City of Starlight

Chapter 14 - Back To Square One

(Daniella's POV)

I had been pulled into engagements all day as mother wanted me to become more involved with politics and matters of state. I tried hard to sit through the endless meetings with the council and pay attention to the words said by the ministers and lords, but my mind were fixed on two things. One of which brought a smile to my face whilst the other immediately turned it into a frown. 

When Yvette was busy drawing a bath for me in the evening, I headed to mother's chambers after prying my eyes away from my sister's image in my mirror. I was unsure how to bring up the subject of my father but my worries ended up being unnecessary as the agitated muffled noises behind the closed doors notified me that my parents were arguing inside. I sighed and thought of turning back when the door suddenly opened, letting father walk out. Upon seeing me, he said my name once in a surprised tone. I glanced back at mother, who hastily wiped the back of her hand across her cheek. 

I stiffened when father came up to me and embraced me in a tight hug. I looked over in mother's direction but she merely gave me a tired smile accompanied with reddened glistening eyes as she closed the door to her chambers. "Father," I addressed with a slightly shaky nod. 

When we parted, he regarded me for a moment, looking up and down and even reaching out cautiously to touch my hair. "You're so grown up now," he mused under his breath.

I sniffed, unable to exactly meet his gaze directly. "I'm sixteen," I corrected. I've always thought that sixteen was such a strange age. I've heard of marriages that have taken place when the girl was only sixteen years old; a child but an adult at the same time. I know that in Storybrooke and the Land Without Magic, one normally finishes their education at the age of eighteen but in the Enchanted Forest, even the most learned of pupils in high society normally finish lessons with their tutors when they are sixteen. 

Father drew me out of my thoughts by commenting with a smirk, "So, I hear you're courting someone."

I reddened in a mixture of both surprise and embarrassment that he chose to commence our first private conversation in five years with this matter. Hastily, I suggested, "Can we talk somewhere else? Maybe not outside mother's chambers where there's literally a guard standing here?" I then mouthed a quick, 'sorry' to the guard but father agreed.

As we started walking through the hall of mirrors, I dodged father's question by asking, "What happened?"

"Aurelie fell into a portal without realising that it would lead her to another realm and-"

"No, I know that. I mean, with mother."

Father exhaled and replied to me with glossy eyes. "It's really not something that you should be worried about, sweetheart." 

I sighed, knowing that it wasn't right to pry much further either, so I began, "How did you come up with Aurelie's name?"

"Oh, I'm not sure if you remember this, but your sister had golden hair when she was a baby. After a while, her hair turned brown like mine, but I suppose she will always be the 'golden light' of Lena's life."

Golden light...Nervously, I asked, "Have you told her yet?"

"Lena and I have begun to explain some things but she worked out herself that I had been with your mother in the past and that you're her half-sister. She knows that the reason why we ended up in New York is because your mother banished us."

I bit my lip knowing that wasn't exactly a good impression, but I suppose it was the truth. Father continued, "She's taking a lot in at the moment and you have to remember that New York does not have portals, magic or so-called 'fairytale characters'."