Войти-Three years later-
*Ana*
“I can’t take it anymore.” The maid screams and throws down the brush. Her face almost as red as her hair. She’s still huffing and puffing through her fangs as I reach down to pick it back up.
“But my hair-” I see the wild mess in the mirror. I can’t remember how long since the last maid combed it. And it was bad then.
But now, I can’t even pass my fingers through parts. The long, curly silver hair is starting to lock up. It’s going to hurt even more than usual to untangle it.
But, it needs to get combed.
“I know no one wants to touch it, but it will only be worse if you don’t-”
“I can’t touch it,” The maid goes again, making a face. “It’s gross! Don’t make me touch it!”
“But -” How am I to get the knots out?
“Today was supposed to be the designated day.” I go. “We agreed, didn’t we?” but the maid charges for the door.
“Well, I changed my mind. I’m not doing it..”
“Please-” I try once more. “IF you just do the back-” I can do the rest. But, I don’t get another word in before the maid whips off her apron.
“I quit!” The maid shouts and opens the door just in time to see Aunt Funda standing, ready to knock.
“Your Empress? What is-” Aunt Funda seems almost as stunned seeing the maid as she is her, but the maid quickly comes back.
“Forgive me, Lady Funda.” The maid bows her head. “But I can’t do it.” And she walks past her.
“What?” Aunt Funda blinks after her. “Wait, where are you-” But the maid is gone. She won’t come back.
They never do.
“Empress!” Aunt Funda turns back to me. “You! What have you done now?”
“Nothing,” I hold up the brush. “It-” It’s combing day, but I don’t get the words out before Aunt Funda turns.
“This one didn’t even last till the end of the month.” Aunt Funda holds her head. “Did you have to be so difficult?”
“I-”
But Aunt Funda waves her hand. She doesn’t want to hear it.
“You are not even eight; you are such a pain.” She looks at me before shaking her head.
“It was the last one I could find. There isn’t anyone else.”
“I’m-” I try apologizing again, but Aunt Funda is turning away.
“No one else wants to do it. Not even with how much your uncle pays them.”
“Aunt Funda, I really didn’t mean to.”
“I’ll have to advertise from the outside at this point forward.” She grumbles to herself as she makes for the door. “It’s going to be so expensive.”
“Wait,” My hair; I get up from the chair with the brush. “I need help-” I can’t get the tangles. But I am too late.
She is already gone and down the hall.
“Aunt Funda?”
I don't think she'll be coming back anytime soon.
I am now alone. Again.
“I just wanted my hair combed,” I whisper and sit back down. My hands cradle the brush before it starts. The tears are coming up.
“No,” I shake them away. I don’t want to cry.
Crying will make things worse.
“I will have to try myself then.” Instead, I pick up the brush to start combing what I can. But it’s not long before I feel the first snag.
“Ah,” a tear slips out when I do. But I quickly wipe it away and try again, although I can already see it’s a fool's mission.
There are just too many knots. And my arms are too short. I won’t be able to get all of it.
“But I have to try.” Because it’s better than nothing.
And Anything is better than nothing at this point.
I stop as a strand of hair falls down my lap. I pick it up to look after it. The silver color shines easily in the light.
It’s a beautiful color on its own. And If it were anything else, it would be very pretty. But when it’s hair- my hair, especially, it’s anything but.
It’s just painful.
I let it go as I needed to wipe away another tear. But I’m doing better today. A few missed tears are a great improvement.
And I have something else to look forward to.
“I hope the new maid comes soon.” I go and try for the comb again.
And Maybe she'll even stay this time.
-x-
*?*
“You understand the gravity of this mission, Mrs.-” King Alexander stalled to look at his butler and oldest friend, Johan, for the name.
“Bustlier,” Johan went, not surprised his majesty had already forgotten.
“Yes, Mrs. Bustlier-”
“I prefer Maddie.” The middle-aged woman with greying bangs went. “Mrs. Bustlier was my mother. And she’s long dead, thank god.”
