Fantasy Emptying the Golden Throne

[CJWrites]

Ada knew it wasn't but it was the first time someone else had told her the same thing. Relief swept over her.

She laughed. "Thank you. And it's Ada, please. Although most people your age call me Adeline. Just... don't call me Elizabeth. I didn't know why my mother didn't like my first name, until now."

 

[StoneWolf18]

Alcon shrugged. "Whichever you prefer. Although you all might be needing to get back... I've been noticing more and more odd glances accumulating."

Val would frown at this. "Are you go to be able to get back to the settlement?" Alcon once again gave a shrug. "I'm not sure, but I know I'll be fine."

 

[CJWrites]

Ada got a wide eyed look on her face and excused herself. She talked to the rest of the patients before heading back over to Alcon's bed.

"I'm going to head back," she told Val and Wyn. "But I understand if you want to stay longer"

Before she left, she shot Grace a glance. The girl waved and smiled, seemingly in a better mood than she was when Ada arrived.

Grinning, Ada and her guard started heading back towards the castle.

 

[StoneWolf18]

As soon as Ada would leave, some of the tension that had been in the room left, although many of the fey were disgusting their disdain of the woman and of the situation.

Surprisingly, Wyn had something to say about it.

Climbing up onto one of the empty beds, he cleared his throat, the room quieting as he began to speak. “I know that you’re all thinking the same thing. How the hell can that mess of a girl run a country.”

He received a chorus of nods with a few mingling shouts in agreement.

“Trust me, I thought the same thing. When I first met her, I didn’t think she was going to last an hour in our ghettos, being dumbfounded by the shit we were going through beneath her nose. And that was before arriving here. How would you take suddenly learning that you’re the king’s heir and when he ends up killing himself, you have to now run a kingdom.”

Val looked up at her brother, he man appearing calm and generally in his element.

“I wouldn’t trust myself. Hell, how could I do that when I couldn’t even keep my own sister-” he gestured to Val. “Out of the dungeon with me, both having been strapped to that damned table.”

“You look fine!” A fey now missing an arm spat.

Wyn simply shrugged, shrugging off of his suit jacket before unbuttoning his shirt and doing the same. His relatively toned and tanned form was now littered with wounds that haven’t yet healed. They wrapping around his arms and snaking along his back, looking angry and red as if he hadn’t received any treatment for them.

This silenced that fey, but another gestured to Val. “What about her?”

She would look up at her brother, he lowering a hand to hoist her up onto the bed they both no stood on. “While they just took blood from me…” He said, pausing to remove the enchantment on her dress, the woman resuming a 4’ 5” height. “They put it back into her, where a 28 year old woman now looks like a child.”

The room got the message, she stepping down once more, the enchantment resuming.

“They most likely would’ve killed me and continued to experiment upon her if not for your soon-to-be queen. So before you think that some young human woman-” He made sure to stress this part, as it getting out that she wasn’t fully human would be extremely bad for business. “Is going to be able to run a kingdom and possibly improve your lives, don’t be so quick to judge or you’ll be absolutely no better than the racist humans who berate you in the streets.”

With that he would step down, quickly redressing. “Shouldn’t you get those…” Val tried to say when they faded from view, his body not wounded as severely at all. “I’ll be fine.” he replied with a wink, the pair soon moving to exit the building, Wyn also sliding his ring back on as they exited.

 

[CJWrites]

It had been a week since the hospital. Alex was still trying to convince Wyn to work on reverse engineering Magic. Val was currently accompanying Ada to her office.

"You know..." Ada said slowly. "I think we should tell everyone you're my sister."

Arthur was rounding the corner and had overheard the conversation, he stopped, listening in.

 

[StoneWolf18]

While Wyn was still reluctant to begin working with Alex, he couldn't help considering it. It was an interesting subject nonetheless and it would be lying if he said he wasn't the slightest bit curious.

Val however stopped dead as Ada said this, grabbing her sister's sleeve to stop her from continuing. "Do you really think that's a good idea?" Her voice wavered with a bit of nervousness, not having noticed Arthur.

 

[CJWrites]

"Come'on man." Alex leaned across the table towards Wyn. "Why not? Ada is too busy to. I promise we won't do anything that you feel uncomfortable with."

--

"I do." Ada said seriously "What if something happens to me? I.. I know there's no hard proof right now but most of them seem to accept Wyn. He could perform the spell for us. You don't have to disclose your race if you don't want to."

 

[StoneWolf18]

"Because..." be grumbled, trailing off while crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. Remaining silent for a moment before sighing. "Fine. But if you strap me to a metal table I swear I will make you sprout horns so fast, no one I the castle will recognize you."

--

Valoire remaind silent, the risk of something happening to Ada reasonably high. "Would anyone believe it? As you said before, most people believe fey magic to be nothing more than a parlor trick, and without proof..."

