Prince Jackson
My bedroom door swung open, and I jumped, which caused the fabric of my tie to slip through my fingers. "Merlin's sake," I grumbled, giving up and grabbing my wand. With a quick swish, the tie knotted itself.
Aylee swept into the room in a floor length gown. She looked impatient. "You realize you're late to your own birthday party?"
I pulled my suit jacket on. "Not helping, Ayl." In stark contrast to my late older sister, Florence, Aylee wasn't the most comforting presence. While she highly logical and intelligent, emotions weren't where she excelled.
"Why don't you just turn your clocks ahead?" she asked. "Make it impossible for yourself to be late."
"But then I would know that they were early, and I would still be late," I argued. Aylee rolled her eyes. Before she could ask if I was almost ready, I remarked, "I'm just looking for my cufflinks."
"Are you a wizard or not?" demanded Aylee. She produced her wand from a small clutch that coordinated with her dress and confidently declared, "Uocare." The silver cufflinks unearthed themselves from under a pile of papers on my dresser and zoomed into her hand. She handed them over.
As I fixed them into place, Aylee crossed her arms and looked at me in an evaluating manner. "You wouldn't be stalling on purpose, would you?"
The blush rose in my face before I could fight it. "Of course not," I scoffed. "Why would I—"
"I don't know," she admitted, "But pretending you can't find your cufflinks when all it required was the simplest spell seems like stalling to me. Also, you had all day to get ready. I had lessons until four, and I was still on time."
"Well, I'm ready now," I declared. "So, do you want to chat or get to the party before Mom kills both of us?"
"She wouldn't kill me," countered Aylee, "They need at least one child, and Mom's too old to produce another heir."
I snorted and directed her towards the door. "Don't let her hear you saying that, or she will definitely kill you."
If I was being honest, Aylee was right. I had been stalling a little bit. Although I was usually excited for my birthday, this year it had been overshadowed by the announcement of the Selected. That was something I was a little less excited and more nervous for.
I didn't really know what I wanted in a wife yet—I'd had one relationship to this point, and let's just say it didn't go the best—but ready or not, I'd be introducing my thirty-five choices tonight. It'd be not only my but the country's first look at the Selected.
The combination of voices and music could already be heard outside the ballroom, and I hoped that Mom and Dad wouldn't notice just how late I was. "Think we'll be able to sneak in?" I asked Aylee.
"Not a chance."
She was right. As soon as the guards opened the doors to the ballroom, the butler stationed at the top of the stairs took note of us and silenced the room. "Announcing Crown Prince Jackson and Princess Aylee!"
I considered casting a concealment charm so that I would blend into the shadows as what felt like a million eyes turned to us. "Don't trip," teased Aylee under her breath before she gracefully descended the stairs.
Joke was on her, since I'd already applied an anti-slip potion to the soles of my dress shoes. I beat her to the bottom and made my way to Mom and Dad. "You're late," Mom noted through a forced smile as she hugged me.
"Do I get birthday forgiveness?" I asked hopefully. Mom chuckled but didn't agree, so I decided to try another strategy to escape any trouble: turning the conversation to her new favorite topic. "So, uh, this Selection announcement. How's that gonna happen? Is there a plan, or…?"
Until this point, it seemed like the Selection was an event that was highly organized down to the most miniscule detail. However, it turned out that wasn't the case. "Just do it however you like, Jackson," offered Dad. His statement was accompanied by his usual Florian chuckle, which I had always thought sounded more like a giggle. "It doesn't really matter."
"Are you daft?" demanded Voris with a roll of his eyes as he joined our group, Minnie at his side. He was usually the most critical of Dad's lackadaisical tendencies. "Announce them by caste. It'll be more organized."
"It might seem biased that way," Minnie pointed out. She was one of the few who didn't wither under Voris's intense gaze when she contradicted him. "Why don't you do it in alphabetical order?"
That sounded logical. "Sure," I nodded. A moment later though, I frowned. "Uh, can someone alphabetize them first?"
"Are you kidding me?" laughed Aylee. "What, do you not know the alphabet?"
"Of course I do!" I sputtered, "It's just hard to do at the drop of a hat."
But Mom, who had taken the reins on the Selection up to this point, looked fed up with our deliberations. "Just open them," she declared, "They're already in random order, so just open the file, read the name, and move on. We'll do it after everyone's seated for dinner."
