Seraphiell
"I'd like to see my father now, Lucas." Lucas follows quietly behind me, which is strange. "Lucas, is everything alright?" I turn around to ask. He halts, "Yes, of course your highness. I'm just a bit shaken by what just happened."
"You don't get 'shaken'." I raise an eyebrow.
"I've just never seen you take charge like that before. You were kind of..."
"Scary?" I complete his sentence. He almost jumps at that. "Of course not, my lady! You were magnificent! I would never think of you as such." I laugh. He runs a hand over his wavy, dark hair. His eyes, green as emeralds remind me of the storm forest. Ethereal and calm. "I'm only teasing." His face begins to flush a bit. I spin on my heels and keep walking.
"You know, your reaction to my teasing is the main reason I do it."
"Is that so?" I'm sure he's rubbing the back of his neck.
"You'd never imagine that 'the strongest night in the empire, Lucas of Valeon' would get flustered over anything." I look out of the windows into the palace gardens. Blue roses, home only to Aetherwyne, bloomed everywhere. Jasmine climbed up the edges of the fountain and a bit around the castle walls. "Lucas," I call out. "Please tell Cindy to prepare my jasmine and mint tea once the ones in the gardens have bloomed."
"Of course, your highness."
We stop in front of large, royal blue doors, decorated with gold. The two guards kneel, "Greetings to the star of Aetherwyne."
"Is his majesty in?" I ask, knowing full well that he is.
"Yes, your highness." They stand and open the doors. "He has been expecting you."
On walking in, I go straight to the windows and open the curtains. The sunlight, like sweet honey pours in. "Athy," His familiar, loving voice calls me by the nickname he gave me. "Yes, father?"
"I told you the sunlight is too bright!"
"Well, you will never get better if you don't at least get some vitamin D now, will you?" I sit on the chair beside his bed. "Before I leave, I'll call the maids to prepare a bath for you. Just look at your greasy hair!" I touch his blonde hair that used to give the impression of molten gold.
"You are not my mother." He pouts.
"And you are not a child, yet here we are." At that, he scoffs with a smile.
"Where is your brother? He hasn't been here in three weeks now."
"But if I skip a day, I'll never hear the end of it."
"You don't have the luxury of doing that, my dear." I give him a playful glare and gently ring the bell on his side table. Maids swiftly come pouring in, four with brooms, four with mops and six with dusting feathers. Another walks in with his breakfast tray and one with his medicine. "Didn't I say the maids were too many?" He complains.
"If you would leave your stupendously spacious room, you wouldn't need so many." I snap back, gesturing to his food. "I'm still the emperor." He pouts again.
"An emperor who is about to be spoon-fed by a 17-year-old girl if he doesn't start eating." He sits up and eats, leaving out the vegetables. "Seriously, father?"
"Speaking of..." He clears his throat, ignoring me. "Out." His low-tone voice still echoes.
It only takes a single word for everyone to leave and take their materials with them. "Atheril." He gently uses my middle name. "I have failed as an emperor, and as a father."
"Father don't-"
"You were supposed to have your debutante the moment you turned 16, and it's been over a year."
"It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does, Athy. Since your mother left us, I've been a shell of a man. An excuse for a ruler. And a teenager has been shouldering the responsibilities I have neglected." He looks in my eyes and takes my hand. "I want to make you my heir, Atheril." Those words knock the wind out of me. "F-father, your temperature must be going up again." Frantic, I turn to get his medicine. "I am fine, and I know what I said. Your older brother is highly incompetent, nothing close to being fit for an emperor."
"Father, the only female ruler in Aetherwyne's history is founding empress Sheradith, it's been well over 500 years!"
"That means nothing."
"The noble faction will never allow it!"
"I trust that you can change their minds."
"Father, you know of my situation!"
"It doesn't matter, and I need you to prove that to them, Seraphiell!" I look down, trembling a little. It feels like I have been hit by a carriage. "Athy," He calls my name so fondly, and with so much faith in his voice. "I named you Seraphiell for a reason."
Ever since Empress Sheradith saved the Kingdom, with her name translating to 'Savior', every heir to the throne is given a name that translates to saviour in the ancient tongue. At birth, the name I was given was Atheril. But according to tradition, when I was taken to the Temple with my twin brother at 6, The name he was given was Theodore, while mine was Seraphiell. The emperor is allowed to choose any of his children as the heir, so although I was older, my future wasn't fixed. "I chose you as my heir long before now. Even at such a young age it was plain to see that you would fix this broken nation. Why else would I make you the emperor's proxy over your brother?" He pauses and pulls me into a hug. "More than anything, Athy, I want you to rule. But if you do not wish to, I won't force you." His warm embrace reminds me of the simpler days, when mom was still here. He wipes my tears with his hands, and I didn't even realize I was crying. I wasn't sad, no. I was scared. Because in a land known through and through for its magic, I, from the royal family which is said to have the purest and strongest mana, do not possess a single drop of it.