Gretchen gathered the small boxes left in her room, they were filled with trinkets from her childhood, and last to be put in the carriage since she insisted upon holding them. On top, was the one which held the doll, Lilian, that once had been looked after, and protected by Helani. It had been saved from the furniture pyre their father created when the fourth daughter would not apologize the ninth, and it was brought back to its owner as a peace offering the day the sisters mended fences. There had been many bonds created between the siblings which involved Lilian, and she wasn’t trusting the box’s possession anyone.

Looking around, memories from the past came flooding back, and they caused a moment of pause and reflection. The wall near the door had marks from annual measurements of the little one’s height, it had been her goal to be able to stand eye-level to Azleal, and the princess made notches with her pocket-knife; in reality, she stood nine feet and seven inches, and he was eleven feet five inches tall, making him one foot and eight inches taller than her.

The sibling before her, Yuri, had always been a prankster, and wherever he went chaos was sure to closely follow. Though he did not physically harm anyone, there was generally a mess to clean up after one of his jokes, and it had been her duty to choose the switch their mother would use for his punishment from what was referred to as “the switch-tree”.

Gretchen was brought back to reality by a peculiar sound, one that is acquired when pebbles hit glass, and she knew that Azleal was signaling it was time to leave. She gently tugged on the chain dangling from the fixture which hung in the middle of the room that turned off the light, and pulled the door closed behind her. At the end of the hall was another window, and the young royal female used it to exit the manor; in her mind, this decision was better than having to walk downstairs, and it would cause the family less time to wait.

*****************************************

On the ninth continent:

The horse-drawn buggy came to a rest in front of the citadel, and everyone began opening the doors in order to exit. Immediately, there were stable workers who attended to the animals, and foot soldiers moved in to offer assistance to the females. The elves walked on red-velvet carpet, there were news cameras, and the Devereux family dodged their obscene questions. Once inside, Wenny and Werloni waited for their old friend with smiles, and the queen made apologies to everyone about the press.

“I knew you guys liked to greet guests with the carpet, but I had no idea the cameras would be here,” the professor said.

“Jazzi, you know me better than that, I’d never sic those vultures on you,” the queen said.

“I’d hoped our relations were on better terms,” Jasmine replied.

“Oh, they are, but you cannot be angry with me for someone else telling them you were coming,” she said.

“No, I guess, I can’t do that, and don’t worry about it. These kids deal with worse on a daily basis since they’re involved with search and rescue, and there’s even a doctor at East Zeerk, Regional,” Jasmine said.

“Wow! I had no idea your children were involved with the community, especially the princess,” the king said.

“What, you think the princess gets special privileges? Because, I can tell you she works harder than my boys, on most days. Plus, she has kids of her own. Now I ask, ‘who has time for anything special when you are a mother’?” The magix elder said.

“Oh, alright, well, around here, our royalty is treated differently,” he replied.

“I’m not having any of it, I will one day be the planetary queen, and you will not treat me or my sister differently than everyone else. We both enjoy our work, it keeps us grounded and level-headed, and neither of us is going to stop what we are doing to satisfy you,” the princess said.

“Yeah, I happen to agree with her, we don’t live that way at home, and I don’t want special privileges just because...