Point of View: Elle

"It's a promise, then."

There was again, that voice in the back of my mind. It repeated itself over and over again, screaming at me, trying to get me to place it. The problem was that I could never remember where I had heard it before; I could never match a face with it. Letting out a frustrated sigh as I thought about the voice, I jumped onto my bed, landing on my stomach with my face in my pillows. I groaned when someone knocked at my door, but put on a fake smile when I opened it.

My father stepped into my room with a firm look of disappointment on his face. I already knew what was going to happen; he would scold me about not frying the workers, as I so often did. Then he would leave, and I would return to my own world, forgetting everything he had told me. And the memory loss would be on purpose, not like the missing part of my mind that was there from reasons unknown.

"Elle, I have another assignment for you," he said. I saw something in his eyes. He was hiding something. Still, his words surprised me and I did not bother to try and find out why he looked so disappointed in me. Then again, he usually got that look whenever he so much as glanced at me. I nodded at him, waiting impatiently for him to continue. "I need you to find someone. They have an ability, like you. His name is Matthew Parkman. He is able to read your thoughts, as well as control them. Be careful, and take the sword this time. Your sharpshooting is not as great as it normally is; I do not want you to get close enough for him to control you."

"Yes, Daddy," I replied, trying to hide my irritation. Despite the fact that I was somewhat excited about the assignment, I would rather have had him scold me for electrocuting one of the kitchen workers from the day before. I sucked it up, though, and started to get dressed once he had left my room. Within a matter of minutes, I was ready to go, and I tried to look forward to doing this job. Finding at least one good thing to get out of this—being able to get alcohol without Daddy telling me about how one day I will most likely get into an accident by driving while intoxicated—I walked out of my room and started down a long corridor.

It only took me ten minutes to get more information on Parkman from my father and make it to my car. I drove recklessly down a darkened street; the moonlight streamed through the sunroof and caused the sword resting on my lap to glimmer and shine. The darkened blade had always been the first thing that people noticed—perhaps it was because it was all they had to notice before they were lying on the ground dead. I had been trained in both hand-to-hand combat and the way of the sword, as my father did not trust my use of my ability.

Turning onto another street, I stopped abruptly and stared in awe at what was before me. There were always stories, telling me of how people deeper into the city would dress up at night to honor the princess, the one that had died years ago. As the night was her time, she would go out in a fox mask, in an attempt to hide her identity from the citizens. Now, everyone would wear a fox mask at night in the city. Of course, when you start to reach the outskirts of the city, not as many people wandered around wearing the ridiculous masks. A small part of me wished they did, though; it would have given me an excuse to wear one as well.

After parking my car, I stepped out and made my way over to a small shop. Throwing a coin on the table, I smiled at the man working and asked for a cup of their finest alcohol. He looked at the coin and mentally calculated how much change he would have to give back to me, but I told him to keep it. A grateful smile lit up his dark features and I nodded at him. Leaning my back against the counter as he went to the back to fetch the best alcohol they had, I spotted a shop selling masks. There was a girl with blonde hair walking away from it and towards me. Her mask was gold—real or fake, I did not know—and it shone brightly under the light of the moon.

"Why do you always wear that fox mask, Princess?"

The voice had returned, louder than ever, as the girl reached past me and placed a coin on the table. She looked at me, her green eyes being the only feature of her face that I was able to see. They stared at me with something that I did not have enough time to catch, as she briskly walked away without waiting for whatever she had ordered. Curiosity getting the better of me, I took the cup that the man had gotten for me and followed the girl. I was not sure if she had known that I was following her, but whether or not she did, she wove her way in and out of the backstreets as if she had lived in the area her entire life. She probably did, too, by the way she walked with such certainty of where she was headed.

When she had finally stopped, it was in front of a small lake. The water turned black as a group of gray clouds rolled across the sky and blocked the moonlight from illuminating the area we were in. She sat down under a tree with pink—or maybe they were red—flowers. My eyes widened as the voice came back, accompanied with my own.

"Do you see these flowers? They are full of magic. Or, at least, I like to believe that. At night, they turn pink. During the day, they are a pale blue. It is pretty magical to me."

"Princess…it is just the way they are. These are Illerti flowers. They are known for changing colors throughout the day."

"So? Don't you believe in magic?"

"No. Why would I?"

"What explains how you can shoot lightning out of your hands, then?"

"What explains how extremely irritating you can be?"

"I guess it is just my personality. You are not like the other guards I have had, Elle. There are times when you treat me with such disrespect I wish I could kill you."

"Princess, I—I don't mean to. I am sorry for anything I have done wrong and—"

"I like it. You are not a mindless, obedient, fun-sucker like the other guards."

I fell to my knees and help my head, the voice becoming too much for me. Before I fell into darkness, I saw the other girl running towards me.

Author's Note: So…yeah. This is AU. This was actually inspired by a dream I had last night. EClaire romance in later chapters, may be rated M in later chapters as well. Next chapter is going to be in Claire's point of view~