disclaimer— tales of vesperia © namco/namco tales studio
notes— estelle's POV of winsome
.
.
.
There was once a time when Estelle quietly followed the every order and instruction given to her by the castle.
They told her that she was too fragile to breathe the air that came from the "depths of the abysmal" Lower Quarter, and would proceed to saying: "Lady Estellise, those 'things' do not deserve to breathe the same air as a 'Princess'. However, we can ready your sunroom if you wish to stand outside."
Time after time they told her these things, and time after time she came even closer to not caring. The teachings of the castle were something Estelle was far from fond of. She loved laughing and dancing and gazing in wonder at the vast world below, flaws and all, from the highest room in the tallest tower of Castle Zaphias.
She did love her books and everything that came with living in the castle, of course; but the moment Estelle felt herself wanting to scold the residents of the Lower Quarter the way the maids did, she knew she'd been brainwashed by their apparent "teaching", and decided to finally do something about it instead of obliviously living a lie the way she did.
And, as the sun fell one uneventful evening, that was what lead her, eventually and inevitably, to order a guard by the name of Flynn Scifo to take her to a ransack tavern she'd heard the maids talking down upon one fateful day. He did so loyally, albeit hesitantly, and when he—miraculously—snuck her out of her window and they ran hand-in-hand down a grassy path to the tavern, she knew it was worth the trouble.
But when the man by the name of Yuri Lowell strode across the tavern and socked that poor, poor man in his jaw—inducing a silence like no other—then proceeded to take her hand in his own and pull her into a dance, she barely noticed how her cheeks burned red.
Instead, she wondered how this man that she was so curious about since day one, was so tender in the way he touched her when he'd just practically knocked out the man in front of them.
She wondered why her heart wanted to smile when he called her Estelle instead of Lady Estellise.
She wondered why her stomach fluttered with butterflies when he placed his hand at the small of her back and his dazzling eyes gazed into hers.
But most of all, Estelle wondered why she and Flynn had arranged this moment, when he'd caught her watching the man with violet hair in awe; when the possibilities were endless, yet knowing anything between them was impossible to achieve.
Because he was a "peasant" and she a "princess", and—no matter how badly she was against it all, no matter how she would love nothing more than to see Yuri again the way she saw him now—any romantic connection between the two was painstakingly forbidden.