Marinette shivered a bit as her feet touched the cold floor, wishing she had brought her slippers on her way to get some water. Of course, she could have just rung a bell and have one of the butlers get it for her, but servants need rest, too.
"Stupid freezing floor," she muttered before remembering. "Wait. I have a wand." After a quick facepalm, the young princess whipped out her wand, a pink scepter with a white crystal at the top and small Angel wings at the sides. Marinette recited the spell in her head before pointing the wand at her feet and saying, "Levitato." In an instant, her feet were off the cold floor, providing her with some relief. "Much better."
However, there was one thing that did not occur to her... Marinette had no idea how to fly.
"Oh, come on!" Marinette whispered yelled so as not to wake anyone up. She couldn't move, just floated in place. "Alright, let's try swimming." She does a backstroke swimming motion, moving herself forward. "Alright, I'm getting the hang of this. Just a few strokes to the kitchen, and then back. I got this." Her confidence began to wane as she began to float to the side. "Wait. No, no. Not that way! Forward!" Her own body doesn't listen to her, and Marinette finds herself floating further and further away from the kitchen. "My water! Ugh! Okay, how do I...?"
The Princess gnaws on the end of her scepter, a bad habit, but it helps her think, especially when she's trying to remember a spell. "Was it gravity something?... Reverso Levitato?... No." She groaned, "I need to read that dumb book again! Man, how does Nino get around like this? It's impossible- Oof!"
So caught up in her ranting, Marinette didn't notice that she had ended up in a different hallway and had bumped into a large door made of pure onyx. At least the collision made her drop back down to the ground. Marinette looked around at the darkly lit hallway and quickly realized that this was the 'forbidden hall door' as her parents put it. No one dared to come near it, not even her parents. Whenever Marinette tried to as a child, one of the guards would immediately pick her up, stick her on a unicorn, and let her ride it to her heart's content until she passed out...
Well, the guards are all guarding the outside of the castle right now. And who's it going to hurt if she just takes a quick peak?
Marinette shakily took the door handle, shivering again at how cold it was, and pulled. To her surprise, the door was unlocked. One would think a 'forbidden hall door' would be locked, but the word 'forbidden' probably scared people off and no one saw any reason to lock it.
Marinette chuckled. "Big mistake, guys." With the door opened all the way, she could see nothing but pitch blackness. Not letting that stop her, Marinette gave the gem on her scepter a few taps, making it glow brightly and illuminate whatever was behind the door which was... A long staircase. "Let's do this," she signed and made her way down.
It took her a good ten minutes before finally reaching the bottom, but when she did, Marinette gave her legs a good stretch. "Finally. Now let's see what we got." She taps her wand again, making it shine brighter and revealing a second door. "... If there's another staircase behind this, I'm out of here." She pulled on the handle, and again, the door was unlocked. This time, she entered a room that was illuminated by candles in the black chandeliers hanging from above.
It looked like a storage room in here. One owned by some hardcore Royal no doubt. The canopy bed pushed into the corner has blood-red bedsheets with black curtains that look like spider webs. A few spellbooks that couldn't fit in the bookcase were scattered around along with what looked like letters. Each one was covered in some black gunk, Marinette noticed when she went to pick one up. And judging by the little hearts scattered around, this was a love letter! She squealed, but before she could read it, a spider startled her as it crawled onto the front.
With a shriek, Marinette tossed the note to the side. "Why spiders? Why spiders?!" The Princess shuddered as she back away, her back hitting something that didn't feel like a wall. Slowly, she looked behind her and wasn't quite sure what she was looking at until she backed away enough so she could see the grand portrait of a young boy who looked around her age with black hair and menacing green eyes in the arms of a purple-skinned Akuma.
Marinette felt her knees buckle. "Marc," she whispered. And suddenly, the spider didn't seem as scary. She's heard all sorts of stories about the Akuma Lover himself. He's known throughout the kingdom for being a traitor to his people for eloping with an Akuma, their sworn enemies when he was married to such a loving husband from a neighboring kingdom. After he ran off, tensions between the two kingdoms rose. But, those are all just stories, Marc isn't real, he's just an urban legend! His portrait isn't even in the Ancestors Room, and there is no record of his spells in the family spellbook!
Taking a few steps back, Marinette stumbled over something and fell flat on her back. She looked to see that it was a red book with a black spades symbol on the cover. Marinette knew she should get out of this room as soon as possible, but curiosity just took over. She flipped to a random page of the book, only to realize that it was a journal filled with dozens of entries... All written by Marc.
March 8, 19XX
Being with Nathaniel has made me completely forget all about Lucien and my responsibilities as king. I feel like I can finally breathe and forget about my mothers passing away. He's been there for me, consoled me when I needed it most, and even drew the cutest plushie of himself for me to hold at night when Lucien is not looking.
Marinette blinked. That is not at all what she was expecting. The Marc she knew is a ruthless madman who curses the innocent, starts wars, uses dark magic to torture his husband, and eats babies... Okay, that last one might have been false, but he definitely does something to hurt babies! She keeps reading, looking for some evidence of Marc- who is definitely real- being evil and skips ahead.
August 13, 19XX
Tonight's the night. I'm going to leave this hellhole and there's nothing Lucien or the Commission can do to stop me. When Nathaniel and I finally get married, I'll have the life I have always wanted and not have to worry about that man I called a husband ever again or the Commission and their suspicious looks whenever I so much as enter a room. Who knows? Maybe when he goes off rambling about me marrying the Prince of Darkness, they'll throw him in the dungeon for all of the crazy people and probably just assume I died... Though, I do wonder what'll happen to the royal bloodline when I'm gone.
"What did happen?" Marinette wondered. If Marc ran away- and if the stories are correct- had been executed or crystallized by the commission, had no children, then how is she here? Needing answers, she skipped ahead and her heart stopped at the photo of a newborn baby with lavender skin and black hair cradled in Marc's arms as Nathaniel hugged his husband from behind. Under the photo, written in cursive was the name, 'Michaela' with a little heart next to it. 'Is this their baby?... But how?'
December 3, 19XX
This will be my last entry. Nathaniel and Michaela are safe, which is all that matters. The Commission is no doubt coming up with dozens of ways to execute me right now. If Nathaniel and Michaela find this, I hope they remember how much I love them both.
Marinette shut the journal. So Marc is real, he's her great, great, great... Something grandfather and he had a daughter with Nathaniel, but this makes no sense at all! Nathaniel went into hiding with Michaela, and there's no way the Commission would make a human-Akuma hybrid royalty! And if they did, Marinette would be partially an Akuma, so that would mean... Her family has been lied to for centuries. She looked back up at the portrait, shuddering as those green and turquoise eyes bore into her.
