1711, Amarisian Border, Devereaux, Northern Ravaeryn
Two days before...
"This is a splendid victory is it not, Your Grace ?" said Sir Jacob Oldville. He was only one of the thousands of knights that defended the Northern Border from Amarisian invaders, having spent half of his life here in the bitter cold, barely remembering what it was like in the warm south.
"We haven't won, Jacob," a deep, raspy voice reprimanded. "We've fought them off for now, but they will soon come back stronger than ever. That is just the way Amarisians are."
Once the general had spoken, no one would dare to refute. The Grand Duke of Devereaux, Nicholas de Lavilliers is the only son of the King's younger brother, the late Prince Anatole de Lavilliers. At the age of twenty-four, he was already an esteemed and decorated general, and even Giuseppe le Comte, General of the South Wing, held him in high regards.
His clear, piercing blue eyes, the royal family signature, glanced over at his men, all worn out and exhausted despite their joy of this recent victory. Surely, a short trip back home would not hurt, right ?
"Robert," he called out, summoning for his deputy, Baron Robert Fiennes. "I want you to procure a name list of all the soldiers in this camp and divide them into three groups.
The first group will be allowed to return home for two weeks, and on the fourteenth day, they must return here and report for duty. The second group will have their turn, and then the third group. So there will be two thirds of the army here guarding the border, in case the Amarisians try to invade again."
"They wouldn't," Robert chuckled proudly. "We literally annihilated them this time, Nicholas ! The Amarisians will need at least six months to recover from this blow !"
Nicholas glared at Robert with narrowed eyes. "You are too confident," he sighed. "I must return to the capital to report to the King of this victory, and if possible, I shall request for more cavalrymen from the King's army."
"We don't need them though," Robert said with a frown. "And we have more than enough here. Those sheltered weaklings in the King's army aren't worth anything, really. They'll freeze to death when they come to the north."
The Baron was an incredibly skilled soldier, but his talents and proficiency had made him become overly proud and jaded.
"Let's see if you'd still be laughing when the Amarisians attack and you don't have enough men to defend against them!" Nicholas sneered as he briskly stood up.
The snow crunched beneath his boots as he walked over to the stables, and the young general briefly stopped mid-journey, allowing the snowflakes to rain all over his black hair.
He had spent sixteen years of his life here, all alone with no one to talk to. After the passing of Prince Anatole, the eight year old duke was shipped off to the north and subjected to harsh military training. While it indeed turned him into a great warrior, it had also hardened him, and his heart was as warm as the snow on the peak of the Valenvers Mountains.
But now, he was finally returning to the glittering and gilded capital, where wind is warm and the air is perfumed by the blooming wildflowers. At last, he was finally coming home.
In the Princess's chambers, Catarina began to stir awake. At first, she thought that she was back at Lorewell due to how comfortable and warm the bed was, but when she opened her eyes and saw the scrutinising gaze of Princess Demitria de Lavilliers, she knew that she had yet to escape from the horror that was Aethiel Palace.
"Lady de Fontaine ?" the Princess called out, and Catarina immediately jolted awake.
She had not known for how long she had been asleep, nor how exactly she had gotten there. However, she did remember about the man in the maze and the gold buckled leather boots he donned.
That man, who selflessly endured the rain and ventured inside the maze just to save her.
"Your Highness," Catarina addressed. "Who was the person who brought me here ?"
Demitria knew that she would definitely ask that question, so she had prepared a fake answer beforehand. "I noticed that you were gone, so I had the soldiers search for you."
"What was his name ?" Catarina questioned, a bit too excitedly.
"Whose name ?"
"The soldier who brought me here."
Demitria frowned. She had no thought of that yet. "I didn't ask," she answered coolly, as was expected of her.
"Was he wearing leather boots with gold buckles ?"
"I didn't notice."
Catarina let out a dreadful sigh. How was she supposed to find him now ? At least she still had her painting. She absentmindedly reached for the painting, expecting to feel the rough canvas and gritty paint streaks against her fingertips, there was nothing there.
