PART 1
One More Time
Violet was staining the entire battlefield. The soldiers that were unlucky enough to survive the initial impact were womiting blood. Along the enemy lines was a woman, reminiscing an angel walking on fine threads. Wherever she walked, death followed. Whatever she touched, withered. She looked around, making her violet hair flow around the wind. War, war is violent. War is art. She gripped the handle of her scythe tighter as she heard the screams and moans of thousands. She was right, this really was their final card. He was real.
10 YEARS AGO
"Get something right for once won't you!"
The noble had been yelling like this all day at the maids trying to dress her. Did they not know today held significant importance? With each passing second her patience had been getting thinner. It felt as if these maids were sent to ruin her dress. The patience of the already impatient noble ran out.
"All of you, scram! You useless lowlives!" screamed out the noble.
Most of the maids scattered around with their heads down while some of them begged for forgiveness which was met with even harsher instructions to leave her alone. Once all the good for nothing maids left the room it was time for her to actually start dressing. She rushed over to her mirror and continued putting on her dress. If you want something done right, do it yourself. She thought while pulling on a string with her mouth. And at last, it was fit her perfectly. The noble then began braiding her victorian violet colored hair.
"I have to look the prettiest. I need to." she mumbled to herself.
"Cyeen Flameberg, where are you!?"
The voice had came from the ground floor, it was her mother, Zenith. That scary voice could be recognized even through the thickest walls.
"I will be joining you in a minute your grace." she yelled back.
Zenith was no person to be left waiting and she knew that. That was why she began rushing her braids. It wasn't that hard to fix them for Cyeen. She had been doing it since childhood in her combat lessons.
A couple of footsteps were heard from the second floor. It was Cyeen with a handheld mirror in her hands. The noble's family was all waiting by the door. With Cyeen joining them, they were ready to go to the capital city, Setina.
***
Cyeen entered the enormous ballroom inside the castle of Setina. It was located at the last floor of the castle and had balconies on each side. As soon as one entered this room they could see columns on each side of it, carefully designed by the best of the architects and just as carefully decorated by the maids of the castle. At the end of the room was a set of stairs going up for a bit and then splitting into two different paths, both leading into the upper section for the duchesses, dukes and the royal family. Cyeen couldn't say she was familiar with that part.
Cyeen looked around her. A few nobles her age had already started dancing to the slow music being played. The ballroom was filled with people with unusual hair colors such as hers. That wasn't something rare though, the cause of it was simple as they were byproducts of a baby illness.
A rather handsome looking noble took her attention. It was the perfect time to ask for his hand in a dance. She wasn't going off the looks of the guy though, she wanted a dance with him because of his house. Their houses were rather on good terms.
The young lady went up to the guy and held out her hand, asking for a dance. Unsurprisingly, he accepted. They held each other's hand first, then, Cyeen put her other hand on his shoulder and the young lord grabbed her by the waist with his empty hand. They danced gracefully for about ten minutes before each going their seperate way. Cyeen knew that this little dance would help her get favored a little more than the noblewomen by this duchy.
This was actually her second time attending a ball. Her first time attending was when she was sixteen years old and this time at eighteen. As she sat down again she saw Alysion on her right. That noble was one of the heirs to Drantu. Though, saying one of would be an underestimation. She was the most likely to lead Drantu among her siblings. Therefore being her friend or at the very least her ally would be the most intelligent move.
Cyeen waited for the right moment before gracefully walking towards Alysion, being careful as not to dirty her own red gown. She soon sat down next to her.
"Alysion? It's such a pleasure to see you here on this wonderful night. I was scared no one close to my age would show up."
"Likewise Lady Cyeen, it's a pleasure."
Alysion could guess Cyeen was trying to strengthen their ties with her. But their ideas were identical so it'd also benefit Alysion. She wanted to be close to Cyeen because of Enidia, the duchy Cyeen was destined to lead someday.
"If I'm not being rude dear Cyeen, may I ask how many people have you danced with until now?"
"Of course you could Lady Alysion. Altough, I haven't had much of a chance and only managed to dance with a single one so far. But seeing as the cheerful mood you are in, I expect you've taken the hand of a lot, am I wrong?"
Alysion smiled a little,
"Ah yes, of course. I have danced with 3 gentlemen and you won't believe I also had the opportunity of dancing with the Prince of Setina."
Cyeen looked at her in shock, dancing with the Prince? That was one of the highest honors a noble like her could have. And that would also mean that she would be favoured more by his majesty in the future. Now that meant she really had to strengthen their ties before the other noblewomen all came flocking to her.
"Oh my, you've really danced with him?" asked Cyeen.
Alysion had a quick giggle,
"Why of course. And would you believe me if I told you that he was the one that offered me his hand?"
