literature

Growing Wings - 3 - A chance to break free

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Johanna sat on a chair close to a table, covered with blueprints, various small metal parts and tools, while she was waiting for Raleene to finish changing clothes. She had requested to do it right away, after the drawing had been finished and on the way to her personal quarters, she only had told Johanna that she might be the last idea for Raleene to fulfill her plan. Still completely puzzled by it, she mind went off, while she was looking at Raleene dressing up. She only snapped out of it, when she heard how someone was knocking at the door. Just when Johanna wanted to open the door and telling whoever it is that Raleene was currently changing, Raleene signaled her to stop and responded on her own. “Come in, Sylvia.”, Raleene simply said, while closing the last buttons on her blouse.

The door opened and a young woman, about the same age as Johanna and Raleene entered. She was wearing a black silk jacket, which was only buttoned up half-way and a black skirt ending up above her knees, giving her a rather daring appearance in Johanna’s eyes. However she was already used to it. After all, it was Raleene’s personal first servant and probably the only one she trusted for keeping every last secret.
When Sylvia noticed Johanna, she bowed deeply, causing Johanna to respond with a similar reaction. “Good day to you, Lady Willston.”
“Hello Sylvia. It’s good to see you again.”

With a snap of her fingers, Raleene brought Sylvia’s attention to herself, who wordlessly threw a black jacket to her. Raleene caught it and took a closer look at it, before putting it on. Satisfied with it, she walked to Sylvia, who humbly bowed, while Raleene put a hand on her should and gave her a warm and welcoming smile.
“Excellent job on getting the burn marks and oil stains out of it. You even got the smell out. Thank you, Sylvia.”
Slyvia bowed even deeper before she looked up again, her mouth turning into a cocky smile. “I live to serve you, your highness. Though if I may be so blunt, I would recommend not wearing it again, while taking an Aether-engine apart, since it will probably be beyond repair next time.”
“Yes, yes, I got it… Anyway, since we’re all ready, let’s go. Sylvia, please make measurements of looking good in my mother’s eyes.”, Raleene said, while heading towards the door.
Johanna followed right after her, while Sylvia suppressed a sigh, before she closed the remaining buttons in her jacket and pulled a small piece of clothing from the inside of her jacket and tied it together, making it look like she was wearing a blouse under her jacket. When Sylvia had closed and locked the door to Raleene’s private quarters, she quickly caught up with Raleene and Johanna, who was still wondering about where they were to go.

Raleene looked at Sylvia, who was rather expressionless moving slightly behind Johanna and Raleene. “Conference room, second floor, right wing… From what I was able to hear, we should arrive at a perfect time.”, Sylvia said, while she was pointing towards the hallway, the group should go. When they headed towards the direction, Johanna slowly began to realize, where they were heading. With a mixture of surprise and worry, she said

“That conference room is where her highness and my lord Willston are currently holding their meeting! Why do you want to interrupt them? Is it something that important?”.
“It definitely is for me. The difference of being a future queen or a good future queen is at stake.”, Raleene simply answered, while her expression became very serious all of a sudden. “W-what? That important? Is it because of the rumors about uproar against the crown? But… how can I be of help for that?”
“Let’s just hope that it doesn’t come down to this, but to explain the basic idea… In worst case, I will have to use you as insurance, in order to fulfill my plan.”

Johanna was still puzzled about what Raleene might mean, when they reached the doors to the conference room, where they wanted to go. When the guards in front of the doors noticed Raleene, along with Johanna, they saluted and passed aside, making free way for the three of them. Just when Raleene was about to knock at the door, Johanna stopped Raleene’s hand.
“Raleene, what is your plan?”, Johanna asked. However, Raleene merely put Johanna’s hand aside and smiled at her. “My plan? My plan is to enlist at the Gold Dawn Academy, so I finally get outside of the palace and among the people of the Overizon, so I can find out more about the rumors myself.”, Raleene said, while knocking at the door.

