Elena had been standing guard near the Hatter's rooms since the day the champion, Alice, had left. Clothed in dark, rich green with tumbling black hair, which she often wore in a plait, Elena did not blend with the rest of the kingdom, unless her adoptive mother, the new queen, the White Queen, Mirana, dress for court. Otherwise, dark green gowns were her true thing.
There was no disguising, however, the dark, brooding look she sometimes acquired in her eyes as brown as chocolate. The sorrow she felt whenever Iracebeth was mentioned.
Some things could not be healed by the exile of the guilty. Elena's sorrow was one example. Tarrant's madness was another. Mirana had done what she thought was right, what would be accepted by her vows. That did not mean Elena could not hold anger in her heart.
Sometimes, the guards would get curious. Suspicious. They reported their thoughts to the queen, who brushed them off.
"She just needs to heal," the queen would tell them. "Iracebeth took everything from her before she knew. Give her time. She will see."
But Elena didn't know what Mirana meant. Mirana was as a mother to the young maiden, whose parents had been slaughtered in the Jabberwocky attack that had stolen Tarrant's people as a whole. Her family had been part of Court for many years – her own mother, Karimi, had been Mirana's personal dress-maker. Karimi and Tarrant had collaborated on many of the queen's favorite outfits. The loss had hit Tarrant and Mirana both particularly hard.
Until Tarrant discovered the child, wrapped in a white blanket, the name Elena, a small, pink heart, and a dark violet L embroidered artfully upon it. She'd been hidden away in a hollow tree when the Jabberwocky had descended upon the celebration, by her beautiful, young mother…
Karimi Stormglow.
Elena Stormglow was the White Queen's adopted daughter.
And a beauty she was...