When Life Gives You Wings

The Chosen

It was Tuesday afternoon. After the sad moment in Amelia’s bedroom, Henri had gone out to the square to see the results. Of the people listed on the pillar, she had only known one. It was an obnoxious boy from her school. He was extremely smart and a natural leader but he had a habit of getting on Henri’s last nerve. 

Henri had let out a sigh. She wasn’t on the list. The list was only composed of those who were chosen because of academic talent and status. Henri knew that she was of the few children who are descendants of the King. Henri knew that inside she had accepted this. At least, she had accepted with gratitude the free schooling. She hadn’t really accepted her actual role yet, though.  What exactly was she meant to do? Was she going to be in a fancy dress with a tiara on top of her head? She wasn’t too against that. Dresses made her feel free and like the wind. Graceful, elegant, beautiful. It was a castle, after all. 

Henri heard a sound from behind her as she was scanning through the list attached to the pillar. “I see you’ve noticed something grand about that list.” She knew it. 

“Sam.” Her voice was laced with disdain.

“Oh, she has remembered my name. So honorable. So valiant.” His voice dripped with taunting sarcasm. 

“You’re such a pimp.” Henri glared. 

“Oh, me? Why of course not! I could never stoop to your kind of impropriety.” 

“Impropriety? What does that even mean?” 

His face twisted into a sneer. “Exactly my point.” 

“What?” She stood dumbfounded. Surely this kid was joking. He never used words like that before. A bright smile lit up his smug face. 

“I guess I won’t be seeing you for a while.” Yeah, because your name was on the list, moron. “I see you weren’t good enough to make the cut. But maybe you can try again next year.” He gave Henri a wink and strutted away. 

“Idiot.” She muttered, but perhaps she was the i***t. It’s true she hadn’t known the meaning of the word. Maybe she would go to the public library and look it up in a dictionary. No, probably just a stupid waste of time. 

Sam Temple was a prick named after some kid in a book. His mother runs the library for the castle, but he goes to a public school because his mother wanted him to grow up in a semi normal environment. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Thanks, Ms. Temple. You’re really good at making my life easier. 

Ms. Temple was a nice lady to say the least, but she really disregarded her children too much. Except when she yelled at them to be quiet. That was a bit of a different story. Actually, she was quite strict with them and that may be why he was so stuck up when she wasn’t around but the moment she disappeared, he’ll begin again with his whole “I’m better than you” charade. It was very annoying. She hated that he was the only person she knew on the list. It meant she would have to start over again. 

Bringing herself back to the present, Henri continued throwing her more important essentials into the bag. Toothbrush, hair brush, condoms-- Wait, condoms? Her feet moved before she knew what was happening. She suddenly stood in her mother’s room with a very decent size pack of condoms. “Mom! What the hell is this?!” 

“Language, for one. And those are condoms. I know that school at least taught you that much.” Her mom said calmly. Henri was at the point of screaming. She wanted to scream. She wanted to scream very badly. Fortunately she didn’t get the chance because Amelia continued speaking. Henri wasn’t sure Amelia would have reacted very well assuming she had actually screamed something truly horrendous. “They are just in case anything gets too exciting. If his children are anything like him, they will ofer things to you and you may not be capable of resisting.”

“Mom, they’re technically my siblings.”

“That’s not how it works in the castle. Usually cousins marry cousins. It’s to keep the royal blood pure in the family. Usually the lower class blood is considered to be tainted.” Baffled. Just baffled. That was all Henri really was besides disgusted. Cousins with cousins? Yeah, no. Not exactly her idea of attractive or even remotely fun. And what about her class being tainted? It was a very old fashioned view on things. 

“But I can take care of myself and there is no way I am saying yes to any s****l advances. It doesn’t even sound appealing.” Amelia muttered something under her breath that Henri couldn’t hear. She was going to ask what it was she said when Amelia seemed to speak a bit louder in a volume she could hear.

“Keep the condoms. They are for your safety. Now finish packing. You leave in ten minutes tops.” At that, Henri left the room no questions asked and finished packing quickly. She even brought her trusty pin with an angel on it. It was for protection. It was a n***d baby holding three puppies. It was a gift from her mother at a young age and it was meant for good luck. She may actually need it if by some chance something went badly. 

In exactly 13 minutes, the two had the two suitcases Henri was bringing in their hands and out the door. They made it to the entrance of the castle in exactly seven minutes, never talking to one another. It was deathly silent. Henri felt like she should say something to break the silence, but decided against it. It would probably lead to Amelia crying again and that wasn’t something Henri wanted to see for the second time in just a few days. 

