~Abyss~

My name is Daphne.

I am the nymph of Magix, the guardian who dwelt in the depths of Roccaluce. I have been the wielder of great powers and a chosen protector of the Dragon's Flame.

But above all things, I am the first-born daughter of Oritel and Marion, a Princess of Domino.

Loved rulers, noble warriors, they stood for all that was good and just: they were the epitome of glory. I was caught in their magnificent shadows. And I shared in their greatness.

That greatness consumed my youth.

Greatness is what drowned my proud world. I too drowned in greatness with the memories of my family and our nation, passing into obscure myths and ambiguous tales.

Yet another great ill-fated heroine to grace those dusty history books...

Perhaps if I had known how priced greatness was, maybe I would not have been so keen to drink from its sweet gibbet.

Forgive me for being cynical, but being trapped in an ethereal existence for nearly two decades enlightens you. The bodiless soul bound to a lake can only ever touch solid reality through shifting dreams and desperate whispers.

Ah, my life has been filled with fruitless sighs.

Witches must be well versed in dispensing cruel kindnesses. Despite my fate I have never truly lamented it, not because I couldn't, but because I can't.

I can't even remember the pain of my disembodiment, my death. I still can't really perceive the sensation of my muscle and tissue disintegrating, my bones breaking, the realisation of betrayal.

But I know that happened. I have to know that it happened.

How a spirit knows but cannot feel.

During those long watery years I had to cling desperately to the morals drummed into me in youth. For the temptation to relinquish worldly cares was very strong.

I mean, I had made my sacrifices and been promptly forgotten.

That physical domain had rejected me, but my struggling desires trapped me in a halfway existence! Did it matter where I came from or who I was?

I felt like an anomaly, a foreigner, a refugee who was shackled to the darkness only because sanctuary had been deprived by rehearsed fate!

There was no homeland to turn back on, because it no longer existed! I shouldn't have had to struggle to cling to the life that no longer needed me!

Oh.

I don't think I should be thinking that way. Is…is this anger? Spirits aren't supposed to be…

Wait, that's right.

I'm not a ghost.

Not anymore. Not…anymore.

The mirror in my bedroom tells me this much. My bedroom, in my family's palace. The palace in the capital of my homeland. Domino.

Domino is alive. My planet breathes freely once more. I breathe.

I rub my fingers slowly on my temples, savouring and carefully noting the contact of skin. I feel the throb of crimson red breaths pumping through my flesh. Should I prick myself, those red breaths will gush through the punctures. I am once more fragile, susceptible. I am alive.

Ah.

How I must go through this ritual for days on end.

Though my soul regained its outer shell some time ago, I still cannot really reconcile myself to that fact. Neither the fact that states I am once again physically functional in the bustling universe.

The only object that reminds me of this is this mirror. Almost for always, mirrors were the only window to life beyond the watery confines of my cave. The only link that I felt I could touch that made myself…real.

I look in the mirror once again, at me wearing this flesh. Thinking about it leads me to wonder if I had been pre-destined to live in mere reflections of reality.

But methinks it is too early to appreciate the sensation of sorrow.

"Daphne?"

At the sound of her name, the golden haired princess tore herself from the mirror.

"Oh! Bloom!" she squeaked, somewhat embarrassedly.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" she asked, halfway through the gaping doorway. Daphne bit her lips; her darting eyes betrayed just how she was struggling to think clearly, from this unprecedented intrusion.

And her petite fleshy guise was not going to conceal her inability to answer.

Bloom wasn't planning to stand waiting in silence though; her thin eyebrows slightly furrowed at her unresponsive sister. "I am clearly misunderstanding this situation; there is something wrong here isn't there?" she prompted.

"N-nothing really, little sister. I mean, no, no of course not! I was just thinking." she glanced absently.

Bloom paused long faced. She had a few quick looks in and out of the room before closing the door soundlessly behind her.

"Thinking? About what exactly?" Bloom breathed as she moved across the chamber.

"Um, things. Honestly it's not anything important." Daphne huffed, her voice trailing off.

"Is that so?" disbelief obvious in Bloom's tone.

