A sword that should’ve been long destroyed, held by a woman who should’ve been long dead.
The princess left with her host of Knights. The rest of the castle guard walked through the crowd, encouraging people to disperse.
She turned on her heel and pulled up the hood of the tunic she was wearing. It kept the heat of the afternoon sun off her brow, and it kept her from making eye contact with anyone. Vi stayed with the masses until they mostly disappeared and she was alone once more in an all-too-quiet street.
A door caught her eye. It was unassuming, wooden, nearly identical to most others. But this one she remembered. Vi walked over slowly, running her hand along the wood. For some reason, this door stuck in her mind, vivid with the ghost of a white X that had been painted on it when she’d last been in Norin.
“No White Death,” she whispered.
“Excuse me, can I help you?” Vi jumped, looking over her shoulder at a young woman who stood behind her. She couldn’t be older than fifteen and carried a mostly empty basket—save for two tiny jars of what Vi recognized as spices and a hunk of dry fish meat. The young woman’s eyes widened. “P-princess?”
“No, I’m—” Vi didn’t get a chance to finish before the woman was on the ground, head bowed.
“Princess, you grace our humble doorstep. May I invite you in? What service can we give you?”
“I’m not the princess.” Vi knelt down, pulling back her hood. Fiera’s hair ran down her shoulder blades, where Vi’s stopped just past her shoulders. The hair alone wasn’t enough, as the woman studied Vi’s face. It took longer than Vi would’ve expected for her to finally admit that she wasn’t the princess. But then again, a commoner like her likely had only ever seen Fiera from a distance.
“But… you look just like her.”
“I know, many have told me.” Vi reached out, grabbed the woman’s basket, and returned it to her. Every moment felt as though she was underwater, moving against the current.
I’m not the princess. She wasn’t the princess this woman was thinking of. She wasn’t Fiera. But she also wasn’t a princess at all… not anymore.
The crown princess, Vi Solaris, was gone.
“What do you need, then?” The young woman took the basket, clutching it protectively, as though Vi had been trying to steal it rather than return it.
“I’m a bit lost.” That was the best way to put it, though it was a drastic understatement.
“Lost? What area of town are you from?”
Vi’s mind retrieved a map of Norin easily from the depths of her cartographic knowledge. She could pick anywhere and make it believable. But she wasn’t from anywhere here, and picking somewhere at random wouldn’t help her. She needed a quiet place to get her thoughts in order, not an easy way out of this encounter.
“I don’t remember,” Vi lied, rubbing her head for emphasis. She stood. “I woke up in a stable. And I don’t remember anything before then.” It was easy to inject the words with the slightest bit of panic and terror. She had more than enough of each to go around. “I don’t know where to go and I don’t know how to find out.”
The young woman shifted, tucking a section of bangs behind her ear. “We don’t have anything to give you.”
“May I just sit on your doorstep, then?” Vi asked. “Your second floor juts out slightly and gives some shade from the afternoon sun.”
“Fine.” The young woman pushed past her. “Just don’t think of trying to come in.” She slammed the door shut behind her, and Vi was alone.
She crouched down and sat on the stoop. Her hands worried the watch at her neck as her brain tried to organize her thoughts.
An hour must’ve passed, for guards began to sweep through the city, telling the few stragglers on the streets that the curfew had come into effect and it was time to go inside. Just as Vi was about to use her Lightspinning to make herself invisible, a guard started her way and she cursed her luck. She couldn’t blink out of existence now.
“You, it’s time to go inside,” the man commanded gruffly. Vi was focused on the red strip of fabric that circled his bicep. The symbol of the Knights of Jadar instantly unnerved her. But at this point in history, the group had yet to splinter and turn on her family. “Did you hear me? Go inside.”
“I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“Get inside,” the man repeated, pointing to the door.
“This isn’t my home.”
“Then go back to your home.”
A bitter, raspy laugh escaped her lips. “If only. I don’t have a home.”
“Please, I don’t want any trouble.” The man sighed and glanced over at his fellow soldiers. They had already moved on. “If you truly don’t have a home, there are shelters not far from the castle. I don’t care where you end up. But I can’t leave you out here. Anyone who’s not a soldier or a Knight must be indoors, royal orders.”
