Chapter 3:Presentation
The next morning Pastoria watched the city below from the balcony of the throne room with Locasta, Evanora, and Glinda as more and more people filled the city. Locasta stood at her father's right side holding Glinda's hand as she was squirming to see over the wall of the balcony. All morning the city heralds were blowing their horns announcing to the Ozians that they were called to the Emerald City for an important assembly. The trio watched in awe and with pride as more and more people flooded through the gates of the city knowing that their queen must have given birth to her fourth child. As the noise continued Pastoria turned his head behind him as he saw Lurline walking toward the balcony holding an eager looking Theodora. Oddly enough Theodora was not crying and she had not cried once since her birth. Pastoria saw this and began his speech to the kingdom.
"Long live her royal highness Queen Lurline! Today we join together to celebrate the birth of our new daughter and your new princess Theodora," Pastoria raised his voice to be heard over the murmur of the people. Suddenly there was a huge amount of cheering that arose from the thousands of Ozians.
"Yes indeed today is a momentous occasion for all of us," Pastoria continued. As the cheering continued he gestured toward Lurline to hand him the baby. She did so and with dramatic precision lifted Theodora high in the air so the Ozians could gaze upon their new princess. The cheering of the crowd grew even louder as they saw Theodora for the first time. Once he had gotten the reaction out of the crowd that he wanted he handed Theodora back to Lurline.
"Let Theodora's birth be a reminder of the peace that my father King Ozroar impressed on our kingdom. It was him that looked down upon all of us during the perilous rule of my brother Syrus and guided us toward the light," Pastoria said gesturing toward the statue of the former king that sat in the center of the emerald city. This sent a wave of cheering through the entire crowd but Pastoria looked down at the city with a hint of sadness in his face remembering what he had to do to free Oz. Just then he felt a warm soft hand on his shoulder and he looked to see Lurline comforting him which made him feel better.
"I'll finish the speech," Lurline said.
"Let us also not forget the sacrifices our King Pastoria made to save all of you from the evil grasp of Syrus. Long live King Pastoria," Lurline shouted raising her fist with pride. This prompted another huge wave of cheering from the crowd.
"Long live King Pastoria! Long live Queen Lurline! Long live Princess Theodora," the crowd began to shout! As the cheering and shouting continued Pastoria and his family turned their backs to the people and went back inside the Emerald City. The noise continued for the next few minutes and was interrupted by the sound of the heralds blowing their horns announcing that the assembly was over.
"Thank you Lurline for finishing the speech for me. Locasta go take your three sisters and play with them elsewhere," Pastoria said.
"Yes father," Locasta replied.
"What is it Pastoria," Lurline asked watching Pastoria sit down with the sadness not leaving his eyes.
"Oh Lurline there are some days I feel that I behaved the wrong way regarding my brother Syrus. Today is one of those days. Every being in Oz believes that I killed him to free them from his terrible reign but that isn't what happened," Pastoria explained.
"Sweetheart you must not dwell on that. We've had this talk before. I know you didn't kill him. You were planning to disarm him and lock him up in the dungeon but he charged at you and you only moved out of the way so he fell through the window. He sentenced himself to death when he fell into the crowd below. You did the right thing in giving him a chance to surrender and he refused the offer when he attacked you. There was nothing else you could have done," Lurline explained.
"I know you're right but despite the fact he tried to kill me I loved him and I still love him to this very day," Pastoria said.
"Yes I know and you should. I wish we knew what happened to his queen Galore and our nieces Langwidere and Singra. I always wondered how they were behind the facade of the royal family." Lurline said.
"That is probably better left unknown. You see I knew Galore when we were children. My father took her in and raised her as part of our family since she was an infant. She wasn't our blood relative. Not only that she was loyal to Syrus no matter what they did because he was older than the three of us and therefore she believed him to be the smartest. Somehow she knew that she wasn't actually related to us. When she was about ten years old my father told her how she was adopted after my mother and him found her. After this her loyalty to Syrus grew far deeper and she allowed herself to fall in love with him. This love grew so deep that they had two daughters of their own. I feel it is safe to say that she took her daughters with her and decided to raise them away from all of this and who am I to interfere with that. If she wanted us to see her face she would have revealed it by now and I must respect her sense of privacy as I'm sure she doesn't want to be found. I still can't help but feel sorry for her because she lost everything after she lost Syrus. I will admit I often worry for her," Pastoria explained.
"Well Pastoria I will always admire the kindness you have within your heart and I too wish Galore and her family good luck. It takes a very strong man to be able to do that. I am going to leave now and take a walk through the city. I imagine you have a lot of work to do. You are the king after all," Lurline said smiling.
"Thank you my love it is very much appreciated," Pastoria said as Lurline exited the room.
"Well would you look at that. It seems my brother in law still cares for me and my daughters. Well it will be his undoing," Galore thought to herself. As she she continued to swim through her thoughts she remembered the day Ozroar had told her she was taken in after her true parents abandoned her. He had told her that him as well as his wife Ozette cared about her and couldn't leave her without a family and that they would give her a family. This shocked her and this shock later turned into anger as she concluded that her biological parents didn't want her. Pastoria was absolutely right. She was loyal to Syrus and even allowed herself to fall in love with love had eased her pain enough that she was able to bury it within her but that all changed after Syrus was killed. She believed she had lost everything because of Pastoria.
In front of her sat a large wooden desk. She was not in her throne room but instead she sat in her private office. On the desk sat her crystal ball and an old looking map of Oz that was at least 50 years old. Before she fled from the angry crowd of Ozians that had killed her husband Syrus she stole a map from the Great Library of the Emerald City. For the last two hours Galore had spent time studying the map intensely looking for the best route into the Emerald City so she could kidnap the queen. As she did this she became distracted by Pastoria's most recent conversation regarding her. Seeing it come to an end she continued studying the map. Then it hit her like a rock.
"How could I be so oblivious," Galore angrily thought to herself. As she took a closer look at the map she realized that printed right onto the image of the Winkie Peaks was the family crest of King Ozroar. This confirmed the fact that Ozroar created the map but also brought another revelation with it, this one being far more important. As she took this into consideration she thought about her late husband and how before his death the two of them were searching for an invincible army they could completely control Oz with. There was only one army she could think of and it was indeed the army the two of them had sought out. The army belonged to the Gnome King who was defeated by Ozroar and imprisoned as well as sealed underground.
Before his death Ozroar had told Syrus about how releasing the army required him or a member of his bloodline to unlock the doors to the underground prison. After his passing her and Syrus went searching for the location of the prison but never found it. However seeing the map Galore had no doubt in her mind that it was a hint as to where Ozroar's prison was not to mention it made perfect sense to hide the entrance in the impassable Winkie Peaks. When she was able to she would investigate the Winkie Peaks, unlock the prison, and assume control of the Gnome King's army. This brought a wicked smile to her face as she realized Mombi or Singra could both unlock the seal to the prison because Ozroar was their paternal grandfather. With everything being set in place she rose from her and left her office to go to the throne room to wait for her daughters to return.