Udacha smelled strongly of waste and people. It was like entering into a rotting river of seaweed for Elizabeta. The areas beside the road were overflowing with onlookers and occasionally some kid would run out and a mother would scramble after them before they could be crushed under the elaborate carriages.
Elizabeta watched all this with some morbid kind of fascination. She found it unbelievable that these people were used to being this close to others, that having bodies pressed up against them at all times was completely normal. There was a huge wall made of random mismatched blocks of stone at the far side of the sprawling city. The carriages approached two large wooden doors with Clubs carved into them and painted green.
These doors began to open when the King's carriage got close. Elizabeta craned her neck and saw two watchtowers with crossbows aimed at the crowds, ready to shoot at anybody who even thought of posing a threat. That morbid fascination returned as Elizabeta watched the guard on her left shoot his bow somewhere in the crowd. She followed it with her eye to a man at the edge of the sidewalk holding a butter knife in one hand and being pulled by a young girl in the other. The arrow shot by the guard stuck itself into the shoulder of the arm with the knife and the hand immediately fell limp at his side. The knife clattered to the ground and was quickly covered in the blood streaming from the wound. Both Elizabeta and the man stared dumbly at the arrow until the girl noticed her father's injury and started shrieking hysterically.
Elizabeta turned her head from the scene and caught Eva staring at it with an expression crossed between disgust and sadness. She turned her head from Eva's painful expression and noticed Lars looking at her worriedly. When she cocked her head to ask him what he meant, he shook his head meaning it was nothing. Though the expression of serious worrying remained.
Inside the walls was a stark contrast to outside the walls. There was a steep incline where a mountain started. The yards on either side of the road were dead and brown from the swirling winds of winter. There were coniferous trees dotted in clusters and rocks jutted out of the uneven slopes. At the top of the long slope there was a large brown wall on a plateau. Upon closer examination, Elizabeta realized there were short fat towers coming out of the left side of the wall.
Once the entire caravan had made it to the top of the plateau, the Face Cards and family got out of the wagons that were then driven to some unseen place around the side of the wall-castle. Ivan started walking toward the Club-shaped entrance without hesitation with Vlad at his heels. Toris followed closely behind though he seemed slightly reluctant to do so. Roderich motioned for Elizabeta to follow him and they started on their way to the crumbling building. Now that Elizabeta'd had a better look at the wall, she noticed other cylindrical buildings peeking over the wall in various other places along the sides. They were surrounded in mountains and the clouds appeared dangerously close.
The group had nearly halved the distance when two young women ran out of the entrance towards them. They both reached Ivan at the same time and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug. "Ivan's sisters, Princesses Natalia Arlovskaya and Katyusha Braginskaya." Roderich said to Elizabeta and her family when they looked at him in question.
Katyusha eventually leg Ivan go and after he caught as much of his breath as he could with Natalia still attached he motioned for Elizabeta to come over. "This is Elizabeta Hedervary, the new Queen of Clubs. I assume you'll be treating her well, da?" Ivan gave a look that looked something like a warning to Natalia, whom he'd finally managed to unwrap. Elizabeta found it creepy how he kept his smile on even when doing so.
"Elizabeta, this is my older sister Princess Katyusha Braginskaya. She's very nice." Ivan's smile faltered dramatically at the hesitation between very and nice. "She will most likely show you around the castle and will probably be there to help if you have any problems that need sorting out." Ivan seemed to be trying very hard to keep his smile in place. Katyusha gave a "nice to meet you" and waved happily. Katyusha wore a cheerful green skirt that billowed down to about her knees. She, like Elizabeta, didn't wear anything fancy with it, not even shoes. Elizabeta noticed with some surprise that the skirt was actually a pair of overalls. There was a white long-sleeved button-up shirt tucked into the skirt, and one of the buttons over her er...generous bosom had come out. Katyusha's face seemed nice and friendly thought there appeared to be something darker behind her slightly weak expression. Her teal eyes appeared to have tears at the edges. Short blond hair was pulled back by a thick white headband and the pieces that had fallen out of that were pulled back by bobby pins in crosses.
