᯽⊱❈═ E T H E L ═❈⊰᯽
A humming, that’s what I could hear in the background almost distant, one that belonged to a sweet and cozy voice, one that was nostalgic to him.
The voice of your mother.
"Um..." the platinum end up grunting as she scratches her eyes "mom..., what are you doing here?" He couldn’t help but ask, but then he noticed; his hands were now small again, and his voice thin as when he was a child.
Child? A... child?
"What do you mean what am I doing here, silly?" His mother did not avoid laughing when answering, thus bringing one of his hands to his mouth "I came to stay with my little daughter, what else would I be doing here?" soon further messed up the hairs that were now short of Ethel.
Now his purple eyes were confused, he was lost, he was wondering a thousand and one things inside his now small, pale head.
Had she died? And if not, why did she come back? How did she come back? Who made her come back? With what method did she come back? Would that have any side effects? What effect would it have if it had one? It was the doubts running through their thoughts frantically.
"Hello..., do you hear me?" his mother poked his forehead with one of his fingers "or better..., do you want to sleep again? She doesn’t seem completely rested..." the tone came out worried and the look accompanied him in an almost orchestrated way.
"I’m fine..." the little platinum girl soon replied "but..., Mom...how old am I?" soon raised the large eyes of amethyst, thus turning the delicate face to the side lightly, with doubt.
"Have you forgotten, dear? You’re five years old, look."
She raised all the fingers of one hand and counted them with that gentle smile, the one she missed so much, the one who has made her cry several times on sleepless nights.
"Five... thank you, Mama."
Just like that, the little platinum rose up and went towards the door.
I wanted to know, I wanted to look.
"Honey, where are you going? We didn’t even finish the book!"
"I need answers, calm down!"
"Does she need...answers?..." her mother thought, and with that ended up giving a slight laugh when she noticed what she had just heard.
What would a child of that size want to know? If he had sweets that afternoon? If his favorite dress had just been washed? Well, she didn’t need to know, and she was happy that her daughter had so much energy and enthusiasm.
"Miss, you shouldn’t co-..."
One of the servants stopped her, but she soon looked at him with that determined face, which did not allow the butler to finish his speech.
"What day is it?"
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
"What day is it today?"
The butler had confusion in his clear eyes, but even so, gave a slight smile to the child in front of him, thus leaning towards him.
"Today is the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, miss."
"Oh..., so the autumn festival is near?"
"Yes, miss. Do you like this festival?"
She could not say that she hated it, but she could not say that she loved him completely, since it was a little after that festival that her parents died, when she was only seven years old.
That was two years away.
"I think so...thank you."
The child gave a smile and soon left then wanted something, something that gave a direction to her, why something like this had happened, who had planned such a thing.
No one ever told her how they were killed.
"Maybe..., uh, letters?"
His mind went to something simple. Threats could be sent in letters, usually executions had some notice, or at least... in some cases.
This led her to her father’s office, it was the most likely place to have something like this, and also the place and person most likely to have something like this delivered, but she would have to count on the chance of him being away on business.
"Dad...?"
He knocked a few times and had no answer, not even a simple grumble.
Maybe... now luck was smiling at her?
"Some kind of envelope...?"
He snooped around those on the open table, but it was useless. Much of it was about negotiations, matters of territory, invitations from uninteresting nobles..., how your father had the patience to read all that?
"Maybe..., in the drawers?" appeared simply in his mouth.
Which made her open a few drawers and look to see if she still had any close-up or just suspiciously hidden mail.
Nada.
"Do you even have a suspect? Anything at the time?" kept trying to look in his memory box.
However, nothing and no one stood out, besides his parents were more in the discreet category of nobles, without rumors, without misinterpretations, without intrigues.
However, there was that festival, the one that was close to the death of his parents.
"I should go..., but I never liked to go..."
A long sigh came out of her lungs as she withdrew from that room, she was exhausted just remembering those rehearsed smiles, rules, fancy decorations.
Expendable.
Trivial.
"No, that might have some impact" tried to remember, it would be worth it, it was their life.
You should get used to it.
"Miss? What were you doing in there?"
The butler found her again, but the answer came as quickly as a neck-cut on the guillotine.
"Dad is not here..."
"Oh..., I’m sorry, miss, he left for work early."
