Chapter 1: Waking up

Warmth…that was what Alice felt wash over her in this moment as the light burnt her eyes. Opening her eyes she was surprised to be greeted by a weary woman with jade hair and a haggard expression. Then she froze hearing the woman's next words.

"My baby girl…I think I'll call you Julia because it sounds like jewels, You have such radiant eyes." The woman struggled to lift Alice who she had now realised was now in the body of a baby. Kissing her cheek filled Alice with a soft comfort that she never knew in her previous life.

At that moment the woman she supposed was her mother and had begun to cough. A nearby nurse took Alice…no, Julia from her mother and seemed to have a pained expression.

"Madam, are you alright?" The nurse asked with tension in her voice as Alice did her best to turn and look at her mother who she was mortified to see stained and covered in blood. Her body was so frail that she felt disgusted that her mother was made to give birth in such a state. Yet all that came out rather than curses was pained wails.

"I'll be fine, Anna. Just going to rest…" With that the woman closed her eyes and seemed to fall asleep. All to still.

"Madam?" The wet nurse Anna approached the Madam cradling Julia in one hand and putting another near the woman's face. Her face paled as it seemed that the woman had stopped breathing. "Someone get the doctor! Lady Elizabeth is not breathing!"

What greeted Alice next was something she never saw before. Anna placed a palm on Elizabeth's chest as concerns and scurrying of panic could be heard behind the door. A vibrant green energy seemed to shine from Anna's palm in Elizabeth giving the woman a moment where it seemed she was breathing.

"You must stay alive, Lady Elizabeth." Holding Julia in one hand and another on Elizabeth it seemed she was desperately trying to revive her.

Mere moments stretched to days as Julia cried in Anna's arms. Never knowing a mother in her first life and in her second she simply only met her for a moment before she had begun to die.

Eventually a doctor with brown hair and an aged expression seemed to enter and was desperately now using what she recognized as chest compressions to revive the Lady but what surprised her was the occasional crackles of lighting that seemed to jolt her. Yet every moment she seemed to be revived was accompanied by immediate stillness as if the body was already lost.

This painstakingly lasted nearly three hours as the doctor and Anna stood trying to revive Lady Elizabeth. Julia had been taken into the arms of another maid as the two did their best. Eventually both collapsed to the ground at the side of the bed exhausted as Anna began to sob.

"She's gone." Was all that escaped her lips as she passed out against the bed. The doctor hanging on barely went grim as he confirmed it with a check of the pulse that was still.

Julia simply cried and wailed desperately wanting her mother but already aware she was gone. The sobbing she rang out eventually exhausted her newborn body and she fell asleep in the arms of the maid as a man in elegant clothing and jet black hair marched in barking orders around. The person she assumed to be her father…yet all she could do was curse than man as she drifted off asleep for not being by her mother's side in her last moments.

Time passed by and soon two years passed by as Alice gained her bearings. Growing accustomed to being called Julia and being in the body of a newborn baby was a struggle but through grit and determination she persisted and could walk on her own as well as form small words. The very first words she spoke were 'Anna' the name of the wet nurse that became her nanny this entire time.

Anna was an older lady around fifty or so and was older than even Alice in her previous life before she died. The woman seemed so young in expressions and liveliness at times but Julia could tell the woman would look at her with a tired regret most likely guilt of not saving her mother. She had dark brown hair tied neatly into a bun and was surprisingly strong for her smaller frame.

It took Julia maybe a couple days before she even faced a mirror to see her new face and frankly she was mesmerised and hateful of her look.

Soft jade hair like vines and red eyes that shimmered like rubies which her mother named her by. Skin soft and fair unlike her tanned skin from before with a delicate feel of silk that her rugged hands would never have had. What made her hate her look was the fact she reminded herself of her mentor with the jade like hair being a slightly lighter shade of his. Ruth was a cutthroat mentor and a madman on the best of days that she felt only the slightest sorrow for killing after training for nearly a decade under his tutelage. Yet now in this new body that vine-like hair almost mocked her as if calling back to her past.

Pushing the thoughts down she decided to distract herself by playing with the ball that Anna had gotten her. Deciding she needed to grow up well she would practise walking and trying to run by rolling the ball and chasing after it a game that easily amused her childish mind to no end.

Anna sat on the ground by her as she ran and chased the ball on the soft rug with a cheerful laugh. "My dear lady, you need to be careful." With a quick grasp she caught Julia before she tripped on the rug and landed face first on the floor.

"I safe." Julia mumbled out still tripping on her own tongue as she spoke. Opting to keep words short and simple. She stood up and tried to seem capable but as a two year old baby that nearly face planted it was quite difficult.

With that they spent a little longer playing with the ball and Anna minding Julia's innate clumsiness as she was after all an adult in a baby's body. Weirdly enough the weird lights and lightning she saw that day she was born were never seen again. Not by Anna or anyone else around her. Occasionally as she would be carried around the manor that seemed to be made exclusively for her considering it was filled with only her and the servants they would all glance and murmur pity for her. A term often she might catch them saying a little too loud being "soulless" which confused her as she clearly had a soul.

Yet on one fateful day of playing and enjoying snacks with Anna a sudden sound of heavy boots came marching through the halls to her room. It left a trembling feeling that she knew all too well of bloodlust as she scurried off to Anna's arms and was picked up. Anna stood up and looked to the door as if she was expecting the sound. Then came bursting through the doors pushing the heavy oaken doors like leaves was a man in black and gold trimmed clothing and an air of elegance and menace. What truly surprised Julia was the man's look as she remembered a quote from a book she read…

'With hair short and sleek as it is dark like a raven's feathers, his eyes a dark crimson stained by the blood he spilt and a ghostly white complexion. He is known among the kingdom as the harbinger of Death and the Warlord of the Aesteria borders…Duke Gallain Sorrel.' As this thought his Julia she paled seeing the crest emblazoned on his clothing an all too familiar one from the book she loved in her past life, 'Rose in the Field' a romance novel between a commoner and prince. This meant she was not just 'Julia' but 'Julia Sorrel' the villain that was left to die in the Ebony Forests north of the kingdom left to be slaughtered by the beasts within.

His voice vibrated through the room like a thundering echo as Julia buried herself into Anna's grasp as she bowed to the Duke. "Bring her to me."

The proud and energetic woman that was Anna now seemed fearful and protective as if fearing of handing off Julia. But eventually she gave the little girl a kiss on the head and brought her to the man that was meant to be her father. "Of course Duke Sorrel."

Handing her off to the Duke the man held her in his arms as if she was but prey to cull. Eventually he scoffed and handed her back. "She died for a soulless. What a waste…keep her within the manor at all times. Never permit her to leave the estate grounds even when she is older. That is all."

With that he stormed out a crashing thunder like man with such cold words it was clear he blamed Julia for the death of her mother. To be honest Julia blamed herself as well…