A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Cliff House, South West Kaliburg
March 2, 5691, 2:30 pm

The Door to the office where the Princess Regent was working opened and Carolina walked in. Her aunt looked up from her papers and then went back to work. Carolina, noticing that her aunt's attention was elsewhere, calmly walked over to the water boiler, turned it on and let it heat up. In a minute the pot was hot. She measured two cups of loose tea leaves in her tea balls, poured hot water over both of them and let them steep momentarily. When the tea was good and dark, she took out the little spoon that sat next to her tea cup, opened a small ceramic vase and took about a half measure of the brown powder from the jar and placed it into both cups. She then secured the vase, and stirred the powder into the tea, dissolving it instantly. She then took both tea cups on their respective saucers, placed them on the highly polished silver tray and moved to the couch. She placed the tray on the table and sat down in the arm chair placed perpendicular from the couch. She sat silently until her aunt spoke.

"What is it Carolina," asked the Regent, not realizing that Carolina had made tea.

"You should take a break," said Carolina.

"Yes I know, but there is so much to do here. I don't think I can even get through this file, let alone this whole stack..." She kept working and didn't even look up, a little annoyed that Carolina was interrupting her. She could feel her niece staring at her and didn't really like that feeling. "You're home from school early, Carolina. Did you skip your last class?"

Carolina ignored the last question. In fact, she had, but it was an elective creative writing class anyway, which she was just taking to fill in her schedule. She asked instead: "Can I help you with anything?"

"No... Carolina..." said Nicolette, with a note of exasperation. "I just need to work, ok?"

But just then, Nicolette smelled the tea, the steam had been wafting into the air and the unmistakable orange of the Earl Gray had finally filled the office. She looked up, and surely Carolina was sitting there, two steaming cups waited on the table.

"You should take a break," Carolina repeated. Nicolette, staring at her niece now, who had a pleasant, if slightly naive smile on her face, heard Carolina's words, which had been delivered in an identical way as before, as an order now, rather than a suggestion. "Come over and have tea with me." Carolina, though she was only still 17, was calling her aunt "in" for an informal audience, in a way which was well meaning and gentle, but also carried with it a certain... weight... and authority. Carolina was very rapidly turning into what she would be very soon, an absolute monarch. And Nicolette knew she had better comply with the friendly suggestion, because if Carolina needed to repeat herself, it might be much sharper and unmistakably a command next time.

She got up and walked to the couch, and briefly lowered her head. Carolina invited her to sit, and she did immediately. She was no longer this girl's aunt, but her subject. And... it kind of felt like a relief for a moment. It told her that her time as regent, for better or worse, would soon be over. The young Empress took her cup and sipped the black tea, and the Regent followed suit.

"Aunt Nikki, I would like to speak with you about my time in National Service. I don't know if I am ready for it. I'm a little worried."

"What would your maj... you, like to know?"

"Well, I know how they test you during your basic training. What kinds of jobs do you think I will be put in?"

Nicolette smiled, "Well, you're kind of in a weird position, Carolina. You are already the Empress. I think your grandmother became the Empress when she was about to get out, but you have been the Empress since you were 12. So I suppose you could tell them to put you in whatever job you want... I don't know. I got lucky: I got to work on the coast rebuilding beaches and things like that. I liked being at sea and I think my mother had something to do with that, but, when you turn 18, they'll do whatever you tell them to. If you want to be a cook, they'll make you a cook, if you want to build bridges, they'll let you do that. Your word then is law. So..."

Carolina considered this a second and said, "No that wouldn't be fair to the others. Nobody else gets to pick their job like that..."

Nicolette laughed, "Not so fast now. Plenty of people who enter national service have people on the outside who make plenty of calls to plenty of others to get their special kids placed in spots that will further their career. You just have to know someone and you can usually get a preferred position for your kid or whatever..."

Carolina sipped her tea again. "Isn't that cheating?"

"How do you mean, cheating?"

"Well, I thought the NSP was supposed to be based on aptitude, like you do what you're good at. Not who does your mom know..."

"Oh well, I mean, yeah, it is generally. But the ideal sometimes has a way of falling short, you know? This is how anything anyone calls 'meritocracy' actually works. Its the wealthy and powerful making calls to get their kids into elite or preferable positions and everyone else gets to fight over what's left."

