Chapter Text
Princess Amity Blight was taking her morning walk after breakfast through the capital of the Kingdom of Roneshire. Her mother, the reigning monarch of Roneshire Queen Odalia, was not fond of her going out into the city for leisure, so she had a cloak on with the hood up.
Her mother thought it was bad to “associate with those beneath us.” Amity disagreed, a monarch should care for their people and want to help them.
She saw that some monarchs of rival kingdoms did just that and their kingdoms were flourishing. Like Queen Camila of Limerary, whose kingdom was in a golden age. Queen Gwendolyn of Francon at least tried to do good for her people even if it didn’t work all the time, but the effort still showed.
She ended up absentmindedly walking towards the clinic Viney helps run, and thought of stopping by. Viney was Amity’s sister, Crown Princess Emira’s, secret girlfriend.
On one of her morning walks Amity found them and interrogated Emira about their relationship. Amity promised to keep it a secret from their mother, who would not approve, and likely have Viney arrested. After that Amity had become friendly with Viney, and would sometimes give Viney letters from Emria on her morning walks. Amity didn’t have a letter today, but still felt like stopping by.
She was a few buildings away when she was passing an ally and heard crying and screams of pain. She looked down the alley, where the noise was coming from, and saw a group of people around her age kicking a person laying on the ground.
Amity saw the victim of this attack eyes, and saw the fear in them. She knew she had to stop it, even if that meant the chance of her mother knowing she snuck out increased.
“You better leave her alone!” Amity shouts.
“Why should we? You want to protect some human?” A guy turns and shouts from the group of five beating the girl, who Amity now looks at her and notices the round ears of a human.
“Yes! If you don’t stop I’ll get the city guards!” Amity replies.
“Like they’ll believe you two! Maybe we should give you the same treatment.” another one of them shouts.
“I think they would believe me,” Amity says, pulling down her hood, “and I hope you know who you just threatened”
All of their faces go pale and they bolt down to the other end of the alley, leaving just the princess and the girl there. Amity goes to the girl, who looks about her age, and tries to look over her injuries, but she turns away shaking.
“Hey,” Amity says softly “I’m not here to hurt you, will you let me check your injuries? I know some basic healing magic.”
The girl apprehensively rolls over so Amity can check her, and there's something familiar to Amity about her. The girl’s injuries look bad, and Amity tells her “I don’t think I can fix this, but I know a very skilled healer a few buildings down, I’ll take you to her.”
“No” the girl says weakly “can’t draw attention. Need to stay secret.”
It seems the girl is barely clinging to consciousness and Amity starts to panic a bit. That is when she hears a familiar voice call out. “Luz where are you?”
Amity looks up and sees the Head Bard of the kingdom passing by the alley, and Amity calls out “Mx. Whispers, I need help!” Amity is close with the Head Bard and trusts them to help, and importantly not tell her mother they saw her.
Mx. Whispers look down the alley at Amity. “Princess Amity?” and then looks at the girl the princess is kneeling next to “Luz!?” They look back at Amity and ask “What happened to her?”
Amity thinks she knows why this human girl, Luz, looks familiar now, but can ask later. “A group of witches were beating her, and I stopped them. Seemed like they were discriminating aganist her becouse she’s human. I know a good clinic a few buildings down, but she seems afraid to go. Something about a secret. If I am there the healer won’t push if she asks her not to.”
Mx. Whispers hesitates for a second but then goes, “Okay, we can take her there. Eda and I have been taking care of her.” Mx. Whispers then turns their attention to Luz “Luz it me, Raine, I am taking you to a healer, Amity here says it’s safe and I trust her.”
Luz just groans what sounds like a ‘yeah.’ Amity makes a stretcher out of abomination goo, and they put Luz on it. They go as quickly as they can, well also making sure Luz doesn’t move around too much so as to not make any injuries worse.
When they enter the clinic Amity yells “Viney, I need some help!”
Viney rushes to the front. “Amity, what’s wro-” Viney says as she sees the girl on the abomination stretcher. “Follow me to the back. I’ll start treating her right away!”
They get her into a bed and Viney starts examining Luz. As Viney is assessing Luz and starting her treatment she has Raine and Amity go wait in the waiting room out front.
“You can go now if you want, princess. I am taking care of her so I can stay.” Raine tells Amity
“No, I'll stay too. I want to make sure she’s okay.”
No one else is in the clinic, so Viney’s attention is just on Luz. A minute later Amity asks something that seems to make Raine sweat in panic, well more than they were. “You said her name was Luz, right?”
“Yes, princess.”
“Is the secret she mentioned that she’s Crown Princess Luz Noceda of Limerary?” Amity whispers, even if no else would have heard her anyway.
