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Chapter One

Troubled Magic

Stars twinkled from behind the tightly closed blue curtains. Moonlight made a pathway across the room to the stars above. A figure hidden under two blankets and a quilt emerged to stretch for the second time that night. Collapsing on a fluffy white chair, the figure rubbed her eyes.
Glancing over at the canopy bed she shuddered. The upturned blankets revealed some heavy torn books, parchment, and a quill with an upturned inkbottle nearby. Ink was everywhere and Nicole didn�t want to be there when the cleaning crew came. They�d kill her to find such a mess!
Last time she had late night homework she worked on a proper etiquette essay on how to properly address a duke. When she had written the title neatly on top, took her two rolls of parchment to do because she kept messing up, an ugly black castle cat trotted in. It pounced on her bed and landed right in the ink jar. Nicole swore as the cat started to trot on the essay. Grabbing the ruined paper with paw prints she screamed. Lights flickered on as the cat left with a raised tail. People rushed in and Nicole assured them she had only had a nightmare. The nobles were mad she had awoken them and huffed off to bed once more. Nicole tried her best to wash the stain out but on the contrary she made it far worse. In the morning, the maids arrived and had a fit worse than Princess Kiari�s. They lectured her for half an hour as Nicole cringed. Remembering that bit the noble shuddered and had her head in her lap.
�What should I do? Maybe I could pretend I didn�t do that at all. I doubt these maids will buy it so I-� began Nicole. A banging at the door made her duck under the covers once more but she lifted them so her eyes could dart around the room.
Under the door she could see that the torches were lit and that a shuffling of feet was outside in the corridor. Some big black boots stood there then trotted off down the brightly lit corridor. Nicole sighed and rummaged under her foot to find her essay paper wrinkled horribly.
Half-heartedly the noble picked up a heavy brown leather book. Embedded in the cover was the royal insignia, a rose crossed over with a sword, with the words �Property of the Royal Library� stamped all around in several different languages, like English and French. Skimming through the index she found the assigned page, she also forgot these sorts of things once in a while. Stopping on the 2nd paragraph of page 532 she took it all in.
12 generations of the English Royal Family have brought about many stages of etiquette. It was evolved and changed over these many centuries. The stages of etiquette go as follows: Prime, Strongin, Prime II, Linginburg, Elizabethan, and Moran. During the era when our people lived in barbaric ways (huts, clubs, Neanderthals, etc,) they began the Prime Manners. All you need to know is that the leader (elected head) is the one you must respect in all aspects . . .
Nicole wiped her eyes and hid a yawn. Scribbling some sentence like in Etiquettes that Evolve. Sliding all of her school relics off the bed to the floor with a CRASH. She pushed up her covers of the canopy bed. Slowly she fell in a rather content sleep. Nicole was starting to think these late night homework sessions were cutting into her sleep.