I nodded in agreement. That wasn't too bad. It usually took forever for them to serve dinner at state events.
This time, the joke was on me. Less than twenty minutes later, we were all seated, and Abasi was beckoning me to a small podium. "Just read the name and province," he explained. "We'll project their picture on the screen and then it'll be on to the next!"
"What screen?" I frowned as I glanced around the podium. "And what if I can't pronounce their name? Do I do first and last, or just one? Do I call them Miss or Lady?" I didn't even know I had that many questions before I'd been faced with the task.
"Okay, great," Abasi grinned, answering none of the inquiries. He waved his wand and a screen appeared, floating in the air behind us. At least there was one problem solved.
Another wave of his wand, and his floating camera blinked to life, the red button that indicated we were live illuminated. "Thank you for joining us, Illéa!" he beamed. He'd always had the best camera smile. His friendly demeanor was one of the things that had gotten him the job of Report host. "First, a very special 'happy birthday' to our dear Prince Jackson!" The room applauded. I waved awkwardly, which made Aylee giggle from her seat next to Mom.
"Now, the moment I know you all have been anxiously awaiting: the announcement of the very lucky ladies that will be joining us in hopes of winning the prince's heart!" he declared. He turned to me. "Prince Jackson, whenever you're ready."
The stack of files was already awaiting me on the podium, and with a deep breath, I opened the first one. I didn't exhale until I realized I could read the name. I felt a little more relaxed when I realized I recognized the girl as well. She was in the music industry, and I'd seen her in magazines and on television. "Miss Merideth Dyonis from Columbia."
As soon as her picture faded from the screen, I moved on to the next. "Miss Jami Greyson from Labrador." I'd never seen this girl before, so I glanced over my shoulder to study her. She had light brown hair and vibrant blue-green eyes. There was a light spray of freckles over her nose and the tops of her cheeks, and before I really thought about it, I remarked, "Pretty." I didn't realize what I'd done until the room chuckled, and my cheeks burned with embarrassment.
Luckily, Abasi gave a warm smile. "As they all are! Our next Selected, Your Highness?"
Good thing I had a pro like Abasi on my side. "Miss Mikaela Avenue from Lakedon." Her picture flashed on the screen as well, but this time I was distracted by a different aspect of her file. She was a Seven, which meant that she had no magical abilities. I was intrigued.
The announcement process carried on with little more embarrassment on my part. I stumbled over a few names (and probably looked like an idiot in the process), but all in all, it went well. The girls' names and faces had started to blur together by the end, so I made a mental note to take the files to my room so I could start to learn a little more about them so I could avoid humiliating myself to their faces once they actually arrived.
After the televised portion of the night was over, I made my way back to my seat and was surprised when I noticed who was seated to my right. "Harrod?!"
"Hey, man!" he grinned. He jumped to his feet and gave me an encouraging hug.
"I thought you were already in Likely!" I hugged him back. Since we were kids, Harrod had been my closest friend, more like a brother than a cousin.
"I couldn't miss your birthday," he countered.
My birthday and the Selection wasn't even on my mind anymore though. "How's Briarcliff?" I asked excitedly. "What classes are you taking? Who are your professors? Have you learned anything yet?"
Plunged into nerd-mode with me, Harrod grabbed my arm. "They have a scroll in the library that they think belonged to Merlin! You would love it, Jack."
My jaw dropped. "Dad, why don't we have that?!" I demanded.
"You have Voris," pointed out Harrod with a sly smile, "He's old enough to have belonged to Merlin." I nearly choked on my water as we both glanced down the table at my old tutor.
"But hey, enough about me," countered Harrod, "The Selection. Man. They're arriving next week, right?"
"Don't remind me," I ordered.
"Are you ready?" he asked excitedly.
"As ready as I would be to duel Voris," I shuddered. "Actually, at this point, I think I'd take that over trying to date thirty-five girls."
"It won't be that bad," Harrod countered. My cousin was forever the picture of optimism.
"Let's hope not," I mumbled.
Eira Gryffon, 2, Fennley
The house was quiet in the early hours of morning, and I paused in the elegant foyer, pulling off my heeled black boots. Although it was only a few hours until sunrise, I was just getting in. My socked feet were silent as I hurried up the stairs to my bedroom. If I was lucky, I could snag a couple of hours of sleep before I had to be up for work.
