V | Roving Curiosty

In society, in order to survive, it's either be in the center of each's radar or out of it.

Vanya followed her lady, in a meek way like the other maids, but her eyes were roving to anyone - anything except the Princess in front of her.

"Maybe she poisoned herself?"

"Well it is an effective trickery, for the first time, the Emperor has been seen personally in her chambers yesterday."

"Vanya, we know you're a smart kid. But really, take care. And do not make a single mistake when you start serving that wench. Okay?" Those were the not-so-kind words of the ladies in the main palace before she was dispatched to the Crystal Palace, which is like an exile because she noticed, that no one is really in the long halls. Just them, and a few knights passing by when she went in here yesterday, but now, the place is lively, and everyone is cautious.

The truth is, Vanya and the other servants that were placed at the Crystal Palace since yesterday were way more lucky than the other ones. Madam Lilith has replaced all servants who have been working in the place and also those who have heard the news about what happened there yesterday, including the one who warned Vanya.

From early that morning, Vanya has been helping her lady in everything, from bathing, dressing, and in any other ways, that she had expected.

...

"Vanya," Madam Lilith has personally requested for her to serve the Princess only for a week, and how can she disobey the one who took her in when she has none? And 'Working under the Princess may not be bad', she convinced herself. 'But' really, she knows it's only been a few hours but, 'this is not that bad.'

'So far.'

"Vanya?" Asked by the younger servant beside her, one of the temporary maids to serve the Princess like her. "Yes?" They are in front of the large and grand chambers of the Crown Prince, "Is the Princess really," the young and naive Natasha looked around before leaning to her ears. Vanya was taller than her and older, so she helped out Natasha by lending her ears, "scary?" She hushes her and looks around with keen eyes for proper caution, few pass them by, and the door swung upon, with their lady's face lips reaching both ears.

"Let's go!" Their lady told them and Vanya led the two others.

'Poisoned. Whether the Princess did it to herself or not, the rumors, no, the truth about her that has been circulating in the society since I was young can't be wrong. Or is it? It's not like poison can change a person in a night. Even with a good night's sleep.'

Vanya noticed the glowing complexion of the lady when she first met her, the Princess' poise was crooked - anyone could tell - but her light presence and eloquent voice didn't go well with the word vicious that everyone knew her for.

"Vanya," Avyanna turns around to face them - her, "Her Highness?" The other two cower more in her back, and Vanya was taken aback but kept her composure. 'For a week, I only need to stay here for a week', she stresses in the back of her mind as she grips the hand below the other it helps her control her cool and actions as she feels an invisible force of pressure placed in her back. "Will it be possible if me ask Natasha and Moira for a separate task?" Vanya looked over her shoulders and nodded to the two of them.

Leaving out Vanya, Avyanna leaned over to the two and told them about the "task". They hurriedly left heeding the Princess's orders with smiles on their faces. "Now, then." The Princess jerked her head, "!!!" surprised by the lady's unmannerly action, Avyanna chuckled and continued their walk, in the same way leaving Cahill's wing.

On their way to the main palace, Vanya just wants to vanish, to hide, but she can't. A ginger head and the temporary lady-in-waiting of the Princess - alone behind her - is the spotlight, the one she has been avoiding for many years now.

Vanya entered the palace with the help of Madam Lilith's kindness, she was starved and neglected there, the Baron, her father, was drowning in debt, their house in collateral, and older sisters were sold into an unwanted marriage with some old white drunk men who probably took her sisters as nothing but trapped in their mansions. She once visited her older sister, it was in the midst of summer, and she wanted to ask for help, but her sister was in long sleeves in the heat, and marks of wounds were all over her body. Vanya felt lucky not to be sold, well not yet, she preferred to starve to death than be abused.

Madam Lilith found her in the streets, near her death, she tried looking for shops that would hire her but because of her unwanted and fiery hair color, instead of being hired, she was shoved out of the shop with the owners yelling out, "Bad luck! Bad luck! Get out of here!" Vanya experienced being shunned by every open door, but Madam Lilith was different.

"Bless my soul!" Lilith gasped at the sight of a young red hair, bones in her face only covered with thin pale skin, wiry and lanky body, completely unnourished and only waiting for her death. "Help me out," she asked for a hand from the coachman. Soon enough, she sat in her haunches and looked closer to the afraid little girl. "What is your name, young lady?"

