Whispers

Summary: After Meliodas and the sins were run out of Liones, the employees at the castle started whispering behind Elizabeth's back. In front of her they were always nice but Elizabeth knew they didn't really like her. It didn't really help that her right eye was so strange now either, only making the situation worse.

Characters: Elizabeth, OC Rose, OC Zinnia, Baltra, Margaret, Veronica, Nameless OCs

Relationships: Elizabeth/Veronica (Siblings), Margaret/Elizabeth (Siblings), Baltra/Elizabeth (Familial)

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst

Elizabeth heard the whispers, she knew there were employees that didn't like her and she knew why. She just didn't understand why she had started hearing them now. She didn't remember having heard them before, so what changed? What changed to make them start now?

Elizabeth couldn't see any differences in… anything between now and earlier. Not in herself, not in the general surroundings. She just didn't figure out what had changed. At one point that had confused her enough to lessen the blow of the whispers, of the words spoken when people didn't know she could hear.

But that didn't last long, as soon as she gave up trying to figure out why now having decided it didn't really matter, all the things she had heard hit her full force. Jumping out of her chair at the table and running out of the dining hall towards her room, tears gathered in her eyes as she desperately tried to hide them from anyone that was around.

Her family stood up and shouted after her. They gave each other confused but worried glances. None of them knew what was going on.

"Should we go after her?" Margaret asked nothing like this had ever happened before, she wasn't sure how to react.

"What do you mean should we?! Of course we should!" Veronica yelled, she didn't understand what was going on but she did know her little sister was upset and she wanted to take action.

"That's not always the best course of action. It might be better to give her sometime to herself. Elizabeth ran away for a reason, following her could end up making it worse." Baltra told his daughter, his words stopping her in her tracks. He was worried about Elizabeth but he also knew that the wrong course of action would just end up upsetting her more, that was a situation that they all wanted to avoid.

"But father-" Veronica paused in her tracks and spun around to face her father, Elizabeth was upset and her father wasn't going to do anything about it.

"Veronica. Leave her alone for now. If the situation worsens or continues then we'll step in but for now it's best just to let her deal with it herself. Elizabeth is the kind of girl that doesn't want anyone to worry about her, if she knew she was worrying us then that could end up adding to whatever's ailing her." Veronica gnawed her teeth together but gave in and walked back to her seat. Her father may have been right, she wanted to help but if trying would do more harm than good then she couldn't, at least not right now.

Elizabeth slammed her door shut and dropped back against it. Her breaths were labored as she was not used to running like that, while she probably wouldn't have been so out of breath if she wasn't so distraught, she was hence the heavy breathing. The tears in her eyes fell as her body shook, she slid down the door and curled into a ball. Allowing herself to properly cry in a place where no one could catch her, so no one could worry about her. She didn't think this was so bad, some of the employees didn't like her at all so what?

...Well, it did hurt but it could have been worse. While some of the employees didn't like her, she was sure that others did. There was her father and her sisters and her uncle who liked her too, those were the only opinions that should really matter to her, right? Well, those and the opinions of her friends Gilthunder and Howzer and, to a certain extent, Griamore.

So, she didn't want anyone to worry, she was sure this pain would quickly pass. She had never wanted to worry anyone without a reason she felt was good enough and something she was sure would pass before she knew it, just didn't fall into that category.

It wasn't long before a knock came at her door, "Lady Elizabeth?" Elizabeth flinched and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, trying to erase the evidence of the tears that had been flowing.

"Yes, come in." Elizabeth told the maid on the other side of her door. The door opened revealing, Rose. She was one of the workers that Elizabeth hadn't heard whispering about her yet. She was sure this one liked her, that thought made her happy. She knew some of the workers not liking her shouldn't bother her but being certain that there were some that did just made her so happy.

"Lady Elizabeth, it's- have you been crying?" Rose asked, having noticed the redness of the small princess's eyes. The girl had been crying but for what? She wanted to know. The princess cried a lot but not to the point of her eyes getting red. What could have caused this? Rose's mouth twitched as she thought about it.