"W-well, yes!" Daphne retorted defensively. "When I say that nothing is important, nothing is important!"

"Clearly."

"Why are you here anyway?" impulsively, Daphne backed away from the advancing figure, the strangely civil and hostile figure, bathed in the early evening's glow. "Bloom are you the one who needs something? Why are you here?"

Still unresponsive. Daphne broke into a faint sweat. But now at the edge of her living quarters, she reached for the cold handles of the crystal exit. But Bloom was quicker; her hand fell sharply on one of the knobs, depriving the older sibling access. In a blink she grabbed Daphne's upper limbs, pinning her, staring unflinchingly.

"Tell me why I shouldn't be?"

"W-w-why? I, a-ah –"

"Is the 'nothing' you were doing so important?" Bloom tilted her head slightly, looking out through the glass doors. "What were you planning to do? Jump off the balcony?"

"W-what? No, it wasn't that, I–" Daphne frowned. "Why would I need to jump off a balcony?"

"Beats me, you were the one doing 'nothing', and I don't know how to do or think your 'nothing'." Bloom mused.

"What's your problem with me?!" Daphne hissed, now trying to forcibly remove herself from the situation, only Bloom held her tighter. "Leave me alone!"

"Okay, firstly tell me why I should leave you alone. And secondly on an unrelated note, if you want to be left alone, why don't you go back to being a disembodied spirit in that lake of yours, instead of wandering the palace like a lost soul! It's less hurtful for everyone that way."

"How dare you!"

"I dare. Because that's what you seem to want to do nowadays."

Daphne was visibly agitated. "Just what made you think you can waltz in here and insult me!"

"Many things." Bloom replied coldly.

"What 'things' you speak of? I don't know your 'things'." Daphne sneered.

"Fine." Bloom squinted "Allow me to rephrase myself, since you clearly won't happily volunteer to tell me on your own." pausing, she took a deep breath " I know you're hurting and upset Daphne."

"Pardon me, but all of that previous nastiness was an expression of your concern? I am so touched, truly."

"Stop being cynical, I know you haven't really been alright since…since, you came back, nearly a year ago…and especially for the last few months…I know you're not feeling okay." Bloom's mouth quivered as she spoke, evidently trying to maintain self-control as her older sister's negative emotions washed over her.

"And who are you to know my feelings?"

"Daphne…"

"I. AM. FINE."

"No, no you're not."

"You don't really know anything about me! You don't know how I feel!"

"Oh geez I don't know, maybe because I'm a fairy and I have magical powers like you and I can see your feelings? You've got an unmistakably miserable aura hanging over you, and I see it, as in right now!"

Daphne's expression stiffened. "No I –wait what did you say? Bloom…you…can't, I'm not a mere human I –"

"But I don't need really need magic to know how you feel Daphne," Bloom cut in "I can see it, all day, every day. You're, you're so out of it, and you're getting worse. And I'm sick of not being able to just tell you I'm worried about you! We've been doing that long enough already. And-and, I'm your sister, we have that mental link remember, I know when you're in pain, even when we've been separated for so long..."

Bloom scrunched her eyes shut, swallowing back her own turmoil, letting go of Daphne in the process.

"Oh, Bloom." Daphne shivered. Her body slumped against the crystal doors as she watched her younger sister compose herself in the way she no longer really could, in a way she forgot. "I thought it was just me. I…" she sighed brokenly "I've been really selfish haven't I?"

Bloom looked at her sister, her eyes less piercing and far gentler. She carefully took Daphne's hands into hers. "You're such a bad liar. You should know you can talk to me." she whispered, squeezing them lovingly.

Daphne drew their hands up, clenching them tighter. "Bloom, I…I really don't have any words, I –"

"Save it, and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have egged you on, I was just…come here." Bloom wiggled her hands out of Daphne's grasp and wrapped her arms around her, burying herself in her sister's embrace. Daphne offered no resistance. They were silent for a few moments.

"This is what happens when we don't talk to each other properly. Sometimes I don't feel like we really can because of all of these court rules and royal expectations." Bloom paused.

Daphne looked at her sister oddly. "Bloom, it's not your fault we can't, as Crown Princess…you, you have many duties that you must attend…to." Daphne slowed down; she clenched her teeth and said nothing more.