One moment later, an older man with grey hair opened the door, his uniform clearly showing his role as butler. Seeing Raleene, he bowed deeply as greeting and repeated it for Johanna.
“Your highness, Lady Willston, how may I be of help?”, the man asked.
“You know why I am here, Walter. Please let us through.”
Walter nodded and opened the door completely. Now seeing Sylvia, he couldn’t help but to smile.
“Your timing is perfect, your highness. If I wouldn’t know better, I would almost dare to say, that a little bird must have told you, when her majesty and Lord Willston are going for a short break on their political discussions.”, Walter said while looking at his great niece.
Seeing their nodding at each other, Raleene couldn’t help but to chuckle. “And here I thought the grey hair and the dark skin color were the only family traits... Your family joining as our servants was one of the best things that ever happened to our family and I’m sure my mother agrees to that.”

Walter bowed deeply, followed by Sylvia, who mimicked the behavior of her great uncle.
“Hearing such things is the greatest gift, we can receive, your highness. We are glad that we are able to serve.” The next moment, Walter guided the three young women to the queen of the Overizon and her guest.

------------------------------------

Queen Raleene the seventh put aside several documents, when she and Lord Willston agreed to take a short break from their discussion about several political events. Recently, according to Lord Willston’s reports, there have been several sightings of anti-royal groups. While the current actions were nothing more than sending out flyers and putting up posters, Raleene was still worried by the events. There were only hunches, but nothing certain.

However, this was only a rather small problem from her personal point of view right now. Her main problem… “Your highness, Lord Willston, princess Raleene wishes to speak with you, in company with Lady Johanna Willston and Miss Sylvia Marchellin.” …had just entered the conference room.

While queen Raleene looked at her daughter, who had already changed back to her normal clothing style, she smiled and greeted Johanna, as well as Sylvia. Lord Henry Willston bowed as deep as he could, without standing up, while apologizing for his weak knees, making him unable to stand for a long period of time. Henry Willston was a dumpy looking older man, who had already been a trusted council-member for the former queen and was widely known for being focused on keep the power within the hands of the queen and the nobility, which made him to absolute opposite of what Raleene believed in. In her opinion, there was only one good thing about him and that was his daughter Johanna, Raleene’s one and only friend, who isn’t her servant.

Today however, was a day, when she actually would need his help.
“Lord Willston, Mother, I apologize for the intrusion during your break, but I have important matter to discuss.”, Raleene began, but was promptly interrupted by her mother. “I know, my dear… I know. However, my point of view hasn’t changed the slightest bit. As a matter of fact, I’m even more against the idea right now, considering the current events. I can’t allow this with a good conscience.”
“Mother, by all respect, if there really is uproar against the crown within the people, we have to look for the source everywhere. Maybe it comes from the farmers or maybe from students or maybe the nobility? We know nothing about it, so let me help to clear the situation my way. If I enlist for the Gold Dawn Academy, I might be able to spy out the students and eventually, they will accidently spill names of members of the uproar and we all know that this is something you can’t do with regular spies. That or I will try to prevent the thought of acting against the crown from spreading among the students. If I act as good example, we might get the students on our side and with that, the future of the Overizon!”

While the discussion continued between the queen and the princess, Henry Willston waited for a moment and intercepted. “Excuse me your highness, but shouldn’t we continue the planning, after your servant has left the room? I mean, we’re discussing matter of absolute importance for the entire kingdom, something which shouldn’t be heard by common servants.”
Raleene was almost about to try to get her point across to her mother, but the sudden idea of Willston, demanding to send Sylvia out of the room, was something, which angered Raleene extremely.

“Lord Willston, I… appreciate your thought, but I would appreciate it even more, if you never again speak so lowly about my first servant. She has my full trust on every matter and topic. You may speak like that about your servants, but not mine, understood?”, she said, while focusing Lord Willston with her eyes furiously, who in reaction, broke into a cold sweat.