He shook his head in negative and staged a sad expression of disappointment.
And the butler believed, as did a spectator immersed in a play.
"He..., he’ll be back soon, okay? He can never stay that long away from you, miss."
"Ethel."
"How?"
"Ethel, not miss" ended up saying with a certain sulking air and a beak on her delicate face.
He remembered that butler, he’d made a scene when his parents were killed.
He carried anger as he screamed at his grandmother when he threw all that, all the events in her face and then when those clear eyes met her purple.
Melancholy.
"But, miss, I..."
"Ethel, E-THE-EL, E-T-H-E-L, ETHEEEEEEEL!"
The butler briefly tried to contain his laugh, but soon failed miserably, thus crouching to stay at the girl’s height.
"Right, Miss Ethel" the purple-eyed smiled in response, and the light-eyed did the same, then "call me when you need, now I need to get back to work" got up and went towards the kitchen, and the child just nodded with a wide arch, one that would reach your eyes.
"I hope he doesn’t leave this time..." did not avoid thinking with some distress.
But he wouldn’t, because the main event that caused him to leave would not exist.
She would avoid him.
"Think, think..." began to try to use a little of his reasoning, but was soon interrupted by a smell, a sweet and caramelized.
Doce.
That’s what I needed.
"I want it!"
He entered the kitchen and everyone was amazed at how abrupt the platinum had entered.
Had she really done that? Was she that hungry?
"Miss..., you can’t go in the kitchen like that..."
One of the cooks ended up saying quietly, so trying to be careful with her words.
But she was longing, longing to eat something delicious and full of sugar.
"I need... sweet..."
She spoke in a sly way and the cook who ended up feeling sorry, ended up giving her a piece of what she was doing.
"This stays between us, okay? You can’t have candy before food, young lady."
He shook his head in positive while savoring, which made the cook smile with satisfaction, thinking that maybe..., once did not do so bad.
•♱•♱• •♱•♱•
᯽⊱❈═ A U D R A ═❈⊰᯽Eyes as dark as the night that now surrounded him, black hair and a pale skin that was the complete opposite of what normally belonged to him.A disguise.A crude one.Well, but it wasn't as if the dragon needed more, not as if anyone would notice it was him, not with that little intellect that all those guards seemed to possess."Did you hear? They said she went crazy and killed the archduke's favorite mistress" one of the guards approached the one next to him "the cause was strangulation, and then a deep cut to the throat…" the man's gaze dropped, as if they were now feeling sorry for the poor soul they had never even met."Yes, everyone was talking about how the body was found, it was something horrible to see" the other added "she really must have succumbed to madness as they said, but it's not surprising" he leaned forward a little more, thus putting his hand in front of his mouth, like a true gossip woman of high society "it was common knowledge that she didn
᯽⊱❈═ K Y R E E ═❈⊰᯽Guilt.Guilt.Guilt.Guilt.Blame.Blame.Blame.His blame.Only his, no one else's, yours, and there would be no taking the weight off of him, the one that was crushing her bones with each passing day.She was dead, she was dead inside a body that still kept walking, the bright eyes, those purple ones that you admired so much from afar, that you loved so much and selfishly wanted to keep for yourself.They were dull.Dull.Imbecile!It was going on in his head, next to his fingers that were practically pulling the blond strands that he was so attached to before, that he was so proud of before.What good was it? What good did it all do?A descendant of the heavens? The title he had inherited from the Archduke? All the power and beauty that anyone could ever wish to have?What was the use?What was the problem?What was wrong with him?Everything."I ended her life." his eyes allowed the tears to well up, so that they came out in a shaky, choked tone "everything tha
᯽⊱❈═ A U D R A ═❈⊰᯽He would take that cold body in his arms, the one that was now lifeless and unresponsive, the one that now had a blade stuck in it with blood flowing as profusely as it did in a waterfall.He would bring her back.He stood up with her on his lap, and walked to the outside of the cell, where Kyree was staring at him with those deep eyes."Why are you still here?" the dragon asked in a cold, cutting way, with an arched lip that matched his "I thought you didn't care" he turned his now silver eyes to Ethel, eyes that now carried melancholy and regret."I had to be sure you wouldn't make a joke when you left," he said as he fixed his sapphire gaze on the corpse, "did you kill her?" he seemed to try to keep his tone unchanged, but clearly failed when he sounded embarrassed and frightened."Why do you care?" the silver eyes stared at him "do you want to pretend that she matters now?" he spoke trying to contain the scream he wanted to give, the anger he wanted to throw at
