章 1: A Powerless Princess
Lorelai looked at her reflection in the large, round vanity mirror and could not help but sigh.
She did not look like a happy bride; she looked like a ghost of a bride, a mere shell of a woman dressed in white.
Her soft skin, her blonde hair, even her bright green eyes seemed to have lost their color and blended in with her perfectly white dress, and she looked as if she was consumed by her attire, leaving absolutely nothing of hers.
Having lived her entire life like a mindless puppet, today was the day she turned into a true porcelain doll only to be broken to pieces by the man she was about to marry.
A powerless princess. An empty frame.
Lorelai was incredibly nervous, but she could not tell exactly why.
Perhaps she was scared to face the old man who was her groom. Whose disgusting face always made her gag while the rotting stench of his fat body made it impossible to even imagine being close to him for more than a few seconds without feeling sick.
Or maybe she was afraid of what would happen even if she did endure the wedding ceremony.
The wedding night.
Just thinking about it sent a cold ripple through her entire body.
She did not even care that she would have to spend the night with the most disgusting man in the whole Erelith Kingdom; she was scared of how that night might end.
But perhaps it still would be better if it would truly end. The things the old pervert might do to weak and pure Lorelai would terrify even those with the strongest of hearts.
She did not even know who that man was, yet she hated the mere thought of him.
There was no helping it. Just like always, all she could do was grit her teeth and endure everything.
Luckily, she did not really have to endure it all that long.
"Your Highness, the carriage is ready."
Marianna, Lorelai's personal aide, peeked into the princess' bedroom, narrowing her gray eyes at the sight of her lady's appearance.
Lorelai nodded without turning around and answered quietly, "Alright. I will be out in a minute."
The woman nodded too and left the room, closing the door behind her. It was not right to let the bride spend so much time alone right before her wedding, but Marianna loved the princess like her own daughter and always cared for her needs above everything else.
She knew all too well what kind of a person Lorelai's groom was. She knew that even the strongest woman would need time to gather the courage to face someone like him.
Lorelai sighed once more and opened the top drawer of her dressing table. Her long, thin, gloved fingers dived inside, retrieving a small glass bottle filled with muddy red liquid that looked almost like blood.
It was a fitting color for something that was supposed to kill her.
The princess' hands trembled and she almost dropped the bottle on the floor while trying to open it, but thankfully, the little wooden cork finally gave in and Lorelai was instantly hit with a poignant smell of something woody and herbal.
Poison.
If the Gypsy woman that had sold it to her was not a fraud, this was her only salvation. With this, the only thing that man would get on his wedding day would be his bride's cold, dead body.
Lorelai's heart raced inside her chest, the trembling in her fingers intensifying. She was truly scared.
But who would not be? Ending one's life at the precious age of twenty-one was not an easy task.
Scared that her shaking hand might spill or drop the poison, the princess took a deep breath to compose herself, then let out a long, heavy exhale, and gulped the ominous red liquid in one go.
The bitter, almost sickening taste made her frown in disgust, but she swallowed it all, shifting her pale eyes back to the mirror to see whether it stained her lips.
It did. Her colorless lips now looked bright red like a blooming rose.
'I will not wipe it off. Perhaps the old pervert will still try to kiss me. Perhaps it will kill him too.'
With a slight, yet somewhat melancholic smile, Lorelai placed the sparkling platinum tiara on top of her blonde head and pulled the front part of the lace veil over her face, sheltering herself from the miserable glare that reflected back at her from the shining surface of the mirror.
Now, it was really time to leave.
As she walked through the halls of the royal palace, accompanied only by her personal aide and the maid assigned to her quarters, the young woman refused to look anywhere but straight ahead. What was the point? Her heart was already too weak for the useless sentiments.
Once she was finally outside, walking solemnly to the luxurious white carriage prepared to take her away, she knew that her stepbrother, the Crown Prince, was looking down at her from the window of his bedroom. She knew that her stepmother, the reigning Queen, too, was standing in the shadows of the expansive bedroom, stretching her thin lips into a smile of utter satisfaction.
But Lorelai did not need any of that. Before she left, if only she could, she would have preferred to erase their faces from her memory altogether.
Standing before the large gilded carriage, Marianna offered her lady a final friendly hug, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
There was no time for hearty goodbyes; she knew that the princess had to leave right away.
Although unwillingly, she opened the door of the carriage and helped Lorelai get in, closing the door the moment her long white dress disappeared into the darkness of its interior.
The coachman shrieked something incomprehensible at the horses, hitting their backs with the whip and the carriage began to move with a sudden jerk.
That movement seemed to have finally brought Lorelai back to her senses.
She was leaving. She was truly leaving. For good.