After quickly changing in my bathroom from the black jumpsuit to a pair of pajamas, I slipped into my bed, careful not to disturb the sleeping body next to me. I let out a sigh of relief as I fell back into the fluffy pillows and let my eyes drift shut.
But all of the care that I'd taken was useless as a minute later, the cell phone in my bag across the room began to ring. I grabbed my wand off my nightstand and whispered, "Uocare." The phone flew from the bag to my hand. "Hello?"
"Eira?" the voice in the phone demanded, much too loudly. As always, he pronounced my name wrong: eye-rah instead of air-rah.
I repressed a groan. My boss. "Hi, Mr. Drexel," I muttered, the exhaustion seeping into my voice.
"I need you to come in early," he declared, "That goddess Asena has been at it again."
A smirk slipped onto my face. "Oh really?"
"So, I need you to come in and handle the paperwork," he declared. "I'm trying to help the boys get ahead on paperwork since we're going to be—" He cut himself off as he tried to swallow a laugh. "Since we're going to be covering for you while you're off living your fairytale, Princess." This time, he didn't repress the taunting chortles.
I grit my teeth together. "I'll be right in," I declared as I threw the blanket off to start getting ready.
The sleeping figure in my bed sat up. "Eir?" she asked with a yawn.
"Sorry," I whispered to my best friend, Kalyani. "Got called in early." I paused and smirked. "Apparently, Asena has been out doing the DML's job for them again."
Kalyani laughed. "Oh, really?"
I shrugged in amusement. "Guess she couldn't help herself?"
"Even though Thayer said they're turning up the heat in Angeles looking for Asena?" she said, referring to our other best friend and her boyfriend. "Eir, you have to be careful. You know the palace denounced vigilantism. Voris Alastor has been a very strong opponent against it."
"Well, if I see Asena, I'll let her know," I winked. I pulled my wavy, dark brown hair from its ponytail and shook it out around my shoulders. I usually liked to do my hair and make-up before work, but since it was four AM, I decided to give myself a pass and just reached for some lip gloss. I'd often been told that I didn't need makeup anyway—although usually it was by stupid men who thought that I used it to hide something and couldn't understand that I just liked the process of getting dressed up.
I ducked into the bathroom to change into my uniform and called to Kalyani, "Besides, Asena has to take a vacation from Fennley soon, so why shouldn't she get as many scumbags off the street before she leaves?"
Kalyani gave an excited squeal. "I can't believe you were Selected!" she gushed. "I'm so excited. You'd be such a good princess."
"I'm just excited to get to see my dad a little more often," I smiled to myself. My dad was in politics and worked as an advisor to the king, which meant that he spent most of his time in Angeles. He was the best dad in the world, and we were very close, so I was excited to get to see him more than on the weekends while I was participating in the Selection. As an added bonus, Thayer was interning at the palace with my father, so while I was a little unsure about being a member of Prince Jackson's Selection, there were definitely some upsides to it.
"Oh, so you're not excited about the prince at all?" Kalyani teased, "Thayer says he's cuter in person."
"Why are you and Thayer discussing how cute he is?" I laughed.
"I had to get the scoop on your future boyfriend," Kalyani declared, "just to make sure he's good enough."
"I have met him briefly before," I pointed out as I fell into a chair to pull my shoes on, "He was… pleasant. A little awkward, but still nice."
Kalyani swished her wand, in a movement that made me think she was summoning something even though she didn't verbally say the spell. A moment later, there was a bump at my door, and when I opened it, a cup of coffee floated just outside. "Thanks," I laughed as I took it.
"Something tells me you'll need it," she laughed. "Drexel sounds like he's going to work you to death this week."
"I'd like to see him try," I snorted. I grabbed my bag and waved to Kalyani before I raced down to the foyer to grab a handful of Volatum Powder. I swished it in my hand and thought of my office before I threw it over myself.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing outside Fennley's Magical Law building. I hurried inside and turned down the first hallway, which opened into the enforcement wing. Because of the time, the atrium was mostly empty except for the security guard, Russell. "Good morning, Miss Eira," he smiled. "Hey, congratulations! Boy, was I excited when I saw them say your name on the Report."
