Pale moonlight streamed in from one of the many windows of a large room. Ornate tapestries decorated the white walls with baroque elegance, each wall nearly identical to the one across from it. Lush carpeting of blue covered the entire floor, the footprints of the room's occupant visible; they appeared in a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the flooring. From the ceiling hung a multitudinous array of lanterns, one large central chandelier taking precedence in the room.
Despite their numerous presence, the room was dimly lit. A brightly burning fireplace warded off the winter's biting freeze. Shadows from the various pieces of furniture danced in lively patterns on the opposite wall.
Among those lively shadows was the shadow of one who was, least to say, not so lively.
Gazing serenely out one of those tall windows, a flickering light of longing met with the moon's stolid glow in the girl's eyes.
Content with where she stood, the young girl looked off to the distance where mountains crest and horizons stretch. The moon did little but accentuate their baleful presence amidst the city's orderly arrangement. Her hands moved occasionally and as if guided by a subconscious instinct; she smoothed out the light lavender gown she wore. Her hair, short to her shoulders, flared out on its own, and a deep violet gleam shimmered from it where the light struck it.
'What have I been doing all these years,' the young girl said to nobody in particular. She closed her sapphire eyes and reflected on her question to herself. Save the idle crackling of the wood in the fireplace, and the soft ticks of a clock, there was no other sound.
Amelia kept her placid air. Her adventuring days had long been at an end and she was beginning to feel the loneliness welling up inside of her.
Since the day Amelia lost her mother and sister, she had never really been around many people her age. The only person she truly had up until a point was her father. Daughter and father doted on each other, and they dwelt in each other, an unbreakable bond of mutual, unconditional love.
Then, after a period of years, she met a duo of adventurers that literally changed her outlook on life. At first, she was blinded and put up against them (being a believer of absolute justice and all). Realizing she'd been duped, she wound up following Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev from one misadventure to the next. Since then, she learned through experience that the world is not so simple as black and white, light and dark, good and evil.
That, though, had been almost six years ago. Amelia was now nineteen and rapidly approaching twenty. Nothing as dire as the last journey with the now-wed Lina and Gourry had happened since. A thought suddenly struck her. 'Very soon,' she pondered, 'I'll have to get married.'
It was a lot to put on her weary mind. After her grandfather, Endorel,passed away two years ago, her father became King Philionel of Saillune. The second in line to the throne, Prince Christopher, fell ill and never woke up again. In the case of her father's passing, she would be the only heir to the throne. Her marriage was inevitable; it was just a matter of time. She was the Crown Princess.
The one she truly loved was lost among the boundless miles south. Zelgadis, the shamanic chimera, left the Continent when the group split up to go their own ways.
Lina continued her land-roving for years before settling down in Elmekia. Despite how much she, um, loved her sister, it's a scientifically proven fact that siblings need space between them... seven hundred miles of it. So, she refrained from settling down in her homeland of Zefielia.
Gourry followed Lina as he had promised her to always do; resultingly, he returned to his homeland and they, Lina and himself, settled down to live a peaceful life.
... Old habits die hard, however, as the sword-and-sorceress duo still drop their home-boundedness for an adventure or two.
Seeing those two would be no problem at all... She'd simply have to take a carriage ride across the world she had come to know with her own eyes to see them. Alas, such a journey would be a month's undertaking. It's especially dangerous for royalty with all the freebooting brigands waiting at a roadside to slit a passers-by's neck for a few coins -- it would be no problem for the Hammer of Justice to take care of them. But with her father's new responsibilities, she couldn't have herself wandering off. Even Phil himself had knuckled down to his homebound duties. Like father like daughter.
Zelgadis wandered far south of the City of Four Shrines to search for a cure to his chimeric state. He longed to be completely human once again. Since their last journey together, Zelgadis had not been seen, not even by Lina or Gourry (whom she routinely writes letters to).
Amelia missed him terribly. She kept her other wristcuff if only to remind her of him -- she had given the matching band to Zelgadis, hoping that returning it to her would be a good excuse for him to be inSaillune once again.
For three years, he had not returned. The worst feeling comes from thinking that he will not return, that he has been lost to the fearful Demon Sea or to some other calamity. Her time with Lina had taught her many things. Perhaps the most prolific one was the lesson teaching her not to give up onher goals and dreams.
Amelia turned her wistful glance from the cold outside. Quietly, she sidled past a large table and sat in the large white couch that faced the very windows she stood at.
Zelgadis may have been austere and even cold at times, and his self-image is not the glowing one anybody would hope it to be. Not the least of his flaws would be his appearance, even though he was more concerned about it than the young princess ever was.
Laying her head against the back of the sofa, turning her body so that her back was against the armrest, she drew her lavendershawl about herself. Ameliaheld her eyes half-lidded for a minute before sleep began to weigh on them.
Finally, the weight of Amelia's eyelids became more than she could stay against. A pair of tears streaked her fair cheeks, and she let sweet slumber pull her into a warmer world.