Chapter 1: Intro

The southern empire, known for its warm weather with beautiful sceneries. Ruled by a prosperous royal family; a family known for their dedication towards the empire. The Emperor and the Empress were known for their love towards each other and the empire, always putting their people before everything. They had two lovely children who were next in line for the throne; me who is the eldest, Princess Irene, and my younger brother, Prince Isaiah. It'd be an understatement to say that the royal family were a happy family; even when the Emperor was busy he'd still take time out for his family. There was never a moment went to waste as every single minute was spent making memories with the family. The royal family has a charm of their own which everyone admired— and especially admired by me. I hope to continue growing up with my family despite us being a royal family, filled with many obstacles and betrayal, but there is something more special; my parents who love each other so much and together ruling the empire with such dedication and my younger brother who is my only friend.

It was a simple day like usual; the day started with all of us eating breakfast. "What is everyones plans for today?" asked father. "I'm going to garden with mother and learn more about the various type of flowers" as I responded back with an excited voice while stuffing my face with eggs. "Go easy on the food, Irene!" as mother says while hurriedly getting a glass of milk for me so I don't end up choking on my food.

I look over to Isaiah—he had a gloomy expression on his face as he said "I wanted to go on a picnic with mother and Irene." Immediately, father responded back with the happiest expression which he always had on, "why don't we go on a picnic during lunch time? In that way, Isaiah will be happy and I will be able to join my lovely family too. How does that sound?" Me and Isaiah getting so excited as we ran to father and mother to hug them! "Can we also bring Tulip?" I asked with my voice filled with desperation. "Yes we can! Well then we should get done with breakfast so we can finish our other tasks and prepare for the picnic. Sounds good?" as mother told us.

I had gotten dressed up in a simple blue dress with flowers on it and my hair tied up with flowers prettily decorated on my brown curly hair, thanks to the help of my personal maid Lily. As the final touches are made, mother enters my room and I wouldn't lie but my mother is truly a beautiful person—inside and out! She is someone who treats everyone equally and inspires me to be a better person who is equally feminine and masculine since there is a chance I'll be the one to take over the throne in the future. For now, I'm just a 5 year old kid who has so much to experience in this world but in the moment, I just want to be with my family who adores me so much.

"I love your hair, my sweet little daughter!" Mother says while smiling so gracefully.

"Thank you, mother! Mother looks very elegant!" I respond back with my cheeky smile. We start walking out of my room, heading towards my mothers garden.

"Look at you saying such big words. Ah seems like my little girl is becoming big." Mother says with a somewhat of bittersweet expression. An expression I've never seen before and it made me curious to know how it may feel.

"NO! I'm still your little girl and I'll always will be! Me and Isaiah will always be the little kids we are right now." Reassuring my mother, even though I know we'll grow up but still in our hearts we will always be kids.

"Alright Alright, let's start with gardening." I get excited with that statement just like my mother.

Gardening isn't something I enjoyed in the beginning since it involves dirt. I hate being dirty and being in the sun, especially since the weather in the south is always warm, it'd sometimes be too hot to be outside. I preferred reading books at the royal library as the aesthetic fit me so well; if I could, I would not come out of the library and just live in there. But since mother enjoyed gardening so much , I started accompanying mother whenever she went to garden. It was always a fun time gardening with mom as we talked about various topics which I was currently learning about as I'd hand her the plants to put in the ground and she would pat the dirt around the roots.

Today was a little different, as she was teaching me about the different kinds of flowers and their meanings. I found it very intriguing, it as if each flower has their own message and expressing numerous emotions. In that moment, I could truly see the sparkly eyes mother had while explaining the meaning of each flower. I admired the amount of knowledge mother carried with her about flowers.

"Red roses are widely known for love but also it's known for courage, beauty and a freshly blossomed romance. As you know, there are wide variety of roses, each one in different colors and each have different meaning. Yellow roses are known for friendship and joy; Orange roses known for fascination and desire; Pink roses indicating femininity, elegance, admiration and gratitude, and lastly white roses expressing "forever," purity, innocence but also silence and secrecy. There could be a lot of other meaning associated to these roses but these are the main ones."

"I don't like red roses!" For some reason, the red one did not come off to me as beauty or love but something scary such as power, danger and…blood. That scared me.

"Why not-" Mother stopped mid way as we got interrupted by a maid. Something about the maid seemed off.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, Your Majesty. But the carriage is prepared for your trip to the boutique." Informed the maid.