Raine is pale by now but doesn’t lie, because they would not be convincing. “Yes, but please don’t tell anyone, even your mother. She is hiding here for her safety. The less people who know the better.”
“I wouldn’t have told my mother anyway. My lips are sealed.”
After about 20 minutes Viney comes out to talk to them. “Okay, I was able to heal most of her injuries, her left arm will need to be in a sling for about a week, and she passed out before I could check for a concussion. If one of you knows her, can you fill out a patient form for her?”
“I can do that.” Raine says
As Raine starts filling it out they groan, and Amity asks “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know what to put for the last name. We can’t use her real one.”
“Leave it blank. Don’t worry I’ll tell Viney to not submit to the kingdom's medical records and just keep it for herself, in case she needs to treat Luz again.” Amity tells them
“Are you sure she will do that?” Raine asks.
“Yes.” Amity says adamantly.
Raine looks unconvinced, but finishes filling out the paperwork. Then they both go to give it to Viney and Viney says “You didn’t fill out the last name for her.”
Before Raine can panic too much, Amity says “You don’t need it, and don’t submit this to the kingdom. Just keep it for yourself incase you need to treat her again”
Viney just shrugs and says “Okay, sure.” and Raine sighs in relief, and they go sit down again.
A few hours later Viney comes back out to talk to them. “Hey, she’s up and thankfully doesn’t have a concussion. You two can come back and see her if you would like.”
They both follow Viney to Luz’s bed. She turns and notices Raine “Raine!” she exclaims.
Viney says “I leave you three to talk” and heads back up front.
Luz then notices Amity and goes “Oh, hello Princess Amity.”
Amity is surprised and blurts out “You, recognize me?”
“Of course, a good citz-” but Raine stops Luz and says “She recognized you. She knows.”
Luz’s face screams of panic and she is about to start hyperventilating when Amity goes “Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. My mother won't know, my father won’t know, my siblings won’t know. Okay?”
This seems to calm Luz down. Luz looks at Amity quizzically and then asks “What happened? I remember a group of people kicking me while I was curled up on the ground, and after that it’s a bit of a blur.”
Amity tells her “I had snuck out for a morning walk and heard them beating you. I got them to stop, threatening to get the guards, and when they saw I was the princess they ran. Then I checked your injuries and when I said I wanted to take you here you didn’t want to go saying something about your secret. That’s when I heard Mx. Whispers calling for you and I got their attention. They said your name, and that’s when I recognized you. Then they convinced you to come here, and Viney started to treat you.”
“Oh wow, Thank you princess. Also, I am surprised you recognized me, we only met briefly that one time when our parents were negotiating a few years ago.” Luz says.
“Well, you are very memorable.” Then Amity quickly adds “In a good way, of course. You wanting to learn about magic as a human was very unique, and your positivity was infectious.” Amity says, blushing. There may have been a small chance she was a bit infatuated with Princess Luz, and wanted to see her again after that to talk more.
Luz blushed and said, “I remember that conversation too. You seem so caring, unlike the impression your moth-” and Luz stops herself before she can finish, with a panicked expression on her face.
Amity lets out a small laugh and says “I know what you were going to say, and you're not wrong about her. Also, thank you, I really try to be more caring than her. My mother doesn’t rule the kingdom for the people like yours.”
Raine then interrupts them and says “Luz how are you feeling? Also, Princess Amity, do you need to get back soon so your mother doesn't notice you're gone?”
Luz responds first and says “pretty good, mostly sore now.”
Amity realizes how long she’s been out and says “You're right! I should get going soon.”
Before Amity can leave Luz says “Princess Amity can I ask you something? Also, Raine, can you ask when I will be good to go?”
Raine says “Sure Luz.” with a soft smile as he goes to find Viney.
“What did you need?” Amity asks.
“I wanted to know if you would like to meet again. I really enjoyed meeting you, that one time and would like to talk more.”
Amity wanted to ask the same thing, but had been too nervous. “Of course” is Amity’s reply.
Right then Raine walks back in and says “Viney says she just wants to examine you one more time and then see you in about two weeks to see how your arm is.” Luz then replies with a “Okay.”
Amity then says “Luz, I’ll meet you outside your house at 9:00 in the morning tomorrow if that works. Would you want to go to the market?”
“Sure!” Luz confirms.
Amity then asks an important question. “Where is your house?”
Raine then says “seven or eight buildings to the left when you leave here. I can show you quickly and then come back for Luz.”
“Okay.” Amity says then adds “Wait Luz you're good with that, right?”
“Yup!” Luz says “Viney can finish up, and then Raine can come get me.”
With that Raine and Amity leave. Raine shows Amity how to get to their house. After that Amity goes and sneaks back into the castle. Luckily her mother didn’t notice she was gone.