Sora paced outside the Princess Kairi's room waiting for Aqua to let him in. Confused about the sight he saw he leaned up against the wall, crossed his arms and pondered the sight.

'She truly is a princess without emotions' He thought to himself. He look at his hand, softly brushing his finger tips together. Remembering the sight of the blood and the expressionless face. You would think even a small twinge of pain would appear but, there was nothing. She truly felt nothing. He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. He let a deep sigh escape his lips. "Seriously. How did I get myself into this situation?"

"Well for starters, you entered the competition without knowing the prize."

Sora quickly opened his eyes and fumbled to stand in a knightly fashion. He was at the palace and should hold himself at their level. He saw Aqua giving him a warm smile.

"You can relax. You don't need to be all formal with me. I'm just the head maid. You Sora, rank higher then myself."

Sora kinda chuckled off his slight embarrassment. "I'm still kinda getting used to the whole palace life."

Aqua shook her head "Trust me. I know the feeling. You'll get used to it soon enough." Her smile faded and she became serious. "Sora. I think it's time I have a talk with you about our princess. Come, I'll make you a cup of tea while we talk. She's resting now. You may go visit her after our chat."

Sora nodded and followed Aqua to the maids kitchen. When they got there she ushered Sora to sit. Of course Sora felt uncomfortable doing this. This was his first time in the maids kitchen and he also felt like Aqua was going to tell him something deep about the princess.

"I take it the king has told you a little about our princess, has he not?" Sora nodded in agreement. "Though I'm sure he only told you the surface about our dear princess but, I can see you will be with the princess for a very long time so it's about time you knew the whole truth." She paused sighing "especially after this morning." Aqua then began to tell Sora the true story about the princess.

"It was 4 years after Kairi was born. Queen Ulma was a wonderful mother. She loved Kairi so much. Usually a queen would have a midwife to raise the child, but Queen Ulma wouldn't have it. She wanted to raise Kairi herself. I still remember the days when Kairi would smile at her mother. She had the warmest and brightest smile you had ever seen. It was like the morning sun. Soft and warm."

"So the princess wasn't always like this then." Sora inquired.

Aqua smiled thinking about the warm memories. "It was the complete opposite. She had so much spunk as a toddler. Not to mention how stubborn she was." Aqua chuckled "She had spirit that girl."

"So what finally happened to her if she had that much life in her?" Sora became ingrossed with the story.

"It happened in winter when Kairi was 4. They were traveling to visit Queen Ulma's parents in the northern kingdom during the winter. They had heard that Queen Ulma's mother was about to pass so of course being the loving husband he was, he let her go with Kairi. Along the way a group of bandits tried robbing the carriage along the lower mountain pass. Thankfully our guards were able to stop them without any problem but, there was trap we never knew of.