is words made warmth bloom in my heart, bringing back to life a part of me that had died the moment I'd read the prophecy. And for a moment, for the instants his words still rang in my soul, I felt whole. Not broken, not cold, not alone.

I was crying, tears drenching my skin, trailing down my face, my chin, my neck. Leon gently brushed them away, his touch, even if light, enough to set my skin on my fire wherever his fingers trailed.

"I, "I began, placing my hands on his chest, feeling how hard his heart beat underneath my palms, "thought you said you had no lady in mind."

He smiled, even if something in it was painful. "I said,'' he drawled, a tinge of easiness in it-that light amusement that never faded when he spoke to me.

"That I had no interest in the women my aunt has in mind. I never mentioned anything about caring for a certain royal lady I first met in the woods."

"I still wonder how you could stare at me, covered in blood and gore, without puking,'' I whispered as I smiled at the memory of that day almost half a year ago.

"How could I?'' He mirrored my smile. "You were the most beautiful person I'd seen my entire life."

"Even with blood on me and disheveled hair?"

"Even with blood and severely disheveled hair."

I punched him in the chest lightly even as I couldn't stop my lips from curling upward even more.

I had crushes back when I still lived in the other world. Had liked some boys even as I kept them secrets locked in my heart, never once being in a relation. But Leon...What I felt for him, what had been growing in my heart for months now, it was different. Even when I was oblivious to those feelings at first, and even when they started emerging and I tried pushing them down, deep into that abyss, I knew Leon was different.

He'd seen me at my worse, lost and clueless and broken, but he stayed. All of my family did. Maybe the Gods didn't loath me that much, giving me such people to care for and love.

Leon's eyes were so intent as he stared at me, almost seeing through my soul. And I wondered if it was a blessing or a curse, knowing all of this now that death seemed to be roaming so close. But I said, maybe afraid to never have the chance to do so again, "I love you, Leon."

I swore I saw stars and light in his eyes as I whispered those words. And then that smile that made me melt to nothing and yet made me feel like I owned the world.

My heart burned as I felt him gently tugging my face toward him, his lips so close it would have been a second and no more before I would have felt their softness on mine.

But I pulled away.

I watched him stiffen as I did, and hated myself for this. But I'd felt a presence around us, coming closer and closer, searching for me.

I had merely the time to put on a casual distance between us and to charm my face so it wouldn't look I was crying before the maid spotted us from the other side of the garden.

She came running toward us, and Leon was fast to play the act, talking about some political nonsense and stopping when she reached us. I acted along, feigning to think about moving the stallion before nodding my approval and turning to the woman still catching her breath.

"Yes?" I asked, knowing already what she was about to say. She bowed and I put on the mask of the future queen I was to be, nodding at her, and squaring my shoulders.

"Your meeting shall start soon, Your Highness. We have everything prepared."

"Good,'' I said with neutrality, hiding whatever was about to happen under tightly wrapped blankets. "I will be in my rooms after a few minutes. Be sure to have Nayal waiting for me."

The maid nodded, still a bit breathless, before she bowed to me then to Leon, and left silently.

I waited to be sure that she was no longer in sights before I turned to Leon, whose eyes shone with amusement. "Then, I will order my men to transfer our ships to the northern side-"

I hit him in the chest again before he could continue his sentence, this time, hard.

"We would have dug our own graves if anyone had seen what was about o happen. Perdiel himself would be making sure of that."

He stepped closer, one arm snaking around my waist, but his eyes weren't so light anymore. "You need to tell them."

Them, my father. Ramos.

"I know,'' I replied, playing with the collar of his white tunic, so stark next to what I was wearing. "After the Gathering, I will tell father first." My voice was not more than a whisper for my own ears, but he nodded, tucking my head under his chin, fingers running through my hair.

"We will find a solution, Celestia. I promise."

He had no power in that vow, couldn't change the will of the Five, but I still nodded, grasping that bit of hope that maybe-just maybe-there was another way.

"I should leave," I managed to get out, tilting my head and staring at him. He merely smiled before he kissed my cheek long and gently.

When he pulled away, he said, "We aren't done, about what was going on before that maid came."

"I know," was all I said with a voice more teasing and confident that I'd ever used even when I felt my face burn.

And then, I vanished again, feeling Leon's power surging right after me, leaving trails of dust and mist in our wake.

I startled a couple of maids by reappearing in my bedroom, not because of the sudden appearance out of nowhere, but because how terrible I looked.

It took me one stare at the mirror pinned to one wall to make me realize just how bad it was. My face was pale, eyes the color of dull emerald, missing their usual brightness. My raven hair had grown longer even as I trimmed it two weeks ago, almost reaching to my knees, and now was in a complete mess. There were slight dark lines under my eyes, signaling the lack of rest those past few days. The only bit of liveliness was the colors painting my cheeks, due to my conversation with the Shadow.

One maid took my cloak as the other guided me to the bath she'd ran moments before I arrived, the water still deliciously hot. I sat in the pool and scrubbed hard on my skin as the same maid that took care of my clothes took over my hair. The bathroom was similar enough to what Ramos had designed my room to be back at the Whitestone Manor: a pool with a waterfall at one end, surrounded by by marble tiles instead of the soft grass and small flowers back there, and filled with scented bubbles that I enjoyed watching burst in twinkling lights.

Unfortunately, I couldn't linger too much in the water and was too soon out and wrapped in lavender scented towels.

