Chapter Text
In The Alternate Timeline…
In the evening, the night after Athanasia found Raven…
From Mr. Sleeping Beauty’s POV…
Present Time…
A brat has been coming here day after day without fail. I have no idea where ‘here’ is exactly but from her weird talks I presume that she lives close by and sneaks here every night in fear of someone finding about her little secret, a.k.a. me.
I find it odd when I think about her. She definitely sounds like a child but doesn’t talk like one. She talks to me as if she is an adult, uses a tone of voice a child would never use, even I know that. I am still unable to move but I can feel her presence near me whenever she visits.
I had found the way she talked interesting at first. But then she came back the next day saying I was put under a curse of some sorts that made me fall asleep in the imperial grounds. She said she had been researching about the Black Tower and apparently knows who I am, which just raised more questions about this supposed child.
Just who is she?
And then she started visiting me more and more, talking about her studying all the history books of Obelia and being suspicious about someone who had, according to her, erased the Black Tower’s information from the books. And I have no choice but to listen to her rant about how hard it was proving to find anything about my curse.
But one week later, she said that she’d found how to break my curse. But maybe it was hard for her to actually break it because now it’s the next day and I still can’t move nor open my eyes.
And the brat had not visited me today.
Did something happen to her? Was she caught by someone while sneaking away at night? Did the bastard who put a curse on me kidnap her because she’d found the way to break it?!
But why was I worried about her, anyway? Did I actually enjoy her company, or something? It did feel a little lonely in the silence with my consciousness back.
Still, I couldn’t shake away the bad feeling that settled in my chest.
In The Alternate Timeline…
7 hours earlier…
Raven was licking her fingers after another game of catch when a maid came out in the garden to call her in for lunch. Athanasia picked up Raven in her arms and bounced on her way back making the maid giggle at the cute little Princess. She flashed her a beaming smile that the woman cooed at, but she wasn’t trying to act cute or anything. She was genuinely really happy.
Although she couldn’t understand why her holy beast would run away from her instead of seeking her and keeping close to her, she was overjoyed by the fact that she possessed useful mana and also so much that it took the form of Raven.
She couldn’t really use her mana now because this little body of hers was far too weak to handle such strong and abundance of mana. And also doing so without proper training could be dangerous; after all, the royal mana wasn’t something you just played around with as you pleased. So she would wait to actually use her mana but she was pretty certain Raven’s presence alone would be enough to break Mr. Sleeping Beauty’s curse. And that filled her with hope of finally getting some answers about this whole situation.
In The Ruby Palace library…
6 hours earlier…
After lunch, Athanasia again found herself between piles of books but this time she had a companion. Raven just sniffed the books before walking away and settling down on the rug near the fireplace. Trusting the beast to not cause mischief while she was busy, Athanasia returned to her task of finding any type of information on the Black Tower Wizard or the curse castor.
But there was Aeternitas all over the library.
The great Aeternitas achieved this, Strongest Emperor in the history of Obelia created this or that spell, Aeternitas proposed this, Aeternitas changed that.
Aeternitas. Aeternitas. Aeternitas. Aeternitas. Aeternitas. Arrrrrrghhhhh! Did the history of the Great Empire of Obelia revolve only around this man?! She was fed up with this and beyond irritated! She wanted to—she wanted to—
—set the books on fire? What?
Athanasia gaped at the burning books that soon fell down before her in a heap of ash. Huh?!
"Ruff!"
She turned towards Raven who was sitting on his hind legs on the rug and wagging his tail excitedly with a pleased and hopeful expression on his face as if waiting for her to pat his head and praise him. For a moment she just stared at him in confusion before connecting the dots. Oh…
They were linked together so Raven could feel her emotions too. And he must have probably felt her anger and set the books on fire for her. Aw, sweet, but really unnecessary. She had to keep her emotions under check now until she fully understood how the holy beast actually reacted to them.
The puppy-like creature was still giving her those hopeful sparkling eyes and wagging his tail non-stop. Raven, you just burned almost 200 years old books in the blink of an eye without much thought. What was she supposed to tell Lily now?
But Athanasia was weak to cuteness just as everyone else around her and at last she stood up to pat Raven’s head which he accepted eagerly with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
She just couldn’t look at this adorable creature and stay angry. It hadn’t even been a whole day since she’d found Raven and she was already so attached to him.
But at the back of her mind she had a feeling she was forgetting something. Something very important.
In Athanasia’s room…
3 hours earlier…
Athanasia was sprawled on her bed as she stared up at the cracking ceiling with a bored face and a pout. Lily had found her in the library with her nose buried deep in the books and had kicked her and Raven out with a strict scolding to not overexert herself.
Unbeknownst to the nanny though, Athanasia had been reading a very interesting romance novel about a Princess falling in love with her knight and pining after him. Cheesy and cliché, she knew, but so much better than some dead man’s writing on the greatness of Aeternitas. She was actually a little happy that Raven burned those.
Speaking of Raven, the beast was near her bed chewing on and playing with a ball she’d made him out of her old clothes.
Athanasia let out a long drawn-out sigh as she traced the cracks on the ceiling with her eyes. They were bigger now and no doubt the paint would start falling on top of her soon. This place would sink to the ground in the very near future going by the rate it was deteriorating.
