Lesson About Seely
POV: Alexandra
I was dreading getting home from classes because I would have to take etiquette-type lessons with my mother. Growing up, she had taught me etiquette on a constant basis but she wasn’t really nice about it. If I made a slight mistake, I would get a lecture which I hated. I know she did it so that I could be conditioned to remember how to do certain things but it was annoying just the same. I came through the door from the secret passage and she was standing there waiting for me smiling. I sighed, “Good afternoon, Mother.” I greeted her just as I had been taught to do when you entered a room with someone who was supposed to be respected. She smiled, “Good afternoon, Alexandra. We shall start your lessons now. Please be seated.” Lucien had canceled my afternoon session with him so that I could have these lessons but I would much rather deal with Josiah’s attitude. I sat down in the chair she had motioned to and gently crossed my ankles together and tucked them under the chair. I gracefully placed my hands in my lap clasped together.
My mother smiled, pleased to know that all those hours of etiquette paid off, “Good that you have remembered, that foundation will be good when interacting with the Seely Realm. The Queen is a stickler for lady-like behavior. I will explain the court dynamics first. Seely Court is divided into two sections: one overseen by the Queen and one overseen by the King. The Queen has all of the power in the Seely Realm, they see women as all-powerful because we are the givers of life while the men are only the seed. The Queen’s side of the court is formal and dignified, they practice proper etiquette. The King’s side is one of debauchery.” I was writing notes while she spoke but I stopped writing and asked, “So, would it stand to reason that, since there will be two envoys, that there will be one representative from each side of the court?” My mother nodded, “Typically, the Queen will send out a single envoy but this is different that they will send two. I had heard from a friend in the Seely Realm that the King is intrigued by this competition and thus has petitioned the Queen to send his own representative. She has agreed.” I sighed, “Is there anything I will need to know about interacting with the King’s envoy?” She nodded again, “That will come later. We need to take care of the Queen’s envoy first.”
She continued the lesson, “The first thing is that the Queen’s envoy shall be addressed as ‘Rioghail’ and she should be kissed on the left cheek when you greet her. Stand up and I will pretend that you are the envoy.” I got up to my feet and she walked over to me, curtsied quickly, and said, “Good afternoon Rioghail. Many blessings to you and your Queen, long may she reign.” She then leaned forward and kissed my left cheek and backed away while maintaining eye contact. She smiled, “Now you will try on me and I will see where you need to improve.” I tried to mirror her but my curtsy was a bit clumsy and she frowned, “Practice your curtsy ten times tonight and we will try again tomorrow. We don’t have much time so you need to figure this out quickly.” She turned towards the bookshelves and pulled out a book, “This book will give you more information on the current Queen. It would do you well to know as much as possible about her so you can carry on a conversation with her envoy. Many of the points of etiquette that we practice here in Vellum were adopted in the Seely Realm so you won’t have to learn much about how to act around the envoy. I would imagine that King Lucien will consider holding separate receptions for each envoy since each of them will have different ways that they are used to being received. I expect if this is the case we will soon get notification from the castle.”
She sighed, “Now we must start to talk about receiving the King’s envoy because it will be very different and I frankly don’t like how they are usually greeted. It’s grotesque to me.” I wondered what would be so awful that my mother would look so uncomfortable talking about it. She walked over to the door and called out for Dana, “Please fetch Jess for me, I think she will also need to learn about how to receive the King’s envoy.” She inhaled deeply and smoothed down her white pinstripe blazer that she was wearing. She saw Derek walking by and smiled at him, “Derek, can I prevail upon you to help me with this lesson for Alexandra and Jess?” He smiled back, “Of course, Your Grace.” He came into the room and she pulled over a chair to a large space in the room, “Please be seated as relaxed as you can.” He sat down leaning against the back of the chair and spread his legs wide. She nodded, “That is perfect. Thank you, Derek. Now we just need Jess. Do we know if she is still preparing for the full moon?” He looked up at her startled, “How is she preparing?” I spoke, “I believe she’s been buying herbs at the apothecary. I’m not entirely sure what they are for.” He sighed in relief, “It’s a concoction that she is putting together to let any lycan who wants to mate with her to stay away. The scent from the herbs are so strong that it deters anyone from approaching which means she intends to only ever give herself to one lycan only.”
