"You foolish girl!" Marquise's angry voice entered before him. The door of a small room in the town inn almost broke when he slammed them open.
"I there no end to your idiocy?" He asked his daughter, lady Gabrielle, who was sitting one a small bed provided in the room of an inn she was staying at. It was the only one in town she was able to find, and the closest one to the palace. Since she did not know the capitol very well she was scared to go further and look for a better place.
When the guards took her out of the palace grounds, along with her luggage, and probated her from returning, slamming the golden gate in front of her face, she had nowhere to go. Her home was to far away for one to walk to it, nor did she know the way by foot, she had no relatives or friends in the capitol who could help her and no way of telling her father where she is or what had happened to her.
She is left alone, like never before, the only solution was to stay in the capitol and find a way to send a message to her father. There was no way she is going to wait on the street or wander around with her two bags with risk of someone robbing her. Finding an inn was her solution, there she could wait for father to come, with even a little sense of safety. From there she can send a message and tell him to come get her.
After some time, she found this place, an inn called "The ducks", inside at the wooden bar, there was a woman cleaning cups, she looked at lady Gabrielle almost like she was an intruder who came to rob her. That noble girl in an expensive dress with even more expensive jewels around her neck. Like someone who she is going to deal with with a metal bat hidden on the inside of the bar. This woman was Indrig, youngest daughter of the blacksmith and wife of "The ducks" owner.
Gabrielle walked up to her, the bar was empty as well as the inn, she asked her for a pen and paper.
The woman, Indrig, looked at her for a long time while still doing her job, only when she finished, Indrig took out a large book and said, "If you taka a room I can arrange it." Gabrielle stood frozen for a moment, shocked, before realising her pride no longer existed. She nodded her head and Indrig opened the book.
"I have one left for you, What name?"
"Gabrielle von Favre," Indrig looked at her for a moment before writing it on the list of guests, then sighed like she knew who the girl before her was.
"Room 4, end of the hallway." She took out a set of keys and gave her the one with number four on it. When Gabrielle looked more confused then before, Indrig pointed at the staircase. "Up there, then right, the last one is yours, Dinner is at seven. I will bring you the paper."
"And pen?"
"And pen."
Gabrielle chose to trust her, this was her only chance in contacting her father, if she could contact him after all. Maybe they won't give her letter to him.
She went upstairs with directions Indrig gave her and found a worn-out door with number four painted on it. The writing was neat, almost like the number was drawn by a calligrapher, it was probably the woman from the bar that wrote it, Gabrielle thought, her handwriting was quit beautiful.
Door squeaked when she opened, inside, in the corner, there was a small bed, a table and a chair in front of the window with a candle on it. There was no rug, and do to lack of furniture, every step on the bear and worn floor was louder then it should be. The walls were some off-beige colour that was probably just dirt on once white walls. Yet the bed was clean an bedsheets neatly folded. Nothing more the room had.
Gabrielle set aside the luggage she was carrying around and sat on the chair to look outside, her room was facing the same direction as the entrance of the inn, she waited almost losing all hope that the woman from the bar will bring her what she asked for, but she did bring it, one pen and one paper.
So, lady Gabrielle wrote to her father about what happened, what terrible mistake she had made and went against his words not to cause trouble during their visit. She told him where she was, begging him to come and get her. It was probably the most she had been desperate in life formed in words on that low-quality paper written in watered-down ink.
Indrig helped her once again to send the letter, she sent her son to deliver it to the Imperial palace.
Gabrielle's father came later in the night, she knew without looking out the window, by his steps, he was very angry.
"Father I-"
"Spear me, oh dear Gods, what have I done so wrong for you to punish me like this?"
"Father please let me explain!"
"Maria already told me!" Marquise von Favre's face, usually cold and serious, was red from anger, his eyes opened wide and every wrinkle on his face dipper then usual. "She thought they threw you in the chambers! I was ready to bet the Emperor to realise you, if this letter of yours hadn't arrived in time we would both be banished from the palace!" He held the letter she sent him, the paper was crumbling in his hand.
"Pleas father, you have to understand me, I had no idea that was the Empress. If I knew, I would never speak to her that way!" Gabrielle stood up from the chair she was sitting on so fat that it fell on the floor. Both of them were now equally loud, enough for everyone around to hear them.
"You had no idea that was the Empress? That is your excuse? That child is just a proof of your ignorance! You are a daughter of marquise and you don't know how the members of the Imperial family look like? You can't make a difference from the Holy Empress of this country and her fourteen year old daughter?"
"I have never seen them before! How am I supposed to know how old the princess is? I though she was older!"
"Well if you spent more time studying instead of acting like a damsel in distress, you would know how the rulers of our country looked like and how old they are! How the people who own your life looked like! We are lucky this is the only thing you have done!"
"But father, I don't understand what have I done, why did they take me out of the palace?"
