The days passed and soon it was time to go to the capital city for the investiture ceremony. I had spent them practicing Air magic casually and learning to fight from my brothers. Rowan was the wall and Finn was the sword. Their personalities rubbing off entirely on the way they fought.

  We were going to arrive five days before the ceremony—enough time to primp ourselves before we visited the palace. I was excited to get a new dress. The two frocks I switched between were both quite…umm….let's say the cleanliness standards were medieval peasant levels. There were no baths here only the pond to jump in. There was a primitive soap but it was not something we would use daily. The tower had soaps—not scented or anything—but much better than the farm fare and I could use them whenever I wanted.

  Mumma was fretting over the luggage making sure we packed everything we should need.

  "Stop fretting, darling—we can buy what we need in the capital if necessary," said papa, having had enough.

  I think she was just sad the nest would be entirely empty for a bit. It still wasn't clear why she refused to join us. I wasn't going to buy the excuse about needing to take care of the plants and animals. She could easily find someone to look after them for the few days we were gone.

  The night before we left, I heard them outside under the stars. Where I just happened to be as well when they were, coincidentally, of course.

  "You should come," papa said. "We are together in this."

  “My father," mumma said quietly. "He was a knight."

  A pause. Long enough that I almost slipped away.

  "A disgraced one." Her voice was controlled and flat in the way of someone who has said a thing many times inside their own head before ever saying it aloud. "I have no desire to stand in the capital someone recognizing me as his. You understand."

  Papa said nothing for a moment.

  "I understand," he said finally. They came closer, physically and emotionally.

  I slipped away.

  The next morning I put my arms up, my long baby pink hair reaching my knees, and looked at mumma and gestured to be picked up.

  Her cat-like golden eyes softened. She picked me up and held me close. I buried my face in her pink hair, glad I inherited it from her.

  "I will miss you," I whispered.

  Somehow she brought me even closer and we stayed like that for a couple of minutes. I wanted her to know that whatever reason she had for not coming didn't matter and we would come back to her.

  We left the farm after everyone had their hugs. Mumma and papa joined in a kiss that went longer than polite. Finn booed.

  The gateway was configured to take us to the capital. Thus, the journey ended in moments.

  But our chapter in Edenveil was just beginning.

  The gateway deposited us at the outer gate of the noble quarter and the city announced itself all at once—the scale of it, the geometry, the deliberateness in how every part looked and how it came together to make the palace seem even grander. There was no comparison to it. This level of order was frankly inhumane.

  Quietly, I preferred the farm where yes there was some order but things were also allowed to just be and grow and die as part of an ecosystem. Enriching for all parties involved.

  The roads ran like spokes on a wheel, every single one of them pointing only to the magnificent golden palace at the centre. I could see it from here—or at least its circular grounds lined with perfectly groomed trees at perfect spacing and its imposing Mansard roof. The palace was the only curved property in a city of right angles. The true centre.

  Knights stood evenly spaced on the road leading up to it. There was no special gate. There was a gate to the nobles quarter but none between it and the palace. Only the vast grounds.

  I had counted four already and we were not even halfway to the grounds yet.

  Papa walked ahead of us speaking with the official escort who had been waiting at the gateway when we arrived. There were two of them, both dressed in uniforms designed for ceremony rather than combat. Rowan walked beside papa, back straight, closely studying the posture of every knight we passed. Finn walked beside me, taking in everything with the same hungry attention I imagined I had.

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  "There are so many of them," he said quietly.

  “Right?” I agreed. There was something up with that.

  We passed a woman who dropped something—a small parcel—and a bounty of tropical fruits spilled across the perfectly clean road. She scrambled to collect it, her face turning red. A knight materialized from somewhere and instead of helping her like a good public servant he just watched her collect them one by one.

  Finn noticed the encounter. We silently chose not to discuss it.

  The road beneath our feet was pale limestone that reflected light ever so precisely. Mansions sat back behind low ornamental walls of the same stone, their facades carved with the restrained ornamentation of people who had nothing to prove—cornices and columns in cream and ivory, iron lanterns already lit against the afternoon shade. The gardens between them were aggressively immaculate. Every hedge a perfect plane. Flower beds arranged in gradients. No leaves or petals on the ground. I looked very hard for them.

