5 Dying Hair

Amistad didn't tell Violetta the whole story, and Heath was grateful for it. Heath felt like his past and his blood had been tainted. He wasn't even that sad when Aurelius had died. Amistad had watched Heath's facial expressions. Heath was a smart kid and he knew more than his mother thought he knew. Violetta knew her father hadn't told her everything. He never fully told her everything.

Amistad had spoken to Meiri, and asked her if he could talk to Heath. Heath needed a better disguise now that Aurelius had died. If Amistad's brother found Heath…

"Vio," Amistad lifted Violetta's chin so she could look at him instead of the part in her hand. "I'm sorry that I made you and your mother angry and-"

"I'm not mad anymore," Violetta interrupted. "I was momentarily upset."

Amistad smiled at his beautiful little girl and patted her head.

"Heath, I want to disguise you more." Amistad said.

"I'm hiding from my brother, and I know you understand more than your mother thinks you do… but we need to dye your hair brown starting now." Amistad hesitated in telling him even though it was necessary. For a noble who had elvish blood in them to Dye their hair to a brown color was not done. Nobles with elvish bloodlines always had very colorful hair since birth. If a commoner had colorful hair like that it meant somewhere down the line there was some sort of elvish heritage. He had tried to dye his hair brown before, but the color wouldn't take. Then he tried to get it to be blond, and it turned to the pink lilac color it currently was.

Heath did not yet understand the repercussions of dying his hair, and agreed easily. He also did not want that man to find them. He didn't want his mother to be hurt. He also thought that he wouldn't mind matching his mother's hair color.

"Violetta, I will have to leave you alone with your robot while I dye Heath's hair."

She looked at this kid who was now supposed to be a part of her family, and agreed. Though she was young, she had read enough etiquette books (which her mother had stated were egregiously classist) to know that if a maid had a child with hair that was not some form of black, brown, red, or blond, it was bad for the nobility. For a long time only nobility could marry an elf and have descendants. Elves stopped that rule a little over a decade ago. She did not care about such a classist way of telling apart true nobility. But she knew that she did not have to dye her hair, because her mother was nobility. They could argue that she had inherited her purple hair from her mother.

But she also knew that if her mother invited others into the house, and Heath, who was the maids' son, had the same color of hair as her father… People would talk.

Violetta would later find out as an adult, that the next day Laura and Amistad had argued over the fact that Heath's hair had been dyed. Laura thought it meant he was trying to hide a dirty little secret. Amistad was indeed secretive about the boy's origin, so her belief wasn't unfounded.

Amistad needed his wife to be ignorant of all his secrets, this was the only way he could protect her.

…

…

Violetta noticed a little later on that her parents' marriage was now strained. It had taken her a long time to notice because she was so invested in making Heath talk more to her. He was so quiet all the time. He had a bubble around him, and others were not invited.

She had somehow wormed her way into his bubble and he would open up about what he liked to her. He loved the stars, and he had wanted to join the Celestial Academy. The academy was full of highly intelligent individuals who all had a deep rooted love for space. It accepted members of all species and classes. It didn't matter if the person was a dwarf, human, elf, or catkin, or a mixed race. When you graduated from the Celestial Academy, you went out as a team in one of the rockets to the orbiting space station. Depending on how well you did there you could be hired on.

Secretly Violetta had made a decision in her heart. She would build a rocket. That way just in case Heath couldn't join the academy for any reason, he could still go to space.

…

…

A year had passed, and Heath was now going to celebrate his ten-year. Every time a child turned ten it was a big celebration to say this child is halfway to being an adult. The Ten-year celebration happened at the beginning of every year. If a child was going to turn ten at any time that year, even if it was the last day of the year. They were included in the Ten-year celebration. Correspondingly, every ten years in a person's life they would be required to attend this type of celebration.

Ten-Year

Twenty-year

Thirty-Year

And on, and on it goes...

Children who had their ten-year would be able to attend classes during the week, and be with their peers. Violetta was upset. Why had she not been born a year earlier? Schools were not supposed to be dictated by class, but by region. This meant that no matter what class, once they had their ten-year celebration, they would attend the regional school. This also meant that the schools in the commoner regional areas were often overfull of children, and not enough teachers. But "all the resources" would be the same. The books and classes in the noble area's were the same books and classes in the commoner area's.

Heath went off and attended his Ten-year without Violetta. She could not attend, as she was not yet ten. When he came back, Amistad asked how it was. As Laura was standing next to her husband Heath simply said it was fine. Heath knew Laura didn't like him. He also knew that he was to keep his father's real Identity a secret. He had wriggled the information out of Amistad a little over a month ago. It was no wonder he and Amistad had to dye their hair. Heath even understood Amistad's reasoning behind hiding the secret from his wife. But Heath did not agree with this decision. He knew if he was married to Violetta, then he would definitely tell her everything. Violetta was a lot like her mother. So he thought Amistad should definitely tell her.

Amistad said he had grown-up reasons as to why he had made this decision. And to definitely keep this secret. So… Here Heath stood, silently being judged for something that wasn't true, and if it had been true, could still not be his fault. So in response to Amistad's question, he kept it simple and said that it was fine. There was really good food, and the place they had the celebration was really pretty. All the celebrations were held on the same day, and in the same building, but all were held in different rooms on different floors. All races and classes living in the city had to attend. There was once a year where race and class did not matter, and this was it. For those attending however, this event only occurred once every ten years. Amistad later on reported every single detail of the event to Violetta. He wanted it to feel like she was there.