It had been almost two years since Princess Harriet left the castle to adopt her new identity as Miss Edda, the young magician. She hadn't expected anyone to really care, and for those two years, no one really did.
Nothing lasts forever though.
An R...
AN: Just a heads up that there will be violence and verbal abuse (as in the angry shouting form of it) in this chapter. It shouldn't be anything to crazy, and the verbal abuse is pretty brief, but I thought it might be good to just warn about it in advance, just in case.
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Harriet felt like she was in a haze as she approached the large manor near the woods, just outside of the town. The building towered over her as she got closer and closer, making it almost feel like it was about to crumble onto her. She soundlessly moved up the stairs, and well outside the door a long hand appeared from behind her waving it's back to the door, and then the door swung open and she floated inside.
There was vails coming from upstairs, but the people in the foyer just rushed from door to door, their faces unreadable, but their shoulders tense. Harriet's throat ached and so did her wrist, But she nonetheless moved towards one of the staircases leading down, passing the sparkling crystal chandelier in her long decent on the almost endless staircase.
Soon she spotted the floor and felt the cloud of noise envelop her, every step moved over leading her closer to the crowded ball floor. She didn't want to go down there, but where else could she go? There was nowhere she could be alone in this place, and mom would get upset if she went and got her dress dirty in one of the the storage rooms again. Harriet didn't like it when mom got upset.
She looked over the endless crowd, people so far the eye could see, and then she was pulled into them. Flashes of fine fabrics and scratches from lace, she kicked with her legs trying to push through it, squinting her eyes and lifting her arms to shield her face.
There was an angry tug on her arm and she opened her eyes again, to see the upset look on her mother's face as she pulled her up to the podium with the large thrones. And there stood a large bearded man throwing a dark shadow over her, his hands clenched in tight fist behind his back as he nodded sternly at the people walking up to the podium.
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Harriet's mom put a hand on her dads shoulder, her lips moving, making her dads face twitch and his eyes glare at Harriet. He seemed to say something aimed at her, she couldn't tell what, but she still nodded, hoping that that was the response he wanted. Her mom gave her an exhausted look and her dad rolled his eyes, said something to her mom, and walked off the podium and into the crowd.
The tension around Harriet's arm was released and her mom sat down on one of the thrones, her posture perfect, and smiled down at the people moving around in the room. Harriet looked around the room, trying to smile just like her mom was, but it felt, wrong. In the corner of her eye she could see a group of nobles pointing at her with wide amused grins on their faces. Then something else caught her eyes, a small door opposite to the one used by the food-staff, a bored looking guard standing leaning against it's frame. Harriet wondered what was in there that needed to be guarded. A secret vault with neat artefacts maybe?