 

[CJWrites]

Ada considered it for a minute. "I mean..." She sighed. "You don't have to do this. Don't you want to be a princess? Want to maybe take over one day?"

 

[StoneWolf18]

Ada saying this forced her to consider something she hadn't really ever thought before. Did she want to?

Her mind kept drawing images of the fey in the infirmary, the slums they live in, and so on... it just influencing her words even more.

"I do..." she would said finally, looking at Ada finally with a small smile.

 

[CJWrites]

Ada hugged her sister. "Thank you."

When she pulled back, she had a gigantic smile on her face. We'll say it's something that came up in Al and my experiments.

"Your highness, the researchers from Cambridge have arrived," An errand boy bowed low and delivered her message.

"Oh, wonderful!" she said and then turned to Val "I'm going to go say hi. I'll see you later!"

Arthur pulled on his shirt and straightened his tie. That was certainly a big revelation. He was sure Ada would come to him by end of day to discuss it. Still, he didn't see Val as a threat to his reign. She didn't seem like the type to overthrow the Monarch. He started heading in the opposite direction, which happened to be near the room Wyn and Al were in.

--

Al grinned at Wyn. "Thank you! You won't regret it! Now then," He whipped out his notepad, "I need you to tell me EVERYTHING you know about magic."

 

[StoneWolf18]

Val nodded as she pulled back from the hug and left, she turning to return back down the hall when she literally ran into Arthur.

--

The lecture began. Wyn detailing most do what he knew about magic as the man in front of him scribbled upon the notepad.

"Magic is an inherit ability that is given to those with Fey blood. The power is given to us through our blood, which is why the king kept draining me. Normally when used on someone who's even remotely fey, it will adapt to the... the recipient's bloodtype. Depending upon the amount used, their blood will purifiy and limit all human aspects. I know this because occasionally there would be rituals done in the past as a right of passage for those that weren't completely whatever they were, but that has long stopped until now."

Waiting for Alex to stop writing, he continued.

"A person's subrace is dependent upon them and it's brought forward with the properties in our blood. It why Ada doesn't appear to be much more fairy like simply because human blood is diluting it so much that it lies dormant. But that doesn't mean me or Val are purely fey. There's still a ways to go as before humans began to colonize the area, those fey not only looked worlds different than what they are now, but also had a much stronger magical talent due to their blood's purity."

He would pause, waiting for Alex to ready and ask questions before continuing.

 

[CJWrites]

Arthur didn't see the short woman until she ran into him, face first.

"Ah, Ms. Moore," He greeted her, smoothing out the wrinkles in his suit, "Fancy seeing you here. Well then, I must be off"

He seemed to be avoiding her gaze and tried to push past her.

--

Alex pondered the idea of blood transfusions for a minute. "Hold on, weren't there deaths when blood transfusions happened? Because, well in humans at least, we have 3 blood types, A, B, and C, and it seems you can only exchange blood within your type, although that research is very new. And does that mean that Matt and I could be able to do magic, despite almost no fey ancestry, but then again traits that allow magic may have been bred out of us a long time ago."

He started muttering under his breath, tapping his pen on his notebook and leaving ink blotches all over the page before wrenching his thoughts away from that line of inquiry. He was an engineer, not an anthropologist.

"But what do you mostly use magic for?" He wondered. "And what can you do with it?"

 

[StoneWolf18]

This was... strange. Seeing her around a place she now lived, especially if it were close to Ada's office wasn't and shouldn't be uncommon. Not offering up a response as he quickly left, she watched him go with a slight frown, knowing it was possible he had heard their conversation.

--

"A fey's blood will adapt to whichever it is exposed too, as long as there is traces of fey aspects. If by some rare chance none are found, the body rejects it. The same would happen if someone tried to transfuse human blood into me."

Wyn considered his words for a moment and said "Don't think of this as a way to contribute to modern medicine as it would still involve changing a person's race."

"But, theoretically, you and Matt could potentially use magic but from how human you both are it would like me trying to pass as a human without wearing my ring."

As he asked what Magic was used for and what it can do, he gave a grin. "Anything and everything. What I mean by that is, anything is technically possible whether your little scientific brain wants to believe it or not. You just need to have the ability to do it and accept possible repercussions. For example... if I were too... want to pose as a woman, there are two possible choice. The first is an illusion to make myself appear female with no changes occurring to my body, such as right now with how I'm appearing human." To demostrate he would reach up and touch his ears, his fingers still tracing them far beyond what was perceived.

"The other is far more believable, in that I physically change what sex I am either by enchanting myself or an object worn. While it works significantly better, my mind doesn't know what is occurring nor how to adjust to the biological changes and it will most likely cause adverse affects."

 

[CJWrites]

Ada poked her head through the door.

