The Decision For Truth Is Hers and Hers Alone (Solo)

[Celestine]

The world is a harsh place. In this day and age, you can never get everything you want or need, and not many people are willing to help you along the way. In this day and age, you need to look after yourself as no one will help you is you mess things up or if you are in pain. In this day and age, if you ask for help you are likely to be rejected, sometimes politely, but most of the time it is rather nastily. In this day and age, the world is full of lies and deceit, with politicians lying about the state of the kingdom and entire continents lying about absolutely anything to get their grubby little hands on whatever they believe is rightfully theirs, as well as pitiful thieves in the slums trying to convince a recent mugging victim that is wasn’t them, a blatant lie. In this day and age, the truth is all that most people seek.

Celestiné was one of these people who desperately seeks the truth. She was kept in isolation for almost her entire life, never allowed to leave her father’s manor house until she was 15 years of age, but even that was only to let her attend the Alchemy Academy and nothing else. She was never told anything about the outside world by her father that was the truth. Ever. Her father didn’t want to taint the soul of her innocent little girl with the worries and corruption of the world. He wanted t keep her pure. He wanted to keep her from getting involved. Like him. She could deal with having the truth about the world hidden from her, as she could just do some research in the library of the Academy she attended, which she did very often, but there was one particular topic that always sent a chill down her spine whenever her father refused to reveal details about it. The topic of her mother.

Who was she? What had happened to her? Where is she now? What was her name? How old is she? What did she look like? Was she nice? Where was she from? All these were questions Celestiné always asked, but each one was thrown back at her by her father, who didn’t even acknowledge that the question had been asked anymore. To him, anything to do with her mother was to be kept completely confidential. Why was he keeping these facts from her? Was there something he did not want Celestiné to find out about her? Apparently so. A few years back, when her father did acknowledge the existence of her questions, he always answered “I shall tell you one day” before ending the conversation. This was a huge lie. He had never even let slip anything about her mother. Ever. She was eighteen year of age, and had a right to know, a right to make her own decisions, a right to do what she wanted. And Celestine had decided many years ago that she had a right to do what she wanted to know the truth, which was her own decision.

[Celestine]

In the bustling city streets of Scara Brae, filled with a variety of races from all over the world all trying to reach their destination without being crushed beneath the many feet that pass through this area every single day, a short teenage female was being jostled all over the street as she attempted to go against the direction that many other users of the street were heading. This was, of course, always the way; in the busy streets everyone always seemed me be heading in the opposite direction to yourself, which made getting through the centre of the city even harder, especially at lunchtime when the city was at its busiest with the majority of its residents flocking to buy lunch from the many food stalls and restaurants that lined the sturdy walls of the well built buildings.

The only reason it was obvious that this young girl was trying to move against the current of people was because her platinum blond hair was glinting silver in the sunlight which is all that could be seen of her, as she was far too short to see her properly, or even for her to see exactly where she was going. All she knew was that she wanted to head in that direction and she was just going to put her head down and go for it. It was the only way to get anywhere in this city for her. As her father had always told her the world was harsh and no one was going to stop to help her, or realise that she was struggling to walk against the crowd and stop to let her past. No, they were more likely just to make the trek even harder for her by should barging their way past the poor girl trying to make her way home, as they probably had some important meeting to get to, or they were just arrogant and everything they had to do was more important than anything else. The only thing that was going through Celestiné’s mind was ”Please don’t knock me over again...please don’t knock me over again.” as the last time she had had to travel this way she was pushed over and trampled on until the street cleared. Her father didn’t care much when she finally arrived home an hour later than usual, her dress covered in dust and torn and frayed at the edges. He just shook his head in disapproval as if he was saying ”I’ve told you about the world before. Why do you think I kept you locked up from it for all those years?”

Eventually the density of the city folk in the streets she was crossing lessened until there was enough room for her to travel with ease, her knee-high leather boots crunching against the gravel on the ground and she quickened her pace. She was already running late and she didn’t want to be even later. Not that her father would care if she was late or not though. The only thing of concern to her was getting home before her father left for work. Each day for the past few weeks, Celestiné had been questioning her father about her mother, but she had gotten nowhere each time. She was desperate to find out, and she didn’t want to let anything get in her way of finding out, not even her own father’s stubbornness and unwillingness to comply with her requests. All Celestiné wanted was to find out more about her mother, even just a little tiny bit of information would be enough. Her name, her age, what she looked like, anything...but her father would still not divulge this information, and the teenager was getting desperate. Desperate enough to try anything to discover the truth. The truth that was her and hers alone.

[Celestine]

Eventually, she reached the stately family home, built entirely of red bricks, its luscious green grounds growing generously around the building and also up its walls in the form of ivy, speckling the red with dashes of leafy green in less dense areas where the brick could be seen through the leaves. A wrought black iron gate separated the world from the grand house but Celestiné never saw much of a need for the gate as it just pushed open with ease as there was no locked. She had always been told that it added a more important look to the house, and it also deterred potential thieves and opportunists from breaking in as it appeared to be more work that it actually was to get in. Forcing the gate aside to enter the grounds, Celestiné realised that it would be more work for any thief to get in whether the gate was locked or not as it was particularly heavy, and she always had to use her shoulder to push the gate open with all her weight pushed against it.

Reaching the oak double doors, Celestiné went to knock using the brass knocker, before realising where she had been, and what state a state she always looked after getting home. Lowering her hand from the knocker, she dusted off her royal blue dress and adjusted the orange bow in her hair, running her fingers through the platinum locks to ensure that there were no strands astray before continuing to knock. The loud thudding of the polished brass knocker resonated throughout the entire building, making the knock louder than the gentle tap that Celestiné had given it. It was a few moments before the door creaked as it open inwards allowing her to enter. The deep mahogany paneling in the hallway made the room look smaller than it actually was, as well as much darker, adding a depressing feel to the room.

To make the room even more depressing, a rather tall, depressed looking man dressed formally stood in the middle of the room, glancing up and down at Celestiné in disapproval, as he always did. This tall man, with thinning grey hair and carrying a little more weight than was healthy for him, dressed in a black suit and holding a briefcase – the man’s usual attire – was her father, much to her disappointment. She had never gotten along with her father as he had always kept her locked away from the world until only a few years ago when he finally decided to allow her to practice alchemy. She had always been home tutored before then, meaning that she had no friends, and no social interaction skills to be proud of.