Chapter 10: "Secrets Hidden, Secrets Revealed"

Ten year old Marlene watched as the royals from other countries filled Palas' palace dining room. It was her birthday, and she had been so excited. Had been. She hated these parties where all these people from so far away would come and eat. She didn't know any of them, they didn't know her and yet they came.

Every year they came. Or so her mother had told her when she had complained an hour ago, before the dinner. It seemed so long ago, that argument. Only an hour had passed, but Marlene was so bored. She had asked why she had to go to the dinner. "Because it is a festivity in your honor. You should be excited, meeting all those people." Well, she didn't feel excited. She felt rather trapped. "Besides, it is the same as last year. And the year before. Ever since you were born, the delegates have come and celebrated your birthday with us. The same for Eries and Millerna as well. It is your duty, as an Asturian princess, to show for your public party. You should be happy." Marlene wasn't happy. She didn't want to celebrate here, with all of these strangers.

She wanted to escape.

She felt Eries fidget slightly beside her. She was just as bored and annoyed with this party as Marlene was. Eries poked her under the table. Marlene gave her a look.

"Mommy," Eries whined.

Therese looked at her around her ranting husband. "Yes honey?" she asked rather absently.

"I have to go to the bathroom."

Therese sighed, "Marlene, will you take her please, I'm busy." The rather plump woman beside their mother looked a bit peeved that the two princesses had interrupted their conversation. To Marlene, she looked like a puffer fish that the girls had seen in their picture books. Marlene stifled a giggle.

"Mommy," Eries asked again.

"Yes dear?" Puffer fish looked even more annoyed.

"I wanna go to bed, too."

"Marlene, will you put her to bed please?"

"Yes, Mother. May I go to bed as well?" Marlene forced a yawn.

"Yes, dear; it is well past your bed time. Find Reshaya and she'll put you both to bed." Therese continued to pay little attention to her children, as she had gone back to her conversation with Puffer fish.

Marlene and Eries hurried out of the hall as fast as they could without appearing to actually hurry. Several people stopped them to wish Marlene a happy birthday and the two princesses good night.

One couple, who had their own daughter with them, caught Marlene's eye just as she was going through the doorway. Their daughter looked almost exactly like Eries, but a little older and mature and grown up. Marlene blinked and by that time they were no longer in the dining hall but in a hallway. Marlene's ten-year-old mind, as well as Eries tugging on her sleeve, pushed the mysterious girl aside. She forgot about the girl as she helped Eries get ready for bed.

-AtV,BtV-

Date: Green, 24th Moon

Today is Millerna's eleventh birthday. Eries and I are getting too old to pull our old tricks to leave the festivities. Millerna's getting to an age where she can stay up longer, which means that Eries and I must suffer through an even longer party.

Why does Father even host these parties for us? Yes, we do receive gifts, but all he does is talk with the dignitaries. All these people are here to speak to Father, not to celebrate our birthdays. They're here to look good, not to celebrate us gaining another year of life. They get free food and cost Asturia money. They put on airs, too, some of them. They didn't want to be here anymore than Eries or I do.

Millerna seems to like this more than we ever did. The guests give her more attention than they gave Eries and me. I'm trying not to be jealous. She's sitting at her own table, with different dishes scattered about her. Even though she's only eleven, she gets to sit by herself. Of course, Mother's gone, and that's why we don't sit as a family any more. Father sits with all the important guests and discusses 'matters of importance' instead of
sitting with his family and the reason we even have this festivity, Millerna.

My mind tends to wander in these instances. I think about various topics. Sometimes I think about my studies, trying to remember the things our tutor has taught us. What, by Pisces, is on my plate? Why we had to wear our corsets and these fashionable cloths that were so uncomfortable?

I try to keep my mind off of Allen, fearful that we will be found out.

My eyes tend to wander, too, just as much as my thoughts. I love to see what other countries' fashions are and how they've changed since last year's festivities. And laugh. Sometimes they're just strange, the fashions I mean.

Sometimes they are down right wrong. Like the one woman from Egzardia, her dress barely covers her at all. Sometimes it is just not fair. The delegates from Trellyx are wearing comfortable, yet very neat clothing. It wasn't fashionable, but it wasn't horridly out of style, either. In fact, their daughter, maybe a few years older than me, was wearing a "clean" pair of pants and a rather pretty red, long sleeve shirt.

It was then that I got a better look at the Trellyxian woman. It was the same young girl I had seen at my tenth birthday party.

It was her.

My older sister.

Secret, illegitimate child of Therese and Aston.

-AtV,BtV-

"Esesra," Eries read, whispering the name. "By Pisces!" The middle Asturian princess felt behind her for the chair and in a rather un-princess-like manner slumped into it. She looked around the villa's bedroom. It reminded her so much of her sister.

She looked again at the sheet of diary paper in her hand. She remembered giving the book to her sister for her thirteenth birthday. She also remembered Millerna finding the actual book only seven months before hand. This page, the one telling of her illegitimate sister, had been ripped out of the book and had been caught in the secret drawer. Millerna had never seen it. But was Marlene right? How had she come to know if she was?

Eries had walked into the villa to take a moment to be by herself. She had needed peace and quiet, only for a moment, to just get away. She and Millerna were in Freid, visiting Chid during the small lapse in the summit. They had brought with them workers and building guymelefs. A messenger had come to them in Asturia two months ago from Freid bearing news and asking for rebuilding supplies. Eries and Millerna had decided to do more than just send supplies for their sister's country. They decided to send supplies, workers and guymelefs and then they decided to take a break from Palas life and go over to Freid to visit their nephew.

That was how Eries ended up in Marlene's villa, Freid, and with the knowledge that she had an illicit older sister.

She wasn't the middle princess, the second-born, as she had always been told. She was the third.

'But how could Marlene have found out?'

-AtV-BtV-

"Mother?" Marlene asked tentatively. Therese lay on the bed, quietly. Her face bore pain. She was tired. "Mother?" Marlene asked again.

Therese's eyes opened. It took them a moment to focus and find her daughter. She said weakly, "Yes, Marlene?"

Marlene sat by her mother's bedside and took her hand. It was cold and limp. She bit back a sob. Her mother was dying. "Mother..." she whispered. "I know."

"You... know what… darling?"

Every word was a strain for her mother, Marlene could feel it. She could almost see whatever strength her mother had left flowing rapidly out of her body.

"I... I know about Esesra."

Therese's eyes widened slightly and then closed. She sighed heavily, weakly, "I'm glad someone knows. Your father won't admit it, doesn't want to admit he was weak when he was younger. The advisors wished to cover it up. They won't acknowledge it either."

"Mother, what happened?"

"Your father couldn't keep his hands off me when we first met and knew we were betrothed," She smiled slightly at the memory only she could see. "Your father was once young, rash and rather impulsive." She tried to smile. "She is of pure Asturian noble blood. But because it happened before the marriage - and it was rather obvious - the advisors denied her the throne and a life here."

"Oh Mother," Marlene crawled up on the massive bed to comfort her mother.

"I watched my daughter grow up in another country, another home, and with another mother." Therese's spirit seemed to shudder, though Marlene didn't see it, she felt it.

"I love you, Mother," Marlene hugged her mother again.

"I love you too, very much, Marlene."

Marlene and Therese sat in silence. Therese slowly slipped into sleep and Marlene left several minutes later.