and shortest everywhere he went. One of the more braver children was wearing a cocky smile while making gestures with his hands about how he had brothers in the military and how likely he was going to be a "cool military dude with the uniform and all." a very admirable but difficult position to get.
The three palace ladies went about organizing everyone from the age of seven to eight, nine to twelve and finally thirteen to seventeen.
There were only two seven year old's, including Hadrian, six eight year old's, about nine nine yr old's, two ten yr old's four eleven yr old's,and three twelve yr old's. On the other side were the older kids. Four thirteen yr old's, four fourteen yr old's, three fifteen yr old's, five sixteen yr old's, and three seventeen yr old's.
The boys were separated from the girls and the eunuchs took them to another wing in the palace. As for the older girls and hermaphrodites from thirteen to seventeen, they were of marriageable ages and so would be going to the imperial hall of intelligence to be chosen as concubines or rejected and sent home.
The others would be grouped into large numbers and sent off to study as hard as they could to be future servants, palace lady, concubines, consorts, and perhaps even empresses. It just so happens that Uriel, was assigned to the dance department. He didn't mind, dance was one of his favorite things to do.
Now if only the other kids left him alone to do as he wished.
They were sent to a large spacious room that was warm but bare of any valuables. They set up their futons and were taught how to sleep in the palace. Apparently the palace had it's own twist on sleeping. Lady ar Shen, the beautiful lady from earlier, said that when sleeping, you sleep on your back and put your head in the middle of the rigid rectangular pillow on the north of the futons. You keep your hands together on your chest and lay as straight as you possibly can. The light from the candles were not to be lit unless you were writing something, the ink is rationed between about twelve people in the room. And most importantly, never steal. It didn't matter if you stole from your mistress, master or peers.
The next morning was very hectic.
People were waking up and expecting bacon and eggs and a kiss from mommy...needless to say, the reality check was cruel.
Unlike last night, Lady Shen didn't smile when she woke us up at five thirty in the morning. The complaints were louder than the yawns which slipped by once every few seconds. They were promptly instructed to sweep the grounds, wipe the veranda, dust the books and many other household chore that Uriel did on a day to day basis. After the cleaning, they were instructed on how to curtsy and to what degree depending on the person.
When everybody's knees were aching and their feet in even worse condition because of the heels they were forced to walk on, they commenced on to the basics of dance. There was a lot of complicated steps thrown in there, but Harry could swear the dance was the "lotus floating on water". He learned that dance when he was six. It was a hard dance that was no where near basics but if the ladies said it was, then it was.
The dance took Uriel a week to completely master and execute perfectly with no mistakes. The turns and twirls were the ones that gave him trouble in the beginning. No matter how flexible he was, the dance was a workout all on it's own. The teachers moved them through many dances over the course of a month and soon Uriel was breezing through dance. During the breaks, they were required to help with dish washing, embroiderer and other tasks which needed small hands at work.
No sooner than two months later did his first pay go to his mother. He wrote a short message for her to keep seeing the doctor and that she should not cry too much , he's doing fine. The teachers sometimes were puzzled by him. He didn't say much he didn't respond much unless give a direct order to. He talked to some of the other children, but almost all but three including him, were girls.
He was slowly but surely loosing his boyish features and instead growing into his feminine side. A year went by in which he was preoccupied by cleaning, dancing, cleaning, embroidering, sewing, washing, and many other activities. On the day he turned nine, he was assigned a mistress.
Lady Jasmine of the house of Lea. She was one of the new ladies of the court. She wasn't even a concubine yet, so people looked down at her and jeered at her when she walked by. On top of being low ranked, she also had a low self-esteem and brought herself down countless of times. Though the work load was less, it was still as demanding as his previous jobs of scrubbing and the like.
The day after new years, he saw something that broke the little innocence he had left.
His mistress, had mistakenly mocked consort Quinn, the new favorite of the Grand emperor. The consort had her caned until her blood was covering the white roses in the garden.
"Painting" she called it in her rich and confidant tone. "what a beautiful red the roses have become." she continued to mock Lady Jasmine who had trouble speaking,much less standing.
Uriel shook with horror. His green eyes were wide and his head was shaking from side to side as he was forced to watch his beautiful mistress flogged to death.
"Stop! Please stop!"he yelled in a desperate voice.
Consort Quinn tilted her pretty head adorned with beautiful ornaments to Hadrian's way and spoke in a soft dangerous voice
" You dare stop me?"
"Your servant wouldn't dare" Hadrian responded quickly with sweaty palms.
As if she was offering a better option, she asked again in a saccharine voice, "well, sweetie, would you rather take her place?"
Though Hadrian would had loved to say no, his mistress was almost on the verge of death. There was really no choice here. It was either choose the mistress and die, or save yourself and let the mistress die.
Hadrian raised his head slowly and said "Yes".
Of all the reactions he was expecting, he did not anticipate the soft genuine laughter that rang through the palace of great Honor.
His head, which he lowered as soon as he had answered, rose again and discreetly peeked at the consort as if she'd gone mad.