Immortal Tales #Wattys2020

Chapter One

The girl in the red gown was staring blankly at the group of giggly girls in front of her. It was four of them, all beautiful, all young, all full of life. Their dresses were not as intriguing as her own, and their hair was not as splendidly arranged in a crown of flowers as hers, but she envied them nonetheless.

The girl absently wrapped a red curl around her fingers whilst listening to the girls' whispers. One of them was about to get married. She was young, maybe fourteen of fifteen, but the count had promised to make her life so wonderfully rich that she didn't mind his being twenty years older than her. The blond girl was all smiles and wonder. The count was her knight in shining armour.

The rest of her friends were just as loudly happy, but it was as fake as it was obnoxious to watch. They were all older and maybe a little less eye catching than the bride to be. The beauty standards of the time dictated a strict diet of air and hope for girls, so that their waist would be not bigger than a fist. It also involved a lot of smiling and being attracted only to shiny things, which the girl in the red gown found extremely frivolous.

The future bride was a pretty picture, and she guessed that is exactly what the count she was about to marry wanted as a spouse. She wondered if he would have liked her as much when her breasts would start to fall down and her hips would grow wider once she bore his children.

Assuming he could still have children.

One of the friends, her age closer to what the girl in the red gown looked like, noticed her staring. She waved at her as if they were long time friends and turned the other way.

There was no point in indulging in mortals lives. The girl walked confidently on the pavement towards her carriage. Men much older than her looked at her graces as she passed by and she raised her chin. Every time she joined the mortal world, she wore a different personality, a different mask. This time, she let herself feel as beautiful as she was. Not strikingly stunning, like the girl with the blonde hair could become as a woman, but fierce as a phoenix.

A long time ago, she found there was beauty in confidence. People saw what she wanted them to see.

That was how she convinced the prince to marry her despite her lack of noble origins. She looked at her image reflected in the carriage window and smiled at her own figure. Her vibrant brown eyes stared back at her challenging.

Would she do what she came to the human world for?

With a frown, she opened the door and jumped on the velvet cushions. One wave of her hand was sufficient to instruct the man to force the horses to move. He knew she would go to the palace.

She didn't like her job. Arguably, no one ever did in the mortal world either.

But her fate had always seemed a little crueler than with others. Sure, the blond girl would marry an old wrinkly man and fake enjoying boring dinner parties for the rest of her life, but at least she wasn't a murderer.

No, not a murderer. A path-changer.

The girl twisted her mouth at her own thought. As if a definition made all the difference.

The carriage halted whilst she was focusing on the profile of the hills outside the window. The castel was located in such a beautiful place, sometimes she forgot she was really in the human world. So contaminated by mortals and their reckless actions.

The palace was all white and gold, just like the dress she wore two days before for her secret marriage.

The prince had looked at her as if no one else existed on the planet, whilst his mother had looked as if she wanted to strangle her. The Queen of the Italian Kingdom wished her dead because she thought she had the intention of killing her son. Which was ironic since everyone knew that Queen Rosa was the one who stabbed King Vittorio Emanuele I in his bed to then take over his kingdom.

The girl guessed one murderer could smell another.

She thanked the man in the carriage with a gold coin and walked towards the entrance. Her red gown sparkled under the twilight sun. The people of the mist had given her that dress. It was tradition, one of the many she did not understand, for a path-changer to wear red for her first kill.

It wasn't that she didn't like the dress, but red reminded her too much of blood. Which was probably the whole point of the gown.

The two guards at the entrance didn't as much as blink before letting her through. In the few years she moved to Florence, she had earned their trust as much as their prince's.

Her steps resonated in the empty white hall, only interrupted by the occasional carpet lined in her path towards the private rooms. The artwork on the walls was so beautiful, the girl wondered how simple mortals could have made it. The lines interlinked so harmonically, the colours complementing themselves. She could have looked at it forever.

She didn't realise she had stopped to stare until a gloved hand was on her shoulder. She jumped at the contact, as humans were always so warm.

-That's when I fell in love with you, my darling Giulia - a familiar voice said. - When you look at the art, your eyes shine so bright and make me believe everything is possible -

She turned around and found herself in the arms of the prince.

Prince Guglielmo I was undoubtedly the most handsome mortal she had ever laid her eyes on. His blond curls wrapped his face just like an angel in the paintings she loved. His dark blue eyes looked though her as if trying to capture every angle of her fake smile. She let him hug her a little while longer before unwrapping her arms from his muscled torso.

She felt his desire for her as strong as when she first enchanted him. He had been a year younger then, only seventeen, but just as strikingly handsome and adored by his people. Unlike his mother, he didn't spill any blood to get his crown. He was simply born into it. When she met him he had been trying to get a girl's attention by winning a swords duel with a friend. The whole piazza had been there to watch, cheering him on as he disarmed his friend with a skilled torsion of his wrist.

The girl in question was pretty, but not particularly beautiful. She guessed she captured the prince attention with her bright red hair and confident smile. Someone like Guglielmo would tire easily of an easy prey, he wanted a challenge. She could appreciate that of him. As soon as the duel ended, the path-changer did exactly what she trained centuries to do.

She located the girl in the crowd, touched her arm and took all her memories of the prince chivalry. The mist people taught her that the procedure was painless and just. Memories, just like history, nature and humanity had all been gifted by them to mortals. It was only right to retrieve them when required.

By then, the girl had lived amongst mortals for two years. Shared their food, admired their art. Part of being a path-changer involved integration. She did not feel right about stealing part of the girl's past, even if for the best.

But according to the mist people, Guglielmo was going to become a monster.

"A king made by a queen of murder, will spill more blood than the tears of his subjects" they had said.

She was probably sparing the girl great suffering.

She coloured her hair red and masked herself in tight confidence. She called herself Giulia Rossi, a common name in the area. When the prince did not find the girl he was looking for, his eyes inevitably fell on her. It was only a matter of a few months and a few kisses for him to fall madly in love with her shell.

She hadn't known what the mist people wanted her to do back then. When she signed up for the job, the mist people told her she was helping the world to survive. No matter the cost. Sometimes certain parts of history had to be changed for the greater good. She couldn't see the future as they did, she was a foot soldier, a simple immortal soul in the games of the world. But she did truly care for nature and the mortals, as flawed as they were. She was enchanted by their lives, wished partly she could be one of them. She had to do what was right.

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Author note: Updates will be ONCE A DAY yay!

Read long and prosper my friends xx