"Did you see my painting, Your Highness ?" Catarina asked carefully, and the Princess shook her head quickly. A bit too quickly.
"The soldier who brought you here didn't bring any sort of painting with him. It is alright if you lost it-- the competition is called off anyways. Almost everyone had their paintings utterly destroyed by the rain," Demitria informed.
"Do you think that it's still in the maze ? Can I have a soldier accompany me into the maze to retrieve it ?"
"No, it's too dangerous. Even if it were still there, it must've been ruined," the Princess said sternly. "Why are you so adamant in retrieving the painting anyways ? You could just make another one, Lady de Fontaine."
"It is the first painting that I actually completed," Catarina said with a smile. "I know that it is ugly, but it is mine. Maybe when I am a world renowned painter one day, I can look at that orchid painting fondly and think of how far I've gotten."
"It was an orchid ?" Demitria exclaimed, unable to control her burst of laughter. "Oh God, it was an orchid!"
Catarina frowned in confusion, threw the covers aside and briskly hopped off of the bed. "You've seen it," she growled, her tone deep and dark, a stark contrast from her previous lighthearted tone.
She and Princess Demitria both taller than average, and they were roughly the same height. Fierce dark eyes clashed with guilt-ridden blue ones, and this continued on until Demitria eventually said, "I see that you're fit enough now. I will have one of my maids send you back to your quarters, and then you shall go to the dining hall for supper, hm ?"
Thief, Catarina wanted to say as she was escorted out, but the words never quite managed to leave her lips. She preferred her neck to be intact, afterall.
Unbeknownst to her, the painting never went missing afterall, and in fact it was indeed stolen away from her, but Princess Demitria was not the person she should be going after.
In the Crown Prince's chambers, Julian had the painting hung on the wall adjacent to his bed, so that it would quite literally be the first thing he saw once he woke up.
"Your Highness, there are thousands of artists in this kingdom," the butler, Mister Graham began, "If you wanted to commission a painting, you could have just told any of us and we'd search for a talented artist for you."
Julian shook his head, staring at the horrendous painting of the orchid with ardent admiration. "Don't you think that it looks nice ? It's particularly charming when you view it from this angle," he said while stepping a bit to the side.
"I prefer the view from this angle," Mister Graham said while turning around to face the window, "where I don't have to see it."
"Well, I like it," Julian huffed and stubbornly turned to face the painting. "Orchids are incredibly rare, didn't you know ? I've only seen it once, ten years ago. An adventurer from Amaris had brought over a yellow orchid and presented it to my mother, but it died within a few days. There's a lot of orchids in Amaris though, they put it almost everywhere-"
"That is because the orchid is their national emblem," Mister Graham said smilingly. "It is native to Amaris, and they never allowed the orchids to be exported to other kingdoms, as it is their image and pride, which is why you almost never see orchids here, Your Highness. That adventurer likely smuggled it over."
Julian nodded, satisfied to find an explanation for the lack of orchids in Ravaeryn, but then realisation dawned upon him.
Why had Catarina chosen to paint an orchid, the emblem of their enemy, the kingdom of Amaris ? Was she so angry at him and his mother for making her join this ceremony that she decided to switch nationalities completely ?
No, that could not be it. Catarina was quite impulsive and impressively radical at times, but she would not go as far as to commit treachery.
"This is no ordinary orchid though," Mister Graham suddenly said. "Although the painter's skills barely exceeds that of a child, you can still tell that it is the three-pointed orchid."
"The three-pointed orchid ?" Julian repeated in confusion.
"The insignia of the Van den Berg family. Now, are you sure that you want the insignia of the Amaris royal family hung on your bedroom wall, Your Highness ?"
A/N: Hello everybody! So, I have been quite MIA for the past few weeks, but don't worry I haven't actually gone missing or anything 😂 I have been working on A Gilded Cage, Eleanora's story. It retells the events of the Choosing Ceremony from Eleanora's point-of-view, and also includes her backstory. Feel free to check it out ! Also, thank you for reading, I'll see in the next chapter! ❤