I laughed a little uncomfortably. Being Selected didn't feel like a real accomplishment, although people had been congratulating me nonstop since the announcement had been made two nights ago. "Thanks, Russ," I smiled anyway. Russell was one of the few people I worked with that was actually pleasant.
The enforcement office was already busier than I expected when I walked in. There were three men sitting in the holding cell, their hands all bound behind their backs. Before I could even be proud of the work I'd accomplished that night as my covert alter ego, Asena, a large stack of files was shoved into my arms. "Processing," my coworker, Lloyd, declared. "Drexel says to get them finished ASAP and then you're on meter duty."
I rolled my eyes but took the files to my desk. There were a few other deputies present, and they all smirked as I took my seat. "There's the Beauty Queen," laughed one of my coworkers, Matt. "Drexel pull you away from painting your nails?"
I sighed. "It's too early for you to be a chauvinist."
"You better stow that attitude if you want the prince to keep you around," Lloyd muttered as he fell into his seat next to Matt. "That pretty face isn't gonna get you as far there."
"Don't forget, Lloyd-y, her Daddy works there," smirked Matt, "She's got a leg up on all those poor girls."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, because my father is going to be really involved in my dating life," I snapped. I opened the first file. "Asena brought all three of those guys in?"
"Now, that is an impressive woman," declared Matt. "You know she caught that scumbag that's been mugging Ord taxi drivers all over the city?"
Ords were what we referred to non-magical people as. Generally, they belonged to the lower castes, although there were some people in higher castes that chose not to practice magic or didn't possess the ability. While Ords were supposed to be regarded the same protection as any Wand (the common term for witches and wizards), complaints made by Ords were generally regarded as low priority and usually took months to resolve, if they were even dealt with at all.
An attack against an Ord was what had motivated me to become a deputy in the first place. I'd been walking home from the library after a night of studying when I saw an Ord attacked by a Wand. I'd intervened, but it'd been useless. He'd died before medical help had arrived, and the man who had attacked him had never been caught.
But joining the Department of Magical Law hadn't been exactly what I hoped for either. Instead of being out in the field, defending those who couldn't defend themselves, I was constantly stuck on desk duty or dealing with petty complaints while putting up with teasing from my coworkers and superiors. You name it, they joked about it: I was too pretty, too well off, too opinionated, too girly. They had a million ways of snidely complaining about the fact that a woman had made it into their department as something other than a receptionist.
It was the resulting disillusionment of organized law that had inspired me to create Asena. Cloaked in black and a mask—always with a pair of impressive boots, because even vigilantes had to be fashionable—and armed with the information that my job with the DML made available to me, I took care of the criminals that had evaded my lazy coworkers or the cases that were deemed 'unimportant'. Every collar I made as Asena made putting up with the awful, sexist pigs in my office worth it.
The truly hilarious part was that they loved me as Asena. Although vigilantism had been denounced by the palace, Asena had fans everywhere. They loved the idea of someone protecting the little people, and while the DML had been put on alert to capture the vigilante if possible, many offices turned a blind eye to my exploits as Asena.
"We did get a new picture of her from security footage though," Lloyd announced. I stiffened for a moment a she pulled the photo from a folder, but it was useless. The trusty black mask hid my features well.
Matt whistled. "What I wouldn't do to get with a girl like her."
I rolled my eyes. "Something tells me she has higher standards."
Matt's eyes narrowed at me. "You gonna process those arrests or lollygag all morning?" he demanded.
"Yeah, cause if you got all this spare time, Matt and I were talking about how a sandwich sounds pretty nice right about now. You're pretty familiar with the kitchen as a girl, aren't you?" interjected Lloyd. He and Matt chuckled and then gave each other ridiculous high-fives.
My lip curled at the pair. While I hadn't been sure how to feel about being Selected when it had first happened, I couldn't wait to be away from the pigs that they claimed were deputies. Only seven more days until I was liberated from the oppression of their stupidity. I only hoped that Prince Jackson was more impressive than Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb.
A/N: Hi everyone! I hope everyone has been enjoying their holidays. So now you've met Eira, our second main character! I'm not sure how many mains there will be, but there will be several supporting characters as well. I did also just want to mention, if you've reserved a character, please get her in by January 1st. If you don't have part of her messaged to me by then, I will be opening the spots. If you know you won't be able to have her in by then, please message me and we can discuss it. Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who has sent in a character, reviewed, and followed (:
