“Tell me, dear,” Nodoka finally started. “Who is this Queen?”
Alice frowned, and looked out to the pond that could be seen past the open shoji. As she schooled her thoughts, a single Koi leapt into the air for nothing more, it seemed, than the sheer joy of momentary flight.
“She is her Highness, the Red Queen of Lookinglaus,” Alice explained. “One of three queens to that realm, and a very just, if a bit eccentric ruler. She seems to see me as the daughter that she never had, and is always trying to help me… even when I do not desire her help.”
“Do you mean that you wish to break your engagement with my son, then?” Nodoka asked in a frightened whisper.
“Well,” Alice paused. “I haven’t yet met him, so I can’t very well say yae or nae on the subject. Let’s just say that I am open to the idea, but by no means set to it, and leave it at that.”
“Ah, that’s a slight comfort,” Nodoka said, relieved.
Silence reigned over the tearoom for a bit, broken momentarily by the sound of shifting ice in the pitcher of lemonade. Alice took this chance to take a look at her prospective mother-in-law as the woman looked out over the yard—eyes fixed, Alice assumed, on some point of interest around the pond.
The woman looked to be in her twenties. She had a kind of ageless look about her, as if the years themselves forgot to keep track of themselves. Her hair was a deep, reddish-brown color, brought up at the back of her head in a somewhat haphazard but attractive bundle.
Even from the single, outdated picture Alice had seen of her fiancé, she could quite see the family resemblance. Though she knew nothing about the boy’s father, this was most definitely his mother, beyond the shadow of any doubt.
If she was lucky, the boy would age just as well as his mother.
“You said ‘one of three’, when mentioning queens,” Nodoka noted, eyes still on the pond. “Could you please explain more?”
Alice sighed.
“Lookinglaus, better known as Looking Glass, has three queens, and two kings,” Alice said in the bored tone of a history teacher. “There is the Red Queen, who is the one that sent this parchment, and whose husband, the Red King, set up the contract in the first place. Then there is the White Queen, who is married to the White King, and has a daughter named Lily, who is by all intents and purposes, the White Princess, though she is never called such.”
“Well,” Nodoka said, deep in thought. “And well again. But that is but two queens, is it not?”
“Yes,” Alice nodded. “I was about to get to that.”
“Then by all means, don’t let me interrupt.”
“Very well. The final queen, appointed most recently by both the Red and White queens, is sometimes dubbed the Gold Queen. This is mostly because her crown is made of gold, while the Red and White queens have crowns of Ruby and Diamond, respectively.
“In a show of great friendship and trust,” Alice continued, “The Red and White Queens have both broken off a third of their kingdom and gifted it to the Gold Queen. Both portions of land lie next to each other, and comprised a great portion of their borders. Therefore, the Gold Kingdom is the centermost kingdom, with the Red to the south, and White to the north.
“As you can see, it is all rather convoluted.”
“Ah,” Nodoka nodded. “So, what position do you have with the Red Queen, seeing as she sees you as a daughter? Will you inherit her kingdom some day?”
“Oh, dear no,” Alice exclaimed. “Such things just aren’t done!”
Nodoka got a very confused look on her face, and she finally looked from the pond to her guest. Quite obviously her mind had been thrown for a loop, what with hearing that her son may still be alive, and had been appointed a fiancée through a member of royalty in some unknown kingdom. Indeed, most mothers in her particular position would have fainted, just to give their minds a rest.
Nodoka was stronger than that, though. She was of Samurai roots.
“I can’t inherit the Red Kingdom when I already have the Gold Kingdom,” Alice continued. “I mean, even if I don’t have to do anything as Queen, and adding another kingdom would not be much bother other than the ceremonies involved, that would greatly tip the balance of power. We may be friends, but the common person still sees their dinner table threatened with a situation like that, you know.”
Samurai roots or not, Nodoka feinted.
Her son was engaged to a Queen!
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(Posted Sun, 14 Nov 2004 08:11)
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