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If you ask Mizuki, the king's petty wars were going to get them all killed.
Of course, nobody ever asked her and it isn't her place to criticize the kings decisions as a mere maid.
Since declaring war on the fae, the King's temper has grown out of control. She remembers when he was kind and patient, giving her grace whenever she made mistakes. Nowadays, if there was even a speck of dust lingering in the room, you would be in for a harsh scolding at best. At worst… Mizuki doesn't like to think of that.
It's for this reason that she puts every ounce of her focus into cleaning this bedroom, one of her favorites in the entire castle. The powder blue walls with their pastel pink decor was pleasing to the eye. When permitted, she liked to complete her own sewing projects here, surrounded by the various plushies that used to belong to the kings daughter before she disappeared. He cares an awful lot for this room so Mizuki must be extra diligent when cleaning it.
It's been neglected for the past few weeks. It hasn't been touched since… nobody wants to endure the same fate she had. Mizuki doesn't either, public execution was one of the worst ways to go in her honest opinion, but if it remained untouched for too long, the king may lose his temper. As it stands, everything in the room is covered in a thin layer of dust.
Because of her intense focus on cleaning, she doesn't notice the bedroom window open behind her. She doesn't hear the quiet footsteps behind her. When she finally turns around, she's startled to see a girl with brown hair up in twin-drills. It looks as though she's startled to see her as well. They both look at each other like deer in headlights for a while.
The other girl wises up first, her platformed shoes clicking against the room's tiles as she makes her way toward her. Before Mizuki can even think to scream, her hands clap firmly across her lips.
The stranger's striking amber eyes seem to pierce her very being as she says, "Not a sound, beautiful. I can't have you ruin this for me."
Ruin what? she thinks to ask. She never gets a chance to.
Without warning, she feels her body contorting, folding in on itself. Something is very wrong. It feels as though she's in a container too small for her soul and she realizes she's looking at the stranger's chest instead of into her eyes.
This is rectified soon when she's lifted to eye level. The stranger gasps excitedly. "I knew it! I knew you'd make for an adorable plushie!"
She brings Mizuki over to the room's vanity mirror so that she could see what she's become.
To her horror, she's in the form of a patchwork cat plushie all of ten inches tall. Her smile, eternally stitched on, and her lifeless button eyes were unable to properly convey what she was feeling, however the intruder seemed to be almost able to read her mind.
"Don't you worry your pretty little head," she says. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just here to take back what's rightfully mine."
She sets her down on the vanity, facing toward the rest of the room. Mizuki can only watch helplessly as she walks around the room, picking up each of the plushies that once belonged to the princess one by one and examining them.
"Poor things," she says. "No wonder you've been calling out to me. You're all dusty. You must have been lonely here by yourself."
She goes quiet for a minute as if actually listening to them. Then she looks in Mizuki's direction.
"Is that so?" she asks, a smile on her face, "Well then, I'm glad you weren't completely alone."
Picking up a beige stuffed bear with a pink ribbon on it's head, she continues her examination. "Now let's see… I think I'll take you with me today, and then I'll come back for the rest of you. Does that sound good?"
Mizuki knows she cannot let the intruder leave with that teddy bear. It used to belong to the princess. The king would have a fit if he found out it was missing! Of course, there isn't much she can do in this state.
"Oh, right," says the intruder, tucking the bear under one arm and moving toward her."I can't forget about you, now can I?"
She picks Mizuki up and sets her down on the floor before snapping her fingers. In an instant Mizuki is human again, and the stranger is walking away, back to the window she came from.
"Wait!" she gasps, the feeling of air in her lungs slightly foreign now, "I can't— I can't allow you to leave with that!"
"Oh? Is that a challenge?" The intruder asks, a dangerous glint in her amber eyes. "And what exactly are you going to do about it?"
What can she do about it? She'd been rendered absolutely helpless with a single touch and she'd never been any good in a fight. She'd call for a knight if it weren't for them all being busy with the current war.
"I'll scream," she bluffs, "I'll alert one of the knights."
"What knights? I've been watching this castle for a very long time now and they're all off swinging at shadows. I've been watching you too, you know. I know you won't scream."
"I will," she insists.
