Cassy stood to the side, not daring to interrupt.
She watched Evelyn instead.
Despite being the youngest in the room, Evelyn commanded the space effortlessly. She didn't bark orders, didn't assert herself physically—but none of them dared treat her as anything less than a superior.
Not one maid spoke with condescension.
Their tone was always precise. Measured. Respectful.
Almost... reverent.
Cassy (Thoughts): "She understands everything they say without needing to ask twice."
Evelyn responded with few words.
Evelyn: "Noted. Good work. Stay alert."
And nothing more.
No questions, no clarification. Just acknowledgment—and that was enough.
When Clair finished her part, she hesitated. Just for a moment.
Clair: "The head maid. Acting suspiciously. A few changes. Patrol schedules as well."
Evelyn: "Observe. Do not interfere."
Clair bowed and left.
Silence returned, like a curtain falling on the last act of a play.
Cassy, still rooted in place, stepped slowly toward Evelyn. The girl hadn't moved since Clair's departure. Her eyes were once again lost in the distance, beyond the rain-splattered glass.
Cassy: "They… they all knew exactly what to do."
Evelyn didn't answer. She rested her chin against her hand, brows slightly furrowed.
Cassy: "None of this is coincidence, is it? The change in guards, the strange movements… even that phrase Melinda mentioned the other day…"
Evelyn's gaze didn't shift, but her voice did return—softer, edged with warning.
Evelyn: "It's starting."
Cassy: "Starting what?"
A stillness fell again.
Then Evelyn whispered—
Evelyn: "A purge."
Cassy sucked in a breath, nearly dropping the duster in her hand.
Cassy: "But… but we're not at war. There hasn't been a single skirmish in—"
Evelyn closed the book on her lap with a soft thump.
Evelyn: "Wars don't start with armies. They begin quietly. With missing papers. Poison. Eyes that see too much."
She turned slowly, her pale lashes catching the light.
Evelyn: "It's already begun."
Cassy swallowed. Her voice came out smaller.
Cassy: "Why do you think so, Your Highness?"
Evelyn didn't answer right away.
Her gaze wandered, but not in confusion. It was the gaze of someone sifting through memory. Of someone weighing thoughts too old for their face.
Evelyn: "...Nothing. After all, life is a battlefield full of uncertainties."
Cassy (Thoughts): "That doesn't sound like a child. Not like any six-year-old I've ever known. Is she really the same princess I once knew? Can a head injury change someone this much?"
The hours drifted by like petals on water. The sunlight faded into gray. The quiet of the palace thickened like fog.
Evening fell quietly, like velvet laid over stone.
Cassy had long since been summoned to assist in the lower wing. Evelyn didn't ask where or why—she already knew. That wing had seen unusual movement these past two days. It was only natural for someone to be watching it now.
And now, she was alone.
She stood by the arched window again, her silhouette framed by the deepening gloom. Outside, the garden was glistening with soft spring rain, droplets clinging to the petals of the black roses that lined the hedge. The flowers, proud and still, swayed ever so slightly as if bowing beneath an unseen weight.
She pressed her small hand against the cool glass, her breath leaving a faint mist on the window.
Her forehead followed, resting against the pane.
The silence wrapped around her like a cloak.
Evelyn (Thoughts): "They think they can control me by watching me."
Her breath was slow. Even.
Her eyes, narrowed.
Evelyn (Thoughts): "But I'm not someone who anyone can control. At least not anymore."
She closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift.
—A man's voice screaming someone's name.
—A throne drenched in blood.
—A sigil burning in fire.
Memories that no six-year-old should have. Memories that should have been lost with death. But they weren't.
Not for her.
Evelyn: "They don't know who I am."
Not really.
Not yet.
They saw only the porcelain doll. The arrogant little girl.
They didn't see the sharp mind behind her blue eyes. They didn't see the blood-soaked past hiding behind her small frame.
Her fingers curled slightly against the window.
Something had begun to shift.
The five maids had reported in succession—each seeing fragments of a larger picture. Servants with unfamiliar brooches. Cloaked figures speaking with servants. Patrol changes. Ciphered whispers passed between maids.
Every thread pulled tighter now.
Tighter and tighter.
And Evelyn knew that.
This palace will no longer be quiet anymore.
Evelyn remained at the window.
Still.
But within her, something stirred.
The wind outside howled briefly as the clouds shifted. The garden bowed under the wind's weight.
And Evelyn—porcelain, poised, perfect—watched with narrowed eyes.
Her voice was a whisper—heard only by the rain and the stars.
Evelyn: "They think they're watching me..."
She raised a hand, brushing her fingers lightly over the glass.
Evelyn: "...But they have no idea— every step they take is already within my grasp."
The sun cast golden rays over the Black Rose Palace, its glow filtered through gossamer curtains and danced across marble floors.
Yet despite the beauty of the dawn, its warmth never reached the girl who stood motionless at the highest tower window.
Evelyn.
Her white hair, glistening like spun moonlight, fluttered in the breeze that wafted through the open balcony doors. Draped in a muted violet nightgown that whispered with her every movement, she looked almost like a dream. Ethereal. Untouchable.
But beneath that stillness, a storm raged. Her thoughts twisted and turned, haunted by the vivid dream that had clawed its way back into her memory.
"It ends with you."
The words echoed in her skull, sharper than any blade.
A man's voice, deep and filled with grim finality. She wanted to forget it—yet the weight of his words anchored heavily on her chest.
Why now? Why must the past return again?
Her brows drew together as she shut her eyes tightly. The scent of dew-covered roses floated up from the palace gardens below, gentle and sweet.
But even that familiar aroma couldn't soothe the restlessness that clung to her like a second skin.
[System Message: Emotional disturbance detected. Recalibrating mental equilibrium…]
[Status: Stable.]
The system's message hovered briefly in her vision, then vanished like a sigh.
She didn't react to it.