"Alan? Babbage?"

"Ada?" Alan Turing was knelt down fixing. He raised his head and there was a clang as his head collided with the machine's cranking system.

"Ow," He intoned, rubbing his forehead. Ada laughed.

A machine that could do any mathematical calculation.

"Adeline!" An older man with a stout figure with thinning greying hair combed back. He extended his arm "It's great to have you back."

"Good to be back, Professor," Adeline shook his hand. "Thank you for agreeing to this."

"No problem Ada, thank you for providing the funding!"

"Of course!" Ada smiled.

Alan seemed to be struggling for words. His mouth opened and closed. His eyes twinked and he gave her a sheepish smile instead as he extended his arm aswell. It seems like Alan wasn't the only one affected. Most of the handful of technicians which worked on the Machine, with whom Ada had been friendly with.

After shaking Alan's hand, she cleared her throat, "I'm still the same person, nothing relevant to you has changed. I hope it won't take as long to adjust as you did to my gender."

She glared around the room, daring anyone to disagree. Alan

"We brought your notes," Alan said, picking up a box on the floor next to the door and handing it to her. "I-i-its good to have you back, Ada."

Ada crumpled under the enormous stacks of paper.

"Would you like us to help you move them to your office?" One of the technicians piped up.

"No thanks, I'll have one of the errand boys do it," Ada said. Arthur had said it was completely unacceptable for the queen to work in the basement. Still, Alan and Babbage had set out a space just for her "For now, I want you to show me what little you have gotten done without me,"

Alan grinned and led her over to his desk, already covered with sheets of paper with mathematical equations scribbled over them.

--

At Wyn's insistence that anything was possible, Alex spoke out. "But... but... where is all that energy coming from? And how do you know how to... Unless..."

His voice trailed off. Muttered underneath his breath as he scratched something out on his notepad. He would need to look at the King's research again.

"Can you show me? Some magic I mean. With your ring thingie? Anything."

It was this moment that Arthur happened to pass by.

 

[StoneWolf18]

The elf shrugged. "Who knows. I get to use it, that's pretty much all I care about."

Wyn raised an eyebow at his next question. "Anything?"

The man took a moment to think. Trying to come up with something to show Alex.

Once he decided, he would mutter a few words under his breath, an enchantment being added to his ring. He wouldn't notice a change, but anyone looking on such as Alex would see that it appeared to be Ada sitting in his place.

"How about this?" It was almost a perfect replica, a smug smile what used to appear as Wyn's face.

 

[CJWrites]

Arthur had started to walk away before he heard Ada's voice coming out the room followed by a loud cry of "Holy Shit!". Huh. He peeked through the window. Where moments before was a tall lanky elf, now stood the queen herself. Arthur blinked and rubbed his eyes, but it seems like they weren't being deceived.

"Oh, Mr. Walpole!" A cheerful voice said. Ada had just exited from a nearby room

"Excellent! Maybe you can help! You see... there's not that much storage space on the tables and I have waaayyyy too many notes anyways, so I wanna ask the people in this room if they mind moving to another one? That way we can use that one just for the machine and this one as sort of an office. What do you think?"

Arthur opened his mouth to start arguing about why working downstairs was not a good idea, but Ada didn't seem to notice.

"Who does work in this room?" Ada knocked and opened the door, surprised to see... herself?

"What." she said flatly.

 

[StoneWolf18]

He was about to speak when Arthur appeared in the door way, he flashing him another large smile.

But when the real Ada walked into the room... things got much better.

"I'm your conscience, Adeline." He would say with a straight face. "And do you really think moving them again is a good idea? Why not get better shelving and desks, or maybe move everything you're not actively using to your room. This castle is after all the size of a small country."

 

[CJWrites]

Alex cracked up laughing at Wyn's words. Meanwhile, Ada's eyes glazed over as she considered this new information.

"That actually makes a lot of sense! Thanks!"

"Hold on Ada! That's not a good idea!" Arthur said, but she had already disappeared back into the room with the Analytical Engine in it.

"Mathematicians," Alex said, still laughing "They always have a one-track mind."

Arthur frowned. He crossed over to the other room and opened the door, to find Alan Turing in the doorway.

"Oh hello," Alan said. "Ada wanted to know where to order new desks. And if it was possible to add more electric lighting to the room"

His eyes wandered past Arthur, lingering on Alex's face, then Wyn's, or was it Ada's, before deciding not to question it and shutting the door in Arthur's face.

 

[StoneWolf18]

As Ada didn't really question any of this, Wyn simply blinked a few times.

"Should I be concerned at how easily she didn't question this?"

 

[CJWrites]

Alex shook his head, a grin still etched on his face.

"Nah, it's fine. I used to get like that too before the King forced me to do stuff I hated. She's been through a lot, let her be happy for once."