᯽⊱❈═ E T H E L ═❈⊰᯽At the festival, this was where she was, this place she found herself, in this call full of noise, people, and colors too vivid for her eyes to keep up with.'I don't know where to look…' she thought as she closed her eyes briefly, trying to make them not hurt, trying to get a direction of where she was, where she was taken."Ready...whoa...? - She looked around, looked everywhere possible but couldn't find it.No sign of those brown hairs that looked like honey when the sun was shining; no sign of those platinum hairs like hers.She was lost."We didn't even get to the festival properly." she realized while searching, while trying to see hair as white as the petals of a lily "how can I lose such white hair?" she asked herself, a question that was recurrent even in her early life, since it didn't enter her head how she could not find her father, not with such an extravagant color on his head."Miss...?" a child with black skin, burgundy hair and silver eyes asked a
᯽⊱❈═ A U D R A ═❈⊰᯽He had seen her again, had met those violet eyes he had seen lifeless, had seen that white hair without being stained with a viscous, icy crimson.He just saw her, being a child and simply... living."This... makes me happy," his forearm covered his eyes, eyes that could no longer stand the light coming into them, "I hope you're not an idiot like the first time," he smiled at the thought, wondering if she could ever reach that level again, if she would ever fall in love with that unhappy celestial.No, she couldn't.He hoped something would confirm that she was smarter than he expected."She has her memories, there's no way…" the silver-eyed man found himself answering his own questioning "only if he really thought he could change something, and this... clearly isn't the case" his voice was getting lower, worried "there's no way to change something like that, he's an imbecile of a Maverick" his teeth clenched, clenched, clen
᯽⊱❈═ E T H E L ═❈⊰᯽· · • • • One month later • • • · ·Papers, papers and more papers. That's what she had in her hands at that moment, the ones she had picked up while her father was not in his office."Let's see, who could it be?"She concentrated while reading in the middle of that garden full of flowers, the fragrance was spreading everywhere because of the wind that now messed up her hair and made it difficult to read."For the… I nee-...A leaf ended up flying through the air and a slight panic filled her. She couldn't lose that leaf, she shouldn't even have that leaf to begin with.But in the midst of this, red hair was seen next to a black garment that accompanied the hand that took the document. It was the boy who had helped her at the festival."...What are you doing here?" he seemed to really question as he looked into those silver eyes."Your father sa
᯽⊱❈═ A U D R A ═❈⊰᯽He kept looking at his options, what would be the culprits?Obviously, if they took out the damn archduke and the damn curse that went with it, maybe even that wouldn't be necessary in a way, maybe a culprit wouldn't even show up before that thing they called Kyree sprouted and fell in love with her...but it was good not to remedy, he didn't want to make any mistakes this time."Suspects..., suspects..., suspects…" he started mumbling to himself.Nobles? But what nobles? That family was barely involved in anything, you barely heard Verena's name in the gossip wheels, they were practically erased in this matter, and only stand out in a way by their title..., so something from within would be more likely?"On her mother's part? No, what would be the motive? It's a distant place and they're a family of priests, plus the place goes well...from her father? Who is left? That old woman with the sour face?"He took the artifact and ac
᯽⊱❈═ A U D R A ═❈⊰᯽More days went by, and with them, more meetings between Ethel and Audra.Be it in the garden where the platinum one used to stay, or sometimes a certain being with dragon wings landing on the balcony of her room.And these encounters were something the little dragon treasured in his chest, even if he never dared to say it out loud."You should stop coming to my balcony, they might get the wrong idea," the girl said with some concern."So what? If they get it wrong, that's less bad suitors for you," the burgundy-haired one said as if it were too obvious, "no loss.""You mean none, don't you?" She leaned her elbows on the railing, and sulked as she looked up at the reddish sky, which made the color of her eyes even more vibrant."Whatever, you don't have to think about it now," the little dragon lay down on the ledge and began to twirl a violet between his fingers, "and even when the time comes to think about it, I won't let any