The artist

Victoria ran down the halls with tears streaming down her face. She was a fraud, a lie, an embarrassment to her people. At least those were the thoughts running through her mind. She was nothing but a vessel of a useless goddess, she was tired, tired of everything.

She didn't stop running until she had reached the lake behind the castle and sat down with her knees hugging her chest as she sobbed, her damp, stained dress sticking to her face. She was beyond embarrassed as well as scared, she wanted nothing more than to go back to Elveria. She had a duty to her people, but meeting The Demon King directly gave her a reality check that she had been trying to ignore. She was not so upset about her ruined dress actually…but she was saddened by the situation she was in general, stuck and ridiculed in a land that wasn't hers, surrounded by enemies, a Demon King she she suspected to be suspicious of her already and roped into a mission she had just realized to be a suicide mission.

She hadn't even fought with him yet, and she was already getting the sense that she just wasn't strong enough to kill him and bring freedom to Elveria. As she sat and cried, she felt even more ashamed at herself for running away when something small happened. She had been in situations worse than this for crying out loud. Maybe she was just emotional weak now…things had gotten too much for her to handle even as she had been only spent a day in The Shadow Realm.

Victoria felt so pathetic for being weak.

The sound of foot steps brought her out from her session of self pity, she turned around expected to see Mallory since she was the only one she truly had by her side. But this wasn't Mallory.

This man had short black hair and deep purple eyes, pale skin and wore dark expensive looking robes. He was obviously a noble, and he had a bunch of blank papers on one hand and pencils and carved charcoals on the other.

Victoria sniffed as she gazed up at him, he looked somehow familiar…not to her surprise, everything about the lake did. She quickly turned around and wiped her eyes feeling even more pathetic and ashamed of herself. She silently swore that this would be the last time she cried in front of an Alcazarian, she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry ever again.

The man was silent for a while, he just stood and stared. Which began to get on her nerves, if he wanted to leave, leave! If he wanted to stay and mock her and her people, let him do so. The silence was deafening!

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me bawl my eyes out?" she croaked.

"I'm not sure, are you going to keep sitting at my spot?"

His response made her turn around to glare at him. "Your spot? I didn't see your name written on the grass anywhere."

"I want to sketch the pond, you're sitting at the perfect spot to capture everything. Not that I need to explain anything to you, Elverian."

The way he said Elverian made it seem like it was an insult rather than a nationality. "I'm not an artist, but does a random spot really matter that much to you?" she wasn't even sure why she was arguing with him at this point, it seemed like she just wanted to channel her anger somewhere. "You see a crying woman with a ruined dress sitting by herself and instead of asking her why she's crying, you tell her to move."

The man looked perplexed, "why should I care about the reason why you're upset? I just want to draw."

"Draw?! Draw what? It's just a stupid lake, in a stupid kingdom filled unbelievably stupid people!" She yelled, got up went off the side…a reasonably far distance and sat down. "There! Now you can sketch your dumb drawing."

The man only watched her, he looked about eighteen at most, but she wasn't sure. He set up his things as he sat down and begun drawing a rough outline of the

full moon using the light of the lanterns placed on the wooden bridge. He glanced at her every so often while they sat in silence.

Until he decided to end that silence.

"I saw you at the ball, you know." He began, instantly catching her attention. "That wine splashing all over you wasn't an accident. You barely even bumped into that servant, it was like the wine was being controlled…manipulated from the goblets and into your clothes."

"Freya Silvercrest did it. She had to be." Victoria replied.

"I think so too, she's always been like that. Even as children" He said. "She just sees you as a threat, if you're that upset about your dress then change it."

Victoria shook her head and furiously wiped at her sore eyes. "It's not just about the dress." She turned to look at him, seeing the understanding look in his eyes, "You knew Freya as a child?"

He nodded as he kept sketching. "We grew up together."

Victoria swallowed the pride building up at her throat which was trying to stop her from saying her next words. "I'm sorry for lashing out at you. You didn't do anything wrong, I was just tired and upset."

"Really?" He said, his tone filled with sarcasm, but his eyes were filled with amusement, "I never had a clue."

Victoria let out a snort before she could control herself, she wasn't of noble or royal blood, so she could as unladylike as she pleased. "I have good ways of hiding my emotional breakdowns." she humored him.

This time he chuckled and outstretched his right hand, the hand was wasn't covered in charcoal soot for her to shake. "I'm Xander."

She took it and shook it even though she as a Lady wasn't supposed to, "I'm Victoria." She glanced back to the castle behind them. "So you're out here drawing, while there's a ball going on inside. Any particular reason?"

His expression darkened slightly and turned back to his paper as he give her his response.