  The closer we got to the palace the grander the houses became, which was either an elegant system of spatial motivation or a very literal way of reminding people of their place. Likely bit of both.

  I thought there was no gate between the nobles quarter and the palace.

  I was wrong. The gate was magical. I almost tripped when we entered—surprised by the invisible field protecting the place. I tried to analyze what it was doing as I could tell it was acting on me even now. Having connected itself—no, that’s wrong—not a connection a one way tracking system of sorts.

  I noticed the grass here was not only trimmed but also somehow manicured to form runes. Each one different. Forming a ritual maybe. What kind of large scale magic did this power? Is the same as the protective tracking barrier I felt before. I needed higher ground to find out.

  The palace itself rose at the centre in pale gold stone that caught the late light and held it. Towers at each cardinal point. Arched windows three stories high. Flags in deep blue and gold hanging from the uppermost parapets, moving in the wind just so.

  Agnes was waiting at the entrance.

  Something in my chest unknotted seeing her. A familiar face in overwhelming circumstances. She looked exactly the same—composed, capable, with slight tension around her eyes.

  "You look well," she said to me. She meant: are you actually well.

  "I am," I said. I meant: mostly.

  She greeted papa with warmth and respect, which he received with characteristic quiet dignity.

  Rowan she treated with the particular gravity that eight-year-olds require to feel taken seriously.

  When she reached Finn he gave her the measuring look he gave her a cheeky look refusing to submit even though no one asked him to submit to anything anyway.

  She showed us to the guest wing herself. The corridor was wide enough that four people could walk abreast without brushing elbows, the ceiling vaulted and painted in deep blue with gold leaf picked out in constellations I didn't recognize. The floor was dark polished marble that reflected us back at ourselves. Wall sconces held mage-light globes that gave off a warm amber light. Everything smelled faintly of roses and spice.

  Our rooms were adjacent. Papa's got the largest, and I got the second largest. Rowan and Finn had to share. Neither of them too happy about it.

  After showing us our rooms. Agnes smiled. She was about to say something offensive, I am calling it.

  "There are clothes in each of your wardrobes," she said. "Appropriate for the palace. I would suggest using them before dinner." A pause. "I would suggest doing so after bathing. There are full bathing chambers attached to each room." Another pause, slightly longer. "With hot water."

  Making no eye contact with any of us. She left.

  Rowan looked down at his shirt. He scrubbed it with soap and washed it in the pond and dried it out in the sun. I saw it all happen. It wasn’t enough.

  I had dried mine through magic, of course. I should learn cleaning spells as well if they exist.

  Nodding to myself.

  I opened the door I had assumed was a wardrobe. Then, I stood and stared at the opulent bath I had all to myself.

  The bath itself was a deep rectangular basin of pale grey marble, large enough that I could have floated in it without touching the sides—which given my current height was admittedly not difficult but still. Copper pipes fitted into the wall with handles engraved in runes. I will have to analyze that too. Shelves along one side holding folded linen in ivory and white, and on the lower shelf a row of glass bottles stopped with cork—oils and soaps in pale colors that caught the light. I pulled one open. Something with rose in it, and underneath that something sharper and green I couldn't identify, and underneath that a clean mineral smell.

  I had bathed with tap water in the tower. It was a cramped space and you couldn’t stay too long.

  I had obviously bathed previously in my life on earth. I had even gone to an onsen which this place reminded me a lot of except the onsen had been shared and not exactly “opulent”.

  I spent a very long time bathing and I will be doing as much as I can while I stay here.

  The clothes in the wardrobe afterward were exactly what Agnes had implied—soft wool in deep green and ivory for everyday wear, simple but well-cut, the fabric with a weight and finish that made my best frock feel like what it was.

  I put them on and stood in front of the mirror that occupied most of one wall and looked at the reflection of a small girl with floor-length pink hair in a green wool dress who looked, for the first time, like she might conceivably belong somewhere like this.

  I went to dinner. Finn had also bathed, visibly and somewhat reluctantly. Rowan looked like he always belonged in this.