Law and Magic

NaNo Part 11

The room on the other side was much the same as her room, only this one had several panels in blue along the walls as well. Maria was standing in front of the windows on the other side of the room, dressed in a new gown. It was a pale off white with red slashes down the sides in large panels. The base of the dress was patterned with the symbol of the empire as well as something that looked like jagged lightning bolts. The back was sloped and ended right below her shoulder blades, but allowed for stringed crystals to have been strung across the back of the dress so as not to leave the back entirely exposed. The dress also had a small train, and instead of sleeves, had long slashes of cloth that were attached to the shoulder and opened up, but ended in a rather large cuff around her wrist. Her long brown hair had been tumbled downwards and allowed to flow free beneath a rather pretty light green veil with russet red coloring on it. The veil was only partially see-through, but as if to mask that, small beads had been sewn into the veil which almost covered her face entirely. The veil was attached to a small diadem that sat nestled on her brow and a set of large ear cuffs had somehow made their way into her ears as well.

Rania stepped forwards and made a slight nod of her head. Judge Drake had been right, the princess was no longer royalty, but that did not mean that she was no longer of any station at all. In this case, Rania felt that even if she had not been the princess, she still would have been a rather good noble woman. "What you changed into looks a beautiful."

Maria played with the veil that draped down her shoulders absently with a stray hand. "Yes, isn't it; and yet it is not what interests me."

Rania wanted to ask, but propriety as well as her training did not allow her to ask, so she didn't. The princess smiled as she looked at Rania and then looked back out the window. "You were taught quite well for a clerk. I would imagine that you would have more questions for me, yet you ask nothing. Is it out of politeness I wonder?"

Rania nodded her hear and looked out the window instead of at the Princess. "Yes, that would be correct. In fact, it would be prying."

Maria looked over her shoulder once at Rania and smiled and then looked out of the window again. "When the Ministry threw me in the Cloister, they made good on every promise that they made to me that day. They convicted me of regicide, and then they locked me in the Cloister and told me I would never see the light of day again." Maria sighed and then placed a hand on the window. "Yet, here I am looking at the sun for the first time in almost several years. I never thought that I would forget how it looked to me and I never thought that I would be saddened by it."

"Saddened by the sun?" Rania looked at the princess with curious eyes.

"Yes, saddened. I never thought that I would be able to be the one who would live. I always thought that my brother would use me for what I was which was a political chip. I never thought that I would outlive him to be honest."

Rania felt like she was not supposed to do anything but listen, but in her head, she could feel the weight of a thousand questions bubbling towards the surface. It was a pressure that she wound up having to admit. She let the first question burst from her mouth. She had been dying to ask it ever since the first moment she met her. "How come you haven't used your power to see who killed your brother?"

Maria looked startled for a moment and then looked down and said, "The power doesn't work like that. I can't do it."

"Why haven't you tried?"

"I have tried. I can't see the past. It has already happened. My Seeing ability isn't even controllable. It happens when it happens and there is nothing I can do about it."

"What do you mean you can't control it?"

The princess sighed and turned away from the view outside her window and began to speak. "They didn't discover that I could see the future until I was almost nine, when the powers were discovered. Our parents were surprised and far from happy. I used to ruin summit meetings when I could foresee that something bad was going to happen."

Rania looked at the princess who turned back to look at the scenery through the windows with a wistful smile. "Yet here I am, because of those powers. Called murderess, and told I would never see the sun. I forgot how pretty it looks."

"Who told you that you would never see it again?"

"It was Drake himself. There was no two ways about it. When they found me covered in my brother's blood, they were only too happy to convict me."

Rania spoke quietly. "You have to admit that the evidence was pretty damning."

Maria frowned. "I do, but that was not what brought you here. What do you want?"

"I figured that we should return to the bridge, just to make sure that her honor Gixanna doesn't do anything wrong." Rania paused for a moment and then looked at the princess and held out her hand. "Plus the view is better." Rania looked at the princess with an expectant look on her face. This was going to be her peace offering. She was not sure if Maria had killed the last king, but for the sake of what they were going to do, she had to be sure that there was no prejudice on her part.

The princess looked at Rania hesitantly and then took her had. "Lead the way."