"This is my younger sister Natalia Arlovskaya. She is very pretty." Once again there was a falter and a hesitation. Elizabeta was starting to think Ivan wasn't as fond of his sisters as they appeared to be of him. "Err...she'll, uh, maybe be nice to you a little? Somewhat." Now he just looked like he was in pain. Natalia wore a long dress that went almost down to the ground, but not quite, revealing her bare feet. It was the color of pine needles. There was a mint green apron-type thing in the front of the dress held up by a thick sash striped horizontally with both colors. The sash was tied in a bow and you could just see the edges of it sticking out behind her thin waist. The collar was the minty color and circled out in the front a little. It was tied with a bow of the darker shade. The sleeves poofed out a lot at the shoulders but then went tight over Natalia's slim arms. The cuffs went about halfway up her arms and were held in place by silver club-shaped cufflinks. Natalia's face was indeed beautiful but it was a cold, almost scary type of beauty. The blue eyes were icy and stared at Elizabeta with a mix between something that resembled jealousy and murderous intent. Natalia's light blond hair was held back by a mint bow and fell to about the bow on her back.
Natalia simply turned and marched back towards the entrance with authority. Katyusha quickly followed behind her saying something about being rude to people of higher standing than her. When they disappeared Ivan uttered something that sounded like a sight of relief and her started back towards the entrance. Elizabeta and company followed him through the Club and into a large courtyard. Elizabeta was sure it'd be beautiful in all other seasons but now it was dead. The skeletons of bushes pointed confusedly in all directions at the guilty evergreens' needles, the only things left alive in the courtyard. Brown buildings bubbled out in fat cylinders from random spots along the wall.
Elizabeta turned to her left and there was a space in the wall beside the giant cylinder that led to more buildings of varying shapes and sizes. Katyusha came out of the Large Cylinder and approached the group. "I'll show Elizabeta around the castle now, if you want me to, Ivan." She said without looking at Elizabeta.
Ivan's smile widened. "Da, that would be very helpful. I'll have Yelena show Eva around and there is something I'd like to speak to Lars about." Elizabeta looked at Lars for some hint as to what that may be but Lars remained mysteriously expressionless.
A middle-aged woman appeared at Ivan's side. She was wearing a maid's outfit and pressing what looked like a tray to her stomach. "You called?" She asked in a voice like honey. She looked over at Eva and smiled warmly. Her black hair was pulled back and even when it was braided it fell to the small of her back. It was shot through with lightning strikes of brilliant white. Her skin was tanned and her hands were calloused from years of work.
"Da, I would like you to help the new Queen Elizabeta Hedervary's younger sister Eva find her way around." Yelena nodded and guided Eva off towards the space in the wall. "Come, Lars. We have many things to speak of, da?" Ivan motioned and they started off towards one of the random cylinders on the wall.
Katyusha looked at Elizabeta. "Shall we start?" she asked. Toris and Roderich had disappeared and Elizabeta guessed Vlad had went with Ivan. After a while you kinda forgot he was there. They started towards the space and explored the buildings in there for hours. There was practically an entire village right within the castle walls. Elizabeta's favorite room was the Library. It had an entire building all to itself! Though Elizabeta enjoyed being outside, there was nothing she like more than knowing stuff, and the best way to know stuff is to learn it. That's what libraries are for. Knowing stuff.
The Giant Cylinder was the rooms of all the Face Cards and their families and servants. The servant's quarters were a sprawling building at the edge of the area where the wall turned out. The orders of the building was the highest was on top. King Ivan had the top floor, Elizabeta had the next, Roderich was after that, below him was Toris, then came Ivan's family, next was Elizabeta's family, at the bottom was the close servants. Apparently Roderich and Toris didn't have any family that lived with them. When Elizabeta asked Katyusha about this, she said Roderich's family lived in a different area of the castle set aside for the highest nobles and the Grand Council. Nobody was allowed in this part except those who lived there. Toris' family wasn't actually related to him but they all grew up together and each of them were the Aces to each Kingdom.
