A/N: Hi, I'm here again. And once again there has been an awfully long time between my previous post and this one. I really jinxed it last time… Though this chapter was awfully difficult to write for some reason. It is better than I hoped, but I'm still a little unsure about it, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyways. And it's possibly the longest (at least one of the longest) chapter in the story.
9.
Rella stretched her back before bending down back to the sketch she was outlining. They were at the castle with the prince continuing the other agreement and Rella had decided to make some preliminary sketches for the illumination while they talked. Falad and prince Charles were bickering about some small nuance in the wording and Anastasia, who had decided to join them for a change, was making embroidery near the unused fireplace. The other agreement had been drawn and written few days ago and signed by the prince and Falad.
Rella was quite happy how things had turned out with Anastasia. The prince hadn't said or done anything the entire time they had been here, at least so that she could hear, though Rella thought she had seen the prince looking at her carefully a few times. Like he'd try to remember her. Rella really hoped that he wouldn't remember her. She realized that she was being a coward but she really didn't want to face the man she had been in love with six years ago. Though she loved Falad more than anything in the world, more than she had loved the prince, she didn't want to face that man. She much preferred the prince of Elethia with whom they had certain distance between them as a rule.
Sometimes she wondered if the prince had been charmed again by stepmother, but Anastasia had said that he hadn't been. It had taken some time, during which the prince had thought things over before the prince had decided to marry Anastasia anyway, she had told Rella. Anastasia assumed that Charles had liked her, even though her mother had done wrong in charming him, and decided to marry her since there had been next to none possibilities in finding Rella once the ship had left and the entire kingdom was expecting the wedding as it was a high time for him to marry. The prince hadn't loved Anastasia at the beginning, but that had changed. Rella really hoped that Anastasia was right. It would probably kill Anastasia if her mother had done something after all. And truthfully Rella was a little suspicious about it since Jaq and Gus had said when they had met in the servant's corridor that the prince had been charmed again.
Well, it was a bit pointless to wonder about it, when it was really unlikely that anyone would ever ask from stepmother about anything and Anastasia and the prince seemed perfectly happy as they were, Rella decided as she focused on her sketch more closely. She needed to outline the details next and it was always a bit more difficult. The sudden noise of the door opening unannounced by the lackeys startled Rella and caused her to smudge her sketch. Without looking up from her work to see who disturbed them, she proceeded to repair the mistake. She vaguely heard the prince and Anastasia inquire the reason for this intrusion, but Rella didn't actually pay any attention to it until a shadow fell over her and her work.
Rella paused in her work and placed her pen down before raising up her eyes only to freeze into the spot as she met the gaze of her stepmother, who was staring at her very closely and very coldly. Rella heard the prince ask once again why the lady was here and like a spell being broken she noticed being able to move. She straightened her back and met her stepmother's gaze evenly.
"May I help you with something, lady Tremaine?" Rella asked and she was slightly surprised at how even her voice sounded to her ears. The lady didn't answer at once but chose to continue to examine Rella even more closely. It made her feel very uncomfortable which no doubt was lady Tremaine's meaning.
"Yes", lady Tremaine drew out the word slowly. "You could start by telling me why have you returned? Cinderella."
For a moment Rella, as did everyone else in the room, froze (not counting the prince though, he merely looked a little confused). Rella was at loss to what to answer to her stepmother or how to react, but after a few seconds Rella raised her eyes to meet lady Tremaine's. She wasn't a scared, little orphan forced to serve her family anymore and as such there was no need for her to cower or submit in front of her stepmother, no matter how intimidating she was.
"To help my husband draw out the trading agreements", Rella answered calmly.
Lady Tremaine narrowed her eyes and the room temperature seemed to decrease slightly as she stared at the impertinent young woman (in her mind at least) in front of her.
"And does your husband know what you really are?" she asked in a low and smooth voice that she always used when she was angry or handled out punishments to her stepdaughter. It used to scare the living daylights out of Rella, but apparently even that had no effect on her anymore. It made Rella feel quite proud of her self.
While Rella and lady Tremaine had been in their staring competition as the lady had asked her accusing question, which made prince Charles even more confused for the situation, Falad had slowly stood up and was now standing next to the women tall and imposing, hands folded across his chest and glaring at the lady with unusually cold eyes.
"Her husband knows quite well what she is", Falad said in a quiet and dangerous voice, with heavier accent than normally due to his suppressed anger. He moved a step closer making lady Tremaine back up a bit and stared down at the woman, who had ruined his beloved Rella's young life. "And he would appreciate it if you would leave and never bother her again."
Other than Falad, who had a very good view from where he stood, no one was able to notice the slight hesitation or a dash of fear that flicked in lade Tremaine's face in the briefest moments before her face was once again a calm and arrogant mask. Rella was feeling touched and a little flustered at her husband's vehement defence on her behalf. She knew she could defend herself if she wanted to, but it warmed her heart that Falad was doing it for her. And she had to admit that he was pretty attractive when he was doing it.