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine a life out of these Palace walls and away from the imperial grounds. A little house on top of a grassy hill with a huge garden full of her favorite flowers, maybe even a tall fruit tree with a swing. She would take care of the plants, water them every day and then would go down the hill with a basket to the market. She’d chat with the shopkeepers and vendors and they would all recognize her and be friendly with her. Then she would climb up the hill again only to see Lily inside their home just returning from her job at the new small restaurant that had opened in their area. They would cook together and Hannah and Ces would join them for dinner and she would talk about opening a flower shop which they all would get excited about. Maybe she would name the flower shop after her mother and Lily would tear up.
Just her and her little family living peaceful and normal lives with normal everyday problems and not worrying about when they would eventually fall victim to the Emperor’s wrath.
She opened her eyes again with a distant and dazed look in them.
That wasn’t the case though. It will never happen. She was still stuck in a child’s body, in this dying Palace, in these dangerous grounds with always one fear at the back of her mind that surfaced to the forefront whenever she was left alone with her thoughts.
The fear of her biological father murdering his own flesh and blood without any emotion on his face at committing such a horrifying act.
Raven jumped up on the bed and started licking her cheek. Ah yes, he could feel whatever emotion she was feeling.
“Are you trying to cheer me up?” She questioned the mana beast as she scratched behind his ears and he wagged his tail giving out a loud ‘woof!’ in answer.
A small smile found its way onto her face at that and she rubbed the puppy’s snout affectionately.
“Thank you, Raven.”
Another happy bark was what she got in response.
The walk to the imperial forest…
Present Time…
Athanasia stuck close to Raven as they walked through the gardens and to the forest. The moon wasn’t out that night and so she was dependent on Raven’s senses to not trip or run into something dangerous like the last time. She shuddered just thinking about that.
She hadn’t changed into her night dress yet as she’d fallen asleep sometime while cuddling the mana beast in her room. But she had found a warm glass of milk on her nightstand and her night dress laid out on the bed and suspected that Lily must have come in at some time to check on her but didn’t disturb her when she found her already asleep.
The feathery neckline of her white dress tickled her chin as she looked down at the ground in thought. She had a feeling she was forgetting something. Something just didn’t feel right. Maybe it was just her imagination but something about her being out here tonight was unsettling her.
She tried to ignore those thoughts as much as possible, tried to shake them away and just focus on not tripping over her own feet in the darkness when suddenly there were bright lights everywhere and Raven wasn’t moving anymore.
Athanasia failed to notice her divine beast’s hesitance and continued to walk forward while still staring at the ground in thought. The sound of music and merry-making was what made her look up.
BADUM
She shouldn’t have ignored the unsettling feeling.
BADUM BADUM
She should have paid more attention to where she was going.
BADUM BADUM BADUM
Because the illuminating jewels were far more terrifying than the dark of the night.
Because the music was like the executioner reading out her crime and punishment for the whole empire to hear.
Because the merry-making was people shouting words of hatred aimed at her.
Because the lights of the Emperor’s Palace could not erase the dark abyss she saw after her last breath.
A pair of glowing blue eyes so similar to her own stared back at her and it was as if she was being stabbed with daggers made of ice as that gaze fixed on her form.
Jeweled; they were jeweled.
Those cold cold eyes…
Athanasia was nine years old when this had happened before, in a life where everything after that moment had only been misery and loneliness. She remembered at that time how awestruck she had felt at seeing him for the first time, naively believing that her dreams of having a loving father would come true someday.
Athanasia was eighteen years old when she was finally able to see the reality in her last moments.
‘No…’
Jeweled blues stared straight into jeweled blues. Those emotionless eyes seemed to see through her soul and that gaze made her pupils shake as her breaths came out short.
‘No.’
She didn’t notice the sudden widening of his eyes as they looked at her or the red-haired man sputtering behind him while staring at her in disbelief. She didn’t see the lights anymore, she didn’t see him anymore. All she was seeing in that moment was her hands desperately clutching the tight rope around her neck squeezing the life out of her while those cold cold eyes impassively watched her thrash around in the air helplessly.
‘No.’
She ran. She ran and ran and ran. Away from that place, away from those memories, away from him.
She ran past Raven as the dog barked after her but she ignored him. She ran over twigs and leaves and through bushes. It was a miracle she didn’t hurt herself as she ran blindly in the dark of the night, but even if she had, she wouldn’t have noticed or cared about it.
Tears blurred her vision, her breathing became ragged and the muscles in her legs burned, but all she was thinking of was getting far, far away from him.
Her foot knocked against a stone in her path and she fell face-first with a soft thud. There was no pain though. Because Athanasia was sure the phantom feeling of the noose digging into the skin of her throat was far more painful than anything else at the moment.
Raven appeared by her side trying to nuzzle closer to her in comfort and that was when Athanasia broke down letting out a loud wail that hurt her throat but the dam had already broke. The feelings bottled up inside her for seven long years were finally let out and all she could do was cry and cry till her voice cracked and wouldn’t come out and no tears were left anymore.
She passed out after that.
The next time she opened her eyes a pair of rubies was staring straight into her jewels.