"Artemis…your eye is glowing." She quickly slapped a hand over both of her eyes, "Is something wrong?" She could hear the princess' concern.
"Fascinating…" Artemis peeked through her fingers and Varian grew more intrigued that the glowing stopped once she was away from Rapunzel.
"Rapunzel, come stand next to Artemis again." The princess obliged the odd request and once again Artemis' gold iris glowed.
"It's like it's reacting to you, Rapunzel."
"Maybe it's reacting to the sun drop's powers?" she suggested, "I mean it's completely possible." Artemis felt out of place now, and really uncomfortable to boot.
"I want to go home now…" his friend's choice of words left him feeling disheartened, he'd been planning this surprise for weeks, and now all she wanted to do was leave?
"We can't leave, not yet."
"Varian's right, he planned this whole party on his own…well…mostly on his own." They stepped aside, revealing her mother, the brunette woman had aged some in the last 7 years and she had small grey streaks running through her hair.
"Happy birthday, sweetheart." The petite blonde sprinted over to her mom and gave her the biggest hug, "I just helped with the decorating, it's Varian and Quirin who deserve most of the praise, well them and the Princess, she seemed so excited to meet you, apparently Varian talks quite fondly." The boy blushed again in embarrassment.
"Are you ready for your birthday, Artemis?" it was strange the princess would act so familiar towards her when they'd only just met, but perhaps that was just who she was.
"Today, is all about you Artemis, we've got so many fun things planned, this is going to be so great!"
"Let the party begin." If the younger blonde didn't know any better, she'd swear she heard music coming from somewhere. Shrugging it off she followed after Cassandra, Eugene, Varian, and their parents.
"So, what's first?"
"A dress fitting."
"What?!" the last time she'd had a clothes fitting had been a disaster, "It's all leading up to the final present."
"Mama, I don't know about this…"
"Relax, dear." She sighed as Rapunzel practically shoved her into the tailor's shop, "I leave her in your capable hands, princess." Rapunzel grinned as the two girls disappeared, the rest of the group apart from Eugene, Varian, and Cassandra left for the palace.
"13 is something to celebrate, I just hope she doesn't get overwhelmed."
"She'll be fine, what could possibly go wrong? Besides, the princess insisted." Delilah smiled at Quirin as they followed the rest of the group to the palace.
Inside the dress shop the woman in charge had spun Artemis around so many times she thought she was going to be sick. "Such a thin waist, you'll attract a fine husband." The young girl turned a deep shade of red at the comment, "Especially with such a pretty face." She then turned and walked into the backroom, Artemis heard shuffling and the rustling of fabric and felt her anxiety rise.
"So, Artemis, Varian tells me you are quite the artist, with brains to boot?" she tilted her head to the side, curious about the choice of conversation.
"I suppose He's not wrong, though I'm not up to par with Varian's brain, but I try to keep up." The blonde girl grinned, making the raven-haired boy blush at the compliment,
"Don't be modest, She's helped me fix more than a few of my inventions. Remember the hot water thing I was working on? She helped me perfect it by altering the calibration and reinforcing the water tanks with a stronger alloy metal." The princess beamed at the two, they seemed to really play off one another, if one had a weakness the other compensated more than enough. She had an idea and it made the blonde princess giggle to herself, earning an odd look from the younger two.
Artemis felt a soft fabric drape over her bare shoulder, looking back curiously at the shop owner, "No, no…it's too dark for your complexion." Artemis laughed and shook her head as the woman began to unravel fabric after fabric in textures she didn't even know were possible, eventually the woman came back with a pale blue fabric.
"Perfect! You can get dressed again." Artemis sighed in relief, as she slid her slightly tattered dress back over her head, smoothing out the wrinkles.
"I'll have it done just in time, your highness." Rapunzel left money on the counter by the register "I'll catch up with you two." Varian smiled as Rapunzel took off with Artemis. As soon as they were gone the seamstress got to work on fitting him.
Next had been hair and that had been a journey for the poor barber, she had never paid much attention to how dirty she got during their trips to the main city. But it had been washed, with some effort, detangled and restyled into a more intricate, French braid with a blue and gold ribbon woven through and tying it at the end.
"Will you tell me why I'm getting the royal treatment, please?" Rapunzel just put a finger to her mouth and Cassandra rolled her eyes.
"We've been sworn to secrecy, kid. But don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen.
"Last thing is shoes." Artemis looked down at her brown slippers, tapping her feet on the ground, "First a dress…then my hair…What's wrong with my shoes?" she was getting nervous "They're not exactly—" Rapunzel slapped a hand over the darker haired woman's mouth, shaking her head, she narrowed her eyes in response.
"Nothing is wrong with your shoes, Artemis. It's just part of the final surprise.
"I don't even like surprises, princess." Rapunzel's face sank a bit but she quickly bounced back, "No negotiating, it's the last stop before the final birthday surprise. Just please go along with it, it'll mean so much to—" Cassandra elbowed her in the ribs "Meee, it'll mean so much to me." Artemis narrowed her eyes in suspicion but shrugged,
"Fine." She let the blonde princess drag her into feldspars shop.
Varian sprinted past the shop as quick as he was able once Rapunzel gave him the signal, a dress and a suit tucked into his arms as he headed for the palace.
