A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Ananto Estate, Eveari, August 30, 5640

Mary sat her own table in the back of the ball room. She had secretly returned to the reception to celebrate her sister's wedding, having taken off her formal wear. She had done the full celebration of her sister's marriage and spent time with the family, but now she wanted to watch her sister celebrating her happiness. Sort of a vicarious happiness for herself. Margaret and her new husband did look happy as they danced with the nearly one hundred party guests on the dancefloor.

Mary watched in the shadows, knowing that if she went out, everyone would simply defer to her, and the protocol would take precedence over being casual and at ease and it would be like throwing ice water on the party. Mary wasn't exactly known as the "life of the party" at any rate. She was known for being humorless (a critique she herself disagreed with, but it was more or less the general consensus among almost everyone who knew her), and generally only found joy in solitude, far away from her official life in the capital.

As she sat, far out of the view or attention of anyone, wearing dark glasses to cover her eyes and a hooded sweater to cover her head and body, she looked like she could be one of the many townspeople that were usually invited to the parties at Ananto Estate after the royal family retires. She was deep in thought about almost nothing--she relished these times when nobody needed anything from her. A voice interrupted her contemplation of the vastness of the universe.

"Excuse me, are you ok, miss?" asked the voice. "Miss?" Are you alive in there?"

Mary snapped back to the reception. "Oh, uh. Yeah I'm fine. Just watching here..."

"Then can I join you?" the voice asked. It belonged to a man, likely in his early thirties. He wore a suit, but his tie was loose and the top button along his collar was undone. He looked kind of sloppy. Probably some local.

"No offense sir, but there are plenty of other tables around here." Mary said, trying to be polite.

"Well, to be honest, I'm kind of hiding, and you seem to have a pretty good spot here for just that purpose, and it would really help me out if I could just sit down here for a few minutes..."

Mary looked at him. Hiding, huh? "From what?" she asked.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"What are you hiding from?" she repeated.

"Oh, you know, you get invited to these things, and you kind of don't want to be here, and so, you gotta make your appearance, because you don't want to be rude and everything. So I figure, if I hide out, I can come out later, and pretend like I was here the whole time, and then nobody is the wiser." Mary totally knew what the man was talking about--how often had she felt like that herself. She looked at the man. He seemed pretty safe, and he looked more than a little drunk, so maybe he wouldn't recognize her in the dark. "It looks like you're hiding too, so maybe we just hide out together."

At length, Mary acquiesced. "Fine, you can stay here for a few minutes. But please don't be obnoxious, or I'll out you in a heartbeat." The man smiled, pulled up a seat and presently presented Mary a glass of red wine. "I bought gifts."

Mary took the glass from him: She had wanted to go to the bar, but also not at the risk of outting her own self, so she had been abstaining since she returned to the reception. The man held up his glass, and offered a quiet toast. "To incognition..." Mary thought for a moment: Incognition? Is that what that word means-- Being incognito? She clinked her glass to his and they both took a sip. Ananto Estate has the best wine of course. She knew because it was her wine.

"So what do you do, Mr...." she said as she trailed her voice off, in a round about way of asking his name.

"Oh, a little of this and a little of that. I am a free lance journalist by trade. I just got a new gig actually working for some big wig. I don't know how I feel about it, to be honest. The nobility in this country can be kind of boring."

"Boring?!" Mary said. "Well, the Princess seems to be having a great time!"

"Yeah, but she's really supposed to, isn't she? This is her thing..."

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Mary said. The man was more correct than he knew. This WAS Margaret's "thing". She was so excited to marry Mr. Westmoreland and start her family with him. This party was ALL about her. Mary didn't mind, she just didn't want to ruin it for her sister. The day had been incredibly long: They started with the wedding in Kaliburg at the Yearly Meeting House, then everyone got on the train and came all the way back to Eveari for the reception. To Mary, it was just ridiculous, actually, the whole thing.

"How about you? What do you do?"

"Same: a little of this, a little of that. I work with the Government, actually," Mary said, cagily.

"Oh, a G and a reporter... I suddenly feel like I should be hiding from you."

"Why?" Mary said.

"Oh, the Government is the enemy."

"The enemy?" Mary asked incredulously.

"Yeah, there's a saying around the established papers: 'When you censor yourself, the Empress doesn't have to.' As a journalist, I totally have to do whatever I can to not internalize the urge to write stuff to please the Government, but instead to write the truth. It's a constant struggle."

"Well, Mr. Reporter, if that is your real name. The Empress doesn't censor the papers, for your information."

"Now, Miss Government, keep your voice down or you will draw the attention over here that neither of us wants." Mary, who was not used to being given orders was half inclined to stand up and make more of it, but this was the first normal conversation she'd had in a long time, and on second thought decided not to blow it up. Instead she decided to change the subject.

"You'll excuse me if I prefer to not have a political discussion, but you're wrong."

"Ok," he said, with a smile.

At length she asked, "Do you only write as a freelancer, or do you do anything else with your time?"

"Oh yeah. I actually freelance so I can do other things with my time. I write for fun-- I spend my free time racing cars."

"You race cars? Where?" she asked.

"Down at Reynoldia. I'm only on the amateur circuit now, but I love racing cars. How about you? You know so much about me, and I know almost nothing about you. What do you do in your free time when you aren't doing government stuff?"

Mary smiled, grateful for the offramp. "I spend my time outside. I like being in the woods. But I have so little free time that I don't get out as much as I used to."

"Well, see this is one of the things about racing: I also like to spend time outside. I don't really go to the woods much at all: They don't have woods in Suldanor really."

