Chapter Text
The imperial palace was still a sight to behold, Calliope thought as she took in her surroundings. It was the first time in this life that she had entered it's grounds but memories from her first time around where flashing before her eyes.
Her debutant ball, the emperor's birthday party, her brothers' inauguration into knighthood and so on, but one memory of this place stood out from the rest.
The day the emperor invited Lus, Robel, mother and her to give them his condolences for the passing of her farther and head of their household, Calliope remembered it well.
Even though the imperial family always had felt threatened by the Rustichels they needed to keep up appearances and this was also the perfect opportunity to impose the new, young, master of the household with their wealth and power.
Lucius had stood next to mother holding his head high, Robert and Calliope stood behind them, Calliope had not known how much her family members had suffered during that audience, but in hindsight she could have guessed it took alot of strength for her mother, now recently widowed, to enter the lion's den once more. Lucius would have to bear the patronizing gaze of the emperor as they spoke of father's passing, the emperor would off-handily and briefly speak of the accusations against Calliope and the eldest brother would grit his teeth, knowing full well that the man sitting on his golden throne had something to do with his father's death. Robert on the other hand, would keep his face blank, unlike the Robel Calliope now knew, the Robert from her past life had become more reserved in his later years as his father and shortly after his brother too would be murdered, or die in an accident as the newspapers would say. He would subtly take Calliope's hand in his to stop her from trembling before the emperor, she would squeeze back to let him know she was thankful.
Yet now Calliope wasn't trembling as she entered the palace with her family intact. At twenty years old, Calliope had survived her family's original demise, her parents and brothers still alive together with brother Hal.
Lucius and Robel had even married and Lus was expecting his first-born in about three months.
Though a sham marriage with the younger cousin of Lady Kantena, Lucius and Gwenneth Kantena, had a relationship based on mutual respect and trust in one another's ability to put their family first.
As next captain of the White Dragon Knights, Lucius had his recidence built right next door to the training grounds and headquarters of said knights, where, very coincidentally, brother Hal was stationed at, as he would be Lucius' vice-captain and would spend many a night training with Lucius.......
Gwenneth knew of the relationship and agreed to marry Lucius on the condition that he kept it secret that lady Gwenneth had an affair with a soldier from the Red Dragon Knights, he sadly died after being sent to the west to suppress a violent religious uprising.
The man had known Gwenneth was with his child but he could not disobey his captain's orders and Gwenneth had promised him to not tell her family in fear of her being exiled from her home and forced to fend for herself.
It was only by luck, and maybe Calliope, that Lucius and Gwenneth were to meet around the time they were of marriageable age, as their families were already discussing marriage.
The father and mother of the Rustichel family wanted their children to marry for love, like they had and Lucius and Gwenneth had taken advantage of this by pretending it was love at first sight and marrying as fast as possible.
Now Lucius' position as the next head of the family was secure and Calliope had one less thing to worry about. But if Calliope were to be honest, it was brother Robel that had worried her more when it came to marriage. Robert Rustichel was a top class knight but a more dense person when it came to such things, so when Lucius had seemingly been snatched from the eligible bachelor's of high society, the ladies of said high society focused their gaze upon his younger brother.
It was only by a miracle, and a little bit of help from Calliope, that Robel found himself to fall in love with his brother's, supposed, best friend's sister, Elphinny Alphinus. They had served as White Dragon Knights together after Calliope's father had taken Elphinny under his wing like his sons. After some years of being the White Dragon's best knight, Elphinny had decided to serve as Lady Kantena's vice-captain after the lady took over as captain of the Red Dragon Knights.
Robel had started to miss his sparring partner and as soon as the two had met once again, he proposed to her in, what Calliope would call, a most blunt matter, blurting out that he loved Elphinny as soon as they had said hello.
Elphinny, not one to back down, had tried to out-do him with her confession but the girl was weak of heart only to her best friend's brother and said best friend, so she had blushed and with a small voice said she felt the same.
At the age of twenty two and twenty five, Elphinny and Robel had married and Lucius had another reason to be able to spend his nights with Harrison.
Calliope would have changed laws for Lucius and Harrison but sadly, in this second life, it seemed that it would take more time before Calliope would be able to have that much power as to change laws and put every homophobic aristocrat and royalty six feet under, but for her family she would do anything.
Luckily her family was mostly in a safe position, only one lose end remained.
Calliope's own marriage.
It's not like she had not given it much thought. There were plenty of good candidates around her she could pick from but with such an overbearing family it was easier to join a convent and become a nun.
But there was always a name in the back of her mind that kept on coming back.
Asterias Callisto.
Duke of the Callisto family, a prince and now heir to the throne, he would be the best candidate. They shared alot of allies and enemies, they both want to dismantle the church and it's faith before it grants the emperor to much power. And Calliope could not deny there were mutual feelings of affection in their former lives, it was still a mystery to her if he actually remembered his past life or not.
That was how she could describe him best, a mystery.
Their paths would cross once in a while and they would enjoy the time they'd spent together, yet at the end they would always part and not look back. Calliope found herself wanting to look back at him more and more, as if to see him turn around and do the same.
Calliope shook her head, those thoughts could be dealt with at night when she was allowed to be alone with her thoughts, now it was time to walk into battle.
A grand ball had been orchestrated at the imperial palace in celebration of the choosing of the new crown prince, Asterias Callisto. Festivities would last three days, every day ending with a grand ball at night and a swordsman competition during the day. All knight orders would be present and compete against one another, the top five would become the future crown prince's security detail and be awarded a special rank within the hierarchy of the knights.
It was only natural that as the daughter of one of the knight orders leaders and sister(-in-law) to three of the best swordwielders of this century, Calliope would attend the Ball and spent the next three days in the imperial palace.