Author's Notes: This is a one-shot with Myui Formar, the countess of Italica, as the POV character. Hope you enjoy it.
Myui sat in a far corner of the room, shivering. Icy air bit at wherever her skin was exposed, not covered by her night dress. Hugging her knees brought her little warmth. Her face, wet with tears, felt like frost, and whenever she coughed, her throat was raw. Numbness spread across her fingers; she was squeezing too hard and her nails dug into her skin. The cold was relentless, unruly.
Yet, she welcomed it. Cherished it.
Anything to keep her mind from falling asleep. Or even thinking, for the matter. Otherwise, the nightmares would come. The nightmares would come, and there will be no end of it. She just knew it. So for now, let the cold ravage her, keep her awake, and never remind her of her father. Let the cold freeze her. For an eternity, if possible.
She sniffed; her nose was blocked and there was an upshot of pain as she sniffed harder. The dim moonlight shone through the open window of her room, and Myui's reddened eyes focused on where the light touched the wooden floor. How long till dawn, she wondered. A few hours, hopefully. Or maybe it won't come at all. She was on the crossroad in her life where she wasn't sure of anything anymore. It will stay this way, she guessed, for a while. A long while.
The winter wind purred outside the window, and there were the soft chatter of guards patrolling the castle grounds. Myui tried to make out what they were saying, but their voices were too faint and they soon faded away, leaving her to the silence of her bedroom once again. Silence. She had grown accustomed to it all too well. Alone in a big castle, with no other family left.
The fairy tale stories of princesses trapped in tall towers always had a happy ending. Yet, that does not seem to be the case for her. The princesses were always pretty, beautiful, magical. She, on the other hand, was just a little girl of eleven years, naïve and emotional. What's more, she was not a princess. She was a count's daughter—a countess now; her father had drilled her position on the social hierarchy ever since she began her education, and it was one of the many lessons she would not forget. Especially now that he was gone, every memory of him was all the more precious.
She remembered the last time he had kissed her on her forehead. It was before he left to heed the call to arms by the Emperor to campaign in the Other World. He had not wanted to leave her, he told her, and had promised to be back as soon as possible. But he broke that promise. And now he would never be back. She didn't blame him though; she didn't want to blame him, she just wanted him to be by her side again.
The tears began falling again, rolling down her cheeks like crawling ice. Myui buried her head into her knees, muffling the sound of her cries. Gods, she prayed, why? Why? Why? And why? Everything felt like a dream, her life up to now was a dream, only when she heard the news of her father's death in the Other World did the dream turned into a nightmare. A nightmare she knew that she could never wake up from. Ever.
And thus, she was alone, yes, she was alone. There was nothing she could do about it.
Author's Notes: This one-shot was written to try and get me back into the swing of writing again after a long break due to exams and other commitments. In this fic, I tried to explore Myui's grief of losing her father and being forced to being the head of her family at such an early age. I hope that came across well enough. If it doesn't, please do tell me where I can improve on this fic.