The Ordinance

Chapter 14 - Isabelle

Isabelle was greeted by the coos and hellos of her handmaidens when she arrived at the castle. Half the staff was waiting outside the huge, dark doors and gray slabs of stone that made up the castle. Isabelle was happy to see a fresh coating of snow on the foliage surrounding the giant castle. It was nearly three times the size of the Faerie palace, and Isabelle had heard rumors when she was little that there were complete levels and rooms inside the castle no one had ever even seen. Of course there was no way of telling, but the tales fascinated her.

She saw her two sisters run out the doors of the palace through the crowd of her handmaidens. The sun gleamed on their chocolate brown hair, and their skin had somehow gotten even paler in the time Isabelle was gone. Nonetheless, they were still beautiful. Her youngest sister was dressed in a frilly purple gown, and the other one in a periwinkle gown embroidered with lace. Isabelle felt even more self conscious in her sultry red dress.

She realized she wasn't wearing her gloves and tried to fold them behind her back. All of her persona handmaidens knew her secret, and so did her sisters, but she couldn't risk any press that might be there seeing her marks.

As yet another handmaiden went to hug her, she grabbed her hand lightly and felt a surge of warmth flow through her. She willed her to walk away, and to make the other ladies follow suit. Without even a second thought, she obliged, telling the other ladies to come with her as she re-entered the castle. She heard someone say something about having the chefs cook a grand feast for her return.

Her sisters finally reached her and she embraced them both tightly.

"We were so worried about you," Luna, the older of her two younger sisters, said.

"Are you alright?" Raven, the youngest, begged.

"I'm fine. It was nothing," she said reassuringly to her sisters.

"Nothing?" Luna asked, flabbergasted.

"All that you've been through and...oh, Isabelle!" Raven exclaimed, her sisters once again embracing her.

"I remember when we got the news!" Luna recounted.

"She was frantic, and I - well -I could barely hold myself together!" Raven continued.

Isabelle laughed. It was funny to see her sisters so beside themselves.

Luna whispered in her ear, "we thought someone...knew."

Isabelle swallowed nervously and forced a smile. "It was nothing like that. It was just a few men who thought they could keep me for ransom, but I escaped and found a nearby village. The people there - they, uh, helped me find home."

She'd come up with the explanation on her way to the castle, and figured it would be an easy lie to tell. Most importantly, it was believable.

"How is father?" She asked.

Her sisters gave each other nervous glances before Raven replied, "He's been better since the news of your return, but at first he was really angry."

"We were afraid he might declare war," Luna continued in a hushed tone.

Isabelle started up the steps of the castle, nodding as her sisters continued to tell her how her father had kept to himself these past few days, meeting only with trusted advisors and taking meals in his rooms. It was concerning, but they all trusted their father to tell them whenever he made drastic decisions like that.

Isabelle walked directly up another flight of stairs to the second floor, where she and her sisters lived. A sort of nostalgic feeling swept over her as she entered her rooms. She had been gone no more than a week, yet it felt like a lifetime. Isabelle couldn't tell why. She walked through her rooms, her sisters trailing behind her, continuing to fill her in on the events of the past week.
She took in the floral wallpaper and the pristine white of her bed covers. She looked around at her vanity table and her reading room, filled with a chess table and board games and hundreds of unread books. It all felt very childish. It felt...like she didn't belong here. This was the room of a naive, ignorant princess, but she didn't feel like that anymore.