Elizabeth's eyes widened. Rose had noticed she had been crying but since she had asked about it that was proof Rose cared right? That was enough to make her genuinely smile at the maid. "Yes. I was but everything's okay now. So there's no need to worry, okay?"

On her 7th birthday her eye turned an orange colour and gained a symbol that she had never seen before acting as a pupil.

She hadn't noticed it at first but the employees sure did. Even the ones that liked Elizabeth or at the very least tolerated her were talking about it, not in a mean way but that didn't change the fact that they were.

Once again Elizabeth was confused, what was wrong with her eye? They were saying something was strange but Elizabeth had yet to hear, or see for herself, what exactly it was.

"Look at her eye." A maid by the name of Zinnia said to the two employees standing on either side of her. Zinnia had started working at the castle last year when she was fourteen, she had taken a disliking to Elizabeth shortly after she had started. Unlike the others though, Zinnia made sure Elizabeth knew that she didn't like her, often throwing glares at her.

"It looks different." One of them commented, pointing to Elizabeth's eye as subtly as possible.

"It's so weird." Zinnia noted and her companions nodded their heads in agreement.

"What a freak." The other commented, Elizabeth's eyes widened. A freak? Elizabeth backed away towards the corridor she had gone through and as soon as she reached its entrance Elizabeth turned and bolted back down it.

Before she had Elizabeth could have sworn she heard Zinnia say that the employee had gone to far but Elizabeth was sure she had just imagined it, why would Zinnia try to defend her?!

She was a freak? Elizabeth cried as she ran back to her room and wildly shook her head, that couldn't be true could it? She was useless and in the way and weak but a freak?! That was just… not possible!

No one saw the tears streaming down her cheeks as she ran through the castle, Elizabeth saw that as a good thing, it meant no one would have to ask her what was wrong even though she wasn't worth it.

Bursting into her room, Elizabeth headed for the mirror, skidding to a halt in front of it and placing her hands on either side of the mirror to steady herself.

Opening her eyes, she saw what the employees must have, her eye was definitely different. It was orange now and the pupil… wasn't normal. Well an eye just changing like that wasn't exactly normal either. At least not for a human, she had heard some clans could do that but she knew she was a human and therefore not apart of one of those clans.

So… this wasn't normal. Was it a spell? Was she not human after all? Or… was she really some kind of freak...?

"I bet the royal family doesn't even see her as a member of their family."

"Yeah, I bet they just adopted her out of pity."

Elizabeth froze, that wasn't true was it? Her family loved her, even though she was adopted, right? She had known she was adopted for a while, that was one of the things the employees liked to whisper about. She hadn't brought it up with her family, confident they at least liked her.

They would have to in order to adopt her in the first place right? Her father had proved that he cared about her… and had gotten hurt doing it. He climbed a tree that he couldn't have just to make sure she was safe. She hadn't called her family's love for her into question since then.

...Until now that is. Did her family really just adopt her out of pity? Did her father try to climb that tree because she was his daughter or was it something else? What about Veronica? Or Margaret? Did they do the things they did because she was their sister or…?

Elizabeth stood there. Frozen. She couldn't move, she couldn't make a sound. So she just stood there eventually the employees, one of which was Zinnia the other was a butler, turned to walk away which is when they noticed her.

"Oh, shit." Zinnia whispered.

The butler forced a smile and bent down to Elizabeth's height. "Is there something you need, Princess Elizabeth?"

"..."

"...Princess?" The butler started working up a small sweat at the silence. That probably wasn't a good sign.

Elizabeth slowly shook her head "No… No… I'm sorry." Elizabeth bowed to Zinnia and butler before beginning to walk away. Taking shuddering breaths she walked towards the dining room where her family were waiting.

Zinnia watched the princess walk away, holding her hand out and opening her mouth. She wanted to say something but she ended up putting her hand back down and looking away.

Elizabeth pushed her food around on her plate with her fork, not really interested in eating. Which was unusual for her, her family looked at her and shared glances, all concerned.

"Elizabeth, are you alright?" Baltra asked his daughter, placing his cutlery down with his other two daughters following suit.

"...Am I… really a part of this family?" She asked, her head bowed and her hair falling down around her face.

