The Prophecy

One

"Mistress Adelaide?"

Turning, Adelaide looked at the servant girl who was standing at the door. She had just returned to her suite of rooms after her weekly training session with Nicolau. She had planned on taking a nice long bath before she ventured down to the library. Other than her obligations to being the "Chosen One", she had nothing but time on her hands and she usually devoted her time to figuring out what that even meant. No one would tell her, often resorting to telling her they didn't know what it meant other than it had been something prophecy had foretold for generations. Whatever that meant.

"Yes Emile?"

"His Royal Highness Rafe asks for your attendance in Salme Hall."

"Father? Okay, let me change and I'll come at once. Let my father know."

Emile bowed and then silently left the room. Adelaide stood for a moment, before turning back and undressing. This might be what her entire life had been built for. For as long as she could remember, she had been told that her life would be different. She had been called forth by a prophecy. There would be a moment in time where they would need a hero and that they would be born on a specific day at a specific time. Yada yada yada. She had been that person. And how wonderful that she was the daughter of the King and Queen? She would have everything at her disposal, to make her everything they needed her to be. When she was eight years old, they had moved Nicolau away from working with the military, to working with her specifically. Training her one on one. Still, now, at twenty-five, they worked together.

It had taken some time to get over that even though she was the eldest child, she wasn't next in line to lead the country. She wouldn't succeed her father. No, her brother, Vaelo, who just turned 24, recently married to Princess Eipura of the Estilosia Kingdom, which shared their southern border, was going to take over. He was always learning new things, meeting with someone, or following their father around. She used to be bitter about it, but her brother didn't ask for any of it either and it surely wasn't his fault the Prophecy existed or that she was a part of it. Now, it was just part of who she was and what she did.

Shaking the hold thoughts from her mind, she quickly showered and dressed. One of the perks of not being in the line of succession was that she wasn't beholden to some of the royal customs and requirements. She didn't have to wear gowns or dresses, instead she could wear trousers and they were so much more comfortable than the dresses and all of the underclothes and garments you had to wear.

Opening the door out into the hallway, her bodyguard, Mais, quietly followed her. Mais had been part of her life since she was a child, having left the nursery to venture out on her own. Being both a daughter of the King and The Chosen from the Prophecy, they wanted to make sure nothing happened, even if it was just a walk from her private rooms to the greeting hall where her father spent a few days a week greeting people from their kingdom, listening to their wants, desires, grievances, and whatever else might plague them. Her brother might still be present as well. This time of day, it would be ending and her father would be retreating back to his own private rooms.

She didn't spend much time in the public part of the castle. It had been a few years since she'd been inside Salme Hall. The public areas were in the front and main area of the castle. The royal private rooms were off on the west wing of the castle, including the nursery, school rooms, medical, and a separate kitchen (there were three kitchens in the castle, including one for the east wing of the castle where guests stayed). It always amazed her, even now, how efficiently everything worked and how private the west wing of the castle felt.

As they entered into the King's Hall, or the main entrance hall of the Castle