"That doesn't seem right," said the Empress, suddenly struck with a feeling of injustice. "How long has it been that way?"

Nicolette sipped her tea again, "Oh, well, far longer than you or I have been alive. It's how everyone does it, here in Kalistan and even in liberal countries, that claim to let the best rise, when really its just those with the most connections. 'The apple only falls downward' is the motto of meritocracy."

Carolina grew upset. "No I want to be like all the other kids. I am there to serve the nation, our Nation. Not to make contacts and get easy jobs."

Nicolette laughed. "Then ask to be a welder. My aunt worked at the Shipyards here in Kaliburg, that was hard work. It's what she wanted and what she was good at."

"Other people don't get what they wanted..."

"No not all the time, but Carolina, be realistic. Other people are not named Ananto. We have been placed on the top of this whole system because we carry this whole thing. They will do whatever you tell them to do. All of us will. You will very soon be the Empress, in name AND power, and you will be expected to act like that." Carolina seethed. "Carolina, you are not like other people. You never have been. All of your friends at your school all know that when you turn 18, they are probably never going to see you ever again. It will be against the law for them to talk to you the way they do. They know it, and they will understand their duty to uphold that space and it will be a real honor to them if you even remember them someday. You and your friends are not the same."

"Well, as the Empress, can't I change that?"

"What do you mean, change it," asked Nicolette.

"You say my word is law. Suppose I order the Monarchy dissolved. Suppose I order people to just treat me like a regular person."

Carolina was singularly befuddled by this line of questioning. "What are you even talking about Your Majesty... I mean, Ca... No, I mean, your Majesty... What are you talking about, dissolve the monarchy? If you did that you wouldn't be the monarch anymore, and the Government would make all the decisions."

"Yeah, precisely, that's what I want..."

"Carolina, don't you understand? If you give them the power, they'll just vote you back in and make you the monarch again. Besides, it's illegal to dissolve the monarchy."

"Yes, but I am the law," said Carolina

"True, but if you abolish yourself, you are giving the power to people in this society who agree with you, and they will just give it right back to you. Where are you getting these ideas?"

Carolina finished her tea. "I don't know. It just doesn't seem fair... Why should one person have all the power in this country?"

Nicolette leaned in, "Carolina, you are the sovereign and the avatar of this nation. You are the person people look to for strength, for encouragement, and for yes, discipline and unification. You are this nation. When you hit your majority, we, and I will be more like them than you at that point, we let you rule so we don't have to. It is an incredibly awful burden to carry. It is dangerous, and it is soul crushing in many respects. It steals your life, all that responsibility for so many things. But the people of this nation, a long time ago, decided that it was far worse to try to govern themselves than to just hand that off to the Monarch. For bearing that responsibility, you will definitely not be adequately compensated by this nation. It's kind of exploitive, you know... This is something most people in other nations don't seem to understand. Having all that power means you are responsible for literally everything that happens. The only way to keep that from overwhelming and crippling you is to maintain the protocol, to maintain the House Laws, and to allow your helpers to help you do your job when they can, which is your job from sun up until sunup the next day. Until you retire. The National Service is the least of your concerns."

Carolina, who listened, and allowed her frustration to slowly dissipate, said, "Well, can I reform the Service so that the wealthy and connected can't put themselves in the best jobs at least?"

"You can, when you are Empress. You can do what you want, and the NSP will follow, as long as you lead, preferably by example."

"I can do everything but vote myself out of office..."

"Well, you can do that but they will just give it back to you again. So I wouldn't waste my time."

Carolina nodded. "I think I would like to be a teacher."

Nicolette smiled, "I can make some calls..."

"I'd rather you didn't, Aunt Nicki. Let's just see what happens on its own."

Nicolette smiled, "I hope for your sake, you get to do whatever your heart is set on."

Carolina nodded. "Me too. You can go back to work if you want."

Nicolette looked at the stack of files on her desk, and then back at Carolina. "Can I impose upon Your Imperial Majesty for another cup of tea?"

Carolina smiled, and nodded graciously, demonstrating her impeccable etiquette, which she was quite proud of.