While the two ladies were chatting away, the queen of Setina went down from the adults section and onto the middle of the stairs to announce some stuff while also celebrating the day Setina was established to the ladies, lords, knights and dames. And then, she started to talk about the topic most nobles were curious about:
"Dear nobles and other visitors, as you might have already knew, my son Avalanche has reached the age of marriage. With that I wanted to announce we are looking for the most suitable partner for him. We would like you to be of support to him in this time as he might leave our kingdom or change houses."
Cyeen looked up at the queen. This wasn't something to take lightly, it would break ties between the noblewomen and erupt huge issues in all of the duchies in the close future. If successful, the heir of the duchy that got to marry the prince would be favored tenfold as much as the other noblewomen.
Cyeen was now at a crossroads. She could either; ditch the friendly act and try to play at higher stakes or sit back, swallow her pride and help Alysion win this race of marriage. After a quick thought she decided on going with the first option.
The violet haired noble made up an excuse to leave the side of Alysion, making her way towards one of the many balconies. It'd be tricky in fact to charm the prince. No one had taught her how to deal with situations like this.
Cyeen finally reached the door and went out to the balcony. She leaned onto the railings, gazing at the moon.
She sighed. She sighed because she wanted to be heard. Cyeen knew it, the burden of having a noble family name on her shoulder would lead to her death some day. She looked down from the balcony, admiring the size of the castle. Oh how great would it be if it was all hers...
Who are you?
Cyeen looked around her frantically, her heart was pounding like crazy as she began sweating profusely. But there was no one around her.
"Show yourself coward!" she yelled.
A long, uncomfortable silence followed. A silence so thick it filled every crevice in her body. She turned back to the door, aggressively swirling her dress. The noble took one last look at the moon before leaving the balcony.
***
Alysion was now surrounded by countless noblewomen and dames as expected, but what piqued her interest were Solaris and Historion. They were both the heir of their respective houses, Solaris being the Sundom heir and Historion being the Varden heir. It would normally be important to be on friendly terms with them but that had changed. What would benefit her more was them not partaking in the newly started marriage race.
Cyeen got closer to the group. What looked like a pleasant conversation from outside was actually them trying to intimidate each other. Seeing as how this could result in something good, Cyeen decided to join them, it'd probably make good drama.
The violet haired lady joined the group as all the ladies welcomed her in elegance. She put on a smile. Dirty snakes. She thought as it was the best phrase to describe the noble ladies of Setina. Even though she saw the other ladies as snakes she didn't fall too far away from that category. There was a pattern present in every one of them, none of them were insincere. And Cyeen was not an exception. After a moment of welcomes and "how are you"s she joined in on the active conversation.
Historion,
"As I was saying earlier, the mines in Varden are about to increase in value by at least four times. I've come to this conclusion with through research."
Solaris,
"Oh how wonderful you're doing your research." her smile looked as fake as it could "It would be an honor to wear a ring made out of the gems extracted from your mines once I'm married. "
Cyeen had to butt in too,
"Hmm, Marriage? You? I didn't know you were interested in those type of things dear Solaris. I personally have my hands busy helping my mother with the trading routes in our territory. Marriage would only distract one, am I wrong?"
The conversation between the ladies started to heat up after a while. Even though there were no foul words thrown out they all had hostile meanings behind them.
After a solid fifteen minutes of talk, Cyeen opened her mouth with words targeted towards Solaris but nothing came out...
Who are you?
She stood frozen and held her head before excusing herself out of the group. She went out to the balcony again and curled up into a ball where no one could see her.
Who are you?
The whisper had turned into a constant echo cluttering her mind with nothing but three words. She held her head with both hands to try and suppress the voice. It was getting closer... closer... it was right next to her. She summoned three violet knifes and threw them in an instant at the hand that was trying to reach her. For a moment, the black fog clouding her eyes had disappeared and all that she could see was... her mother, with 3 cut marks on her hand. Upon coming to the realization of what she had done, the young lady immediately started to beg her mother for forgiveness. Zenith simply told her to be shut her mouth.
"Cyeen Flameberg, mind telling me what you are doing on this dirty balcony?"
She completely ignored the question,
"Please, I don't want to be here anymore."
The duchess slapped her across the face without hesitation. Zenith didn't like being ignored.
Cyeen held her cheek with fear eating away at her mind. It had been years since she was last slapped by her mothers. At that exact moment, a child was standing in her place, a child that was scared. Scared of the thought of disappointing her mother more than the slap she received.
Another person entered the balcony. It was Blair, Cyeen's father. He had followed his wife after seeing her go down the stairs and then into the balcony. He had a stern look on his face as he had came to check out what was happening.
Zenith grabbed the young noble by her wrist before the family made their way towards the exit. Once they were escorted out by the maids of the castle, they went into their carriage. Cyeen sat across from her parents with her head down, not even hearing the scolding she was receiving. A single sentence was cluttering up her mind. And that sentence was:
Who am I?