UNFORGIVEN

There were seven princes and five princess who were the king's children but out of them, only two stood out, William and Sky, two teenage boys who were very competitive with each other but still loved each other dearly. The king was always proud of his sons. Sky, although was most skilled, was not very serious and always played around. He always snuck out of the palace for fun and would ran when the guards went after him. He had no discipline, compared to his brother, William. William was very tolerant of Sky, especially after Sky's fighting mentor was accused of treason and put to death about a three years ago.

Sky was especially close to him hence after his death, Sky changed a lot, sneaking out of the palace frequently without a trace. The king didn't punish Sky because he felt Sky needed time to heal but over time, the king thought Sky was just in a rebellious phase and would give him minor punishments because he loved his son, despite his behavior. Some of the king's other sons always flattered themselves with ladies by sneaking them into their rooms. When the king found out about this, he put William in charge of correcting that. The princesses always flattered themselves with tea parties and unnecessary competition to see who was the best or the prettiest and such whenever they had guests. Most of the princesses were friends with other princesses. One princess stood out though, for her friendship with Desperalda and she was Keia. Keia thought she was the best among the princesses because she was the oldest among them and sometimes bullied some of the others.

After Isabelle's punishment, she was assigned to serve princess Iris. Princess Iris was calm and a pushover. She was kind and more timid than the other princesses. When Isabelle came in and greeted her, she greeted back and offered Isabelle a seat beside her other maids she was chatting with. Isabelle joined them in the princess' room. During their chat, a maid came in and told Iris that Keia wanted to see her. Seeing the rude tone which the maid informing her had, even Isabelle was infuriated but the princess remained calm and walked out with two of her maids sneaking out after her. Isabelle followed them as they stared from a distance. Iris greeted Keia and Desperalda, who were having tea under the summer hut. She bowed to greet them. "Where's the glass teacup I told you to get for me?" Keia asked her. "Sorry, I forgot about it. I'll get it for you by next week" Iris said. Keia frowned. "How could you? I trusted you" Keia said as she stood up. "How difficult is it to get someone to make me a glass tea cup. That was supposed to be a present for prince Hans. Or did you do this so I'd lose his attention and you can gain his attention. You set me up!" Keia shouted at Iris.

Desperalda stood silently, looking equally disgusted at Iris. Keia took one teacup and threw it on the floor, right beside Iris. Her temper kept rising. "Look what you've done" Keia said to Iris, pointing to the pieces of the shattered teacup. "Pick it up!" She shouted at Iris who was having a panic attack. Iris sank to the ground, covering her ears.

Seeing this, Isabelle ran to Iris even as Keia kept shouting at her to pick up the pieces of the teapot. Isabelle tried to help Iris get up but Iris wouldn't get up. She tried to force her up but Iris wouldn't budge. "What do you think you're doing Iris!" Keia kept shouting, stomping her foot, ignoring Iris's state. "Can't you see her state?" Isabelle said to Keia. "Who are you? Get out of here!" Keia said to Isabelle and Isabelle was eventually able to get Iris to stand to her feet. Keia pulled Isabelle's arm. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked Isabelle "Iris, pick up the pieces of the teacup" Keia said again as her maids blocked Isabelle's path. "It's the pieces of the teacup you want, right?" Isabelle said and bent down to pick the pieces of the teacup and placed them on the table, then turned around and left with Iris, who still had her ears covered. As they left, Keia pushed the pieces of the teacup off the table, back onto the floor. "What're you looking at!" She shouted at the maids who stood around, staring at the drama.

Princess Iris' room       

Iris was taken back into her room and her maids had prepared her bed and a bath for her.