The castle was huge and wide. The gates were covered with people. The King must have chosen about 75 to 100 people including his kin. Tables were lined up beside the castle wall with stacked sheets of paper and lines from them were not very long and moving fast. They had to go sign up. They walked to one of the tables, one with a lady sitting there patiently waiting for the next sign up candidate. Guards blocked Amelia from going further, so she had to stay behind until Henri had signed up. 

“Hello, my name is Sandra and I will be helping you get settled into your new home here in the palace. Please tell me your last and first name and I will get you settled in.” Sandra seemed very professional and robotic. She didn’t seem as if she was worried or cared too much. She was just doing her job, Henri guessed. 

Henri attempted to make her voice sugary sweet and polite like Amelia had always taught her to do even in the worst of situations. “Yes, thank you, my name is Elizabeth Morgan.” Sandra didn’t check the list but smiled and searched for a sheet of paper in the infinitely smaller stack. Maybe 20 sheets of paper were in it. “This is your schedule, Miss Morgan. It also includes a map of the castle and the location of your sleeping quarters. You will enter to the right. Enjoy your stay and good luck to you.” 

Henri smiled brightly and turned around toward Amelia again. Amelia stood there, looking awkward in the crowd just standing there with a bunch of other parents waiting and some of them crying: likely because they were losing their children for a while. Others were waving at them as they retreated proudly.

A few men walked in front of Henri. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you cannot return to that area. You must begin your trek to the castle doors and proceed through the gate.” Henri’s train of thought stopped for a moment. 

“What?”

“I said I’m sorry, ma’am, but you cannot return to that area. You must begin your trek to the castle doors and proceed through the gate.” Strange that it was the exact words he had before. But Henri really wasn’t focused on that. 

“No, I want to say goodbye to her.” She tried to walk around them but they stepped in front of her. She tried again and no luck. This time she tried shoving past but they were far faster then her and once again blocked her. Amelia finally saw what was going on and ran over. She diligently shoved them aside and grabbed onto Henri’s clothing before they pulled her away again. They handled Amelia harshly, treating Henri with what seemed like a polite threat. The difference in how they treated her mother and herself was grand. One grabbed Amelia by the hair and dragged her off. Panic seeped into Henri’s bones, lathering it thickly. 

“Mom!” She yelled desperately. She heard a yell back, quickly getting quieter as the guard continued to drag her off. He hooked her to a post sticking out of the ground in the square with cuffs. A bunch of metal loops protruded from the metal post so the guard had something to attach the cuffs to. Amelia was struggling hard with the cuffs, but the guard had already turned back and headed towards Henri. He seemed calm as if nothing of what he had done was out of the ordinary or considered to be wrong in any way. Henri felt dreadful disgust and fear tread up her spine and shivered. 

She attempted to run behind one of the tall men, but they blocked her completely. Amelia stood struggling on the post. One of the men yelled back at her “Stop struggling or else we will have to stop your rebellious behavior with our own hands.” Henri considered the situation before her. There was nothing she could do but follow along with them. Angry tears were starting to form on Amelia’s eyes. She had to follow along for the sake of her mother. Her sake, that’s all. She wasn’t going to give in easily. 

She mouthed “follow along” to Amelia. Amelia calmed down. Maybe she thought she had a plan. Well, the plan was to go with it to save themselves and the two guards any trouble. Amelia and Henri were both outwardly calm throughout Henri’s trip to the castle doors. After they had reached the crowd of other people, the guards returned back to where they stood around before. Henri couldn’t see Amelia anymore. She was probably still attached to the pole, maybe struggling, wondering where her daughter had gone, wondering if she really had a plan and wondering what the plan could possibly be. Was she okay? Was she worrying too hard back there? Was she still attached to the pole? 

She shook her head to rid herself of any upcoming morbid thoughts. The flag hanging from long poles from the castle wall had the noble crest on it. A simple crown. Behind the crown stood the shadow of a man which probably represented the King. The flag itself was red and gold. The shadow was unsurprisingly black. The crowd of people ranged from 13 to 18 at best. There weren’t any young children in the crowd that seemed too young to be able to really know what’s happening and not old enough to really be fully matured. They were all children who were chosen for something bigger than themselves. 