The dining hall was all the way across the courtyard in another one of those cylinders. The dining room was on the top floor, though they often ate on the roof when it was nice out according to Katyusha. The bottom two floors of the dining hall were hot and crowded with people yelling orders and cooking food. It smelled like heaven in there though. The third floor appeared to be where the servants ate. It was jam-packed with tables and chairs in random and uneven patterns. In the higher dining hall there were two long tables. One for the council and nobles and one for the Face Cards and the family. When Elizabeta and Katyusha arrived, everybody else was already there. Katyusha promptly burst into tears and began apologizing for being late and that it was all her fault and that she promises it'll never happen again but please forgive her for being so late that the food's cold and inedible she knows what she'll do she'll go and eat with the servants that's the only way she can make up for horrible faults she hopes her younger brother can find it in his kind heart to forgive such a useless older sister.
And she left. Ivan sighed with his smile still on. "Don't mind her, she's always like that. She'll get over it eventually." Natalia said without turning around. Elizabeta nodded and took her seat with Toris at her right and Eva at her left. Elizabeta paid close attention to the way others ate and tried to copy their unconscious sophistication. And failed.
Lars was eating stiffly like something was bothering him. Elizabeta just dismissed it as eating in front of all the Face Cards like that. Though, as the meal continued on, he only seemed to get more stressed and Elizabeta decided to ask him about it after dinner. Vlad was nowhere in sight. When Elizabeta asked Toris about it he said Vlad ate down with the servants on the third. floor. Toris mumbled under his breath, "that way he can get some relief." Elizabeta understood what he meant. Being around Ivan was like being a mouse watched by a harmless little chick, but when you got close to it, it turned into a vulture. He watched your every move and took note of it, ready to twist it against you the first chance he got. Under that smile he was slowly calculating your painful demise and the many ways he could go about executing it. It struck Elizabeta that that was what the three siblings had in common.
After dinner Lars and Ivan disappeared wordlessly and Elizabeta couldn't find them anywhere. It wasn't until it was time to go to bed that Elizabeta had the chance to talk to him. "What were you so upset about at dinner?" Elizabeta caught Lars' arm and asked him.
"I was upset? Must not have noticed." Lars answered and continued to walk towards the Giant Cylinder.
Elizabeta matched his pace. "You were obviously upset about something, do you think I'm stupid? And I want to know what it is. You shouldn't keep secrets from family."
"I wasn't upset that much. Maybe all this stress is getting to you. I know it's getting to me. And I have a lot more coming. That's probably why I appeared upset. I was stressing."
"Okay, then what did you and Ivan talk about?" Elizabeta wasn't about to give up.
"Politics. Money." Obviously.
"But there had to be something else that got you so stressed. You don't crack easily."
"Even if there was, it's not like it would concern you. I think you must have mistook the way I was eating." Lars ascended into his suite and Elizabeta started climbing to hers. That was a hint all right. And he knew it. Elizabeta's mind forgot to be puzzled when she laid down in the soft warm bed. She'd figure it out all right. It was something bit and it certainly did concern her. Lars had said that pretty clearly. Maybe he wasn't allowed to tell or something, though he never was the type to concern his problems with others. They got in the way of his final goal: money. It didn't matter right then anyways. Elizabeta had some sleep to catch up on.
A/N: So I'm really sorry about not updating last weekend. I kinda forgot my flashdrive... AzamiBlossom, SapphyreMyst, and greyeyes1kittycat, your reviews were very helpful and I'll keep in mind everything you said. The advice made me rethink this whole chapter and I think it turned out loads better! And to SappyreMyst and all others who were wondering, you can find out about cardverse by looking it up on google and going to the wikia page. BetweenDreamsAndReality has a great Cardverse story called A Clockwork Spade, which is where I learned most about it. Also, The Book of Hetalia Logic by Mitsuki Horenake are great for learning the characters. I do not own Hetalia or any of the stories just mentioned.