He stared at the door past which his girlfriend was.

Arthur started going purple in the face. He opened the door once again, this time to see a young mousy looking girl trying to pick up a box on the floor. He vaguely remembered seeing her as part of the rescued fey. What was she doing here?

"Adeline," He said in a threatening voice.

"Oh hi, Mr. Walpole!" Ada said, suddenly appearing. She put a hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled brightly.

"This is Grace," Ada said. "She's going to live with me and work on the analytical machine! She has some fascinating ideas about simplifying the operations! I think we can build a machine to punch the cards for us, think of how much time we could save!" A crash of paper falling to the ground, Ada looked in its direction and paled "Gotta go!" before letting the door close.

Before it did, he heard some snippets of conversation. "Yes, it might be useful to have Hugh Alexander here as well...."

Arthur stared at the closed door, deciding it wasn't worth it, he stormed off muttering something about stopping her from inviting all of Cambridge University and the hospital into the castle.

--

It was hours before Arthur saw Ada again, and this time it was her who came to him.

He heard a knock on his door.

"Come in!" He shouted

Ada came in and closed the door gingerly. She had a sheepish smile on her face.

"There is something I must confess about Val and I," she started.

Arthur sighed, knowing this was coming "Yes. I overheard you in the hallway. I wish you'd listen more."

Ada stared at her feet,

"Well? Ask her to come in."

Ada opened the door.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Val felt... nervous about this. She couldn't quite put her finger on why but she did. Was it that she didn't trust Mr. Walpole, that she didn't really want to be a princess, or something else... she didn't know. But all of that was brushed aside as Ada opened the door once more, asking her to come inside the prime minister's office.

She would slowly do so, standing beside her sister with a bit of an awkward expression on her face.

"I also overheard if you should be introduced to the courts, and it is after all Miss Moore's desision. Is that what you want?"

Val would give a nod. "Y-yessir."

He would run a hand down his face briefly. "A servant girl joining the monarchy..." he muttered under his breath before gesturing for them to sit. "I have a few questions I would like to ask you then, if that's alright."

Soon he would begin to grill her with all sorts of questions, some she either don't know how to or didn't feel comfortable answering.

 

[CJWrites]

He started off with simple questions.

"How old are you?"

"Where were you born?"

"Who was your mother?"

"When and how did you find out about this?"

"How do you plan on proving it?"

As Val answered the questions, he nodded.

"Let's say I believe you." Arthur started, and to be fair, he thought she believed herself. Ada made a strangled noise of protest but fell silent when Arthur put up his hand. "How would you convince the courts to believe you? Suppose some unknown girl showed up, older than the current queen, who many do not believe is a legitimate heir, claiming she is the daughter of the late King and the only proof was an arcane art, many believe to be little more than a parlor trick, how much would you believe them? How do we know you are not a traitor, waiting to assassinate the queen?"

"That's ridiculous!" Ada shouted but she looked hurt. It was obvious she hadn't known that half the court doubted her legitimacy. "She's had plenty of opportunities to-"

"Not to someone who doesn't know her." Arthur pointed out. "And it doesn't matter what you think. Your life would be placed under considerable scrutiny. How would we explain your considerably pure fey features? It would put you in the crossfire of more than one group. Purists who hate your kind, monarchists who believe you're a usurper, and anti-monarchists who believe they can make an example of you. No. I do not think it's a good idea. Perhaps when there is more solid evidence,"

 

[StoneWolf18]

As Arthur said all of this, Val would fell a small bit of guilt well up inside of her, causing her to avert her eyes, staring downward.

He had a point, they having no real solid evidence of any of this happening. Besides that it would prove to possibly disrupting quite a bit on the political side of things.

"There won't be any evidence." She mumbled. "Not any that anyone would believe anyway... I-I apologize for wasting your time. This was an awful idea."

 

[CJWrites]

"I'm sorry Ms. Moore," Arthur said cooly. "But it's the truth."

Ada looked similarly devastated. She simply stared at Arthur. Worst was, he was right. The scene of an upturned greenhouse table flashed in front of her eyes. I would prefer to tell you the whole truth, even if it is unpleasant, but if you turn out like your father, I won't put my neck on the line where I am not appreciated.

"No, I'm sorry" she mumbled. "I didn't think this through"

"Don't be," He said and turned his piercing gaze onto Val. "Either of you. It's what I'm here for. I was once like you once, young, headstrong and excited to make a difference. But as you spend more time in politics, you have to realize you can't always get what you want. "

He walked over to his office door and opened it, only to see Wyn waiting for the girls outside. As Ada looked up, she remembered something.

"Oh! Right!" Ada said. "Umm.... as you know, Wyn is going to advise me on how to improve the fey situation."

Arthur raised his eyebrow.

"I want the two of you to work together on some sort of solution!" Ada said