Stolen Path

12||Lavender Sparks

-Casper-

"Pity it's so overcast," his mother sat by her son's bedroom window, grimacing at the grey clouds hugging the horizon and gingerly shifting the delicate mess around her into a place that vaguely resembled a seat.

Behind a brocade screen, Casper stood still with his arms stretched out so the maid dressing him wasn't given too hard a time. "Is it? I think this weather has a sort of ambience to it," he replied. Due to a gut reaction of pure, unbridled denial over the events of last night, the third prince's mind buzzed with a determined optimism that is rarely seen in individuals above the age of ten. He fully intended to keep himself as such for at least the first few hours of the day.

"Hm." Although Casper couldn't see his mother, he knew she must have just pursed her lips, "I wonder if it will continue to have ambience if we're caught in a shower."

Casper chewed his lower lip, wondered whether he should address the only possible reason his mother was talking to him so early in the morning. At least behind the screen he couldn't see her reaction, "Ah...I'm." He blinked hard, righting himself with a sharp smile, "I'm sorry about last night. I shouldn't have been rude to Callum, and I shouldn't have left the room the way I did."

A long, heavy silence followed, weighing down like ash. Then, his ears pricked up to his mother drawing breath, "You seem to be forgiven; I believe everyone has decided to forget the whole thing happened."

"Good."

He stepped out from behind the screen, shooting a glance to his mother as she sat with her fist at her mouth, thinking. Although her appearance was meticulous, with her dark justacorps, knee-high boots, and perfect mane of hair, the bags beneath her eyes had darkened and there seemed to be a coldness in her lips that hadn't been there before. Perhaps a recent development. Perhaps one that Casper had only just grasped the capabilities to notice.

"Out of interest, where did you run off to? You weren't here when we checked, and we sent a servant to the Avonton suite."

"Well... I sort of just wandered about for a bit." An honest answer albeit a vague one. Casper sat down at his dressing table so his hair could be combed and fiddled with a pocket mirror as if it was a spinning top, "Granted, I didn't exactly pay attention to where I was going."

"How come none of the guards saw you?" He could see his mother's steely gaze reflect through the mirror and proceeded to pretend he couldn't.

"I wasn't in a mood to be seen."

To Casper's surprise, the high queen rose from her seat with a gentle smirk and waved the maid away, "You shouldn't say things like that, lopkin. You're reminding me too much of my younger self." Her face seemed to soften as she smoothed down the shoulders of her son's waistcoat.

"At least I don't remind you of your sister," Casper mumbled.

Then she let out a little laugh, still warm and genuine despite its short length, "You are a funny one." she kissed the top of his head. "You don't frown enough to be anything like Lillian. Besides you're marrying the future kaiserin, not some barrister that attended the right parties." With a gentle nudge beneath his jaw, his mother smiled at her son, "Chin up, no matter who you marry, you'll still be a Grachester, to me. Whether you like it or not." She added. Her lips melted into another smile, and she turned on her heel to walk towards the door, before stopping midstride, "Oh, by the way, make sure to attend breakfast on time, the Pangranti's have this 'demonstration'. They want to show us 'rivetingly revolutionary technology'." Her eyebrows raised as she held the doorframe. "Their words not mine."