Chapter 3 Ellor
"But how does the glorification of the poor create injustice for those who worked for large sums of money?" Cronies asks, tapping on the table next to him and scratching at the back of the book he has assigned Ellor to read. Croney absolutely despises Dickens, but he isn't entirely in charge of Ellor's curriculum, Ellor's father is. Ellor isn't sure that his father likes Dickens either, but no one has been able to read the King's father since Ellor's mother died years ago. Lord Elken finally left the library after almost a week of the servants begging him to leave, and he's been a thin shell of himself ever since, lurking through the castle like a intruder in his own home.
"I don't think Dickens glorifies the poor, I think he calls for sympathy for them that no one in England has done before." Ellor replies, staring dead into Cronies' eyes. The professor doesn't reply, standing up.
"I think that's the end of our lesson today, your majesty." Cronies finally says after what seems like an eternity passed by. When Ellor doesn't move, he speaks again, "Move, Ellor, go play devilish games on the landkeeper or whatever you and your ridiculous friends do." Cronies stares out the window, patting down his periwinkle suit.
"Why do you call your own daughter ridiculous, Professor?" Ellor says in a passionate voice that he rarely ever uses. His own soft spoken mannerisms are cultivated but still habitual.
"Your majesty, as much as you are King, in this room I am Professor, and you are student. You forget yourself. Your majesty is dismissed." Cronies says, and finally turns from his spot, his suit-tails flying behind him as he flies out of the library. There's a certain weightlessness in Ellor as he walks out of the room, feeling free..to some extent, now that he has spoken his mind after so long remaining quiet. In every sense he felt throughout his walk around the gardens, he thought nothing of his father.
It is the weekend, and Ellor has been lazing around all week since Cronies canceled classes for the week, and a weekend just sounds like two hot, sticky days of boredom. Marrianne has recently told him that she would begin attending a boarding school in the fall, she says that she'll be gone for months on end and only return by wintertime.
"You're leaving?!" Ellor asks, perching his head slightly upwards of the top of his book.
"Well, I just told you I was, I'm sure you're delighted to hear it, too," Maria says in a huff. She gets up and walks over to the fireplace, sitting and staring at it for a while. The air in the room suddenly feels incredibly stuffy to Ellor.
At a loss of words or an excuse for leaving the room, he simply says, "Why on earth do we have fireplaces in the summertime?" In a hastening step, Ellor's out the door and in the muggy air of the Animan summer. He stands there for a moment, which precedes him pacing back and forth throughout the 100 yard walk of the courtyard. Then he sits on the fence, it digs into his thigh because he doesn't care anymore. His only real friend is leaving him for good, sure she'd be back in the wintertime for..some time, but she'd be gone. Marrianne Cronies would be gone, and she would have new mates she would go around with, galavanting at fancy Parisian parties and seaside villages. Ellor doesn't remember where she told him she would be going, he realizes. And, although guiltily, he imagines also of her being sat in a stuffy old school building with a thousand other children, where? Oh where could this stuffy little orphanage of a private school be? Somewhere in Germany, oh but she would have chocolate, maybe England, or…
Ellor's thoughts are brought to an end when Marrianne says, "The summer's here are not something I will miss." Ellor looks up from his craze.
"I apologize greatly, Ellor-um..your majesty,"
"You know you don't have to call me that," Ellor replies, shaken up from the thoughts of pain upon her in his mind.
"Oh but I do, and should, and will, your majesty. I will always, we are not children anymore, your majesty." Marrianne says, crossing her arms and waiting. Ellor has nothing to say, Maria always leaves him at a loss for words.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" Marrianne asks, her hands in fists and at her sides now.
Ellor is quick to retort, "Aren't you going to say 'your majesty'?"
"Oh, please, Ellor, you know who I am, I do these things when I'm angry."
"Well you better stop, because not all of us can tell when you're serious or not, Lady Cronies."
"Don't you dare call me that, your majesty," Maria snaps. She sighs, "Ellor, I-"
"You don't call me that either, I am your majesty, you are my subject, and you have to obey me." Ellor commands with a force that conjures fear in Maria's eyes.
Biting back tears, Maria, with a stern brow and calm nature, says "Goodbye, Ellor." And storms off, leaving Ellor alone in his clouded mind. Ellor is king now, and it is time to no longer be a child soldier in the storm of blood. Only time will tell what will become of Marrianne, and at this moment, Ellor didn't think of her much more than he thought of Charles Dickens.