In the quiet, Bloom began to sense Daphne's realisation and started speaking.

"Daphne, I've never been great sentimentally, and I know it's probably not the best thing that you hear it from me," Bloom spoke slowly, clearly trying to choose her words more carefully. "But our…family has been through a lot these past years, all of us have. You don't have to be too smart to figure that much out. Um, what I mean is, it's okay to be, you know–"

"We're princesses Bloom," Daphne pulled herself away "Leaders of our kingdom, protectors of our people! So much rests on our decisions and our duty, and how we conduct ourselves! We'll be failing more than just ourselves if we are any less than that, because so many look up to us!"

"Yes, I…I know that." Bloom bit her lip. "But –"

"But nothing, Bloom. If you're worried about how the state of the kingdom affects our family…affects me…do not be, the concerns regarding the matter are not…unexpected." Daphne turned and saw Bloom's disappointed expression "Besides, you should not fret, everything…"

"Daphne." Bloom said, "I want to talk to you about it without the political run-around. We hear enough pointless banter already every time we–"

"No, there is nothing to discuss any further. The safety and preservation of Domino and the Magical Dimension comes first in this regard. The universe expects us to act accordingly."

"The universe, sure, but that shouldn't be an excuse for not being there for each other! Problems like those will be solved one way or another! It's the people who have to deal with those problems that I'm more worried–"

"That's far too idealistic Bloom in this situation, you know that." Daphne pleaded, but Bloom, perhaps understanding her point was being lost, launched back.

"You can't protect me from everything Daphne!"

"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think everyone in the great royal household of Domino knows that?!" Daphne snapped "There's so much about running our kingdom that you still don't understand. Domino sits precariously as a point of balance for the forces of the universe, magically in a sense, but politically especially. That is why there has to be so much decided for us."

Bloom uttered nothing in response, and Daphne could see she was quietly seething, like she did when her assigned tutors lectured her about royal expectations and behaviour.

"Listen, Bloom please, our royal court, our parents, will take care of this."

Bloom looked at Daphne again, seeping in long shadows. "And you say that I'm the one who is idealistic?"

"What?" Daphne looked bewildered.

"Domino has been virtually absent from the political stage for nearly two decades."

"And?"

"While our kingdom can support itself to a degree, time will have to be taken to fully rebuild and re-establish alliances and connections with other nations to fully re-integrate ourselves into regular society, from a structural and administrative perspective at least."

Daphne's face wrinkled in confusion "Bloom? I don't…"

"Don't you think our situation is perhaps a little more desperate than you think? I mean, before Domino's restoration, the Royal Conclave was already considering an alternative–"

"Bloom, you don't know what you're talking about." Daphne cut in irritably "That was just…"

"It means we and our parents don't have many options. And they're not just our parents, they're leaders, rulers. And rulers have to make certain decisions and sometimes under pressure, they can become…different. Daphne, they probably can't care at this point what we–"

'Don't you dare speak of our parents that way! I know them far better than you ever will! You weren't even raised by them for nearly all of your life!" Daphne fumed. Unable to control herself, she slapped Bloom right across the face.

Bloom hardly flinched from the swiping hand, didn't even let out a gasp or a cry, or clutch her stinging cheek. She merely sighed and let her vision fly up to the intricately ornamented ceiling, as if she expected her sister's outburst, and that it disappointed her even further.

"B-Bloom? I'm sorry, it's just…" Daphne croaked "You're right, I've been…well, everything has become so confusing and a blur, maybe I'm just getting older and having all of these concerns, oh, I'm–"

Bloom just closed her eyes, her fingers ploughing up her skull.

"No, I'll say it for you. You're sounding a lot like father these days."

"Oh." Daphne could feel her eyes watering, but Bloom looked like as far as she was concerned, the conversation was over.

"Look," Bloom wrung her other hand on her neck before letting her limbs both fall "It's getting late and it's been a long day, we're tired. We need to sleep. You should sleep."

"Bloom, it's quite early."

"Then it's an early night. Good evening, Princess Daphne." and without another word, Bloom turned heel.