The servants left me enough to have me change in my undergarments and dress myself in a silken robe, hair still wrapped in its towel. I left the bathroom and entered my walk-in closet that was big enough to be considered a room by its own. The rest of the maids had disappeared and only a young one with tawny skin and coffee-dark hair greeted me. Nayal.

She smiled as she gestured to the chair sitting in front of the elegant vanity, brush already in hand. I smiled back, taking seat and allowing her to attend to my hair.

Out of all the team that worked for my behalf, she was the one I favored the most. Maybe because she was merely a year older than me or for the fact that she couldn't wait to have the older ones out of her sights to start running jokes and talking about what happened with her since the last we'd seen each other.

Even now, after she knew who I was, she didn't change or fear my title.

By the time she had placed the brush aside, already having braided my hair and pinning it entirely in delicate, expert swirls and designs on my head, weaving it with some pearls, and halfway applied my makeup, I was soar hoarse from laughing.

"I am serious! How that woman had the guts to say that, I don't know, girl."

I laughed harder as she kept on talking about something that had happened in the kitchens early this morning. It went on for a good few minutes more before her hand, light and supple, stopped and I stared in the mirror.

The face that stared back was different, everything the face of future ruler. There was gold and silver and a bit of black around my eyes as my lashes and waterline were coated with kohl, making the green of my eyes glow. Rosy pink painted my lips as some blush covered my cheeks.

The woman that stared back was beautiful and elegant, the golden crown resting on her skull only adding to the charm. I turned to Nayal. "You are a genius.''

"I know,'' she said, winking before one of her hands gently played with the earrings dangling and brushing the skin of my neck. "Not everyone can wear Nightbleed stone and make it look good," Nayal added, her thoughts similar to what first crossed my mind when I'd seen those earrings in Liam's artifacts. It demanded a woman with posture and presence to give it justice. "It suits you.''

I smiled.

"I was debating replacing these with the ones that came with the dress."

''No,'' I said, leaving a few heartbeats before replying, making it sound casual. I hated removing them, and now, after what I'd talked with Leon, there was no way I was taking them off.

She played a bit more with them, each almost a finger long and carved like feathers. The stone was pitch black that seemed to glow even in the dark, and sometimes when I would remove one just to stare at it, I thought I saw tiny stars shining inside. To complement it more, the stone was adorned with thin filigrees of gold and silver, suiting it perfectly.

"I thought so, too," she finally said, leaving them and turning toward one built-in cloth rack, fishing a dress covered with a protective black cloth. She hung it next to the vanity as she slowly undid the lacing.

"We weren't sure what to aim at, at first. We had, after long hours of debate, agreed to dress you in something rich and velvety like dark red or burgundy, just to set the impression of power. We'd actually agreed on a dress, but then, as I was about to bring the one we'd picked, I found this one."

She finished what she was doing and gingerly removed the folds of fabric protecting it. "We don't remember receiving this one, actually. Not even the dressmakers were able to recognize it, and I can swear it wasn't there when I first looked the gowns. But,'' she paused, revealing it fully, "I don't believe it appeared just like that for no obvious reason.'' She smiled.

The dress was amazing, everything fit for not only a queen, but a goddess, even.

The top was gold in color, and not the metallic sort, but the shade of gold that comes with dawn, before it slowly turned to a shade of pearl white down the fabric of the waist that I knew prior to wearing it, would fit me like a glove. From past the waist, it opened gently in a skirt-thankfully not puffed or massive, nothing more than the fabric forming the dress. The skirt also graduated from white and darkened until the hem the color of midnight, flecked with golden dust that glimmered like stars.

And this was what the dress was, a symbol of dawn and day and dusk, a symbol of my Mark and the power I held over time.

Gentle swirls of lace wrapped around the waist, most likely to emphasize how tiny and clipped mine was after months of training, and some on the off-shoulder neckline, those slightly darker, accentuating the shape.

"Nayal,'' I breathed, "it is beautiful.''

She beamed, albeit her words, "I'd like to pride myself in picking this masterpiece from the start, but I'll be lying to myself. No one knows how it appeared, but some things are better left unknown."

The young maid helped me slid in my heels before she attended to the dress, tying the back lace as I admired just how well it fitted me, as though forged from sunlight and night darkness just for me and no one else. The Nightbleed feathers seemed forged for this attire, actually, better than any other jewelry I had in my drawers.

Nayal placed a necklace around my neck that didn't dangle or go lower than my collarbone. It was a special one, she'd said, one that my father ordered to be forged just for me before I was even born, sporting both the sun and the crescent moon in awfully exact details I wondered what centuries-skilled hands made it.

And when I was all done, I looked everything like an empress, like a deity, and not a mere seventeen years and a half princess.

''It is almost time," Nayal whispered, breaking the silence that had fallen on us. "Go and wreck all those lords who are good at nothing but gloat for your throne." She knew, somehow. It wouldn't surprise me if every single soul in the castle heard about Perdiel and his cronies' displeasure about my ascension coming closer each day.

I smiled, mostly because of what she added next.

"And melt some hearts while you're at it.''

I could make sure that happened, especially the one belonging to a certain Nevorian Lord.

As I turned to leave my room, heading for the grand Gathering, I winked at her, letting her suggest I had the last part already sorted out.

And then I left.

What do you think? I know some of you, my dear readers, think that perhaps the second half of this chapter wasn't oh so much needed. Especially the ones who particularly enjoy my action scenes. But trust me when I tell you, every word was important. Aside from character growth and world building, it held some details to stop on. From where di that dress come from? Why did it appear before the meeting?

What are your guesses? Comment your thoughts on anything and everything. I'd love to read them. And if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a vote.

Until next update.