Chapter 1
My parents never did succeed in their villainous plot to murder the royal family. And I think I'm glad that they didn't. Though they were classed as murderers they never had blood on their hands and that would hurt me more than having failed killers as family. Though they did get people to hear our voice. There was an inquest into why someone would want to kill the king in a planet that was supposed to be so valiant and pure. And that brought help to our mountain region. They finally listened to our pleas for help and our way of life was saved. Its bittersweet how my parents had to turn into traitors and die to save our many communities up here in the peaks of Eraklyon and like Robert I do not agree with their actions. Maybe instead of a rebellion we could have moved to lower ground where the weather conditions are more forgiving but our villages how been here for centuries and my parents and their followers were not going to leave the place our ancestors had created or our traditions that have been engraved in the stone that surrounds us. It is a place worth fighting for. It is beautiful up in the clouds where the air is thin and clean and the light shines golden upon the frosty ground. And in the summer there is no place you would rather be then lying in a meadow that grows through the harsh conditions of the mountains.
No one knows who my parents are a part from me and Robert. He made up an impossible story of finding me in the snow in the blizzard sixteen years ago and falling in love with me the minute he saw me. The tale is maybe a bit too sweet to be believed and what baby could survive alone in the cold of a blizzard? But Robert may be tough and vulgar on the outside but he is as soft as a kitten within. And anyway, the villagers of Mistyface are so daft that they would believe any funny story. As far as anyone knows Agather and Alasdair O'Donnell never had a child. It fair scunners you how no one could know a little detail like that but I'm glad of it. No one has much respect here for my parents as their murderous ambitions tainted the reputation of the peaceful life of the mountains. But no matter what people think our love for our mountain home and neighbours has never vanished. Robert's kind heart couldn't have been bigger towards his dead friends child. As a child I would watch him as he worked as a blacksmith in his workshop before I went to school. The sound of sharp clangs of iron will always be associated with my childhood. Robert taught me the meaning of hard work, of resilience and most of all of kindness. Though as daft as he is I love him as a father and could never think of a nicer and more giving person than Robert.
But as amazing as the person you love the most may be, the demons are never far away. Darkness does not care whom you are, it will find you, and age cannot be prevented. Robert grew more elderly as I grew into a strong girl and his health finally failed him. He could no longer work and needed care and medicine. The supplies sent up to the village from below the mountains were not enough to help him regain his strength. I had always dreamt of continuing my education to be a fairy that could protect my people and carry on the torch of Roberts's kindness. But I knew then that I would have to hold on to my dream and save it for another day if I was to provide the care that Robert needed. I loved him so dearly that I was prepared to leave my mountain school and my dream to travel down the mountain to work at the palace for money to buy medicine and food. As strange as it might sound to work for the people that my parents wanted to kill, coming from an isolated place, it was hard to find work and the palace were willing to hire me as a maid for princess Diaspro no matter my lack of experience. How was I to know that there was a reason for their desperation to hire a maid for the princess no matter what her previous experience was? I was too daft and naïve to question them and dove into the job headfirst. That was the worst and in the end the most brilliant decision I ever made.