Daphne trembled, her mind screamed at her: why was this happening, why was it happening? What did they do for this to happen, what did she do…

"Bloom wait! Don't…"

But the chamber was already empty once again. Empty with only herself to keep her company. Again.

The most ancient of stories are dominated with spirits attempting to forsake divine order. These pure beings of immeasurable power; they guided, manipulated the creatures below them, so that they may descend on physical existence, and be rendered mortal.

When I was a child I could never understand it; why these near-godly beings would ever want to adopt a form that was far less than they were. All they would be doing would be making themselves into mere animals compared to their spiritual greatness. It didn't make any sense.

In those old tales they say both the body and the soul of a person is what makes that person alive.

Without the soul, the body becomes weak, susceptible and frail.

But without the body to provide mortal touch, the spirit becomes detached, disinterested, coldly intellectual when regarding the cares of the world.

Spirits may be real. And yet, they are not alive. Not like we are. Not like what I am now.

I doubt any spirit would want to be like me, though. To at long last receive my mortal coil the way I have.

Ah, why? How many times do I turn these thoughts over and over in my mind? How longer I must?

I try so desperately to feel the infused spirit in this flesh. I try to make these two halves of my being become one. I try so that I can be like I once was, and belong with those who are alive…

I fail, I fail so wretchedly.

But then I wonder, why would I ever want to be like I once was?

Before my bodiless existence all I was a wishful, innocent sixteen-year old, whose life was bliss. I was shielded, protected from the harshness of life's reality because of my youth.

That youth, for all her noble intentions was still so naïve.

And in my naivety I flung myself into doom, thinking that any grand sacrifice I made would justify my existence.

All it did was snuff out any existence, right before my eyes, before I had a chance to really live at all.

Before I knew what it meant to be alive.

Perhaps that was why the Ancestral Witches were so unchangeably consummated with hate so vile. That their hatred of life clung to their spirits bound to Obsidian.

Their connections to the living had been forcibly severed, maybe through an unknown grief, or most likely, their own greedy designs. Some wonder how their thoughts turned rapidly from domination to destruction; I do not. Why should they rule those who had the privilege of living that they could not claim as their own?

In the long depths I came to know of their plight. For it was my plight too. I shared their sorrow.

They wanted me to.

But confessing to such camaraderie with evil is bound to bring ill.

It is horror and treason to the good living that one could possibly sympathise with any fixed malevolence that cares not for the crimes they commit. Judged as succumbing to darkness and fearing infection, the living distance themselves, unsure and unable to react.

Until at long last, the sympathiser abandons all hope, and blocks out the screams for salvation, with solitude.

Is that my fate, I whisper, for which there will never be a reply. For I dread that reply.

And all that's left for me to think of, to dream…

What if things had been different?

What if I had saved myself, instead of upholding the good and the honour I did not really understand?

I wouldn't have had these walls to trap me and separate me from life. To let the separation make me succumb to its danger and trick me into building my own bars, and craft my own shackles.

How can I free myself from the prison I had a hand in building?

A most cruel admittance to my shame.

In my doubt, against any reason, I ask myself…

How wilfully do we carry our hateful prisons? These prisons that we make?

My heart is silent, without consolation.

A voice buried deep within me answers: until the end of our breathable days, and into eternity…

My name is Daphne of Domino.

I am a lost princess who has been given a chance to come back and be free, to reclaim what is hers.

But all there is, is bitterness.

Author notes: This piece introduces and explores Daphne, who is going to be a main character in my upcoming fanfiction saga Beloved. Initially I was going to leave out the lengthy dialogue in between, but I think it's important to setting up the stage for the main story, as well as giving readers an idea of how the tale is situated. I'm also experimenting with writing style as well. ( And I wasn't sure where to put this in my actual story, so I thought maybe it would be a cool idea if I just made it a one shot even if that makes it lengthy)The second instalment of this prologue/introduction to main characters will be up soon. Hopefully.

Two major inspirations that helped me out when writing Daphne's POV were these two stories: miko647635's Bitterness and The13thGirlWithoutASoul's Saint Daphne. Special thanks to them!