What Derek spoke about, checked out with the conversation I had had with her about the full moon. She wanted to keep herself and mate for life which was rare amongst lycans because their greater instinct was to mate to produce as much as possible. I looked at Derek and wondered if he had mated with others and if he had some puppies out there somewhere. I blurted out, “I bet you’re different.” He widened his eyes then blushed, “I may shamelessly flirt with everyone but honestly I use the herbs as well. It is how I know about them because I have a steady supply of them upstairs as well. I want to be monogamous.” I was a little shocked since he did flirt with anyone with boobs and that made me giggle. He clenched his jaw, “Are you laughing at me?” I shook my head, “No, I think it’s cute that you are saving yourself for your true love. Whoever that may be.” He shrugged, “I have some thinking to do but I imagine that this competition will choose for me.” That meant that he was torn between me and Jess but he couldn’t make up his mind. He was going to rely on whoever the board chose to choose the other. My mother asked the question that was on my mind, “What happens if neither of the ones you have in mind gets chosen.” He shook his head, “The way I see it is that there’s a one in three chance that neither gets chosen.” He thought this was a three woman race and the only possibility that neither Jess nor me gets chosen means that Melody will be Queen. My mother sighed, “Heavens help us should a Maigny ascend the throne.”
Jess entered the room, “Heavens help us indeed. That is why I’m putting my support behind the one the King loves.” Jess looked at me, smiled then winked. My mother nodded, “Now that Jess is here, we can begin how to greet the Seely King’s envoy.” She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, “Derek, you will have to forgive me for what I am about to do.” She walked over to where Jess and I were sitting at the study table and she sauntered seductively over to Derek. His mouth hung open at the behavior switch that my mother was displaying. She got on her knees and bowed deeply, “Greetings to you, Righ. May your King be bountiful.” She then crawled to him and crawled up his body then sat on his lap. She looked back at us, “You will need to stay here until the envoy dismisses you.” My eyes widened, “No wonder you were hesitant to show us that.” Jess meekly asked, “W-what is the signal?” I was afraid to ask because the greeting was rather inappropriate. My mother sighed, “A pat on the rear end.” Derek patted her rear end and she rose then sauntered away. She stated as she did so, “With the King’s envoy, you need not maintain eye contact since they are more interested in watching you walk away. I hate that I have to ask that you show me but…” She looked at me and gestured to Derek. I blushed at the thought of having to be slightly explicit with Derek but it was better to practice than to insult the envoy. I rose from my seat and practiced with Derek. While I was sitting on his lap, Derek was smirking and he whispered, “Gods bless the Seely Court and you two are having to practice.” I had to suppress the slap that was threatening to boil up. I didn’t want my mother to scold me so I smiled and whispered, “Payback is a bitch, Derek.” He patted my rear end and I sauntered away. My mother clapped, “Somehow your execution here was flawless. You just need to practice your curtsy for the Queen’s envoy.”
My mother turned to Jess, “Would you like to try Jess?” She widened her eyes, looked at Derek, who was still smirking, and then blushed. She rose from her seat and stepped forward, “O-okay. I th-think I can do it.” She sauntered forward, kneeled, and then recited the greeting. She crawled up into Derek’s lap and his smirk turned into a bright red blush that matched Jess’ own skin tone. He looked up into her eyes and she stared back at him. It looked to me like he was suppressing the urge to kiss her and I knew then that he may not have known who he was going to choose but his natural instinct did. I smiled knowing that sometime in the near future little Jess/Derek hybrid lycan babies would be running around. He sighed and then tapped her rear end and she flawlessly sauntered away. Derek training his eyes on Jess the entire time, swallowed hard as she walked away. He looked at my mother as she sat down, “And they have to do this to the envoy?” She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and sighed, “Unfortunately, yes. The King is all about debauchery and therefore his rituals are also about debauchery. Sadly, his envoy will be offended if this doesn’t happen.” Derek grunted, “How demeaning to women. What if one of the women is uncomfortable with this?” She shrugged, “I’m not sure, I have not seen it happen but I imagine that will be grounds for dismissal from the competition at the very least and prosecution in Seely at the most.”
