Tuesday, September 03, 2019

░ The Azure Castle, Ashton, The Kestle Kingdom, Edios

░ Tuesday, September 03, 2019

░ At 10:18 am

RILA KESTLE

This morning, we had a meeting with the Kestle family. It felt strange to meet another Kestle family, when in reality we could consider ourselves distant cousins, because Thetia and Lowis were siblings. Due to the rain and a big thunderstorm expected during the day, we took the car instead of flying to Ashton, the capital of the Kestle family's kingdom, located seven hours from Thournebourne. After two breaks on the highway, a checkpoint at the border of the two kingdoms, we finally saw what seemed to be the castle of the Kestle family. It was magnificent, very large and if I had to compare it to the royal family's, it must have been a little smaller. On the left side, there were workers restoring one of the towers of the castle. At the entrance, there were several guards and servants waiting for us. We got out of the car, and they escorted us to the place where William Kestle was waiting for us. We arrived in front of a door that was twice my size, with the inscription "private lounge" in the middle. The chief's butler, whose name was Erik, knocked on the door, waited for an answer from William and invited us to walk in. He told the chief that we had arrived, walked us in and left for his business.

- "It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty, and your family. Let me introduce myself, I am William Kestle, the current head of the Kestle family. My wife could not be here today due to her busy schedule. But don't just stand there, sit down!"

We sat on the sofas in the room, and I walked between my brother and my mother and William sat across from us. He looked like he was in his fifties, his black hair was just below his shoulders, and his face was marked by a small scar on his right cheek that was barely visible. Servants walked in with carts of mugs and sweets. They served coffee or tea before leaving the room.

- "So from what His Majesty Of Knightford explained to me, you represent the lineage of Thetia Kestle, the younger sister of my ancestor Lowis Kestle, don't you?"

- "That's right. Because of certain events which led Thetia to flee Edios, her lineage continued on the Empire of Thetia, and me, my two children here present plus another remained on the Empire as well as my grandmother, and my parents present there are her descendants".

- "If I understood, that makes us distant cousins. Personally, I'm rather proud to see that the Kestle family has managed to create such a strong power and empire. Can you tell me more about your Empire?" asked the King.

For at least an hour and a half, I would say, my mother and my grandparents walked through the life of the Empire without going into too much detail at times: laws, the Empresses, education, the economy, even the conflict between Goston and Youmor. In the meantime, I went to the bathroom to freshen up, and on the way back, a voice called out to me. As I turned around, I came face to face with five girls. The first had dark brown hair, beautiful blue-grey eyes and was a little shorter than me. The second one had stunning green eyes, perfect skin and black hair, making her look like a porcelain doll. The third, seemed to be the oldest of the group. She had very short dark brown hair like the first one and brown eyes. The fourth one also looked like a porcelain doll. She had very white and large blue-gray, almost white eyes and her wavy black hair reached to her waist. Finally, the last one was the one that stood out the most from the others, especially because of her long white hair with some gray highlights. In addition, her eyes were very blue, almost neon blue. All five were gorgeous, they gave the impression of mannequins.

- "Excuse me, but who are you and what are you doing here?" the first girl asked me in a suspicious tone.

- "Hello, my name is Rila Kestle and..." I didn't have time to finish my sentence before she interrupted me.

- "Kestle? You can't be a member of the Kestle family, I know all the members by heart".

- "Please let me finish. As I was saying, my name is Rila Kestle and I am here with my family meeting with William Kestle. You may know about this, but your King has received a letter from a certain Odessa Kestle, the Empress of the Empire of Thetia, and she happens to be my mother" I explained to her. She politely apologized for the misunderstanding and introduced herself.

- "Where are my manners, I am Lissie Kestle, William Kestle's younger daughter.To my left are my friends Imai Leclère, Eulalia Cavaleri, Ya Hyejin, Hyejin is her first name and finally, Avery Forbes. The five of us form the Horizon group of Torres Entertainment".

- "It's a pleasure to meet you and I apologize, but I don't know your group or agency at all, but I encourage you in your projects! On those, I will return to my family. Have a great day!"

After saying goodbye to them, I left for good in the direction of the private lounge of the head of the family. When they arrived, they asked me where I had been all this time, and I explained to them that I had been approached by William's youngest daughter, Lissie, who thought I was an intruder, and then she introduced me to her band. 

- "While you were away, your mother told me that you had a special project, Miss Kestle. Can you give me more details?" William asked me personally.

- "When one of the children of the Imperial family reaches the age of majority, he or she must carry out a project, whether economic, political or cultural. In my case, I think my project brings together a lot of fields. I would like to write a biography of Thetia Kestle from her birth to her death on the Empire that bears her name. Thus, I would need your help Sir".

- "Tell me how you want me to help you and I'll see if it's within my grasp".

- "If possible, I would like to read and analyze books, documents that you have on the Kestle family, but rather focused on Thetia". 

He stared at me for a while without saying anything, making me anticipate his answer. I had high hopes that he would accept, not just for me, but for all the people of the Empire as well.

- "I will provide you with as much documentation as I can. I can even do something more extraordinary, and that's not something I do to everyone. I authorize you to consult the private archives of the Kestle family, and for that I will provide you with an official authorization. We are part of the same family, so I consider it normal to help each other. Moreover, I too would like to learn more about Thetia" he said with a smile.

- "What do you know so far?" asked my grandfather.

- "To be honest, not much, Thetia is a mystery to Edios and the Kestle family. Quite simply, because Thetia can be seen as the reason for the fall of the Vassethier family in the 13th century, the rise to power of the Di Angelli family and the damage the Kestle family suffered. Nevertheless, no historian has ever shown the truth and I encourage you to do so. Thus, in addition to the archives, I will put you in contact with historians specialized on the great royal families and other periods according to your needs. Before changing the subject, one thing I can reveal to you is that my grandfather revealed to me about Thetia. This is one of the greatest secrets of the Kestle family, so I would like to keep it a secret. He simply told me "death is not the worst sentence, history has seen worse, Thetia has seen worse than death"".