Rose sat in what was for the lack of a better term was some kind of gazebo, Nate/Cain’s mother Queen Kaia sat with her while the nurse shark like pet lied by the entrees. Royal guards surrounded the gazebo, the walls were surrounded by flowering coral and sea weed which gave the placed a really wonderful feel.
“I want to ask you about my son’s life on the surface.” Said Queen Kaia as Rose opened her mouth to object, that was not her information to give. “However, I know that is not your information to give, I hope and pray one day my son will tell me himself in the meantime those secrets will have to rest with you. You know my son better than his father and I do, his whole family in fact.”
“Sadly yes.” said Rose
“So tell me about you? I know you want to be a doctor but why?” inquired Queen Kaia
“My Mother died of Cancer when I was 13, I saw how the Doctors and Nurses did everything they could for her but it still wasn’t enough.” Said Rose as she looked out. “I wanted to be one of those people who helps others, my father and stepmother couldn’t afford to send me to medical school to become a Doctor so my plan was to become a Nurse and hopefully go back to school after I made some money and become the Doctor I always wanted.”
Kaia nodded her head in total understanding.
“I wonder what my mother would say about this? I am now a Mermaid and going to be marrying a Prince.” Laughed Rose
“And someday King and one day yours and Cain’s children will rule this kingdom.” said Kaia
“That is something I wanted to talk to you about, I assume as a Queen I will have Royal duties, but I haven’t really been given any training.” said Rose
“Because officially you can’t get training until you become a Royal.” said Kaia “Don’t worry we aren’t going to drop you in as a Princess with no training, my husband and someone from the Palace will talk to you soon enough likely waiting for you to get more settled. They will make you a Lady of the Court, you will get a royal house Seal made/designed for you and then your training in royal duties will begin for real.”
“I see.” said Rose
“You might recognize my Mother-in-law seal.” Said Kaia as she pulled out a data pad and with a couple of taps brought up a holographic map of a family tree which went way…way back with multiple cross overs with different family trees and a few cousins marrying cousins in the past. Kaia zoomed in to show a Royal seal along with the image of Nate’s grandfather and beside it was a pitcher of Nate’s Grandmother with a seal which was clearly not native to the ocean. Rose grinned.
“I had no idea a Bald Eagle was native to this ocean world.” laughed Rose “And shield with red and white strips and a blue top with Stars, she really wanted people to know she was a former human.”
“Well, she was the first former human to marry into the line, you will be the second.” laughed Kaia as Rose looked down. From Nate’s grandparents where three children the middle one, the uncle which took Nate away was blackened out and his name stripped. Then came Nate’s father and Kaia who had her own royal seal beside her photo followed by Nate and his sister. Rose looked at the family tree getting overwhelmed by the size and how far back it went and yet Nate/Cain was the direct line back to the most ancient ruler of this Kingdom and she was going to be part of it.
“I am still processing becoming a Princess and later a Queen.” admitted Rose
“Totally understandable you had this dumped on you and you will have our total support, but you need to be prepared because sooner or later you will have to face the press and they will ask a lot of questions.” said Kaia “Believe me, when I married my husband they were all after me and I was already a Princess…a high spirited Princess to put it politely a wild child in truth.”
“Like what types of Questions?” inquired Rose already knowing what some of the likely ones will be.
“The one they will ask first is how many children you plan to have.” Stated Kaia with a roll of her blue/green eyes. “They asked me that every place I went up until Cain was born and then when Amara, they are always on baby watch. I didn’t eat some type of fish at a reception last month and they ran a story about how I may be pregnant because I didn’t eat that fish when I was pregnant with Cain or Amara.”
“They thought you may be pregnant?” inquired Rose, Kaia looked younger but even if she had Cain at 20, she would be around 45 now.
“My Mother gave birth to my youngest brother just before Cain was born.” stated Kaia with a shrug as Rose remembered that merfolk lived longer, still that had to be a least a 20 year age gap between oldest child and youngest child. “It isn’t uncommon for that to happen in our world I know it is different on the surface, do you and Cain plan to have children.”
That was a loaded question if there was not one, she was asking both as a mother to a soon to be daughter-in-law and as Queen as a Kingdom.
“Yes.” answered Rose, she and Nate had talked about children, any couple had to do that at some point in order to have a success relationship. “We haven’t settled on a single number but at least 2 at most 5.”
Kaia nodded not knowing that Rose had pushed for five and Nate had said to start at 2 and see how things developed. He wanted a large family as well, maybe to make up for not having one as a kid but he didn’t want the children to want which is something Rose agreed with 100%.
“The other question they will ask is wedding information.” Stated Kaia "This will be the 1st Royal Wedding in a long time, my sister-in-law never married and most of all it is the wedding of the lost Prince. It will be a lot of focus in the public, so be ready to answer questions about that."
“I don’t really want to start planning a wedding yet, Karen…that is Taylor’s mother is basically a second mother to me, I want her input on anything since my mother has passed.” answered Rose as Kaia nodded her understanding.
“Don’t worry there is no rush, you two will get married when you two want to.” Stated Kaia
“Nate and I was thinking in two years, we would marry sooner but we have to get married during that festival and 1 year to adapt to everything while planning a wedding seams to much.” Explained Rose “However could you explain how a merfolk wedding and more so a Royal Merfolk wedding works?”
“Not a problem.” said Kaia as she began to walk…well swim Rose through some of the details. A lot of it was actually very similar to weddings on the surface, which made sense considering a lot of former humans and become merfolk’s over the generations and they carried their traditions with them. They even had wedding dresses, true they were a lot more revealing and had harden spins which shot out from around the hips area to form a skirt with an opening in the front of the tail. The one thing that jumped out to her was that Merfolk…at least royal merfolk did not wear white at the wedding.
“You wear your Royal Seal colors.” said Kaia as she brought up an image of her royal wedding. Her Royal seal was orange, white and black so her dress was mostly white with black trim and an orange corest. “So when you make your seal remember that.”
“I will.” Said Rose as she took a breath of sea water and prepared to possibly upset Kaia.
“Will you or Amara be offended if I choose Taylor as Maid of Honor over Amara?” inquired Rose.
“I would be more offended if you put my daughter ahead of your lifelong friend.” stated Kaia as Rose let out a breath. “I would like her in the wedding party yes, but Taylor is your best friend you say she is basically a sister to you. I had my sister as my maid of honor not my husband's sister, how can I hold that against you. Now I would like her in the wedding party but in the end my likes are not important in the end this will be yours and my son’s wedding, it is more important that you two are happy.”
That caused Rose to smile and made her happy, yes she was awkward around Kaia and likely would be for a while but Kaia seamed to be very supportive of her and Nate.