Clemencia woke up in the middle of the night, in her mother's arms. 

She thought this dream was too long, maybe the person high above wanted her to see happiness for the last time. ‘But this is too realistic’, she thought. 

She got off from her mother’s arms and tried to jump off the bed. 

‘Why is this bed so high?', she complained and took a look of her small body in the mirror. 

Clemencia touched her face, tracing her cheeks and neck which was once fool of scratch marks. Her hands were a shorter than before, her hair was silver with no red stain on them anymore. 

Her eyes examined the room she resided in, the same old tea table, wide balcony made of marble and her bed in the middle where Valentina was sleeping on. Clemencia got back in her mother’s arm and promised her mother, “I'll protect us now, even if this is a dream or given a second chance in life.” 

-----------*----------- 

“Princess, good morning”, Lia, Clemencia's maid opened the window of her room and the sun rays came crashing in on Clemencia's face. She woke up and looked around the room, her mother was not there. 

Clemencia missed Lia, who smiled at her no matter what happened to her in the past. 

She jumped from the bed and tackled her in a hug and they fell on the floor with a ‘thud’. 

“Oh my-, princess. What’s wrong?”, Lia was startled with the way Clemencia jumped on her. 

“I missed you, Lia”, Clemencia said while burying her head in Lia's neck. 

Lia was surprised by her words because they meet almost every day but she was feeling happy too with the way her princess expressed herself to her because usually Clemencia was quite which made Lia worry that she might not interact with anyone in the future and it would leave Clemencia without any friends to depend on. 

“I missed you too, princess", Lia patted her head in adoration and cooed when she saw Clemencia's face with a pout. 

“liar, you left me too", Lia frowned and couldn’t understand what she was talking about but she felt bad for making her sad. 

“then how about this, we can make a pinky promise so that I'll never leave your side”, Lia said while pointing her pinky finger out towards Clemencia, her lips smiling end to end making her eyes turn into the shape of half-moon. 

Clemencia looked at the finger and muttered, “wouldn’t that make me seem childish?", she was unsure whether she was acting her correct age or not. 

“No, did you know that pinky promises can never be broken? They are as strong as the pledge taken by our kingdom’s knights.”, Lia thought that Clemencia never came across these things that’s why she was looking at her so skeptically, ‘how cute', she cooed again. 

“Really?", Clemencia pulled out her pinky finger hesitantly. 

“Really.” Lia joined her finger with Clemencia's and stamped both of their thumbs together. 

Clemencia couldn’t help but smile and think Lia looked really cute. 

Meanwhile Lia thought the same thing about Clemencia. 

“Today the prince came back from his mission, you can meet him.”, Lia informed and got up from the floor with Clemencia in her arms. 

“Brother? Really?”, Clemencia asked excitedly, she was longing to see her brother after they got separated in the past. 

“Yes, you both always used meet each other on every fourth day before his mission.”, Lia explained. 

“Then what are we waiting for? Let's go.", Clemencia jumped from Lia's arms and ran towards the door. 

“Wait, princess. You haven't washed up yet. Do you want to go downstairs while wearing that night dress?”, Lia asked in a teasing manner. 

Clemencia stopped abruptly and looked down at her attire, her whole body flushed in embarrassment.  

“let’s wash up first", she said in a really low voice. 

Lia laughed and picked Clemencia up in her arms. Clemencia gasped in surprise, 

“What are you doing?", she asked Lia with wide eyes and flushed face as no one has held her like that for a long time now. She was still an adult in mind who felt awkward in a position like this. 

“I'm taking you for a bath”, Lia answered. 

“But I can do that myself, I don’t need help", Clemencia said, embarrassed at the thought that someone was going to bathe her at this age. 

“Oh, I know you can. You're already thirteen years old now but you’re still a child in my eyes, princess.”, Clemencia couldn't hide her embarrassment nor refuse Lia's pleading face with big eyes like a puppy so she reluctantly agreed with her for the time being. 

-------*-------- 

Clemencia ran down the stairs and corridors of the palace, her heart thumping loudly in her chest and ears more and more as she passed by different rooms. 

Lia was running behind Clemencia and telling her to stop running so fast but stopped when she saw Clemencia stopping abruptly before the prince’s room. 

She looked back and asked Lia, “Should I go in? Wouldn't he be angry with me?” 

Clemencia always thought that her brother hated her because they didn’t talk to each other about anything personal until he gave up his life for someone like her, 

she blamed herself for his death, she blamed herself for being so powerless that every important person in her life sacrificed themselves for a weakling like her. 

She hesitated and was afraid to see her brother’s reaction when he’ll see her. 

‘Would he be angry? Disappointed? Or blame me?’, she was contemplating whether to go in or not. 

“Why would he be angry? He loves you; he'll forgive you for everything. And didn’t you wanted to see the prince desperately? It's okay to do what you feel like, princess”, Lia said in a calm and sad manner that the royalty has to behave like this even in front of their siblings. 

Clemencia looked up at Lia and her words kept ringing in her ears, there was something that hit her with Lia's words, she nodded her head sagely and knocked on her brother’s door. 

“Come in”, a deep voice of a man rumbled from the room. 

Clemencia held her breath and opened the door slowly and peeked her head in first to check where her brother was. 

She looked around the room and spotted a boy who looked no less than twenty years old with hair color resembling her mothers, black like cobalt and eyes which looked exactly like herself. 

He was standing beside a bookshelf with spectacles on and checking some papers with concentration in his hands. 

Clemencia wanted to cry when she saw him but held her tears in, she didn’t want to look like a crybaby. 

Her brother looked up and noticed Clemencia lost in her thoughts while looking at him. 

He cleared his throat slightly and sat on a chair, which made her come out of her bubble. 

“Hi", Clemencia whispered, unsure whether he heard her or not. She wanted to ask him a lot of things, ‘how was he? Is he stressed? Sad? Mad? Or maybe upset with her?’ but her throat got clogged with many pent-up emotions. 

“Have you been well?”, he asked in rough voice, if this had been the past the Clemencia would have thought he didn’t like her and avoided her but she saw warmth now in his stern beautiful eyes. 

“I don’t know, what about you?”, she asked, walking in and sat on the chair next to him, turning her head towards him. 

“Likewise,”, he grunted out. She noticed one more thing in him, he always answered her back no matter what. 

Clemencia smiled at that and asked her brother to say welcome back to her. 

He was confused as to why she was saying something like that out of the blue but said it anyways, “Welcome back, sister.” 

Clemencia leaned her head on her brother’s shoulder and said, “I'm home”. 

Lia was watching the interaction between the siblings from the gate secretly and couldn’t help but feel contented.