Finally.

Walking into the smaller parlor, I sighed at the sight of my mother.

She was dressed rather plainly, thankfully, but was messing with a bunch of flowers. She was standing in front of a small table, one decorated with hundreds of different flowers of every shape and size. She seemed to be re-arranging them, as if to make a design. Whatever it was she was planning to make, I couldn't tell yet. Though I wasn't sure if that was because she had just started, and I couldn't see even the hint of the final design, or if I was simply that out of touch with such little whimsies.

"Mother," I greeted my mother as I passed her head servant. The older human woman bowed her head gently as we walked past each other, but I paid her no mind.

"Hm… little Brandy, here to receive your scolding are you?" mother asked as she lifted a flower, a large blue one, out of the bundle. She studied it closely for some reason, as if it was important.

"Scolding…?" I asked. Why was I going to be scolded? I had requested some time with her, as to speak of father and our kingdom's issues… not anything…

"Your father. He's told me to keep you away from his section of the palace. That you keep bothering him, while he's busy," mother said gently as she put the blue flower back into the huge bundle of flowers.

Did… did she put it right back in the same spot where she'd taken it from? It had looked like it.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, mother… Father, he's," I started to say as I stepped up to stand beside her. Before I could continue though, mother turned to hand me a flower.

I took it, a little begrudgingly, as she then went to hand me a few more. Not because she was giving them to me as gifts, but instead so that I would hold them as she moved some of the smaller flowers around in her design.

Wanting to sigh at her, I kept myself in check.

This isn't her fault; don't get too angry with her. This was how she was raised.

"Your father is a busy man, Brandy. He's king. And right now he has a lot to do. Just… leave him be for a while. If you keep annoying him while he's in these odd moods of his, you might get hurt or worse, so just stay away from him," mother said.

Ah! So she at least recognized he was being weird!

"He's acting weird because of stress, mother," I said.

Mother paused a moment… and then glanced over at me. "Hm…?"

I nodded, rather firmly. Enough so I caused one of the flowers mother had handed me to prick my hand, it had thorns. "Father is stressing out over our finances. The kingdom is broke," I said.

Mother blinked at me… and then turned a little, to look across the room. I followed her gaze, wondering what she was doing, and then realized she was looking at the door.

Oh. Right. I probably shouldn't say things too loudly, huh?

"I see… so my youngest daughter is more than she appears, is she?" mother then asked as she looked back at me.

I shifted a little, and was a little surprised to see the smirk on her face.

"Mother…?"

Mother sighed, and went to grab the flowers she'd just given me. She took them, and simply placed them on the table next to us. The way she basically dropped them down, haphazardly, made it almost seem as if she no longer cared about the flowers at all. Or ever even had.

"Who taught you, Brandy?" mother then asked.

Taught…? "You mean which teacher? I've had three. Right now it's Miss Trentibi," I said.

Mother frowned at that. "Who was before that?"

"Well… first was when I was a baby. I don't really remember her. Last one was Klafa, but she got pregnant and stepped down to give birth and raise her child," I said. I missed Klafa. She used to make treats for me during our lessons. Not that Miss Trentibi was a bad teacher, or rude or mean, at all.

Mother crossed her arms as she hummed and studied me further.

Great, why was I being judged all of a sudden…? I need to get mother back on track. "Mother, this is serious," I said.

"Yes. It is. What a pity. I should have noticed your intellect before this…"

Oh…? I frowned at that as mother sighed and uncrossed her arms. She stepped closer, and knelt down.

I felt the hairs at the back of my neck, the ones that went down a bit below my shoulders; stand up a little as mother got close. We were suddenly eye-to-eye, which was weird. I'd never been this close to mother, or ever seen her act like this… or well…

Staring into my mother's eyes, I was a little surprised to see such depth to them. She was holding my gaze, and she didn't have that silly looking, stupid tinted, smile on her face.

This mother was not some absentminded woman at all. Who was she? Where had she been all this time?

"Do you know what a patriarchal society is, Brandy?" she asked.

"It's what ours is. We women don't have as many freedoms as the men do. We can't hold any political power, or authority."

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She nodded and smiled at me. That smile quickly turned into a smirk. "Yet you still think you can get through that idiot's thick skull? Being a woman, a little girl, no less?"

My brow furrowed. "Are you… saying father's been ignoring my advice because of what I am?" I asked.

"That amongst other things. I now wish I hadn't allowed them to burn your papers. What had your plan been, Brandy?" she asked.

Burnt my papers…!?

Taking a deep breath, since I was now angry and offended, I nodded at my mother. "To make a new textile product. One we can make cheaply, quickly, and is currently in fashion amongst both high-born and low-born peoples of our surrounding neighbors. We have excess cotton, more than we can sell, and no one to buy it. Not at this time of year. But we can sell…"

Mother raised her hand to stop me; I went quiet… since my voice had been growing rather loud. I had been so happy to have someone finally ask about the details!

"Yeah… that's not going to happen, Brandy. Even if your father had been in his right mind, they would never have been willing to risk such a venture. You're talking about dedicating workers to a singular task, for a product untested and one we're not sure would even sell?" mother smiled softly at me as she shook her head.

