ᴡᴍᴍᴀᴘ: ᴏɴᴇꜱʜᴏᴛꜱ

Lily of the Valley

"Oh, it's alright your highness! Sshh!" Her highness didn't seem to cry often, not as often as the other babies she had seen before, and she wondered if it was just the way her highness was.

Her sparkling eyes were ever so beautiful, the same, yet so different to the emperor's threatening ones.

She shivered just thinking of him, how he had massacred them all after Lady Diana's passing, and because of a whim, he had spared her and her highness Athanasia, because of her name bestowed upon her by Lady Diana. 

She was the only princess, the crown heir from the moment she was born, and her name solidified her claim to the imperial throne. 

"Eternal life, is it?... So be it then, I will let the child live- for now, because of her." 

Lily's legs folded under her, and she slumped onto the floor, still clutching Athanasia to her chest, heart ready to leap out of her mouth. 

She watched as the emperor left, Sir Felix by his side, a small group of maids detached from the two's entourage, and stationed themselves in the Emerald Palace.

He visits Princess Athanasia as a baby from time to time, Lily coming to expect him in the Emerald Palace every few weeks. 

He drops by sometimes, robes askew from the wind, and picks up her highness in his arms. He doesn't coo over the princess like any other person, simply gazing at her, and she stares back, eyes wide, and disarmingly quiet. 

She doesn't seem afraid of his majesty, perhaps she recognized him from her youth- and she reached up...and patted his face with a small hand. 

Lily grew pale, ready to drop to her knees to plead for her highness's forgiveness, but he simply blinked, and that was all. 

He carefully dropped her into her crib, adjusting her pearl hairpin, and left with Sir Felix, back to the main palace.

The years flowed by, and that little baby princess was now growing rapidly. She had learned her letters young, and the princess's progress moved smoothly, the writing was a bit shaky, but that was normal, and to be expected from her youth. 

The fact that she even knew how to read and write was amazing in itself at her age.

If it had been any other baby, they would have still been crying from the smallest things, and playing with toys. 

Princess Athanasia was still interested in toys (those made of solid gold were her particular favorite) but when she wasn't, she was eerily concentrated on her studies. 

It wasn't yet time to order a new desk for her highness, however, they let her use whatever she wanted, quills, paper, books, magic recordings, and she absorbed knowledge at a fast pace.

His majesty had taken Princess Athanasia under his wing in his palace at the age of two, having heard of her academic prowess from a young age. 

Princess Athanasia hadn't heard his majesty's words that day, but something worried Lily.

"We heard that the princess can read and write already?" the emperor turned to look at her in the dimly lit hallway. 

"Yes, your majesty" Lily struggled not to shiver from his presence alone, and she couldn't lift her head, staring fixedly the hem of his white robes. 

"If she's that smart then We'll take her into our palace starting next week. Just have her ready by then, and Felix will come to pick her up and escort you." 

In an afterthought, half turning away, "Don't pack anything- the Emerald Palace is still her main residence so one can send the maidservants to pick up what the princess might need in the coming times. We will have prepared sufficiently. "