Her family shared a look once more, frowning at her question. "Of course you are, Eli." Margaret told her, Baltra and Veronica nodded in agreement. Of course Elizabeth was part of the family just what had made her think otherwise?

"What made you ask?" Veronica asked her, the question could have been worded better it was fairly obvious why Elizabeth had asked such a thing but where had the idea come from?

"...I… just wanted to make sure… that's all."

Throughout the years, around 9 of them now, of the rather nasty words exchanged between the castle's employees about her, Elizabeth had always felt that her personal maid Rose had been there for her. Sure Rose had never comforted her but she did ask if she was alright a lot. So naturally what she had heard her say one day was a huge shock.

"The princess is just so irritating!" That was Rose, Elizabeth thought, and she seemed pretty annoyed. Elizabeth wondered which princess she was talking about… was it her? It couldn't have been… right? Rose liked her, she was sure of it. But she didn't think she'd be talking about Margaret or Veronica, so maybe she had just done something to upset her.

Steeling her nerves, Elizabeth walked to where she heard the voice. Rose's back was turned to her and she was talking to Zinnia, who had noticed her. Zinnia's eyes widened and her gaze shot back to Rose, trying to tell her something.

"She deserves everything she gets and yet she still has the nerve to cry about it. It's all true, useless, freak, burden, her family doesn't love her. It's all true." Rose continued, each word she said felt like a stab to the heart. She didn't really remember anyone calling her useless but that didn't matter… when clearly she was. "She comes crying to me. Every. Single. Time. Ugh, like I care! She's so pathetic!"

Elizabeth had long since fallen to the ground in sobs, her hand covering her mouth to muffle the sounds. The last thing she wanted was to give Rose more of a reason to hate her.

SMACK

Elizabeth's eyes opened at the sound, Rose was holding her cheek and Zinnia's hand was held out. Zinnia had slapped her. Elizabeth didn't really care to know why, so she jumped to her feet and ran away, with no real destination in mind.

Zinnia looked over at her before turning back to Rose, glaring at her and hitting her again before running after Elizabeth.

Elizabeth had gone to the gardens and hidden herself amongst the bushes. It had taken a while to find her but Zinnia had been determined. "Princess…?" She spoke up slowly.

"What do you want?" Elizabeth didn't look up at her, but that was to be expected. Zinnia walked closer to her and sat down next to the princess' curled up form.

"Are you alright?" Zinnia asked trying to get a look at the Princess' face. She knew the answer, Elizabeth was obviously not alright but she hoped she could coax the princess into talking about it so she'd feel better.

"What do you care? You hate me." Elizabeth replied, her tone bitter and filled with such sadness. Zinnia winced at the sheer amount of pain she felt in her tone alone.

"I don't hate you."

"Liar!" Zinnia jumped at the sudden yell and looked to the side, only to find Elizabeth wasn't there anymore, Zinnia looked up and found Elizabeth standing over her. Elizabeth's expression was now completely visible, it was a mixture of emotions really. Sadness, anger, bitterness, confusion. "You hate me! Just like Rose does! Just like everyone does! All this time… all this time, I thought Rose liked me but… How can I trust anyone after that?"

Zinnia's head was bowed now, Elizabeth hadn't been able to see her face since she'd seen her eyes widen, not that she wanted to see her face. "...I'm sorry."

"Don't-" Elizabeth was about to protest to what she knew wasn't true when Zinnia spoke up again, this time raising her head.

"I'm sorry" Zinnia was crying, overcome by her own guilt. The guilt of knowing she had caused an innocent girl that didn't deserve any of this so much pain.

Elizabeth's protest got stuck in her throat and she froze in place. Zinnia stood up and embraced the princess, who's eyes widened at the surprise contact. "I'm so, so sorry! You're in so much pain, you've been in so much pain and I was apart of that. You must have been hurting for a long time, I'm so sorry."

Elizabeth sank into the embrace, wrapping her arms around the maid in a hug as her tears started up again. " It… it hurt so much." Elizabeth told the maid, burying her face into her shoulder. "I...I…"

"I know. Let it all out. I'll stay here for as long as you need."