ACE OF SEVENS:
A HETALIA CARDVERSE FAN FICTION
By
PIONEERINGAUTHOR
PROLOGUE:
"We will come home before you know it!" Moriyah's father assured her.
"All right, Daddy," she sighed as she hugged him. Her little brother was also hugging him, grieved that Daddy had to leave again.
Moriyah's father and mother kissed her brother and her just before they left the palace. The two watched as they walked down the long staircase outside, leading to the road where they entered the carriages and left with the king, queen, Jack, and the rest of the Deck of Clubs. Because their father was the Ace of Clubs, Moriyah and her brother Naphtali were allowed to live in one of the smaller pagodas of the palace, along with their parents. In the Land of the Four Suits, it was not unusual for this to happen. Although each suit had its own rules and customs, they all gladly allowed the entire deck to live within the palace walls. The deck consisted of the king, queen, jack, the advisors numbered 2-10, and of course, the Ace. Out of all the positions, the Ace was the only one inherited from father to eldest son. Once the king died, a new king, queen and jack were elected based on the culture of the suit, and then the king selected his advisors. Once all was said and done, they all lived in the palace together, ruling the land, like Moriyah's parents, the Ace and Seven of Clubs.
In the Suit of Clubs, the king, queen and jack were elected based on their agricultural prowess. The men with the best agricultural skills were nominated to be the new king, as well as the best women in agriculture, and the people elected who they thought would be best. The man with the second highest votes became the jack, the second third highest advisor to the king. The king and queen were not necessarially related or married, although that often did happen. Sometimes queens and kings were siblings, other times mere friends, and sometimes they were married or later became married. Indeed, the politics of the four suits were quite flexible in this regard. However, they did not flex in one place: the ace. Long ago, the ace was a high-ranking general, but over time he became an advisor to the king, and his son earned his title. Now the ace was a permanent member of the deck, never changing no matter who was elected, unless he died. If his son refused to be the ace, he would have to go through a ceremony to denounce his right to the acehood, and the next son would assume the position, and if there was no son, then a daughter would take hold. Of course, this rarely happened. In the Suit of Clubs it only happened once-after all, an agriculture-based land highly encouraged children to help run the farms and society.
The ace had many duties- guarding the king was his main concern, as well as being the executive general of the land, second only to the king, head of security, and the second highest male advisor in the land. Although the king was still technically higher ranked than the ace, the ace was considered more valuable in some suits because of how many duties he performed, and because his position was inherited, not elected. Furthermore, the ace had a dangerous gift: the Cinch Hand. If, for some reason, the ace felt that the king was corrupted, or somehow making a horrid decision, the ace could denounce the king's decision, overruling his authority. This power also applied to the queen and jack. Because of the possibility of this being misused, the Cinch Hand was balanced by this: if the king, queen, and jack all agreed that the ace himself was making a corrupt choice, then the ace would be overruled. Thankfully, the ace rarely used the cinch hand, in any suit, for the ace was focused on supporting the king, and not dethroning him.
Needless to say, the ace was often the most trusted advisor to the king… and often the most disregarded or underrated, for often kings would give their aces many tasks, taking them for granted. Moriyah's father was such an ace, for he was descended from a line of people known as the Ivrit- a fifth suit that was long ago defeated and the people scattered all over the Land of the Four Suits. However, the people did survive, and were reputed for their wisdom and intelligence. Their ancient symbol was that of a man, and indeed they had knowledge that all men envied. Sadly, the other suits often despised what was left of the Ivrit, for they felt they were the remnants of some irritating insect that should be done away with in the world. Hence, even though Moriyah's father was a loyal man, a wise counselor, and a fierce warrior, his king often looked down upon him for being an Ivrit. In truth, he was not pure Ivrit, but because his mother was Ivrit, they all saw him as one, and did not see the loyal Club within him. Indeed, the ace was a trusted advisor, but not always beloved… until the day he died.