It was meant to be a joke, but it seemed to fly past both men. King Alexander only sat back to regard her.
“Do you understand what your mission is, Agent Maddie?” King Alexander lifted the advertisement.
“I do.”
“We have been waiting for an opportunity like this to arise for the past few years,” Johan added. “There may not be another chance to get inside without raising suspicion.”
“This means you can not fail.” Johan met the woman’s brown eyes as if to measure her out.
“You have to get in.”
“You can trust me, Your Majesty.” Maddie went to bow. “I will not fail you.”
“If they catch you-” King Alexander started, but Maddie lifted her head with the most confident smile.
“Have no fear. Mission reconnect with your estranged daughter will be a success. I will bet my life on it.”
*Mykhol*Ana was…. Illegitimate. The words didn’t echo in the study, but they might as well have. They loomed over him, coating like a heavy smoke, seeping into the very corners of the room, staining the stone walls, slipping between the cracks like the soft rasp between his staggered breath.Mykhol stood at his hearth with one hand braced against the mantle, fingers spread over the cold rock as if it could steady him. Firelight licked along the gold of his rings. Usually, the sight pleased him— a reminder of his position, his power—yet now? The metal only clicked when he shifted. A hollow and flinching murmur. Too small. An involuntary sound that felt too close to shackles than the symbol it should have been. As if even the precious metal could be rendered worthless… given the right push. He tightened his grip.Stone bit back through the pads of his fingers. The chill grounded him for a moment—enough to notice the other things that had become suddenly loud: the faint grit of soo
*Bruno*(Song recommendation for this chapter: Light of the Seven by Ramin Djawadi)Bruno stood alone in the middle of the courtroom, feeling the cold sink into him like a living thing—not merely temperature, but a sentience that seemed to understand exactly what had been stripped from him. The stone beneath his feet absorbed his weight with a ruthless indifference, each vein feeling like a silent witness to his unraveling. His skull was still ringing from the marble's brutal kiss.The sting of drying blood pulling at the corner of his mouth each time he swallowed. And the place his mother had been standing was now an absence so sharp it felt haunted—like a missing limb, like a wound that wouldn't stop reaching for what it had lost.His bangs had slipped back into place, veiling his eyes further, but they didn’t feel like armor anymore. Not after Mykhol easily took even that from him. Exposing him, like a babe ripped from the crib and found wanting.And still, across from him, Mykhol
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*Bruno*The moment crystallized like a crack through glass before the door even finished settling on its hinges.A razor-sharp click of heels against marble. A blur of movement so swift it sliced the air—a whip of velvet, the striking gleam of gold rings against pale skin, a hand already rising as if it had been waiting for permission all night.Cold wind rushed past, carrying the bite of stale ashen fire pits gone to embers, the sputtering torchlight, and Lady Funda's perfume— a thick gagging cluster of overlayered scents that had burned a hole in some corner of his vulnerable memories. It swallowed him.Bruno’s body tried to move- do what it had been systematically trained for. A mechanical response caved into him by fourteen years of relentless abuses. Hands instinctively rising. Head angling down. Shield the face. Brace for impact constructed from learned helplessness.But this time, his mind was a heartbeat too slow.The slap landed with a sound that seemed to crack the very marb
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*Ana*The click of the study door echoes too sharply behind me, like the snap of a thread pulled too tight. The sound reverberates through my bones, settling somewhere cold between my shoulder blades.My hand lingers on the knob longer than necessary, the cold brass pressing into my palm like a rep
*Naska* The blood was rich. Velvety, dark, and warm against her tongue like liquid silk spun from copper and iron. It coated the inside of her mouth with the texture of melted wine—heady, sinful, spreading a flush of heat down her neck that made her skin tingle with satisfaction. Gods, nothing c
*ANASTASIA*I am in the Rose Garden. But not as it is in waking life. Everything is in bloom—violently, obscenely alive. Roses spill open around me in thick, silken layers, their petals so saturated with color they seem to pulse with their own heartbeat. Deep crimsons bleed into bruised purples, w