The stranger crouches down to her level, cupping her cheek in her hand.
"Then scream," she challenges.
Mizuki can't bring herself to. She doesn't want to cause any trouble.
"Please," she begs, "That belonged to the late princess. I can't let you have it."
"I know."
"Then why—"
"I'm simply taking back what's rightfully mine," she says.
Then she disappears through the same window she used to get inside.
The king is livid when he finds out about the missing teddy bear, the gift he'd given his daughter when she was just a baby. Mizuki apologizes profusely, promising to never allow it to happen again. Thankfully, she's allowed another chance, though she must now work herself back into his good graces. In other words, she's been forbidden from sleeping for the foreseeable future.
It's been twenty four hours since then and Mizuki has permitted herself a walk around the castle's gardens. The hedges probably need to be trimmed anyway.
The sun has long set which isn't much of a problem considering she won't be sleeping tonight. The real problem is that she's forgotten to bring garden shears along, which means she needs to go back and get it.
On her way back, she spots the same twin-drilled intruder, exiting the bedroom window again with a tea set she recognizes from the display cupboard. Giving chase, she catches up to her.
"You again?" the intruder asks, "Are you going to tell me I can't have this as well."
"I can't let you have it," she says, "It doesn't belong to you."
"You're adorable," she says, reaching to pat Mizuki on the head. She flinches at her touch, expecting to be turned into a doll again, but the feeling of being contorted never comes.
"Absolutely adorable," the stranger repeats. "You're clearly no hero, and yet you continue to oppose me. Why is that?"
"He'll be upset if I let you steal anything else," she says, "if I let you get away with stealing from him he might…"
She's thinking about it again and now her legs won't stop trembling.
Nothing this, something in the intruder's gaze hardens. "He might what?"
Mizuki shakes her head, unable to tell her.
She hums. "Tell me. Am I somehow putting you in danger?"
That question has a bit of a complicated answer. Truthfully, if she were to run off with that tea set right now, nobody would know it was Mizuki who let her get away. But there remained a chance that he would be upset with her anyway.
"Probably," she settles on.
"Well that's no good." She hums. "But it's not as if I can just stop here…"
"Why not?"
"Because all of this is rightfully mine," she says. "Everything in that room, and some of the things outside of it for good measure. It's the least I could do after he left me for dead."
"Left you for…" Mizuki is trying her hardest to put the pieces together, but it's very difficult when she hasn't slept at all last night.
She sets the tea set down and cups her face in her cheeks again. "I like you a whole lot, so I'll tell you my secret."
She leans in close to her ear. "The truth is, I'm actually the princess."
"So you're…"
She stands and curtsies. "Princess Ena Shinonome. Though I suppose I'm queen now."
"But we were told— you're— you died."
"I never died," she says, "But fae touched princesses don't belong in father's kingdom."
Mizuki's head spins as what the intruder— what Ena said registers.
"You were fae touched before you went missing?"
She frowns. "What exactly has father been telling you?"
"Just that you went missing fourteen years ago. And that you were taken by the fae. He told us that this war is to avenge you."
Ena's amber eyes flash with an anger that makes her shiver. "Avenge me? Is that what he said? Does he suddenly care about my supposed death now that my kingdom is nearly ready?"
"I— I don't know," Mizuki whimpers.
She blinks, no longer radiating her anger in waves, but Mizuki knows it's still there, simmering below the surface.
"Well now that you know, are you still going to stop me?"
She considers it for a while, glancing around to make sure she hasn't been seen.
"You can take it," she decides, "but please be careful."
Ena nods, picking up her stolen prize. "Pleasure doing business with you, Mizuki. Oh, and get some sleep for me would you? You practically look dead on your feet."
Mizuki didn't remember telling Ena her name.
As of late, Mizuki has been letting Ena steal with no resistance. The things in the powder blue bedroom were all hers to begin with after all. She knows it's risky. She's one of the few people who go into the room nowadays and if she's found out she'll surely be killed. Even so, she keeps Ena a secret. She lets her steal. She's even found herself subtly moving things she thinks Ena will want closer to windows, so it will be easier for her to take them. She finds herself seeking the lost princess out some nights just so she can talk to her.
