Finley Cai Aies Hall March 30th, 20XX

It took me a moment to pin down and identify what I felt at the moment, but once the word entered my mind it was hard to push away.

Irritation.

It wasn’t an emotion I was unfamiliar with, but it had been so long since it had swept through my mind and clouded my vision.

The feeling had budded earlier when Sparrow and her crew of vultures had trussed me up like a doll and forced me to walk around the school like a circus act.

It had leafed when I’d gone to work and had to listen to will laugh at me as he transformed me into another type of doll.

I’d had a tough time keeping my emotions in check, but had overall had an effective day at the office. Will had brought Nikolas in to meet me and we’d gone over what exactly he would do in the company.

He’d been cold and aside from searching my face once or twice to figure out what I looked like behind the mask, hadn’t looked at me at all.

Will had tried his best to make up for the guy’s lack of social skills, but I wondered if he would be okay as the head of a company.

Work had been fine, but the burn of irritation had bloomed when I’d gone to the ‘other world’ and had been brought in for my first ‘lesson’

“Now raise your left arm and sweep across your body with the right. Don’t! Lower your heel.”

I wasn’t a dancer, nor did I ever plan to be. But I’d already made up my mind to try my best in learning everything I needed to.

The lesson brought back some unpleasant memories that put me into a worse mood than I’d started with, but I wouldn’t take it out on the bossy green fairy.

I arched my back as much as I could and forced my unfit body into the position she’d directed me into. The heavy sphere she’d placed into my arms weighed me down and made it harder than it needed to be, but she hadn’t let me put it down for hours now.

A sharp stinging sensation burst from the back of my calf and I immediately fell out of whatever position Esmeralda had cached me into. It didn’t hurt, but it was humiliating and annoying.

“Esmeralda!”

“Cambridge!”

Esmeralda’s response took aback the smaller fairy, but before she could do anything about it, Esmeralda quickly jumped to explain herself.

“Time is short as it is Cambridge. I have to be a bit tougher on his highness, but this-”

She flailed the layered fan around.

“Is just a disciplining tool used for children. It makes more noise than it brings pain. After this, he still needs to learn how to play an instrument! How to properly set a room! He still needs more of a geography lesson as well! And- ”

Cambridge listened to her at first, but midway through the green fairy’s growing monologue she grabbed the layered fan out of Esmeralda’s hand and weighed it in her palm.

She tossed it up and down a few times before tightening her grip around it, reeling her arm back and slamming it down at Esmeralda’s face.

I saw the golden particles swirl around her arm and the device before she moved it. But using the knowledge I’d gathered in the few days I’d grown able to see the particles, she hadn’t used enough to create the effect that she did.

The green fairy just barely dodged, but the small but deep cut on her face was enough of a testament to how bad of a blow she had avoided.

“A discipline tool for children, you say?”

The expression on Esmerelda’s face was more satisfying than words could express, but I had to admit that Cambridge wasn’t being fair. No matter how hard Esmeralda had used that paper-like material on me, she couldn’t have drawn blood.

But then again, that made me wonder about exactly who Cambridge was.

“The child can’t even fly yet, Esmeralda. What’s another few years in training a royal?”

Esmerelda’s wings tensed and shot out straight behind her as Cambridge lectured her, but she said nothing and quietly took back the disciplinary tool.

“Well, that should be enough movement training for today. How about we move to the instrument? Dont let this mean that you can slack off though, please try to continue your training in your free time.”

Free time.

Those two words were almost completely foreign to me by now. But even if I’d had any, I definitely wouldn't have wasted it on learning how to dance.

We were currently in the courtyard I’d woken up in when I’d first been brought here.

It had only been two days since I’d found out about another world, so I hadn’t had the time to adventure and get to know the place.

The only places I knew were Esmeralda’s office and this courtyard. There was also ‘my room’ but after I’d asked Cambridge about it, she’d pointed out that the entire building was mine.

I’d only seen my room and the entrance to the courtyard so far, but it was intimidating to know that so much space was technically mine. Then again, technically, all the other buildings were mine as well, but if I thought about it too much, I’d end up choking.

Esmeralda waved her wand and an instrument that looked like a combination of a harp and a flute appeared. it was mainly wood in its structure, but the strings looked like someone had woven them from an impossible number of silk threads.

That lesson passed by incredibly slowly as well but was much shorter than the earlier one.

As the last plucking of the string vibrated in the air, Esmeralda waved her wand and made the instrument vanish. Her long skirt fluttered around her as she got up and she gracefully shook out her hair.

“At least you’re somewhat talented in something useful. You can finish your last lesson with Cambridge and then report back tomorrow. Please don’t be late.”

And with those spiteful words, she went into the air and flew away.

Watching her plain brown and green wings flap together and apart granted me an awareness of the new, delicate limbs on my back.

Were wings considered as limbs? Or just another body part?

“Your highness.”

Cambridge flew close to me and gave off what I supposed was a gentle smile. Her face was stiff, and I could tell she had little practise in smiling kindly.

At first, I’d wondered what she would be teaching me, but from the gentle way she called me, and the way her eyes kept darting to the wings on my back, I got a bad feeling.

“C-Cambridge?”

“Fear not your highness. You were a little hellion on wings when you were young. I’m sure you’ll remember in no time.”