Feldspar had quickly put a pair of white slippers together for the small girl and she bowed her head in thanks.
"Raps, it's getting late, we need to go, now." Cassandras voice had a commanding tone to it and the princess smiled.
"Coming. Ready for the final surprise?" Cassandra came to stand next to the petite blonde who looked between the two older women.
"I'll bring her to the palace, just make sure everything's in order for the—"
"Mmhmm, yup, I will do that." The princess grinned ushering the two out the door, Artemis still held the shoes in her hands.
"Cass?" the Dark-haired woman looked down, giving her a knowing smile, "Come on, Let's get you to the palace." She walked along behind the somewhat intimidating woman, once the palace gates game into view Artemis felt a lump rise in her throat, what exactly had her friend planned that involved a visit to the palace?
"Cassandra, you're right on time. This way young lady." Artemis was ushered away by another horde of women she had not been introduced to, to a ridiculously oversized room in the palace.
"My whole house could fit in here…" she looked to the wardrobe in the corner to see the dress the seamstress had made it was a very pale blue satin fabric, akin to what she assumed Rapunzel's own dress was made of, and a gold ribbon adorned the waist.
Cass entered the room in a very different get-up than what she had on outside, though Varian had told her she was Rapunzels lady-in-waiting, so the outfit change was probably required.
"Cass?"
"let's get you dressed." Cassandra made quick work of getting Artemis out of her villager dress and into the overly puffy one, quickly cinching up the corset bodice before retying the ribbon in her hair.
"Shoes." It was a demand and Artemis just pointed to the bed where she had set them, "I still don't understand…why the royal treatment, Cass?" she hadn't been able to get a single answer all day and now she had a million ideas in her head about what was going on.
"The king and queen aren't my real parents are they? Is this whole surprise an elaborate rouse to break the news to me?" she rambled on and on and Cass just laughed,
"No, no, nothing like that Artemis. Look, all I can tell you is Varian was adamant that Rapunzel and I help him plan this, it means a lot to him. The kid really wanted to do something special." She looked at herself in the full body mirror as Cassandra finished up, what she was strange to her, she looked like a princess, but she just felt exhausted.
"Ready?"
"As I'll ever be…" she followed Cassandra out of the large bedroom and down the hallway, her eyes gazing over the many portraits of former royals, including a man with 7…8..9…11 fingers, she had to stifle a laugh at the absurdity.
"Straighten up a little bit, and watch your steps." The doors opened to reveal a room full of not just the people from the main city, but old corona as well.
"Introducing to the court, Lady Artemisia of Old Corona." She flinched at the use of her full name, and did he call her a 'Lady'? she slowly ascended the staircase to the gold guilded floor below.
"Happy birthday, m'lady." She turned her head slowly to see Varian, he was wearing a white dress shirt under a dark blue vest and black pants, finishing his unusual ensemble was a mask with a ridiculously long nose, she'd seen such mask in books and it made her smile as she tried to keep from laughing at the elongated appendage.
'Varian…I feel very out of place…" he just gave her hand a firm squeeze and led her off to the side where their parents waited, she hadn't seen her mother dressed this nice since her own birthday.
"You must be Artemis." The blonde looked to the queen of Corona before casting her eyes downwards, eye contact was especially difficult for her having no knowledge of court etiquette, the brunette chuckled.
"13 is a special age, Artemis. It's a milestone to be celebrated and we're all happy we get to share it with you. I missed so many years of Rapunzel's life, so in a way I'm making up for it, plus it's a night where old friends can catch up with one another, she carefully indicated to Quirin and the king talking animatedly about something or another.
"Just relax and enjoy the night, don't worry so much about messing up. You're still young. Have fun." As people started dispersing to talk with their friends she could hear faint music start to place in the background again and she looked around, making her way towards a table decorated with desserts she had never even seen, settling for a cupcake she plucked the paper wrapping off of it and folded it neatly into the palm of her hand as she devoured the pastry.
"Are you enjoying the festivities, m'lady?" she turned her eyes to her friend who had ditched the mask. "It's…amazing…but a little overwhelming. You didn't have to go to all this trouble for me, Varian." He stood next to her.
"I know I didn't have to, but you always talk about your birthday like it's a bad thing, I guess I just wanted you to have one that wasn't." a faint blush dusted her cheeks and she cast her eyes downwards again.
"That's Sweet Varian, Really. But next time… talk to me first, okay?" seeing his friend's dejected expression he nudged her in the side,
"Come on." She brought her eyes up to his face before looking at his hand, "Oh, I don't think that's such a good Ideeeeeea!" he didn't even give her a second to catch up as he pulled her out onto the dancefloor. Artemis erupted into laughter at Varian's horrible dancing and across the room Rapunzel watched the two with new plans forming in her mind on how to get the two teens together.
"It all worked out fine in the end, Raps."
"Yes it did. And look how cute they are!" the lady-on-waiting gave her friend a look of disapproval.
"Don't meddle, Rapunzel. You can't force things."
"Who said anything about forcing? I'm just going to give them both a slight little…nudge." as the two watched the teens dance everyone else soon followed suit.
"Happy Birthday, Artemisia."