Everyone in the crowd suddenly shrank back. The doors of the castle were finally opening. The people up front were ordering people into a single file line. Everyone obeyed. Henri caught sight of Sam but avoided letting him see that she was there.  Henri was somewhere near the back because she was one of the last ones to arrive at the front gates. She continued through with her luggage which they were told to set down beside the door. Some people bowed before them and took their luggage to a moving machine. The machine seemed to take it away from the room completely, probably delivering them to their rooms.

Henri grabbed hold of her trusty pin hooked onto her white shirt. The angel gave her an unbelievable amount of comfort and she felt a bit of her stress simply wash away like sand on a beach. 

A woman suddenly spoke from the crowd. “Hello, my name is Margarite and I will be in control of where you will all be staying and what classes you have. Of course, these things are something you already have in your possession. Let me get this straight. You’re all horrible, disgusting creatures. I have no idea why Argonaut is being so reckless as to bring a bunch of low life commoners into his home. And also my home. I live here and I will not tolerate any sort of unruly behavior. Unless you can prove to me otherwise, you’re all just a bunch of dirty street rats to me.” Nobody had the will to say anything to her. For all they knew, she could have tons of power. That included the power to punish people severely. 

“The only people who are truly important to the King are his kin. They know who they are. There are only seven of them present of the one hundred and twenty one of you. The other one hundred fourteen I will give no thought to dismissing you from this place and you will become slaves. Those privileged enough to be related to the King are not privy to any of my punishments. You seven will have a private class with the King’s second in command Davis and he will decide your fate if anything were to go wrong or you to be deemed unworthy of the title Noble.”

Henri didn’t bother raising her hand but instead said loud enough for everyone to hear “What if we don’t want to be a noble?” Margarite gave her a silent look, judging. She glanced at her long dark hair, the eyes and all the way to the toes of her feet sticking out of her silver sandals.

She answered quickly “Yes, no matter how much you wish to be otherwise, those with noble blood are indeed Noble. All of you will get the chance to earn this title in the future if you play your chips right.” Some people smiled and others laughed at that. Other people looked concerned. 

Someone else raised their hand. It was a young girl that looked to be 12. Margarite simply glanced at her and continued on. The girl slowly put her hand down, not knowing much of what to do. She glanced at Henri and Henri simply looked back at Margarite, ignoring the girl and the silent pleading she did with her eyes. 

Margarite continued on with her lecture. “I must also mention that even though I have a low view of all of you, I will do my very best to treat you all equally. If you fail to do a certain bit of work, you will be punished without hesitation. If you succeed, you will be allowed to rank up. Your instructors will explain to you the details of the ranking system tomorrow. I will not be pressuring any of you to do your work or pay attention in class. Just know that if you don’t, you will be sent to the fields to work for the rest of your pathetic lives. Those of you who fail will not survive. Not many live long in the fields because of the constant parasites. The punishments always begin with the cafeteria. It will always involve food. That is why if you fail to succeed, you will be sent to the worst of the worst of food punishments for the rest of your disgusting lives. That punishment will eventually lead to your death, mark my words.” This time the silence was awful. Everyone seemed to be glancing at each other, wondering if their best option was to run when they had the chance.

“To conclude this discussion, when you walked in, you set your luggage aside and the guards took them to the graters. A grater is a moving treadmill for things we want to destroy. Right now all of your luggage should be in pieces in the trash can. You will have zero connection to anyone from your old life. Do not expect any letters from them because you will have none. However, when we have the yearly festival, your parents may come and see you. That is the only time of the year you will be able to talk with them or even hug them. I suggest you work hard to last long enough to go.” This time there were many cries of outrage. Henri was glad she had kept her pin hooked onto herself. She accepted the fact that she wasn’t going to have her belongings. She wanted to cry at the same time because she had put a few of the dresses Amelia had made in that luggage neatly packed on the side with her pink hairbrush. 

“Good night children, you may head to your rooms. A servant will escort you. Your servant's name is on your schedule. Simply call his or her name and they will come to you.” Margarite walked off down one of the many hallways leading from the main hall. Everyone grabbed out their little packets with their information and had already started calling out the servants names. Servants and maids rushed in through all sides to greet them and the couples paired off into hallways. 

Henri grabbed her packet and opened to the second page with her schedule on it. Her maid was a girl named Meda. Henri said her name and suddenly she was by her side. “You called, miss?” The young lady asked. 

Henri smiled. “Yes. Please lead me to my room.” 

