Chapter 1

I don’t remember very much about the life that I once lived before I meet the man that I fell in love with. I have fragments of memory like it was told to me by a wondering future teller that I was to meet the love of my life that night only if I went to the Le Glow Club but I’d only meet him if I went there as I went home that day. I found it hard to believe as I had always been overlooked my men in the past so I really didn’t think much of it but straighten up my bag and started to head towards the tube sky station somehow I still found my way to the Le Glow Club so I thought to myself I guess I’ve got nothing to lose except for a good telling off once I finally got home.

However my father always told me that a girls only job was to marry a man nothing more. Although not that he was really home for me from the little that I could remember of his was that my father was hardly every home. So I doubt I ever knew what he did for a job.

I only had the faintest memories of my mother but that’s all they were now I didn’t even remember what she even looked like or sounded like.

What I do remember was opening my eyes like I had been asleep to find people standing over me some where smiling, their some of their faces were covered. I awoke as the last group began to cry I tried to sit up a middle aged women spoke softly, “Lay still my lady you’ve been asleep for along time and so has your beloved Prince Costa will be awake again soon.”

“Who?” I asked.

“I’m not surprised that you can’t remember much from your life before you were put into your cryostasis on and off over 600 years my lady but I’m sure that it will all start to comeback with time,” the elderly woman spoke again.

I began to try and sit up more slowly this time although that didn’t workout for me so well either.

"Easy now," the elderly woman cautioned, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Your muscles haven't been properly used in centuries."

I blinked rapidly, trying to process what she'd said. Six hundred years? Cryostasis? Prince Costa? None of it made sense, yet something about the name stirred a distant feeling within me.

"Where am I?" I managed to ask, my voice raspy from disuse.

The room around me was pristine white with curved walls that seemed to glow from within. Strange devices hovered nearby, emitting soft beeps and occasional flashes of blue light. The people attending me wore fitted garments that shimmered slightly as they moved.

"You're in the Royal Restoration Chamber of New Avalon," another voice said—a tall man with silver streaks in his dark hair. "I'm Dr. Thorne, Chief Restoration Specialist. We've been maintaining your stasis pod for generations, waiting for the right time to awaken you."

"But why? Why was I..." I struggled to find the words.

"Preserved?" Dr. Thorne finished for me. "The Great Collapse was imminent. You and Prince Costa were among the selected few meant to rebuild civilization once the world recovered. Your genetic profiles were exceptional, and your bond was deemed strong enough to withstand the temporal displacement."

My head throbbed. Bond? Prince? Nothing made sense. I closed my eyes, trying to grasp at the fragments floating in my mind. The Le Glow Club. A face in the darkness. A hand reaching for mine.

"I remember music," I whispered. "And someone's eyes. Green, like forest shadows."

The elderly woman smiled knowingly. "That would be Costa. His eyes were famous throughout the old kingdoms."

A younger attendant approached with a small device that pulsed with gentle light. "My lady, this will help ease your transition. May I?"

I nodded weakly, and she pressed it against my temple. Warmth spread through my mind, and suddenly images began to flow more clearly—not memories exactly, but something adjacent to them.

Than a flash of some memories for my Father and Mother but they weren’t royalty but maybe be upper middle class or lower upper class?

The confusion must have shown on my face because Dr. Thorne stepped closer, his expression growing serious. "What are you remembering?"

"My parents," I said slowly. "They weren't... they weren't royal. My father worked somewhere, left early, came home late. My mother made breakfast in a small kitchen with yellow curtains." The images felt more real than anything these people were telling me. "We lived in a flat near the transport lines."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room. I caught several of the attendants exchanging glances with Dr. Thorne.

"Memory displacement is common after extended stasis," the elderly woman said quickly, but her voice had lost its earlier warmth. "Your mind is simply confused, mixing fragments of dreams with reality."

But I could see it now—clearer than before. The cramped living space. My mother's tired smile as she packed my lunch. The way my father barely looked up from his news tablet at breakfast. These weren't the memories of a princess.

"Show me a mirror," I said, surprising myself with the firmness in my voice.

"My lady, perhaps you should rest—"

"Show me a mirror." I tried to sit up again, ignoring the weakness in my limbs. "Now."

Dr. Thorne hesitated, then nodded to one of the attendants. A reflective surface materialized in the air before me, and I found myself staring at a face I recognized—but not from any royal portrait.

It was the face of a working-class girl who had snuck out to a nightclub against her better judgment. The face of someone who had been overlooked, invisible, ordinary.

"Who is Prince Costa?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "And why do you really need us?"