"I swear, you child will be the death of me. You, young lady, have crossed one rule Her Majesty had. Do not come to the Queen's palace uninvited, if you are to do so, you are to be banished from the Imperial palace, for life! I don't have to mention how ignorant you were to walk up to her and mistake her for her daughter who was sitting next to her!"
"But nobody told me that rule!"
"Do you need to be told everything? Isn't it basic respect not to come in someone's home uninvited?" His voiced quieted down, slowly the angry flame in his eyes calmed, truly, what can he even do now? Is it all lost, everything he had work so hard his whole life for? Just because of this childe's reclass act, is it all over? Gabrielle is reclass and ignorant, she has been that way since birth, even thou it sound impossible it is true, some are born that way, incapable of changing and never truly whishing for it. Perhaps she was his punishment, from Gods themselves, deeds finally in turn to be repaid, like a deal with the devil. On the surface, perfect, beautiful, everything one has ever dreamed of, only for a small price of a soul, of a life. Anybody would give it away to achieve what he has in life, and much more to achieve what the people in the Imperial palace have. He is the first in live after all, everybody wants more, even those who have everything, simply because they will always lack something.
Marquise sat on the bed and looked at his daughter, the one that always caused him trouble, but also the one he loved most, the one that was exactly same as him. No son could compare to her.
"I'm sorry father." She said.
"Sorry? Sorry is not enough." It will never be enough, not if they can not fix this situation.
"You are a lady of age, my daughter, daughter of Marquise, what damage do you think this will bring both to you and our family? What about your sisters? Our reputation will be destroyed and your chance of ever marrying a decent man are out of the window!"
"We can fix that right? I can fix that!"
"I very much doubt that daughter." Could they? If they were to beg, sacrifice every drop of dignity and pride they had, both of them.
"What do you mean you doubt it? There must be a way!"
"What do you expect me to do? To go and beg Her Majesty to forgive you? To drag our family name trough the mud?"
"Then I will write to her! I'll send how many letters necessary!"
"Since I obviously can't control you or reason with you, do as you please to fix your own life, and do as all a favour and stop dreaming of your life as the Emperor's mistress." Or those it have to be both of them?
"How do you-"
"Maria told me, thank Gods that she did daughter, this way I know how to punish you properly." He crumbled the letter in his hands an threw it to the floor.
"Father."
Marquise stood up, same might he came with was now carrying him once again. "A carriage will come in the morning to take you and Maria home. Don't cause any more trouble!" He walked out, slamming the door behind him so hard that the knob fell of.
Gabrielle was left alone, only with a dash of his voice that left to echo in the room, or perhaps only in her ears. "Yes father." She said to the empty room. Maybe he is right, that ignorant fool she called father, man hungry for status, hungry for his own name to be said in the rooms he is not in. So hungry for glory he can never have. Maybe she did ruin her opportunity to merry good, but they did not have same idea of what a good man looked like. Not a good man, there are many good man, but there are few good husbands.
That perfect husband for her is the Emperor, and it is going to stay that way. Why should she give up? Because his wife kicked her out? He is the Emperor, who cares that that woman is the Empress, she is still belove him. And she should remain there where she belongs, with her holy books and gods and priests, in that world she is so glorified in. The Holy Maiden, most perfect woman of them all, how could any other woman not hate her? They are all goanna be compared to her for long as the maiden lives, even longer, Gabrielle was sure, even after she is long gone that woman will remain an example of perfection. Born in poverty, raised as an orphan with only the temple to look after her, not only that, but she came for a far away land, who knows from where truly, that face is not from these parts, so much tragedy that people eat up in glorious stories. She is beautiful, young, achieved so many things, got married to the young king, escaped that poverty she was born in, gave birth to two children, one boy and one girl, and the boy was her first. Her body is perfect, her skin is white as porcelain, eyes are blue, hair is blond, posture and manners are perfect. And she is the Empress, and the holiest of them all, the one that can read the divine language. Truly, how can one compete with that perfect woman?
Yet she lacks one thing, her husbands love. She does not have that, Gabrielle knew, no proof did she need. But, maybe, Her Majesty is the one that doesn't know. After all woman that have everything, beaty, riches, comfort, often blind themselves in order to avoid loosing what they have. Some hide the love they don't have for their husband, while others, who don't have their husbands love, lie themselves into thinking they have it. Her Majesty must be one of them.
Why would she need to live in that lie? Why should a woman, such as her, live like that, when out there, in this whole wide world, there must be a man ready to give her heart to her? Many even, only thing she would need to do is chose one, or many, who knows what the woman prefers.
Gabrielle took a good look around the room, this place she ended up in. What if she marries someone who could only offer her this in exchange for her love. Should she surrender and forget the one she truly loves? The Emperor, Evan.
She looked at the crumbled letter her father threw on the floor. She will fix it. This whole thing, only with one weapon. A word on paper.