章 2: A Bizarre Dream
With hot tears running down her face, she turned to her right, not afraid of crumpling her dress, and looked out of the window. The royal palace was rapidly disappearing from her sight; she would never see it again.
It was the place that had been her only home; the place that rightfully belonged to her, even though she never truly belonged there. And strangely, she felt no regret or sorrow.
Once the palace was no longer in her line of vision, Lorelai leaned back against the soft, padded back of the coach seat, closing her heavy eyelids.
The poison was already working; she began to pray that she would be long dead and gone before the carriage reached its destination.
Lost in her prayer and lulled by the rhythmic sound of the horses' hooves dancing against the cobblestone road, the princess did not notice that their entourage had already left the Capital and was moving through the large sunflower field.
Lorelai looked out of the window once again and something unpleasantly heavy filled her body from the inside.
The skies were dark, covered with thick black clouds, and the big and bright heads of the sunflowers were all looking down at the black earth, as if reflecting the princess' own emotional state.
'How ominous... and yet so fitting.'
She wished time would pass quickly so that her boring and useless life would end sooner.
With nothing else to do, Lorelai closed her eyes again and leaned back in her seat, struggling to find a somewhat comfortable position. The corset of her wedding dress was suffocating enough, but it was the growing effect of the poison that made her feel so restless.
She was beginning to feel sleepy while every single muscle in her body was starting to ache.
'I just need to wait a little more. Soon, this all will no longer be felt.'
Suddenly, Lorelai flinched as she heard the loud sound of a horse's neigh, followed by a blunt thud of something heavy hitting the road.
The same sequence of noises seemed to repeat itself several times before the princess finally understood what was happening.
They were being ambushed.
'Bandits?'
She tried to move and look out of the window again but her body was already too heavy and even the slightest movement made her shiver from pain.
Her mind was cloudy and distorted; the noises outside the coach all mixed together and seemed to be distant and faint, but she knew that the knights assigned to escort her were fighting.
Lorelai felt lucky. Even if they were ambushed by bandits, it did not matter anymore. She was dying; she was almost gone.
A somewhat sly smile tugged at the corners of her pale lips as she thought about the man she was to marry. How unfortunate for him. How deserving.
Her body was giving up.
Feeling incredibly heavy, cold, and sleepy, Lorelai closed her but opened them again right away as someone's large, incredibly warm hand reached out to her through the open door of the carriage, gently grabbing her by her tiny waist.
"Lorelai?"
She did not recognize that voice, but it continued to repeat her name.
"Lorelai? What is wrong with you? Open your eyes!"
'A man?'
The unfamiliar low voice definitely belonged to a man. Someone strong but unbelievably warm. His large arms held her close to his body, his hot fingers brushing over the cold skin of her cheek.
Struggling, the princess tried to lift her heavy eyelids again, but her vision was too blurry to see what was happening.
The only thing she could discern was a pair of bright amber eyes that reminded her of burning coals.
"Lorelai, please, open your eyes!"
Lorelai's heart contracted with pain––the man was almost crying, pressing her cold, lifeless body against his broad chest.
His trembling voice continued to call out her name, urging her to open her eyes.
"... open your eyes... Your Highness? Wake up!"
Lorelai blinked several times, allowing her eyes to adjust to the light.
Marianna, her personal aide, was leaning over her bed, her wide gray eyes rounded with worry. "Your Highness? Are you sick? You have slept through breakfast and Her Majesty the Queen sent me here to check up on you. We were all worried you had fallen ill!"
Lorelai moved on her sheets, assuming a sitting position. She still could not truly understand whether what was happening to her right now was a dream or reality.
She offered Marianna a rather empty look, then shook her head, and wiped her eyes.
"No, I am not sick. I just... had a bizarre dream."
"A dream?" Marianna flapped her black lashes in bewilderment and Lorelai shook her head again, dismissing her concern completely.
"It's not important. I did not mean to cause you trouble by sleeping so much, I am sorry. Have the maids prepare my bath and a dress, I will head straight to my study after I am ready."
"Very well, Your Highness."
The woman bowed and went back to the drawing room, urging the maids to start the preparations.
Once Marianna was gone, Lorelai closed her eyes again, leaning back against the headboard of her bed.
That was indeed a strange dream. It was so vivid and clear that she could still feel the ache in her muscles and most importantly... See that bright, burning amber glow of the eyes she had never seen before.
'Who was that man? Why did he know my name? And why was he crying?'
"Your Highness, the bath is ready." One of the maids notified Lorelai, jolting her back to reality once again.
The princess nodded and shifted in her bed, carefully placing her feet in the soft silk slippers strategically placed next to her bed the night before.
Two maids immediately rushed to her side, ready to offer her their assistance, but Lorelai shook her head, denying their help, and reached her right hand for a long, elegant wooden cane next to the nightstand.
"I will walk on my own."
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