So it is done

Cinder and Neo

Once upon a time, Cinder Fall had nothing, but now...

Deputy Director of Internal Security for the RATS. A title that intimidated anyone she encountered in her life, whether they understood what it meant or only the imposing title made up of a string of words and a single acronym. There was something intimidating about the combination of the words Director, Security, and RATS.

Though, to be fair, even a janitor of RATS' would probably elicit some amount of fear.

People are wary, sometimes even outright afraid of Cinder – and they were generally right in their assessment. Not that she would bother using her powers against some random people that were guilty of nothing more than disgruntled whispers or poor manners. But Cinder could, and just because she could abuse her power, in people's mind that was enough reason to fear her.

In people's minds, she was always only one step away from taking advantage of her position.

But who would have thought of Cinder Fall's past?

A princess, not blood-related to His Majesty, an important clarification, of Glenn, a high-ranking figure in its secret services, one of Glenn's most influential individuals and, without exaggeration, one of Remnant's world players. She simply was, as if she had no more depth than her photographs glimpsed in the occasional news item concerning her work and achievements. Who would have thought at all about her past, her achievements, her history?

Maybe years from now, after several generations had passed, someone would wonder about her life after she had become Remnant's most powerful woman, perhaps. But right now, the average person was likely aware of her position, but unlikely to even consider who she had once been.

But Cinder would never forget. Years ago, many years ago, what she is now, was nothing more than tall tales of the Cinder Fall stuck in the small cupboard.

In a small hotel on the edge of Atlas, one that even its past neighbors had forgotten ever existed, Cinder Fall had slept in a closet. Tortured, a slave that had to climb through ventilation ducts to escape the wrath of the seemingly invincible leviathan Miss Sunny...

Would the world ever learn of that fact?

Cinder didn't particularly want to remember those past years, but at the same time, she didn't want to forget it either. She didn't want to reveal that information to people, and yet she wasn't ashamed of it either. She had survived, and she had prospered, all thanks to Jonathan.

Even if she would tell the world, who would think of Cinder that way?

To most of the population, Cinder Fall was a figure of the uppermost crust. For fifteen years she had been known as the adopted daughter of the King of Glenn, and for the last few years as a high-ranking official of the RATS. A huntress, a genius, a politician, with influence reaching peaks that ordinary people could never have thought of in their simple daily lives, spending more on each of her meals than people earned in a year of their work.

Who would ever think of even theorizing about the past of Cinder Fall? Because she is so highly positioned today, then it must mean that she was born into it, right?

The people didn't know Cinder Fall. Or maybe they do? It would be silly for her to generalize about people she hadn't met or interacted with personally. Those people are strangers to her – naturally, they knew only what they themselves could imagine about Cinder Fall based on their limited knowledge of her.

But, what Cinder found amusing about it, was that they knew virtually nothing about Cinder. Absolutely nothing at all.

But they knew even less about Jonathan.