The prince had also stood up and was now approaching them laying a calming hand on Falad's shoulder. "What on earth is going on? Calm down, dear lord, there is no need to get so angry. And what is this talk about Cinderella? Who is she?"
A sound of a sharp intake of breath drew their attention and they turned to look at Anastasia, who looked at the prince with a mixture of confusion , agitation and uncertainty.
"You… you do not remember Cinderella?" she asked with a slightly trembling voice.
…
Anastasia slowly descended back down to the chair she had only moments ago risen. She felt numb, completely and thoroughly shocked and confused as she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that her husband didn't remember her former stepsister. For he should remember, after all once the ship where Cinderella had been had left, the prince had come back to the palace and shut himself straight into the study with his father where they had stayed many hours, talking. Their mother had managed to use the wand only to erase the memories of the wand from the royalties minds. Nothing else, their mother had said so.
She had also told Anastasia that she wouldn't charm the prince anymore, when the prince and his father had reappeared from the study and told them that the prince would get to know Anastasia better, before thinking about marriage that quickly this time. Before getting married to the prince, for that had been her most precious dream ever since she had first seen the prince in a young age, it had been the best time of her life…
"What a pity the sweet girl proved to be nothing more than a little thief with such a malicious intents. What could have set her off to try and kill my son?"
"Oh, I assure you, your Majesty, it was nothing your family has done. The poor child lost her father when she was young and she went a little… off in her head, I suppose you could say. It made her blame the crown for poor health care or something like that. But she has been taken care of…"
Anastasia only half listened what her mother was talking with the king, her eyes drawn to the handsome prince who had agreed to spend some time with her once his father had managed to make the prince see reason. They were supposed to get to know each other so that they could eventually marry unless, of course, the prince didn't want to marry her. Which was a terrible thought. She wanted to marry the prince. It would unbearable if the prince wouldn't like her, but she had already decided that she wanted it to happen naturally, if it was to happen, without any intervening from her mother and the wand. She wanted to win the prince by her own merits and besides, it wasn't love if it was enhanced because of magic. Though she might need to do something to her nose and cheekbones…
Once her mother was done with the king, they retreated to their quarters where their mother kept a long and tiresome lecture about what Anastasia should and should not do. Anastasia listened dutifully though her mind was miles away on the next day when the prince had promised to come and take her to a walk.
They took many walk in the palace gardens and sometimes outside the castle on the next three months. The prince also invited her to have lunch or dinner with him every now and then and in the few balls that happened in the three months, he danced with her in all of them. Anastasia had secretly, behind her mother back since she thought that advertising any lack of skills was very bad, took some dancing lessons. She had been well aware that her last dance with the prince had been a disaster and she hadn't wanted to repeat it.
She also slowly, bit by bit, used the wand to modify her appearance. She wanted to become more beautiful, like Cinderella had been, but realized that she couldn't do it overnight. That would be too much. So she did it slowly, hoping that people would think that she was just growing up still, after all she wasn't that old yet since she was the younger of the sisters. She had tried to do the spell casting without her mother or sister noticing, but was quite sure that at least her mother knew. Who most likely thought it just a good thing as it made Anastasia appear to try to seduce the prince or something rather than try to find love which was something her mother and Drizella didn't understand.
In addition to those things, she tried to be her own self as the king had encouraged her to be when they had had the talk in the balcony after the horrible dancing. She still held the shell the king had given her as her most precious gift. And whatever it was she was doing seemed to be working as they had amazing time together and prince Charles truly appeared to like her which made Anastasia spin with joy when she was alone in her room (she didn't dare to do it in the presence of her family). During the three months she had gotten flowers every now and then from the prince and a beautiful bracelet she now wore nearly everywhere. Anastasia hoped that these meant that the prince was in fact falling in love with her.
Her mother however was not so patient. As the months flew by, Anastasia was more and more frequently assuring lady Tremaine that everything was going alright and that she didn't need to use the wand. She had promised not to use it. And every time Anastasia had assured her mother, she had promised again not to do it.
So when the prince had quite suddenly after the three months proposed to her, she hadn't thought much of it. She had just been overjoyed that she was getting married with her prince. But now… now the suddenness made frighteningly more sense. Her prince hadn't been ready to propose after all. And now Anastasia felt horrible, she should've listened to her instincts when she had wondered in her wedding day, but in the end she had been too blinded by her happiness. It hurt to think that she had been married to her dear prince for almost six years and very possibly without her beloved truly loving her.
Their marriage was just an illusion!
"You do not remember her, your Highness?" Anastasia heard her mother feigning surprise distantly. "I would have thought you remembered her, your Highness. She was deported, she did try to kill you after all."