"Well, then you really should spend more time in Ananto," said Mary. "We have great groves of redwoods here. Beautiful. And if you come back in about two hundred years, you'll see the whole north slope of the Mountains out here just absolutely covered in forest."

"Oh, is that the... uh... the replanting thing?"

"Yeah," Mary said. "I was part of that you know?"

The man smiled. "I believe it." He paused. "So, what kind of music do you like?"

Mary smiled, and thought for a moment. "You know, I really liked loud music for a while, but I also kind of like this stuff..." She was referring to the pop dance music that Margaret had playing at her reception that she was having a great time still dancing to.

The man smiled as he shook his head. "Well, I suppose to each their own..."

Mary, who was feeling the wine a little said, "You don't like this?"

The man said "No, I'm kind of a purist. Alternative for me. Give me two guitars, a bass, a set of drums, and maybe a weird Moog synth and I'm in heaven."

The conversation carried on for another twenty minutes. Both Mary and the still unnamed man chatted about everything except politics and current affairs. Sometimes they agreed, sometimes they didn't, but they chatted as if they had known each other for a very long time. Eventually, Mary drained the last drops of wine from her glass. The man, who had finished his minutes ago, saw it and said "I think you've been more than gracious to let me sit here with you for as long as you did. I suppose I should call it a night." Suddenly Mary realized she was having a pretty good time speaking so informally around this guy. She hadn't even caught his name.

"Oh... would you be a gentleman and get a refill for me?"

"But that will mean I won't be able to duck out..."

Mary decided to take a chance. "No, but you could stay with me for a little while. I like talking to you." Mary said.

"So I wasn't too obnoxious?" he said with a smile.

"Well, at first maybe a little," she said with a smile. "But we got along alright I think. I'm only going to stay a little longer myself, but I enjoyed talking with you."

The man at length agreed to refill both glasses and then return. When he came back and gave Mary her glass, she swirled it around and then clinked glasses with the man again.

As she sipped her wine, the man asked, "Your libations, Your Majesty."

Mary stopped short. Did she hear him correctly? "What did you say your name was again?" she asked.

"My name is Martin Collins..." he answered. Why did that name sound so familiar? Then it hit her like a wall.

"And who is the 'big wig" you're working for now?"

"I'm working for Her Highness, Princess Margaret Ananto. I believe you knew that." Of course, she thought. Margaret's new spokesperson... He wasn't a journalist; He was her sister's flak. And this was a set up.

Suddenly she sat up and was about to bolt to the exit. "Look, uh... I gotta go... It's been a blast. But..."

"Mary," Martin said as he put his hand on her arm. She paused and looked down at his hand.

"You are breaking several laws right now, Mr. Collins," she said, and, realizing that she was right, he quickly pulled his hand back and set it on the table.

"Listen... you don't have to leave. I'm the only one who knows you're here, ok? We're having a good time..."

"I don't like my sister setting me up on these blind dates. I told her..."

"Just breathe, ok, and please sit back down? She didn't set you up. Ok? She doesn't know I am talking to you now, and when she finds out, I just know she's going to fire me. But it will be worth it. I have wanted to meet you since the first time I saw you, and this was the only way where you weren't surrounded by all these stupid rules and saying yes your majesty and all that... I didn't mean to scare you... Just... just talk with me for 5 more minutes, ok? I really like you, and would like to know you better."

Mary's heart was beating a million miles a minute... She took a big swig of her wine, not sure what else to do.

"Whoa... slow down with that," he said. "Don't panic, ok? I just want to talk with you for a little while longer. We were having such a good time... Just, breathe."

Mary shot a look at him. She slowly sat back down. "So you've known all this time?" Martin nodded. "And you didn't say anything?"

"Well," he stammered. "I was guessing you were sitting over here because you didn't want to be recognized. But your disguise is pretty thin, if you ask me. Who wouldn't recognize one of the most recognizable faces in the world? A blind man could have spotted you. Even with your... sunglasses... and the hoodie you're wearing... It says "Ananto" for crying out loud. I mean, if you weren't lurking over here in the shadows, you may as well put a spotlight on yourself." Mary realized how unbelievably obvious she was after all. She wanted to shrink and disappear.

Just then, Princess Margaret and her new husband appeared at their table. "Hey Martin! When did you get here?" she said.

"I've been here for a while, Your Highness." he answered.

Margaret smiled, "Why aren't you dancing. Come on, bring your... eh..." She looked at Mary, and even though she was pretty inebriated, she immediately recognized her own sister who was sitting shrunken in a little ball in her seat, an image that caught the jovial Margaret as funny in that moment. "Bring Mary with you..."

"The Empress? Here?! What do you mean?" he said, pretending to look around. "No Empress here, your Highness."

"Of course, man, she's right there..." Margaret stopped short, as her new Husband squeezed her hand tightly. Margaret realized why her big sister was in a hooded sweatshirt and sun glasses, hiding in the dark. She understood what was happening here, and a huge smile appeared on her face. "My mistake. Welcome, Miss, to the Party," and then back to Martin, "And you're fired, just so you know. Keep making good choices, but I told you, Anantos do not fraternize with the help," she smiled and pulled her husband by the hand back to the dance floor.

Mary felt low, and a little drunk. "Oh man, I am sorry," she said. "She didn't need to say that right after firing you. I can talk to her for you if you want."

"Eh, don't worry about it. I only took the job to meet you anyway..."

Mary took off her glasses. "That might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me," she said with a smile.

"So now that I'm no longer 'the help', will you drink with me some more, if I promise to keep your secret?"

Mary smiled. "I will."