“I’ll be back soon.”
Greyhollow was already awake.
Carts rattled, merchants shouted, and the scent of baked bread and smoke mixed in the air. Esther wrapped her cloak tighter around herself and bought fresh rolls, small wheels of cheese, and whatever vegetables she could afford from the orphanage’s meager fund—supported mainly through Lyssara and other kind souls—not those wealthy enough to make change.
A farmer gave her a discount simply because she smiled—an action she had taken for granted just days before.
Esther pulled her hood low and walked.
She carefully spent the orphanage's coins, making sure to stretch it as far as possible to feed the children. Bread still warm from the oven. The cheese was cut unevenly because the seller’s hands shook. Vegetables bruised but usable, sold cheaply by a woman who smiled like she hadn’t done so in days.
“You’ve got kind eyes,” the woman said, pressing an extra carrot into Esther’s basket. “Your mother had eyes like that.”
Esther’s breath caught.
“Thank you,” she managed.
She moved on quickly after that, heart pounding too hard in her chest. Everywhere she looked, the strain showed itself in small, unignorable ways.
A man with a bandaged shoulder trying—and failing—to lift a sack of grain on his own. A mother carefully breaking a loaf into pieces so small that Esther wondered how they could possibly be enough. An elderly craftsman staring at a half-rebuilt stall, fingers hovering uselessly over tools he could no longer afford to replace.
some recognized her.
That was worse than she expected.
This was Valedara. Her kingdom. Her responsibility. And yet she walked among them unnoticed—another cloaked woman with a basket and too much concern in her eyes.
This is what Mother saw, she thought—every day.
The realization settled heavy and cold in her stomach.
Esther slowed near the edge of the square, resting her basket against a low stone wall. She pressed her palm flat against the cool surface and breathed.
You can stay,a treacherous voice whispered.Just a little longer. You’re helping. You’re here.
Another, quieter yet sharper voice answered back.
You’re hiding.
She closed her eyes.
Love pulled at her relentlessly, warm and persuasive. Duty pulled differently—not louder, not kinder, but with the weight of inevitability. The knowledge that if she turned away now, she would never stop turning.
She straightened.
I need to be better,she thought.
I need to fight for them.
I need to—
“Esther!”
A blur of blond curls slammed into her, knocking the breath from her lungs.
“Lucy?” Esther squeaked, arms full of an aggressively hugging maid. Her ribs were one attack-hug away from collapsing.
Lucy pulled back just long enough to grab Esther’s face between her hands. “Oh my stars, I’ve finally found you! Do you have any idea how hard it is to track a missing princess who is actively avoiding being found?”