Iris dismissed them after sitting on her bed and they all went to stand behind her door. "That princess is such a brat" Isabelle said angrily. "That princess is princess Keia. She's the oldest princess and bullies some of the other princesses. She's very arrogant and rude" One maid said. "But you were too brave. Thanks for standing up for our princess but you should really stay away from that princess Keia. Last time someone talked back to her, she suddenly disappeared" Another maid said. "I will be careful, don't worry. I'm usually not so impulsive. Why did princess Iris overreact like that though" Isabelle asked. "She gets panic attacks quite often when scolded. Ever since childhood I heard. She's super nice though, just a bit too timid with the other princesses. We are her only friends and she doesn't talk about the princesses, like ever" One maid told her.

"She'll probably take her bath and fall asleep. We should leave" The other maid said. "What're your names?" Isabelle asked. "Nadia" One said. "Inna" The other said. "Such beautiful names" Isabelle said. "What's yours?" Nadia asked. "Isabelle" She said. "Isabelle? Like Belle? I think you have the prettiest name among us three. You truly are beautiful" Inna said.

Just when they were about to leave, Iris called for Nadia and told her to call Isabelle, since she didn't know Isabelle's name yet. When Isabelle went in, Iris was getting ready to head to bed. Iris thanked her for her help and told her to never repeat it for her own sake, then went to bed. Isabelle left her room but the other two maids had already left. When she walked out, she looked to the front and saw the princes' quarters.

Keia's maids came and cleaned the place up. She sat next to Desperalda, who hadn't said a word the entire time. "That maid…who does she think she is?" Keia said. "I hate her" Desperalda said, clenching her fist. "You know her?" Keia asked. "Yes, she got all the attention at the ball three days ago. She was accused of being Sky's mistress but the king let her off" Desperalda said, rolling her eyes. "That was her? I knew she looked familiar but I didn't care about their issues" Keia said. "Of course, you don't care about anyone but yourself" Desperalda said. "Don't say that. I do care, about you, about Hans…." Keia said. 'Yes, you only care about me because you are obsessed with my brother' Desperalda thought to herself. "I know. We've been friends since forever and so have our brothers. It's only normal that you care about my family and I" Desperalda said and smiled at Keia.

"Great, so what are we going to do about that girl?" Keia asked. "I don't know. She looks like an attention seeker. If you give her that attention, and your brother finds out his mistress is not being pampered, I don't really know. I honestly don't think she's an ordinary girl if she could get even the king on her side" Desperalda said. "Father doesn't even care about us, his daughters yet he remembered some lowly maid? Yet he cares about her? You're probably right. I don't want to get into any trouble with father but if she dares to step on my toe, I'm pulling her hair out" Keia said. "Girls these days are so daring. Even lowly maids dare to seduce princes" Desperalda said.

Isabelle wanted to understand how the four quarters worked so she wouldn't get lost again. She walked out through each of the four main doors and analyzed the place critically. She walked out of the last door, backwards to master memory of the place and tripped, falling into the arms of Sky, who was passing by to get to the princes quarters. When she realized she had been caught, she was relieved and was about to thank him until she realized who it was. She stopped and walked past him. He held her and pulled her back. "You are rude" He said to her. "Interesting, I've never seen this side of you before" Isabelle said confidently. "You're so gutsy. Just a few days ago, you had jelly legs before the king" He said, mocking her, and she began to walk away again. He pulled her back. "You are a maid and have to act as such within these walls, for your own sake at least" Sky said. "You could've said sorry for almost getting me killed but I guess not everyone has common sense" Isabelle said. "It was just a silly little prank. You're so dramatic" Sky said, rolling his eyes away. "Of course a prince who cannot even obey basic rules and live within the walls of a heaven of a palace wouldn't know the value of a life. To you, people like me's lives are nothing but a pranking tool for your pleasure. Why am I surprised" She said, looking him in the eye but he looked away.

"Who are you to judge me?" Sky asked, angrily, leaning his head close to her. "And who are you to play a prank with my life?" She asked rhetorically, leaning her's closer to his and he moved back. "You can leave" He said to her. "I never asked for your permission" She said and left, heading back to the maids' quarters. She had made up her mind about the people in the palace. The king was the only normal one. All his children had serious issues.