Monument of Stones

Rifiuto: Non Miriena

Summary: A dynasty near wiped out. A lost princess returned to her country. Ten years after the overthrow of the Fliaanian royal family, the only survivor of the last dynasty has a choice to make- carve her own path, or follow in her family's footsteps and repeat their mistakes. Can she change history, or will it repeat itself? 2nd in the Fliaanian Royals Quartet. A/N: Written: 2006. Found: 2017. - Licia

She wandered the halls of the Winter Palace- it had been over a decade since she had last set foot inside, when her family had been taken from their beds and driven to the governor's mansion and subsequently gunned down.

With her coronation robes now off, and the Great Imperial Crown, scepter and orb returned to their rightful places within the vault, she was free to do as she pleased; and for her, that meant wandering the halls, getting hopelessly lost, as far from the celebration as possible. All the better, she thought, curling her fingers in the heavy fabric of her coronation gown. She sighed, tucking a stray strand of hair away from her face. The diamond poliska she wore was surprisingly lighter than the crown she'd worn earlier during the ceremony.

"Fabala?"

She froze, hearing Glinda call for her, and after a moment, glanced over her shoulder in time to see the blonde make her way into the hall. In a split-second decision, she gathered her skirts and hurried down the rest of the hallway. She could hear Glinda calling for her, but didn't bother stopping.

"Fabala!"

She could vaguely hear Glinda's footsteps on the floor behind her, and if anything, that spurred her on. Though she loved Glinda dearly, she knew that she had to escape; that if Glinda caught her, she'd force her back to the celebration on Partra's orders, when the last thing she wanted to do was attend a ball, even one being thrown in her honor, for having been found, returned to Fliaan, and accepting the throne. While she may have grown up watching the parties her parents and older sisters had attended, and had enjoyed them when she was old enough to attend, now, she could safely say, that she abhorred such functions- if only because she'd spent ten years of her life attending nothing that even resembled a grand celebration like this, and the party or two she'd attended before the coronation, had been the night she and Fiyero had spent at the pub in the City.

Yero.

Her heart twisted deeper, her soul screamed louder, and it only made her run faster, her heels clicking frantically on the marble floor. In her head, she could hear his voice from that night at the pub, feel his hand on her back. "You are so much more than a Kauri, you know that, right? You're mine, princess or orphan."

"I belong to you?"

"You belong to me."

Tears filled her eyes and slipped down her cheeks as she kept running. Her skirts billowed out behind her, a sea of silver in a marble hallway. The pendant bounced against her throat, a constant reminder of what she'd lost by returning to this world, of the future she'd thrown away for her real family. Of a home and a family she would never have, because she would never see the man she loved again. Most likely, her secret marriage would be annulled and she would be forced to marry someone else- a king of a neighboring country or even a noble of her court. Though from what she could gather, there weren't many monarchies left in Oz now- save the Vinkus and Ev; the rest had fallen to either republics or democracies, dictators or presidents some time before the Fliaanian revolution; if ever.

Quox, she knew, was still a monarchy, as was the Vinkus, and Ev. But the other countries...

Have all moved on, while we are still stuck in the past, unable to move forward into the future, despite the revolution; we are desperate to hold onto something long gone.

She choked on a sob, another sharp pain wrapping around her heart and soul and proceeding to shred them both.

If I belong to you, why did you leave me, Yero? Why did you run without looking back? Why did you let my grandmother and Glinda step between us? Didn't you know that I wanted to come with you? I wanted none of this, regardless of you being by my side in this world or not; I only wanted to be with you, but you fled without a second thought to me. How could you?

A sob escaped her throat, and she looked up, feeling the tears rush down her cheeks. She passed several doors that led to other rooms, her parents' studies, the playroom that had once been hers and her siblings', the private suite of her parents'; the study room where she and her siblings had so many lessons. Finally, she came to a door, pushing it open and slipping inside. Her feet led her from the room, through the small adjoining hallway, and into another room.

This room too, was ransacked, clothing and objects strewn everywhere. The cots were overturned, and pictures and religious icons torn from the walls. As she stopped to catch her breath, she let herself look around; the room was familiar, so very, very familiar. Like so many rooms in this week of the palace, this one too was abandoned, having been ransacked after the revolution and massacre of the family, anything of monetary value taken by looters and sold at market- for anything that had once belonged to the former royal family of Fliaan had a value as good as blood money, Glinda had told her. Many looters and thieves had sold her family's things just so they could say that they once had in their possession something of the Thropp family's- it was more a bargaining chip than anything, and it turned her stomach.

Struggling to take a deep breath despite the pain in her chest, she looked around, realizing why the room looked so familiar.

"This was my room."

Glinda watched as the skirt of the gown Elphaba wore rippled down the hallway, like a silver butterfly's wing, it fluttered with each step. Time seemed to stand still, as she watched her cousin seem to slowly disappear down the hallway of the palace, into what were once the rooms of the Imperial family; the rooms she shared with her sisters and brother, the rooms her parents occupied at one time, now ransacked and abandoned, forbidden entrance to.

In the far distance, she heard a door click shut, and knew that it was no use going after her. Unlike her escape during the massacre, this disappearance was deliberate. She wanted to hide.

And Glinda was smart enough to know that she had to let her.