"I saw Akito today," Ena tells her one night. "He didn't see me though."
"He thinks he's avenging you," Mizuki says, "They all do. The kingdom loved you an awful lot."
"The loved the princess," Ena corrects, "They didn't love me as I am. They never did. That's why I was left for dead like that."
She thinks she understands. She knows she is valued by the king and his court, but often she wonders if they value Mizuki the loyal maid or Mizuki the tailor's daughter.
"You feel it too," Ena says, "That doubt I've always felt. This kingdom values nobody. It only values what you can do for it. In my kingdom things will be different. I'll value my citizens based on who they are and not what they can do for me. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"
"It would," she agrees, "But once it's ready, will that mean I'll never see you again?"
Ena pats her head, "That's nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about. I'm not going anywhere until I have everything I want."
"Get some real sleep tonight, Mizuki," she says before she leaves, "You look like hell."
That day, she leaves with the flower shaped rug in her old bedroom.
Today, Mizuki knows she won't have time to help Ena. Due to stress and overwork, many of the other castle staff were down with a sickness that was passing around which meant she was left with a list a mile long.
Of course it isn't the first time she's had to take on another persons load, but she's never had to take on so many before. She practically has to clean the entire castle by herself.
She's pulled aside by one of the castle guards later that afternoon. His face is steel and that's how she knows it's over.
"You've been suspected of treason," he says.
Standing public trial is definitely the most humiliating thing Mizuki has ever done. Standing before the king and his court, she feels incredibly small. In fact, she feels smaller than she had when Ena turned her into a plushie.
The trial is surprisingly biased, perhaps because tensions are high. Instead of trying to prove her guilty, they ask her questions as though she already is. She knows she's guilty, of course, but it still feels incredibly unfair, especially when coupled with the fact that a lack of sleep has made it more difficult for her to properly answer.
Even so, she refuses to tell them anything about Ena. They ask her what the thief looks like. The king stresses how important it is that she tells him, because the thief is fae, and fae killed his daughter. The very daughter he'd never bothered to search for.
Her lips remain sealed, though she does not deny her guilt. Within fifteen minutes the court declares her to be insane. They say she must have been stolen or manipulated by the fae somehow and it's best to have her killed before she can cause any more trouble. By this time next week, an example will be made out of her. Though she knew it was coming, Mizuki can't help the fear that rushes through her.
She'll have a public execution. The kingdom will watch, thousands of eyes will gawk at her, and they'll all be glad she's gone. They'll all know her as the fae-crazed traitor who kept her silence until the very end. Her family will watch, Yuuki will have to watch her darling little sister be subjected to some horrid fate like being drawn and quartered or tarred and feathered.
And the worse part is, upon looking at the faces of those who had doomed her to death, she could tell they were glad to be rid of her.
Even the king regarded her with a cold hatred as though she had personally killed his daughter.
Mizuki doesn't sleep during the first three days she spends in the castle dungeon. She hardly eats either, unable to get her imminent execution out of her head.
What will the kingdom think? Will they also look at her with that cocktail of relief, disgust and hatred she'd seen on the faces of the king and his court? Would they clap and cheer at her death.
Mizuki remembers when that poor servant girl had been executed. She'd been made to watch, along with the other servants of the kingdom, but she couldn't stomach it. Watching the life of a human being be snuffed out like that was more than she could bear and she'd lost her lunch right there on the cobblestone. She remembered sobbing that night, though she hadn't known the girl very well. Would anyone cry like that for her?
She deserves her fate. She knows she does. She's committed treason which is certainly no petty crime. She knew when she'd let Ena go in the courtyard that there would be a high price to pay for her actions. They both had.
She hopes Ena can get what she wants before she's caught. She hopes at the very least her death will aid her in some way. Maybe the castle staff would be made to watch, leaving the castle itself completely unguarded. If she could at least serve as a distraction for her, that would be enough.
Mizuki wishes she could have seen Ena's kingdom for herself, but dying for its cause would have to be good enough for her.
…Now she's really thinking like a traitor.
She wishes she could have spent more time with Ena. She'd grown quite fond of her.
She guesses it doesn't matter though.