"Vanya." She uttered. "Don't you have a family name?" Lilith is making sure she will know what she will take in by asking this, "Zavala. Zavala is my father's last name."

"That bastard!" Her eyes lose their light and the child shrinks her body away from the lady, trembling as she wraps her hands around herself, for comfort and safety. "I'm sorry for that, I know you're father." But she widened her eyes more, and shook harder, "Will you want me to help you out?" The lady who is almost as terrifying as the ones who shoved her away turns to a goddess sent by a saint, reaching help to her, she has no reason not to accept it.

Lilith's carriage took a turn to Lakifilia.

"These are the papers, Rafael." Vanya's father glared at his lost and last child, only to be found by one of the ones he owed debts. "I will burn this contract, forget about thousands of debts you owe in custody exchange, Vanya." The child continues to hide and hopes for the best. The streets are better, being starved, shoved, and called bad luck is better. Anything is better than being in the hands of her father who will surely sell her just so he can gamble more. She looked up to Lilith, with eyes begging and watery eyes. "Fine. Make sure you keep your word, Lilith Cornelia."

Papers signed, Lilith took the child's hand and brought Vanya with her, to wherever it was, the child was sure that it would be better than Lakifilia. And never, not once, did she regret taking the hands of Madam Lilith, she was brought here to the palace as a servant under Lilith, but soon enough she got used to the palace and lived her life in the walls of power ever since. And she has been living in peace since then.

...

In front of the chambers of the Emperor, this is where eyes are everywhere, and Vanya found herself in front of it. Waiting, wanting for her lady just to come out already. She saw the perplexed gaze that was constantly thrown at her, eyes creating a hole in her body. 'Why does the Princess want to have breakfast with the Emperor all of a sudden anyway?'

Vanya knows Avyanna, eyes that continue to seek the child with peculiar appearance. From afar, she witnessed that benevolent and meek child turn into a mean-spirited princess. She is sure that Madam Lilith holds power in the palace, but the powerless title of a princess bestowed upon Avyanna might seem nothing more, not a threat but a waste seat for someone like her. But for Vanya, a title is considered a position that can rise from nothing to everything as time passes by, Vanya wonders if her beliefs and hopes for the Princess fade as she hears every day how she turned way more vicious than the last.

A few years ago, in the maze, Vanya had watched Avyanna masochistically bleed, focusing her pain on the thorns not the ones in her heart but in her palm. She is sure that the Princess is crazy and evil, but what she has witnessed is loneliness. She wanted to comfort the Princess, as the sight reminded her of her old days in the streets, but she couldn't, she should not, she was not in the position, so she left Avyanna alone, and never looked her way ever again. Well, not until she became the Princess's lady-in-waiting today.

The entire day was filled with surprises for Vanya. Her feet were sore from all the walks in the palace, her lady succeeded in securing a dinner with His Majesty, it might not be a breakfast, but it is still something that never happened. The other two maids were nowhere to be seen, as her lady had requested to do secret tasks that Vanya never uncovered. Questions filled her mind all the time, but she was not able to fill her mind with questions.

Vanya went to the headquarters where she stayed alongside other lowly servants. Stretches her body and changes.

Three limited knocks came on her door, when she opened it, Natasha and Moira were there, with pillows and in their sleepwear. "Uhm, sis?" Moira courageously started, then she jerked her elbow in the sides of Natasha. "What? I thought you'd be the one to ask?" They started exchanging conversations and Vanya listened to them, but not really understanding what these two wanted, and why they were calling her sis. 

"Can we sleep here?" Finally, Vanya had observed their pillows, clothes, and not-so-sleepy eyes but they seemed to ask those questions. "No." She firmly answered and closed the door. 

"What'd I do? I can't sleep."

"Neither do I."

"Is, is angry at us?"

"Maybe she doesn't like us, she had noble blood after all,"

"And we don't"

They were on her doorsteps, and the room was cramped and small, so she could hear their voices. The night is still young, yet it is already quiet. The moon can be seen from here. 

"Should we ask one more time-" Hands preparing to knock, "Just one night."

"Yehey!" 

Natasha is sixteen Moira is seventeen, and Vanya is older at the age of twenty-two. They were too young to be in the palace, working. Yet again, how can she pity them when she was merely ten when she entered the same place? 

"But in one condition." The two exchanged looks, Natasha tilted her head, "What is it, sis?" Moira asked.

"What did the Princess ask you to do the entire day?"

They shared a look and giggled. Making the left-out Vanya even more curious.