Moriyah and Naphtali played in the palace library one day, awaiting their parent's return from the shuffling of the decks at the Neutral Isle, where the four suits came together to speak of peace, plans, and how to maintain harmony among themselves. Although the children knew this was a good thing, they still missed their parents when they left for these shufflings, for often it took several days, not to mention traveling time. They walked about the library, looking at books, playing hide-and-seek, and forgetting about the time as it flew away from them. Suddenly one of the servants commented, "Oh, there are the carriages-we better get ready to clean up the dirt they'll track into the buildings,"
And Moriyah knew that Daddy was coming home. She rushed out of the room with her little brother following on her heels excitedly. They stood outside the birch doors of the main building of the Palace of clubs, trying their best to look grown-up as they watched the carriages from afar, waiting for their parents to come out and walk towards them. The sunlight illuminated the many vines growing down from the second story of the Palace, and the breeze played with them gently as the two young children waited. As they gazed at the carriages they saw the king and queen exit the first one, then the jack and the Ten of Clubs, and other advisors exited the other carriages… and two people dressed in black were carrying boards cloaked in black fabric. Moriyah wondered what they were carrying, and watched as the procession approached, walking slowly up the steps towards the main terrace where they were, in front of the palace doors. As the king neared, Moriyah and Naphtali stepped back and bowed, but although they were silent, panic was in their eyes, for they couldn't see Mommy or Daddy.
The king stopped for a moment and studied the children. Moriyah chanced a look up, fixing her ice-blue eyes on the tall grown-up, bearded man before her. His brown eyes were unreadable as he turned away and walked into the building with his queen and jack beside him.
"Follow," The king ordered the siblings quietly as he pushed open the doors.
After giving each other a confused look, the two obeyed. The king led Moriyah and Naphtali to his study where he stood with his regally dressed queen and jack. Waiting for someone to say something, Moriyah felt a dark feeling creep over her. In the end her worst fears were confirmed: her parents were dead. While at the Shuffling, the suit of Hearts and Clubs were discussing something, and the two kings began arguing fiercely, which made the Ace of Hearts angry, and over the days it became worse and worse, until the Ace of Hearts lunged at the King of Clubs. Doing his job, the Ace of Clubs blocked the blow, and began fighting the Ace of Hearts in melee combat. The Seven of Clubs, Moriyah's mother, attempted to restore peace, but the Ace of Hearts accidentally killed her. To avenge his wife, the Ace of Clubs lunged at the Ace of Hearts, and was stabbed in the chest. It all happened so fast that the others could barely process it as the Ace of Clubs crumpled to the ground in pain. By this time the Ace of Hearts realized what he was doing and stepped back in shock. Immediately the other decks tried to save the Ace of Clubs, taking him to a nearby infirmary… but to no avail. Now the ace and his faithful wife were dead, ready to be buried. Moriyah and Naphtali couldn't believe it, but when the king took them to the morgue, showed them what was under the black cloth… the children knew it was true. Moriyah was eleven, and Napthali was only ten, yet now they were all alone.
Over the years Naphtali assumed the position of Ace when the next king, Yao, was elected, and Moriyah was selected to be the next Seven of Clubs by the new king. They did their best to serve their suit and their deck, but as their father was looked down upon for his blood so were they. In fact, there came a time when a servant went insane, began screaming something about the Ivrit, and attacked Moriyah, scarring the left side of her face. Defending his sister, Naphtalia grabbed the woman's arm, trying to hold the blade back, but she was in such a rage that she cut his face too. Eventually the woman was subdued and sent to a dungeon where she eventually died of disease. However, what she did was forever remembered, for the left side of Moriyah's face held a long scar going from above her eye down to her jawline, while Naphtali had a scar that forked across the right side of his face like a lightning bolt. That was not the only pain the two had, though, for as part of their position they made many friends inside and outside of the palace, many of whom died in battle or went on to some other part of the kingdom, and the two both missed having companions they could trust, besides the deck, which often looked down upon them. Moriyah took it the hardest, though. She found it harder and harder to make friends, and feeling that no one could love her because of her scar and her heritage, she decided to lock away her heart, avoiding getting too attatched to anyone except her brother, and a few kind members of the deck. Indeed, the two had faced many challenges, but they had many more to overcome.
Okay, a few things:
1. I am using human names for this.
2. This is cardverse, but I have changed who most of the decks are because the suits actually have a meaning:
Spades= military
Hearts = Religion (and in modern day love)
Diamonds = economy, money, etc.
Clubs = agriculture
With this in mind I thought it didn't make any sense that Germany, the military-minded one was the king of HEARTS...really? Yeah, no.
I won't spam you with the full cast of characters, but will put the prominent names in here somewhere... somehow.
If there is anything I should fix please inform me kindly so I can get on it.
Seven of Clubs- N. Israel (Moriyah Beulah Tziyon)
Ace of Clubs - S. Israel/ Judah (Naphtali Shalom Tziyon)
King of Clubs - China - Wang Yao
The pioneer with a heart for people and a thousand stories to tell ~+~
P.S. On Deviant art I have the same name, and I have a few pictures of the palace and some of the prominent characters.