“Yes, miss.” She bowed and smiled a sweet smile. Meda was such a nice and unique name. Maybe that’s what the girl was, too. She had light auburn hair in a polite bow and bun. She wore traditional maid clothing which consisted of a dark violet colored dress with an apron with two pockets. Some of her hair reached her neck from the low bun. Her blue eyes were clear and guarded at the same time. She seemed to be only showing publicly what she wanted to be seen while also seeming innocent. Either the girl was a great performer or she was truly just a nice, young maiden girl.

“I’m Henri.” Henri said. The girl smiled.

“Yes, I know.” She didn’t say anything more but Henri continued to try to make conversation. 

“So where are we going exactly?” They were moving at a very casual pace. 

“Your room.”

“And where is that exactly?” The girl laughed. 

“You’re quite curious, aren’t you, miss?” Henri didn’t really know much of what to say. It wasn’t like she was trying too hard or anything. She just wanted to know what was going on around her.

“I guess.” Henri shrugged. Of course, Meda hadn’t seen her shrug. 

“Your room is located in the west wing of the palace. The King himself has the highest floor of the west wing to himself. You only have a small portion of it. That portion limits you only to your room. You can receive permission to go to other places with a pass but otherwise you stay in your room until it’s time for your classes. You have very nice quarters. I won’t spoil anything about it, but I just have to say it’s quite pleasant.” They had reached the end of the long hallway and turned left and down a longer hallway. This one had many art pieces hanging on the wall. A woman glared from one of the paintings and another held a bouquet of flowers. Another painting was of a shadow of a person surrounded by many smaller shadows and the background was of more paintings in the picture. It reminded Henri of the flag set up around the outside of the castle.

“How much farther down is my room?” Henri asked, trying to be nice but knowing she was speaking too much. 

“Not long. Only a few more feet to go.” They continued down the hall until Meda came to a stop. 

Henri was curious again. “So why did your parents choose to name you Meda?” A shadow crossed her face. 

“That’s a personal question, miss. Meda means the sea. My parents lived by it before they had to come to the castle for work. I grew up here.” Ah, so she was born into this life. 

“It’s a very nice and unique name. Mine is very common.” Henri said. The girl brightened again. 

“No, Henrietta is very unique. I remember a princess in the story books named Henrietta though she never wanted to be called Henri like you do. Henrietta was a very nice girl with many dreams and aspirations. She was also very fearless and tamed dragons. She never even relied on a prince to save her. The basic stories like to say otherwise, though. I’m not sure if many people actually know of the traditional story to begin with. It used to be very cool.” Henri smiled. Cool. Such a casual word spoken by someone who grew up around Nobles and the wealthy. “Anyway, enough talk, this is where your room is. Very classy.” 

It was true. The door was round and reminded her of something she read in a fairytale once. Something to do with snow and tiny people. There were butterflies engraved into the door. They seemed newly carved into it like someone did it to welcome her or did it just for her sake. It reminded her of her dreams of being chased by the blue light and being engulfed by it. She remembered the butterfly burn and shivered.

Meda opened the door to the bedroom. The room was abnormally vast with a huge bed dominating the middle of the room. There was a light brown nightstand with diamonds for handles on the drawers. Hanging from the top of the bed was a thin curtain. They looked like drapes. Well, maybe they were. It was very princess-like. And on the side was a very nice bathroom as well with a large tub and a shower on the side. Towels hung and were folded with many rags. All of them were white. There was a bookshelf with books of every kind and bean bag chairs scattered all around along with a few tables. There was a desk with a computer, a small button on the nightstand, a lamp, and the walls were an intricate pattern of golden vines. Flowers bloomed from the walls every which way and in the middle of the hard floor was a large butterfly. It seemed to cover half of the entire floor.

Henri didn’t know quite what to say. Maybe everything would be okay if she could live in this type of luxury. There was even a computer and on the nightstand was a small stack of sandwiches and a cup of something that looked simply like water. The long dresser stood beside the bathroom and Meda walked over to it after closing the door. She opened it and Henri caught a glimpse of all sorts of clothing ranging from body suits to dresses to pants of all colors. Taking a closer look, she noticed that they were all her size. Strange. 

“I must leave now. Eat up, I will take the dishes back in the morning. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is initiation day.” 

Meda was about to open the door when Henri said “Wait! What’s initiation?” Meda didn’t turn around but continued walking. 

“I am not permitted to tell you.” She replied. “Now good night.” And with that, she left, closing the door behind her once more.