While Raleene’s reaction instilled respect into Johanna and gratitude into Sylvia, the eyes of the queen displayed a mixture of sadness and acceptance, while her lips turned unconsciously into a smile. “You definitely got the heart of your father…”, she thought to herself, before she took over the lead of the discussion, before her daughter would have the chance to say anything else.
“My daughter, I understand that you step up for Sylvia, but please understand the situation. Lord Willston had informed me that since the first fliers and posters appeared in his govern districts, he worried that his servants might be involved into it. He’s merely acting with caution.”
Raleene suppressed a grumble as response to her mother’s explanation. Right after that, Willston raised a hand and asked for attention, hoping to apologize. “Your majesty, you don’t have to defend me. I admit that I might have overreacted and therefore, I sincerely hope that you would accept an apology, an apology towards you, princess, as well as your servant.” Seeing a nodding coming from Raleene, as well as Sylvia, Willston wiped the sweat out of his face and returned to the actual topic.

“Anyway… considering the entire situation, I actually have to agree to princess Raleene, your highness. However, I also agree to you, your highness, that it would be far too dangerous to merely let her go to the academy… as princess.”
Puzzled by Willston’s speech, the queen of the Overizon, as well as Johanna looked from Willston back to Raleene. Raleene and Sylvia however, didn’t show any emotional reaction at all, because Willston was about to say, what Raleene had considered to be her last chance to convince her mother. Now, she only had to wait for Willston to say it himself.

Lord Willston slowly stood up his chair and signaled Johanna to come closer. Reacting instantly, Johanna went over to him and went down on his knees, so that Willston actually appeared to be bigger than Johanna. With a calm and collected voice, he said “Johanna, my dear… I’m afraid to ask you this, but our family has to step up and defend the righteous leader of the Overizon. Would you, Johanna, enlist on the Gold Dawn Academy as well and play a doppelganger for princess Raleene?”.

This time, Johanna was the only one, who reacted in surprise. It exactly happened what Raleene had expected. As for her mother, she had seemingly anticipated this, when she had listened to Lord Willston. At this point, Raleene slightly cursed about herself, for thinking about putting her friend to any eventual danger. However, Raleene didn’t had much of a chance to worry about it too long, for Johanna answered to her father rather quickly.
“I will do it.”, she said, before giving a deeper explanation. ”On one hand, I agree to my father that it’s our solemn duty to help the royal family of the Overizon and on the other hand… I’m sorry for it’s a little bit of a selfish reason… On the other hand, I have the chance to fulfill a wish of my best friend. There is no reason for me to decline this idea. Everyone gains something from it, so I will happily play my part in this scheme!”

Johanna turned around and looked at her friend, just like Lord Willston, as well as Raleene’s mother. While she at first tried to fight it, she couldn’t help herself, but to shed a tear and silently thank Astra that she has such a good-hearted friend. Raleene nodded once and Johanna confirmed with a short giggle that both of them agreed to the plan. Willston cleared his throat, before he went on with the explanation.
“Very well… Now, please let me explain the details about the plan.”
The next chapter and two new characters to introduce!
On one hand, we have Sylvia Marchelling, Raleene's first servant. Both of them know each other for over fifteen years at this point. As a result of an agreement between the royal family and the Marchellin family.
Both agreed that a member of the Marchellin family would be a so called "first servant", not only in the line of order, but also in the meaning that both share the same path from the very beginning.
The beginning of the relation between Sylvia and Raleene was slightly complicated, due to Sylvia heeding what her parents told her and how a servant should behave and Raleene, trying to bring Sylvia to be more independent and act on her own.

On the other hand, we have Lord Henry Willston, Johanna's father and a well-known friend of the royal family.
The relation between Raleene the eighth and Willston is rather... cold, mostly since he impersonates, what Raleene dislikes about the common image of the royal family.
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