Awakening

"Hah!" Lily jerked up. Her heart pounding loudly in her chest, her hair and petticoat clinging to her body from the sweat.

"Hah." She drew in a deep sharp breath. The unfamiliar softness underneath her caused her stomach to tingle.

"Carnephelia." She bit her lips. Placing her finger inbetween her teeth: a habit that she had recently acquired, she bit on the supposedly long fingernail, however, it was as short and as even as ever.

She really returned back home. However, Carnephelia was nowhere to be seen. The hopefully joyous moment that she had wished for was drabbled in sadness.

"Ack! Your highness!" The sound of a glass bowl crashing on the floor accompanied by Mary's sudden scream snapped her out of her reverie.

"Your highness! You're awake!" She screamed even loudly, running towards Lily.

"Irk! Don't put your finger in your mouth." She hurriedly pulled out Lily's finger from her mouth.

"Hey...Mary." Lily called, looking at her purplish fingers.

"You almost died. What is wrong with you? This is the second time you drank poison so willfully."

"Actually, I ate the first one, and drank the second one." Lily replied, smiling wryly.

"I see, even when you are so close to death, you still have an incredibly bad sense of humour." Queen Hannah's voice came from the door. Unlike when Lily had first consumed poison, this time, she looked calmer, even more elegant than ever.

"Hello, Your Majesty." Lily greeted her, ignoring her earlier words.

"Do you know how much of a squabble you put me in?" Queen Hannah asked, cutting out the fact that the young princess had almost made her so worried that she couldn't sleep at night. Only smudging her face with make-up to hide the dark circles underneath her eyes.

"You look just fine, Your Majesty."

"Easy for you to say. I warned you, Lily, I warned you over a million times to inform me before doing something like this."

"I didn't do it."

"Pardon?"

"I didn't poison myself or let myself be poisoned this time." Lily raised her head, her eyes slowly regaining their usual bright glow.

"What?" Queen Hannah frowned, closing the door behind her, "Leave us, Mary." She ordered, walking towards Lily.

"Someone poisoned me. I don't know who, I've got a lot of enemies after all." Lily shrugged.

"You're just ten, it's not something to be proud of." Queen Hannah shoke her head, "Anyway, you were out for three weeks. A lot of things happened in that short time, and you, Lily, you are in the center of all those things."

Just three weeks? She spent more than half a year in the other world though.

"The first prince, Perez was placed under house arrest."

"Why?" Lily frowned.

"All evidence points towards him. He gave you the drink you drank and he was with you all through, even chiding you to drink it." Queen Hannah sat on the couch.

"He never chided me into drinking it. I never even drank from that glass." Lily said, pulling the covers off herself.

"Well, a servant testified against him. Meanwhile, the servant you brought the drink was nowhere to be seen. Probably paid off. And the glass shattered, causing the drink to spill, so they couldn't check it for poison." Queen Hannah pressed her lips into a thin line.

Lily gazed at her quietly. The usually sobbing queen was now exuding great elegance, thinking carefully and making the best out of any situation. Lily felt inexplicably proud.

"Well, there's a problem." She said, placing her hand underneath her chin.

"What is it?" Lily asked, moving to the couch opposite the third queen.

"The second prince asks for your rest."

"Pardon?" Lily squinted her eyes.

"The second prince, Franz, asked the king to let you take a rest for a few years, hence, you are prohibited from leaving the palace." Queen Hannah tilted her head with a smile. The child was capable of handling a lot of things on her own and, though worried, Hannah still wanted to see how this would be handled, "He then asked to be sent on a barbarian expellation on the outskirts of the Kingdom."

"Ha." Lily scoffed.

Right, just after swearing to make her queen, he proceeds to make a name for himself.

Lily bit her lips. Why did she even think of that?

"For a few years? How long is that?" Though terribly annoyed, she calmy asked.

"Just three. You can't leave the palace till you're thirteen." Queen Hannah placed her hands together.

Three years was enough to get the graphite mine running, and it was more than enough to get the entire capital's nobles on her side. However, everything was soiled in just three weeks of absence, by that cunt no less.

"How annoying." Lily muttered underneath her breath.

"The king, however, has no plans of redrawing his words."

"I know." Lily stood up, "I need a bath."

"Alright, Your highness. I'll send Mary in." Queen Hannah stood up and left the room.

"Ha! Damn." A curse unknowingly escaped Lily's lips. Placing her hand on the couch, she stared out the window, her head still hurting from the sudden rush of various exceedingly annoying information.

"For three years? But he allowed a nine years old kid leave the palace to fight barbarians. How laughable." She snickered, walking around her room for minutes, ignoring the servants who came and went.

"Your highness, your bath is ready." Mary soon announced after a short while.

"Thank you, Mary." Lily wrapped a towel around her shoulders, "I'll be taking my bath alone today."

"Alright, Your highness." Mary bowed, leaving the room along with the rest of the servants.

Entering the bathtub, Lily relaxed her muscles and breathed out in relief. She missed the warm water more than anything else.

Tapping the water with her fingers, she let out a small amount of poison from the pores of her fingers. Seeing the water turn purplish, her lips curled up into a smile. Turns out it wasn't just a dream after all.

She submerged herself deeper into the water. The purple colour spreading evenly, turning the entire bathtub pink.

She sighed even more, raising her small hand in the air, "Carnephelia." She muttered lightly, placing her other hand on her chest.

You said you were a part of me, didn't you. She thought to herself, smiling calmly.

How nice it would be to see those little wings, fluttering around again. And her really cheesy attitude.

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Pardon the late update, my readers.

I've been sick for a while now and conjuring befitting words is a little bit hard for me, talk little of writing them down.

I may or may not update tomorrow. We can only hope for the best.