20 years have passed and it was now January of 1482. Inside the Palace of Justice was Agnes, now a young adult, who was sitting at the window seat in her bedroom, longing to have Frollo allow her to attend the festival for once.
Being the Minister of Justice, he had to go every single year and he absolutely HATED it. He believed that it was an unholy thing and that everybody there was evil and corrupt.
Her pet goat, Djali, was standing by her side as if he were a pet dog. But unknown to Frollo, she and Djali had been sneaking out to the festival since she learned to dance as a young child.
She learned at roughly 4 years old when she spotted a dancing gypsy woman at a local market on the way to the cathedral and had always been fascinated by gypsy culture every since. However, she didn't dare tell Frollo, knowing how strongly he hated them.
She was severely scolded and punished when he caught her watching and imitating the gypsy woman that day.
Some of her earliest memories were of her practicing her dancing skills in her bedroom when he was completely absent, in fear of what he'd do if he ever caught her doing so.
She also received some very harsh discipline if she did something he didn't like, if she got an answer wrong during lessons, if she took too long to answer him, or didn't know the answer altogether.
She had memories of when she was a child when he'd lock her up in her bedroom for days, sometimes weeks, for small meaningless things.
He had the servants bring her meals up to her room if he decided not to starve her. She had a very hard childhood due to this reason and knew not to piss him off.
Surprisingly, he did let her keep Djali after she tried sneaking him into the Palace of Justice after Frollo's younger brother, Jehan, gave him to her as a present he brought back from Spain when she was 10 before Frollo completely disowned him, out of shame.
It took a lot of convincing and begging for him to let her do so.
Then she suddenly heard footsteps coming down the hall. She quickly snapped out of it and picked up a book of Latin and pretended to read it intently, not wanting him to know that she was thinking about attending the festival just yet.
She was one of the most educated people, let alone women, in all of Paris. Being the adopted child of the Minister of Justice, she had the privilege to receive a proper education by him alone. Females didn't get much of an education, usually.
"Good morning, Father," she said as soon as he walked in the room and she looked up at him.
"Good morning, Agnes," Frollo greeted her very formally. He grinned when he saw she was reading and studying a book about Latin. "Awe, I see that you've been catching up on your Latin. Let's begin lessons down in the parlor, shall we?"
"Yes, Father," she said as she and Djali followed behind him down to the parlor on the lower floor of the palace.
"Shall we review you alphabet, my dear?" he said as he sat down on a fancy plush chair and a servant brought out their lunches. She nodded, even though she hated this part of lessons.
"A?"
"Abomination."
"B?"
"Blasphemy."
"C?"
"Contrition."
"D?" Djali held his head up when he heard this.
"Damnation."
"E?"
"Eternal Damnation."
"Good girl. F?"
"Festival," she said without thinking.
Frollo spat out his wine he was drinking and coughed a little upon hearing this. He wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and said,
"Excuse me?"
Agnes immediately realized what she just said and tried to cover it up.
"Forgiveness!" she exclaimed in a hurry, hoping Frollo would fall of it. Unfortunately for her, he didn't.
"You said 'Festival.' You're thinking about going to the festival." he said as he got up and walked out of the room. Agnes (and Djali) got up and followed then complained,
"But father, it's just you get to go every year..."
"I am a public official I must go, but I don't enjoy a moment! Thieves and cut versus the dregs of humankind all mixed up together in a shallow drunken stupor..." Frollo interrupted.
They were now standing on the balcony, overlooking the whole city.
"I'm sorry, Father. I didn't mean to upset you so much," Agnes apologized.
She knew that he'd say no like he always did, that's why she didn't want to ask.
"Agnes, can't you understand? Your heartless gypsy-trash parents abandoned you as a child and I was the only one who was willing to raise you. And this is my thanks for taking you in and raising you as my own daughter?" he remarked.
The young woman sighed in defeat. She knew it was too good to be true if he had said yes. Frollo continued,
"My dear, dearest, Agnes. You don't know what it's like out there. You're of gypsy decent and because of it, everyone would hate and scorn you for it."
He rarely let her go outside the palace walls, unless if she were going to the cathedral for prayer sessions. She would go every other day of the week with him for part of lessons as well, but Djali couldn't come with her then.
She was forced to stay inside the Palace of Justice 24/7 for the most part. She knew the maids fairly well, but they were always too busy to give her the time of day growing up.
The guards wanted nothing to do with her and didn't give her the time of day either.
She could go anywhere there, except the lowest floor, which were the dungeons. She didn't dare even try to sneak down there, not wanting to face Frollo's wrath.
She had no idea that the palace even held dungeons, for that matter. Although she did always wonder what he was hiding there. He then changed the subject.
"Now. Later on today, I shall meet the new Captain of the Guards; Phoebus. Perhaps he could be a possible suitor for you."
