I'm Not Alone, I'm Enola

~Part 1~

On a bleak, dreary midwinter's evening, a loud knock could be heard from the hill where you would find the palace of the royal family of Stansia. A young infant, no more than a year old, was crying so loudly that she could be heard even against the howling of the wind. She was snuggled up tightly in cloth, illuminated by the pristine moonlight that shone down upon the palace and the deserted city below it.

The history of Stansia is a tragic tale. Around thirty years prior to the events being told here, Stansia was once a bustling and thriving small kingdom of unity and hope, situated in the remote countryside. That unity was destroyed some decades later by a ruthless murderer who slaughtered the townspeople, one by one, until the fragile system that had worked for so long collapsed within weeks. The royal family and their staff were the only ones who weren't targeted and they have stayed in the safety of the palace ever since. Visitors were as rare as the scarce money they produced and anything that happened in or around the palace only existed in memory.

The first royal resident to grace the young child's presence was the king and queen's daughter, Princess Lavinia. She was in her mid-twenties and had long brunette hair that turned into soft ringlets at the ends. She wore a red dress made out of the finest velvet and her gentle features made the young child, despite the princess being a stranger to her, loved. 

"Oh, my! Hello little one! How did you end up here on your own?" she said as she picked up the child and cradled her in her arms. Despite never having a child of her own, her maternal instincts sprung to life and she began to softly stroke the child's head, where a few wispy trails of hair were starting to form.

Lavinia took the crying baby into the palace and made her way into the throne room, where Queen Leah and King Howard were sitting on their respective thrones which were encrusted with thousands of sparkling jewels. Viscount Alexander and Viscountess Seraphina were sitting next to them on slightly less grand thrones, but jewel-encrusted ones all the same.

"Lavinia! Where on earth did you find that?" King Howard said as he stood up from his throne, stopping the conversation the four of them were having on the kitchen staff.

"She was left all alone outside in the storm, so I brought her in."

"Surely you're not thinking of keeping her?" Queen Leah exclaimed. Lavinia looked down at the child in her arms and smiled.

"We can't keep her, Lavinia, we simply don't have the facilities and people to take care of her! Everyone's busy trying to actually make this castle, this kingdom, look like it's at least still running," Viscount Alexander chimed in.

"I could keep her, I could take her under my wing like my own-"

"The only child you will be looking after is your own, once we find you an eligible suitor, of course," King Howard retorted.

Lavinia hated the idea of an arranged marriage, especially since it's all for producing an heir for an almost non-existent kingdom.

"As royals, our lives are all about politics, whether we have subjects or not. Therefore our marriages are politics," said Queen Leah upon Lavinia frown and shuffle uncomfortably.

"Anyway, we can't just leave her outside, susceptible to the elements! She's a child, for goodness sake, a helpless child, whose mother probably left her her for reasons unknown to any of us, but she most likely did it because it was the only option she had. Mother, would have wanted me to be rejected by the only people that could take care of me?" Lavinia pleaded. The room went quiet as everyone seemed to consider her words. Finally, King Howard broke the deafening silence.

"Alright, but she needs to have a name. I say we name Mary, after my late sister."

"No, that doesn't suit her. Maybe Elizabeth?" Queen Leah offered.

"The child should be named Seraphina II, after yours truly," Seraphina said with a flourish. Everyone was excepting this one: it was common knowledge that Viscountess Seraphina was incredibly vain. 

"I think we should name her Enola," Lavinia piped up.

"Why En - En - Enola?"

"Because she appeared her alone and, well, alone backwards spells Enola, so I thought it was a fitting name."

Viscount Alexander, the only one who hadn't suggested a name, nodded slowly.

"And a fitting name it is. Welcome, Enola, to our family," he said with maybe a bit too much grandeur.

Lavinia smiled down to the child.

"Welcome home, Enola."

(A/N - The picture at the top is the closest that I could find to what I originally imagined it to be like, credit goes to Google)