Levesquian: a dark hazel au (frazel!!)

one: the princess levesque

The child wailed and Hazel smiled sweetly at it. Its high-pitched peals echoed around the cavernous chamber like alarm bells.
"Child, why do you cry?"
The girl couldn't have been more than five years old, but she gazed at Piper wanly like an old man with a million years behind his eyes.
"Mother has gone."
"Where, would you know?"
The girl cried again. "Have not seen her for a fortnight. She is gone."
Hazel sighed. "Come with me, child. We shall see to it that you find a new mother." She lowered the child to the ground and herded her to the door, despite the fact that the girl kept turning around.
"A new mother? I need one not. Mine has gone! We must find her! I had not seen her for a for-"
Hazel gave the child a shove. "Hush. You have a place to stay."
They passed down a long hall, mahogany details lining the walls with gold crown mouldings. The lights became dimmer with every step, and the girl whimpered.
"Where have we come?"
Hazel grasped her hand and led her along. "To where you will stay."
"You know where my mother has gone?"
They stopped in front of an iron door cast with a silver emblem. The girl buried her face in Hazel's arms. With an internal groan, Hazel pried the child's hands out of her cloak and flicked her wrist at the door. It opened, and the child looked up at Hazel with teary eyes. Then she looked inside the room.
A crowd of little girls stood at spinning wheels, baskets of not just regular, but gold thread at their feet. A strange haze hung over the room, like a goddess's breath. They wore ragged, dark clothes, hair tangled and eyes cast downward, and not a single one looked up to greet their new arrival. The rattling sounds of loose spindles filled the hall.
The girl stared. "I shall not go in there."
Hazel stroked her hair. "I'm afraid there isn't another option, my sweet."
The girl once again buried her face in Hazel's cloak and let out a single wail.
"Mother told me not to go to strangers."
Hazel rolled her eyes. This was taking far too long, and she had other matters to attend to. With a cock of the head, she manufactured what needed to be.
"Atresa, my child!" cried a voice. The little girl looked up.
"Mother!" she shrieked, looking into the room. A woman clad in a short black dress and scarlet robes had replaced the girls with the spinning wheels. The little girl rushed into the room and into the woman's open arms. "Mother!"
Hazel rubbed her leg where the girl had clenched it. With a sneer, she snapped her wrist again and the door slammed shut. The rattling sound resumed, along with the girl's ear-splitting scream at reality.
I am your new mother, she told the door silently. And this is where you will stay.
A pair of invisible forces lifted the train of Hazel's cloak and repositioned it behind her as she made her way further down the hall.
Halfway there, Hazel made another stop at a black iron door with no markings on it. She blinked at it and the door creaked open. Inside was a naked woman, blindfolded with her arms chained above her, cuts forming constellations across her discolored skin. Her red robes and black dress were cast aside to the floor, soaked in blood- but the gag lay loose around her neck, in chewed-up tatters.
At the door's opening, she raised her head and automatically yanked at the chains as she strained in the direction of the thirteen-year old.
"What have you done with her?" she cried hoarsely. "What have you done with my child?"
Hazel smiled at the woman.
"Lady Lemisia, I'd have thought better of you. Do you believe that I would tell you?" Hazel walked into the room, lifting her robes to avoid the pools of blood. "You shall know nothing until I am told something."
The woman let out a wrenching sob and hung her head. "I cannot."
Hazel sighed regretfully. "Honorable. You have yet to utter a word."
"I took an oath to protect them! I am sworn! You do not understand. Queen Grace and Lady Ramirez placed bonds on us- I cannot! I would, you must know! You-"
An invisible force slapped the woman so hard that blood sprayed the stone floor. Hazel glared.
"You shall refer to me as Your Highness, Lady Lemisia." She wiped a fleck of blood off her forearm and prepared to leave the room. "And you know as well as I that when a woman reaches the shattering point, her loyalties do as well." Hazel turned to leave.
"Waih!" the woman cried gutturally. Blood streamed down her lip, making little pitter-patter noises as it hit the divots in the stones. "Wha of my daugher? Wha haf you done wih her?"
Without turning around, Hazel made a little sound of pleasure. "Ah, yes." She walked closer to the door. "She will make a wonderful sorceress."
The woman's eyes widened. "No."
"Goodbye, Lady Lemisia. I shall return when you have something to say."
"NO! I HAF- I HER WHA YOU DO TO DEM! MY DAU- YOU CANNOT! NO! ATRESHA! ATRESHA!"
Hazel strode out, and the door clanged shut. She continued down the hall, the woman's muffled howls still reverberating through the air. She inspected her clothes for blood, and upon seeing a fresh stain on the hem of her cloak, she sighed and closed her eyes. Opening them, she was wearing a tight black jumpsuit with interlocking gilded chains resting on her hips.
Ah, Hylla Twice-Kill. The belt may not have been real, but Hazel's defeat of the Amazon queen was. All for the damned horse. At least Arion had been worth it.
As Hazel continued further down the corridor, further into the absence of light, the dark aura around her became visible, ancient as the jewels buried in the core of the earth, more eternal and golden than any sun. Whether it consumed her or she consumed it, one could not tell. Mist danced about the tips of her fingers- Princess Levesque's treasured talons- and she swirled them, tornadoing little pirouettes of silver into existence. She reached the door of her father's chamber and stopped, thinking about the life she could have if he were finally gone. The so-called Lord of Death, dead. Hazel chuckled at the thought.