"I have proof it'd work!" I said quickly.

She blinked.

Digging into my pocket, I pulled out the only coin I ever earned.

Showcasing it to mother, I smiled happily, as if already victory was assured. "I spent five bronze coins total! And two of those had not been needed, wouldn't have been needed, had I been able to use our own employees!" I happily told her.

Mother slowly frowned as she reached out to take my coin. She held it, studying the weight, and softly shook her head. "How'd you make this? If you sold something to another nation, you…"

"I dealt with a merchant on credit. Using our family name," I said.

She sighed. "Which merchant, Brandy?"

"Liverstom."

Mother visibly relaxed and smiled. "That's a good choice. Why'd you pick him?"

"I…" I hesitated a bit. "I don't really know," I said. I had spent a few weeks talking and studying the merchant families our own dealt with. Of the eight of them, Liverstom seemed not just the most trustworthy but also the most capable. Plus he traveled with his own family, his wife and children. I liked that. It made it more… real to me, somehow. For him it wasn't just about the money, it was about living a lifestyle with his family.

Mother ran her thumb along my coin for a moment, and then she held it back out to me.

"Keep it close. Don't let anyone know you have it. It might be all you will be able to take with you, after all."

I almost didn't take it back, thanks to her words. "Mother…?"

Since I had hesitated, mother forced the coin back into my hand. She cupped my hand with her own, forcing my hand into a fist over my recently earned golden coin.

"I'm sorry Brandy. Maybe you're right. Maybe it would have worked. Maybe it still would have. But it's too late."

"No…! We have two months reserve if we stretch our resources, and in that time I can do thee shipments and…!"

Mother though simply shook her head. "No, Brandy. We don't have two months. We don't even have two weeks."

Shifting a little, I wanted to shake my head. I had just the other day checked the ledgers! Even though only the men in the family were allowed to withdraw from the treasury, and sign for anything binding, we women still had access to the ledgers. We could see who took what, and for what reason. There was no way it had changed that much in just a couple days!

"Then we can just operate on credit…!" Just as I had to earn this coin!

Mother smiled at me. "Honey, our family hasn't had access to credit in over a year. Odds are the only reason Liverstom agreed to help you was out of the kindness of his heart."

My own heart sank. A year…!?

Then we were in far dire straits than I thought! That meant…!

"Ah… you really are wise. Far beyond your siblings!" Mother leaned forward, and grabbed my face. She cupped my cheeks, squeezing them as if I was a young kid again.

Or well, to her I still was. Being non-human I, like most of my siblings and other family members, didn't grow as fast as normal. Although old enough to be an adult in human terms, I was still tiny and young looking like a child.

"Mother…" I groaned as she kept squeezing my face. Why was she being so odd all of a sudden?

The mother I knew was a fickle, somewhat uncaring, person. One more focused on her little hobbies, such as growing flowers or tea-parties, than us children. I think this might be one of the first times she's ever actually touched me like this, so openly…

I tried not to notice the tears that welled in my eyes, since they were brought alongside a sad truth. One I'd honestly never really cared to notice, not really.

"I'm sorry for being a terrible mother, Brandy," mother then said.

"Mhm…" I didn't dare say a word, since I didn't trust myself. Was I about to cry…? Surely not, right?

Even if it was true. Even if she apologized, and started acting kind and gentle… it wouldn't really change anything would it? Other than I'd be happy, I guess. Happy that my mother would finally be someone I could…

Mother than released me, and took a deep breath as she sighed. "But it's too late. Too little, too late," she said as she turned back to her table of flowers.

Reaching up, I rubbed my cheeks that she had rather forcefully squeezed and pinched. I did so not really because it had hurt, but instead to wipe a bit of the tears that had snuck out of my eyes.

"Mother…" I whispered.

"I'll send someone to explain and tell you what to do, Brandy. For now… just prepare. You're smart. Smarter maybe than even me, so you'll be okay," mother said as she continued to mess with her flowers.

Prepare..? "Mother? What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Our kingdom's end. We're about to be invaded, because your father and the rest picked a fight," she said with a stiff voice.

A fight…? So our economic troubles weren't just because of ill-management and bad happenstance…? Was someone waging economic war against us? Who? Why? We weren't a large nation, nor powerful or wealthy, but we'd always been well-liked. We had hundreds of years of history and…

"Wait… invaded…?" I whispered as I realized what she'd just said.

Mother glanced at me, right as she picked up a pair of scissors. She didn't even look at the flower arrangement as she went to snip off a large flower. The blue one she had been studying earlier.

"It's all their fault, Brandy. You hold no blame. None of us do. Your father and his fellow cronies could have saved us. They had given us an olive branch. We could have been saved. But they'd rather the kingdom fell around them, and we all die, than ever admit they're not good enough," she said flatly.

New panic began to surge within me, as I realized how serious she was being. And how serious the comments she was making were.

We were about to be invaded.

Because father and the rest had done something stupid.

And here all this time I had simply thought we were insolvent.

"So…"

"So we'll escape. We all will. Stop planning to save them, or this land, and instead start planning to save yourself."

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