"WHAT!" Falad bellowed infuriated by the accusations and astonished by what he was hearing. "How dear you accuse my wife of such a deed! She has never killed a soul in her life! And what proof do you have that she was doing that? You deported her because she stole something from you, not because she had tried to kill anyone!"
Oh dear, it appeared their mother was going to dig everything up to get Cinderella out of the picture, Anastasia thought. Her mother and her prince had backed up a bit in front of the renowned temper of the southern empire and Anastasia could understand them quite well. Rella's husband was looking very frightening at the moment as his anger made his face look like a thunderstorm. Rella was standing behind Falad trying to calm him down, though she didn't appear to be very successful.
Anastasia stood up from her chair again and stepped closer to her mother. "Mother", she said in a loud voice, "stop this. Why do you say such things when they are not true? And why are you bothering Rella at all?"
Lady Tremaine's eyes narrowed in anger. "You ungrateful child", she ground out in a heavy voice, "after everything I did for you to get you this far and this is how you thank me!"
Anastasia looked at her mother incredulously. "You did for me? You did too much, mother! You promised me again and again that you wouldn't charm him again and what did you do! You broke your promise! I wanted to get to know him and I wanted him to get to know me so that he could marry me if he loved me! Loved me, mother! And you ruined it! Now I've been married nearly six years and it's just been one big lie! How could you!"
Now it was lady Tremaine's turn to look incredulous. "You wanted love? Love? Love has nothing to do with marriage, you stupid girl. After three months I could clearly tell that he wasn't going to marry you! I just made sure he did!"
"But if he didn't love me, I didn't want to marry him, mother! I don't care what you think about love! I've always wanted to marry for love and you destroyed everything!" Anastasia cried facing her mother.
"Now you listen to me, Anastasia", lady Tremaine said in a low voice. "Stop this nonsense right now. You have already babbled too much, though I suppose it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of thing since I will have to modify the prince's memory again anyhow. I will not have you ruin everything I have gained in these six years."
"No!" Anastasia breathed and rushed to the prince on the side, where the poor man had watched the exchange in growing confusion, and stopped between her mother and her husband. "You will not do anything to him again! Ever!"
Lade Tremaine looked at her daughter unimpressed. "Well, I suppose I do not have any other choice but to charm you as well."
Lady Tremaine pulled the wand from her sleeve and raised it. She never managed to spell her daughter or prince Charles thanks to Rella who had also followed their exchange feeling sad and proud for Anastasia at the same time. As her stepmother prepared to charm the couple, Rella rushed forward despite Falad's attempts to stop her and grabbed her stepmothers arm.
"No! Stop!" Rella shouted and successfully managed to direct the magical sparkles from the wand into the ceiling. Lady Tremaine cried out her frustration and pushed Rella forcefully away from her making her crash on the floor.
Lady Tremaine pointed her wand at Rella. "I may as well take care of you now, you miserable wretch!"
A flash of light from the wand blinded the occupants of the room momentarily suring which a shout of "NO!" could be heard from Falad and lady Tremaine's arrogant chuckle seemed to echo through the room as Rella raised her arms protectively over her stomach. Once the light dissipated, lady Tremaine stared at in front of her surprised, for she wasn't looking at the stone statue of Cinderella, as she had meant, but of her husband Falad who was standing in front of Rella in a defensive pose hand in the handle of his dagger.
"Falad! No!" Rella breathed terrified and scrambled up from the floor before rushing to her husband side. Running her hands over the stone body she stared at him with broken look. Unnoticed by Rella her stepmother was raising the wand for another try, but was once again interrupted, this time by the prince. He had called out the guards and taken a sword that had been hanging on the wall with which he was now trying to make lady Tremaine give up the wand.
He wasn't being very successful though and until the reinforcements arrived, lady Tremaine was quite effortlessly winning. However, once the brigade of guards arrived she was having more and more difficulties keeping them at bay. Despite the wand, she was still an elderly woman and her endurance was no match for young men half her age. So she eventually made the decision to flee and retreat to think her strategies again. With a swish of the wand she had disappeared from the middle of the men.
The prince was steadying his breaths as he assessed the damage and casualties. The room was practically in shambles and third of the guard were statues of stones like lord Falad. Few of the men were hurt, but nobody had died. At least the prince hoped that turning into stone was equal to death and was reversible. His wife and lady Rella were emerging from behind the sturdy desk where Anastasia had dragged the other woman when the fighting started. She rushed straight back to the statue of her husband. His wife was comforting her and what seem like avoiding his gaze.
Some of these happenings seemed strangely familiar and prince Charles steeled his mind as he walked up to his wife and lady Rella. He looked at both of them gravely and slightly desperately. He really wanted some answers.
"Would you mind telling me what on earth is going on in here?"