"Oh my, how could I forget…but if I'm not mistaken, wasn't the appointment made for next week?" The confusion was apparent in my mothers voice but we both ignored it as I continued looking at the flowers. Mother turned towards me and asked to call Isaiah so he could get measurements done for his winter clothes. The reason behind that is because we were taking a trip to the Northern empire for my birthday in the winter; the weather here is always warm and I'm more fond of cold weather. To fulfill my wishes, we were going to head to the North but this was also an excuse for mother and father to meet their closest friends, the Northern King and Queen, they also have two kids. The oldest is Prince Haven, a boy with no expression but he's cute and gentle. Their younger daughter, Princess Anastasia, definitely more fun to hangout with than that prince. They've been a close friend of my parent…and close alliances which means there is or will be some sort of engagement happening between me and Prince Haven also between Princess Anastasia and my brother.

"Mother, why don't we both just go and have my measurements done? Won't it take longer if Isaiah comes too and that'll mean we won't have time for the picnic?"

"Ok haha picnic is the priority here, right?" Mother giggled and I smiled along saying "Yes!!"

We both started heading to the carriage and made ourselves comfortable as mother starts asking me about what kind of dresses I want and so on. I proceeded to look outside the carriage as I have always done. I loved looking out and watch everyone go along with their lives, it was as if I was seeing a glimpse of their lives but suddenly I started to notice a change in scenery…it was getting darker and it seemed as if we were getting further and further away from the city and going in the middle of nowhere. My heart starts to beat faster and I look over at my mother. She seems just as shook which didn't help me feel any better but instead she comes next to me and starts comforting me.

"Honey, don't look outside! We'll be fine. It seems the coachman has taken a different route." Mother anxiously comforts me while looking out the window.

"But mother, we're going deeper and deeper into the forest…will everything be alright?"

"Irene…dear everything will be alright! Father will find us, I know it." Though mother was assuring me but I could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

The carriage finally stopped in front of a run down mansion—a mansion that has many rumors connected to which the maids always talked about, gossiping every once in awhile and I'd eavesdrop with Isaiah whenever we got the chance. At this moment, I was missing Isaiah and father so much but mother holding me close to her, comforting me, while we're tided up and taken to this very scary room—filled with spiders and dirt everywhere as if it has not been cleaned in ages.

Many hours went by as we were tortured and deprived of water and food…until finally the person behind this kidnapping showed up. He was someone father had trusted and held such a high position in the empire, Duke Klaus, second to that of the Emperors, my father. At first, me and mother were happy. As mother claimed with relief "You've finally found us! Thank the heavens!" But soon that happy and relieved expression on our faces changed with disgust and fear.

"Oh you are mistaken, your majesty. I'm not here to save you and the princess. Though it's a pity…the princess was never supposed to be kidnapped but the prince was. I'll let it slide; I mean it makes no difference since there were chances of the princess taking over the throne as she is first in line." He comes near me and brings my chin up with his filthy hands and tossing me to the side.

"The Emperor won't be able to find you for a long long time and I'll enjoy this moment to spend some quality time with the beauty of this empire. I'll ask for my forgiveness now." He slyly smiled and called his men to take me to the other room where they continuously beat me up, enough to cause minor injuries while I heard my mom in the other room…screaming and loudly crying. It was the most horrifying moment I have ever experienced—a nightmare I didn't even know existed.

The night came along with chilling silence.

After begging for so long, finally the men appointed by Duke Klaus, let me be next to my mother. The sight that came in my view was heartbreaking…mother was laying there with her beautiful dress ripped and her gorgeous curly hair all messed up. I knew I looked similar to mother at the moment but the image of mother looking like that was far more worse. I could give much less care about myself since mother seemed so miserable.

I approached mother slowly as my own legs were minutes away from giving up. "Mother, Mother…look at me" I pleaded.

She slowly looks over at me, slowly comforting but also bringing up a sharp blade with weak arms, proceeding to cut the ropes on my wrists and ankles. I noticed that mother is bleeding. "Mother, you are bleeding…what should I do?" I asked in a panic, not knowing what to do.

"Honey, stop panicking! I'm fine but listen to me…" She says while faintly smiling at me and cutting the rope tied around my wrists and feet.

"I need you to run away and go inform father about this kidnapping so that Duke could be punished, Ok?"

"Yes…" I cried silently, not wanting to leave mother alone but there was no other option. But before I left, Mother spoke out softly.

"Aww my baby girl, I know you're too young to have witnessed all this and have gone through such a traumatizing experience but just know I'll love you forever and ever! And remind Isaiah that too, he's way too young. Look after your father and brother for me. Lastly, none of this was your fault so never end up blaming yourself…ok?" Tears were sliding down mothers gentle face and I couldn't do anything except for wiping her tears away, I start to get up and leave from the window which was left unattended.

I turn back once again as mother says "Goodbye, my lovely daughter." Again faintly smiling but her face showed an expression filled with agony and love. I didn't understand why mother was saying goodbye since I knew I'll have mother rescued from that scary mansion.