When Mizuki hears footsteps on the fourth day, she thinks nothing of it, continuing to pick at her food. The clink of the cell door opening gets her attention though.
Standing in front of her is Ena, the girl she'd been longing to see one last time before her death.
"What are you doing here?" she asks.
"I already told you, I'm not leaving until I get everything I want," she answers, "That includes you, Mizuki."
"It does?"
Ena nods, her voice shy as she says, "Only if you want it to."
"I do. I want it more than anything, Ena. I've been hoping I'd see you again."
"I heard about what you did," she said, a frown on her face. "You got yourself slotted for execution for my sake? Why didn't you tell them anything? They might have let you go if you'd told them I hypnotized you or something."
"Because you didn't," she says, "And even if you did, I… I wanted to protect you."
"That's really sweet of you," Ena tells her, "But you're not allowed to do that anymore, okay? I can protect myself."
"But what if I still want to protect you sometimes? Would that be okay?"
"I guess," she concedes, "But you have to allow me to protect you sometimes too. Oh, and you're not allowed to sacrifice yourself for me or anything like that. I don't want you dying for my sake. Mizuki, I don't want you to die."
Mizuki can make no promises in no regard, but, "I'll try my best."
"Good. Now lets get out of here, okay?"
She nods.
Ena reaches out, just like she did when they first met. "This will only be for a moment okay?"
Then their hands brush together. Ena pulls her close as she compresses into a stuffed animal.
"You're so cute like this," she says, "You know the plushies tell me about how diligent you were with keeping them company. They say you can sew. Do you think you could show me when we get home?"
Mizuki doesn't respond, of course.
"I'll make sure to hurry and turn you back before you forget hot to breathe. I like you much better when you can talk anyway."
She begins walking at a hurried pace, taking shortcuts and secret passages that Mizuki had been completely unaware of.
"You know where we're going, don't you? Father and his men call it the land of nightmares, but we all call it Phennyland. The plushies will all be so excited to see you again. I missed you, Mizuki, I really did."
Those words warm her heart, though it is only fabric at the moment.
Soon enough, they're outside, on a patchwork horse she can only assume to be Ena's. Soon enough they're on their way home.
"Make haste," she commands the horse. "We need to get Mizuki home as soon as possible."
The horse wasted no time dashing onward.
From there, no worries of the king's temper arose, no fears of deadlines or having far too much on her plate for just one girl. There was only the click click click of Ena's horse as she took her home, to the place many in the kingdom called to world of nightmares. To Mizuki, it sounded like a dream.
This is nice, she thinks as she closes her eyes.
She let's the rhythmic click click click lull her into the best sleep she's ever had.
Tap tap tap.
Tap tap tap.
Mizuki makes a quiet noise of displeasure as the rhythmic tapping rouses her from her nap.
Tap tap tap.
Mizuki peers over her arms which were serving as a pillow, to her left where who she knows to be the source of the noise sits.
The pencil Toya was tapping her desk with hovers a few centimeters over it now. Upon seeing her rouse from her slumber, he shakes his head slightly in what is surely a 'I'm not mad, just disappointed' gesture. Mizuki can't help but deflate at his silent scolding.
Toya then slid something to her. The book she knew contained his notes poked against her arm.
Finally, Mizuki unfurls herself from her sleeping position, removing her head from her arms which served as a pillow. Her purple cable knit sweater was her only shield from the biting cold of the classroom.
"Thanks Toya," she says.
He nods. "It's really nothing."
"It means a lot to me," she tells him, "It's not nothing."
He smiles at her. "If you'd like, we can go over these in the library sometime. We do have a quiz at the end of the week."
That's his way of asking her to come to school more often, she knows. It's difficult to say no to him sometimes, but Mizuki doesn't particularly want to return to class tomorrow
She let's out a noncommittal hum. "Maybe."
Toya nods like that's all he needs before exiting the room. In her still remaining drowsiness, Mizuki failed to notice that class had ended. Now, as the only remaining student, she gently pushed Toya's notebook into her bag to copy his notes later. She'd have to return it to him tomorrow, which would require going to school at least for a little bit.
As she leaves the classroom, Mizuki tries to recall her dream, but it's shape is lost to the waking world. It was probably nothing special, she decides.