A shadowy figure moved in the darkness, a small distortion in the eyes of anyone that would luckily see it, but of course, none would have the chance. Even the castle guards patrolling the grounds and the walls would fail to see it.

The shadow jumped to the rooftop with the wind on the bottom of its legs, following its bidding. Its movement was swift yet graceful and elegant, its form was perfection itself. It was like a bird — no, rather, a beautiful hunting beast finally freed from its shackles.

That beast had found its target after a long time of enduring its hunger.

After it passed over the roof, it peered unto the battlements where soldiers stood guard, torches, and lamps giving them light to fight the darkness. It waited for an opportunity, and when it came, it flew past the walls with extreme silence and nonchalance.

None saw it pass by.

The figure dove into the forest like diving into the water, but before hitting the ground, the wind engulfed it and it shot upward before entering the forest. It went through branches, and small crevices, it did it all without a break of momentum. The leaves on the trees shook as it went passed by.

The figure, or to be precise, the princess of the kingdom, smiled in delight. She never felt so liberated in a long time. She felt so much joy at finally moving as she wanted, it was as if her heart was about to explode in the warmth of happiness and freedom.

She could traverse this forest with her wind while going through risky maneuvers for hours, and she would still feel happy about it. She felt more liberated than the freedom ever granted to her in her former life. But she cannot remain in bliss forever, her target cannot remain an annoyance, a risk, a threat. And thus, she was about to do something she once did, a part of her that she would never reject, but rather embrace and welcome. There may be sides she disliked, but the rest she accepted.

Perhaps that was because she was nurtured that way, or that was all she knew. But it didn’t matter. She was the way she was, and she was honest to herself.

And one of that honesty was to acknowledge the rage she was feeling inside. A rage bottled up inside her heart, one that was not pleasant to keep, it never was. She wished for many things, envy many things, wanted to experience what she wanted to experience, live the way she wanted. And yet, she was denied that chance in so many ways.

She was at an edge.

With wrath raging in her heart and soul, she made her way to her target.

High above in the air, beyond her gaze, dark fogs that completely blended with the darkness, watched her with shock. Disbelief was also among the other things they felt as they witnessed her movements. They never expected such a thing, too shocking that they began to question who she was for a tiny moment.

But they, the Cursed Children, were certain it was her.

Multiple figures of men appeared amidst each dark fog, dumbfounded as they tracked the princess with their eyes. Their entire bodies were covered, even their faces were covered by masks or clothes, not even a tiny amount of skin to be seen.

“Is she a fool? What is she intending to do?”

“You would call her a fool?” one man seemed to be particularly offended. “What about I pull your throat out and feed you to the wolves until you fully regenerate, hm? Respect the goddess’s daughter.”

“You are a fool as well, protecting the blood of who caused our curse!”

“We deserved it.”

“The sin of one is not the sin of all.”

“Oh, but it was.”

Suddenly, another fog approached. “Stop your bickering lest I have you return home.”

One stood down but the other glared at the new arrival. “Heneis, what do you plan to do now?”

“You will stay here, watch over the palace. Stay on guard.”

“You would prevent me from approaching her eminence?!”

Heneis, the leader of the Cursed Children, grab ahold of the man’s throat and tightened his grip. “I allowed you to come here on the condition of following my orders. Do not break our deal.”

“You hold us away from our destiny.”

“I am leading us to our future.”

“Your future is bleak, dimmed in the cowardice of escaping from our ancestors’ sin.”

“What happened is in the past, now be quiet. Stay here with the others, and keep watch of our enemies. You don’t want her “eminence” to perish, don’t you? So calm down.”

The man growled before being released. Heneis decided to tolerate him for now, it was understandable since it was night time, everyone was agitated with all the pain they were going through. This curse pushes them to the edge every night.

Heneis was one strong enough to get a grip of himself and remain calm as much as possible.

He then proceeded to point at the ones that would come with him in following the princess to wherever she may intend to go. Because of the bizarreness of her actions, Heneis deemed it was best to observe for a while, the unknown when it came to the princess only increased, he needed more leverage if he wished to manipulate the princess into following him.

***

The Marquis, Hevrik Fumine Vekenas, gazed fondly at his two sons on the couch reading a book altogether. He leaned his elbow on the table, enjoying the smiles and the cuteness of his twin children. He was proud of them, they showed promise, and they were particularly smart in their studies. Although their interests were divided, one wanted to be a knight, while the other wanted scholarly duties.

He envisioned the future, his sons all grown up. One was among the knights of the kingdom, renowned as one of the elites in the order, a dashing, hero-like figure. While the other was a proud diplomat who represented the nation in other countries and successfully made allies and had great contributions to the nation.

Such a bright vision. But could such a thing come to pass?

That was the question that snapped Hevrik back from his imagination. His feet began to feel cold as he recalled what he attempted to do earlier today. It was treason, but he was unsuccessful. He didn’t know whether to be happy or upset. He wasn’t certain which one he should fear the most.

He looked at his children again. If he was ever discovered, things wouldn’t end well for his children, and for his wife as well. So perhaps should he be happy that he failed? But now that he failed, he was afraid of something else as well.

Perhaps, only if the mysterious princess didn’t intervene, things might have ended differently. He was feeling suspicious at that interaction with her, something felt different, as if he was seen through. But he deemed it was his paranoia that made him think that way, he was too apprehensive at that time. Either way, he did not believe that the princess have seen through him, after all, she only asked about his nephew.

But even so, it was because of her that things didn’t go the way he expected. But then again, he didn’t know what would be the most terrible outcome, him succeeding or failing. It all came to the hands of those in power.

But now that he had failed, he wished people would leave him alone. But that was not a possibility unless he convinced them.

“Something troubling you, dear?” suddenly, a voice he so loved spoke from behind him, and a hand gently clasped his shoulders.

Without looking back, he held the hand softly holding him. Her touch alone brought him great relief. “Nothing particularly troubling. I was just thinking about how I miss your cooking. Having to eat them again was wonderful, thank you.”

He looked up at his beautiful wife, the treasure in his eyes.

His treasure smiled sweetly at him. “You have been working hard, so I prepared my special dishes for you. I’m glad you like it.”

“You were there with me the entire time, that helped me a lot. Don’t worry, the festival’s about to end, after that, we can go on a short outing. How about it?”

“That would be delightful indeed. Where would we go?”

“I’m thinking something along the lines of a simple picnic. Just us family.”

“I like it. Let’s do that.”

Hevrik kissed his wife’s hand and forced a smile. It was getting late, thus they approached their children.

“Alright you two, time to go to sleep.”

He said to them while confiscating the book from their hands.

“Aw, it was becoming interesting.”

“...” one merely pouted.

“You can continue reading it tomorrow. Now let’s go up.” his wife said to them and the children followed.

The couple entered the two children’s room, which had two separate beds. Soon, they will need to have separate rooms, but as twins, they preferred to stay together. But once they reach at least twelve years old, they have no choice but to have separate rooms.

They tucked them in and kissed them on the foreheads before shutting off their lights and closing the door. Subsequently, the couple came to their room.

Hevrik’s wife raised an eyebrow. “Will you not change to your sleeping attire?”

“I have somewhere to be tonight.”

“... I see… What is it about?”

“Some business partners that have crucial matters that I need to address.”

“Why does it have to be this late in the night?”

“It’s the festival, it’s hard to make vacant time.”

His wife lowered her head. “... I understand.” she appeared to be sad.

“I love you, Beia.” he approached and held her hands. “You are the brightest treasure in our castle, my light in the darkness.” he kissed her on the forehead.

“My light will always remain with you. I love you.”