Who Made Me a Princess

Part 1

Chapters 9-11 in the novel translation: 𝘩𝘵𝘵𝘱𝘴://𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘱𝘢𝘥.𝘤𝘰𝘮/𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺/198203454-𝘸𝘩𝘰-𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦-𝘮𝘦-𝘢-𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴-𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘥𝘢𝘥-𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘩𝘪𝘴-𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴

"Today is His Majesty's birthday," Lily said while running a brush through her hair. Her tone was suspiciously flippant, obviously meant to sound casual.

Athanasia yawned, then trailed her eyes up to Lily's reflection in the mirror. She found cerulean eyes already looking at her with thinly veiled worry, and somehow felt the need to re-evaluate what she had been planning to say.

("What an unfortunate day it is, then. I should leave some time aside to mourn.")

"Ah," she managed to say instead, swallowing the scathing remark. "No wonder everyone's busy."

"Yes, everyone is very busy today," Lily agreed immediately. Her manner of speaking towards her recently was rather like she was walking on eggshells; Athanasia hid her frown beneath her fringe. "I heard that a celebration will be held at the Emperor's palace."

That's right – Felix had come to visit the day before and he had said that the maids and servants had been scurrying back and forth along the corridors like skittish chickens the whole week, putting everyone on edge. Athanasia had viciously guessed that when their Emperor was a tyrant, there wasn't exactly room for error, and had felt a stab of sympathy. Originally, she'd been planning to attend the banquet, but a horrible case of amnesia and a bloodthirsty father tends to put a stop to normal plans. She didn't want to imagine what would happen to her if she showed up uninvited in a room full of gossiping nobility...and the aforementioned bloodthirsty father.

Athanasia pushed back the torrent of angry words she wanted to spew (and if that didn't bring back memories of her happy, carefree childhood, when she'd been too scared to talk - much less freely - in front of him) and replied:

"I can't go anyway."

For a solid three minutes or so, there was silence. She lifted her head from the knees she had drawn up to her chest to look at Lily again, only to find her standing stiffly with her hands clenching at her skirts and her eyes slightly wet. Athanasia recoiled in surprise, already lifting a comforting hand—

"Princess," Lily said hoarsely, but with the firm conviction of an optimist. "Your father will definitely heal soon."

Athanasia's hand froze, then slowly sank back to her side. Then she gave a smile, refusing to acknowledge that it was forced, and chose to hold the equally hopeful wishes she harboured closer to her chest, where they may never hurt her.

In lieu of giving the assenting verbal answer she knew Lily wanted, Athanasia craned her head toward the large windows around her chambers. The sun was shining hotly again today, and the sky was a clear, pure blue. Just like the colour of the bird now quietly tweeting in its gilded cage in the corner. She hadn't let Blue out for a long time – didn't quite know what to do with him beyond the regular feeding and cleaning of his cage. The seller had said that he could be trained to carry messages, but how the hell was she supposed to train it? 

Athanasia supposed that she would request a bird-whisperer or bird-trainer —or whatever they were bloody called— to the castle when she could.

Lily had by now finished with her hair, and brought Athanasia's breakfast over. She picked at it (where did her usual appetite go?) but recalled cold, harsh winters and barely enough money to buy food, much less heating, and instinctively dug in with gratitude. Once she'd finished and it was taken away, she was left alone. Being confined in the Emerald Palace was amazingly boring; she couldn't go to her personal library (—built by  Dad during much happier times—) and could only read books borrowed from the maids.