Since she was a baby, Frollo had been searching for suitors for her to be wed to one day but had no luck since she was of gypsy decent and gypsies were not well liked by anybody, sadly.
However, while searching for a new Captain of the Guards, he mentioned his adopted daughter to him and he was considering the possibility of marrying her.
"Maybe," she replied back thoughtfully as she shrugged.
She wanted to pick the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, not her adoptive father. She wanted to marry out of love, not for political reasons. That wasn't real love at all.
She didn't care what they looked like, she just wanted them to have a good heart and love her back the same way she did them.
"Now let's go back the parlor and finish lessons, shall we?" Frollo spoke formally once more.
"Yes, Father," she said as they walked back to the parlor to finish up lunch along with lessons.
After they finished, Frollo left go meet Phoebus in the dungeons and to watch his former Captain of the Guards get tortured to death.
Agnes threw on her winter cloak and she and Djali snuck out the back of the palace then they both ran off to the front of the Notre Dame cathedral where the festival was being set up.
They always left and arrived somewhat early so that way, she wouldn't have to risk getting caught by her adoptive father or his guards.
Meanwhile, in the streets of Paris, a man dressed in gold armor leading his horse while holding up a map, looking for the Palace of Justice. This was Phoebus and his horse, Achilles. He looked over to his horse and said,
"You leave town for a couple of decades and they change everything." Then two guards walked by as soon as he said this.
"Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm looking for the Palace of Justice. Would you-" The Guards completely ignored him. "Hmmm, I guess not."
Not long after, he came across a large giant castle near the docks that looked more like a prison.
"This must be it," he said as he walked towards it.
He tied his horse's reins to a nearby well and was greeted by some guards. He told them that he was the new Captain of the Guards and that the Minister of Justice was waiting for him.
They immediately led him into the dungeons where Frollo was, watching his nude ex-Captain of the Guards, who was hanging upside down from the ceiling, being brutally whipped. The sounds of a whip could be heard throughout the dungeon.
"Stop!" Frollo demanded.
"Sir?" a guard said.
"Ease up. Wait between lashes, otherwise the older sting will dull him to the new," Frollo advised.
"Yes, Sir!" said the guard, as we went back into the torture room to continue. Then Frollo noticed Phoebus.
"Ah! So this is the gallant Captain Phoebus, home for the wars!" he exclaimed.
"Reporting for duty, sir," Phoebus said formally as he stood with his hands behind his back.
"Your service record precedes you, Phoebus. I expect nothing but the best from a war hero of your calibre," Frollo said, as he circled around him.
"And you shall have it sir. I guarantee it," Phoebus spoke formally once again.
"Yes. You know, my last Captain of the Guards was, um, a bit of a disappointment to me," Frollo said.
Then a sound of a whip along with a man screams echoed through the dungeon.
He smirked as he heard this. He continued as he began to walk away,
"Well, no matter. I'm sure you'll whip my men into shape."
"Uh, thank you, sir, uh, very, uh, trem-uh, a tremendous honor sir," Phoebus said as he was now having second thoughts on this and followed the Minister up to the balcony.
"You come to Paris in her darkest hour, Captain. It will take a firm hand to save the weak minded from being so easily mislead."
"Mislead, sir?" Phoebus asked sounding somewhat confused.
"Look Captain-gypsies. The gypsies live outside the normal order. Their heathen ways inflame the peoples' lowest instincts, and the must be stopped!" Frollo declared as he and Phoebus were now looking down from the balcony at the City of Paris.
"I was summoned from the wars to capture fortune tellers and palm readers?" he asked sounding surprised that a high ranking official such as Frollo would call him over all for something like this.
"Oh, but the real war, Captain, is what you see before you. For 20 years, I have been taking care of the gypsies, one...by...one." he said, as he crushes a few ants with his two fingers and lifted a loose stone from the balcony, revealing many more of them.
"And yet, for all of my success, they have thrived. I believe they have a safe haven, within the walls of this very city. A nest, if you will. They call it the Court of Miracles."
"What are we going to do about it, sir?" asked Phoebus.
With a wicked smirk, Frollo slammed the tile down on top of the ants, crushing them instantly.
"You made your point quite vividly, sir," remarked Phoebus.
"You know, I like you Captain. You must meet my daughter, Agnes."
But just then, the trumpets sounded and the cheers of the villagers could be heard all the way from the palace. Frollo rolled in eyes in annoyance.
"Duty calls. Have you ever attended a peasant festival?" he asked the Captain of the Guards.
"Not recently, sir," he replied.
"Then this should be quite an education for you. Come along, I'll introduce you to Agnes after it's over. Come along now," he said as they both left for the festival.
The whole way there, he talked to him about Agnes and that he was considering him as a possible suitor for her.
But unknown to him at the time, she was also attending the festival the same time they were.