"Mirelha!!" A voice thundered throughout the castle halls. A voice that meant trouble, a voice that struck fear and advised caution for whosoever was under it. It was no other than the voice of the Queen, Mirelha's aunt. After her mother's death her aunt made sure to hide Mirelha's existence from the whole kingdom, making her the last known relative to the throne and Mirelha automatically became her personal handmaid. Her aunts voice jolted all her senses into alert mode and would have woken her up if she was still sleeping on a normal day.
" Yes aunty.... I mean your highness" she greeted with a curt nod and a respectful bow. Leaving her head hung low she continued, "you called for me".
"Need I remind you that your supposed to be up and standing at my bedside long before I wake? Or do you need another lesson?" Her aunties voice was leathered with anger and contempt, and Mirelha nearly snapped her head back up but of course such a mistake will most likely cost her, a price she wasn't willing to pay, especially not today when she needed all the energy she could get. She's been taught ruthlessly never to raise her head in the presence of royalty. "No aun... Your highness, it will never happen again".
" But you know dear Mirelha that tardy and unruly behavior are not welcomed here in the palace", her aunt replied, " give me my morning dose and we shall talk about it over my morning tea". Mirelha knew that anything said back to the queen now would be interpreted as rebellion and seal her fate for at least the next month, but today was different.
So mustering as much of her courage as possible she spoke, "ummm.... Aunty I think you should have morning breakfast first.." she paused as if contemplating her next choice of words before continuing, "remember what happened last time".
There was silence for what Mirelha thought to be at least half an hour, but in reality only thirty seconds before her aunty spoke again.
"Very well then, tell Bailey to bring me my usual", although her voice never lost the edgy annoyance and steel it wasn't so loud anymore, it seemed as though whatever happened last time still left a sour taste in her mouth.
" Right away your highness", and with that Mirelha scurried out of the room partly to do her aunt's bidding and mostly to put phase one into motion.
____ _____
Within the castles hallway sat the third largest room in the whole castle. The kitchen. And in it stood a short and stout man who seemed to be in his late fifties. He had a bowl of eggs in one hand and was vigorously beating the eggs all the while spouting orders at his subordinates.
"What are you doing just standing around?!! Huh? The meatloaf isn't going to make itself, get to it!"
His voice echoed off the kitchen walls, all the while never missing his rhythm with the eggs, when suddenly.
" Hey Bailey!!" A familiar voice called out, nearly causing the old man to double over. He turned around to give the person a serious tounge lashing when he saw who it was.
" In the name of the Queen! Mirelha!! You almost gave me a heart attack and cost the queen her breakfast", he scolded, but she seemed unfazed, happy even as she walked up to him.
" Is the Queen's breakfast ready yet?"
"Almost"
"Well she doesn't want her usual this morning" Mirelha began, causing the stout man to create his brows into a deep furrow. " She said since todays a special day in the kingdom she wants your to make her special and she needs it now. If I were you Bailey I'll get right on it, her Majesty isn't in the finest of moods, today". Although Mirelha hated having to put Bailey through this, this was the only way.
Bailey let out a deep heavy sigh before he turned to face the other workers, "alright everyone! Stop what your doing... We're gonna need all hands on deck for this one".
"I'll try and stall her patience while you guys get started", Mirelha offered already making her way towards the door. But she knew her next stop was anywhere but her Majesty's sleeping chambers.
The hall way was busy as expected for today, but busy was what she was aiming for. The flock of bodies and furniture up and down the halls made for a perfect blend in to sneak past all the prying eyes and into the safe zone confinements of her room.
Once inside Mirelha brought out a tiny rucksack and stuffed the only three things she owned in this world: a pair of neatly folded change of clothes, an old necklace that was the only remains of her mother in this world and a music box she stole from her aunt's sleeping chambers when she was ten.
Fully packed phase two was complete time for phase three. Clutching the sack close to her chest she made it towards the queens dressing room. Carefully avoiding questioning gazes from guards, and those she could not ignore? She gave them the practiced line "it's a direct order from her highness", and they'll let her through, cause here in the palace everyone knows better than to disobey a Direct order from the Queen, which makes what she's doing right now both illogical and reckless.
"She walked into the dressing room with one thing in mind. A perfect disguise. She needed to blend in with the other common folks of Solarel and to do that she needed to hide two distinct features. One was her shimmering silk silver hair. As she hurriedly rummaged through the queens closet she couldn't help but think back on how her hair has always brought her unwanted attention, a distinct memory flashed before her minds eye. She'd just clocked 16 and was fed up with the constant remarks and attention she kept on getting so one day she shaved off he hair into a buzz cut. Happy that it was finally short enough to be hidden under a scarf she went to bed, but fate had better plans. As soon as the first rays of morning sun trickled in, her hair began to regrow it's original length and shine even brighter. And that was just one of many occasions she'd attempted to cut it.
Pulling out a thick red cloak Mirelha gave a satisfied smile, this would so nicely. The cloak was wine red but had white trimmings at the edges, it was thick to block out the wind or rain but not heavy to cause discomfort to the wearer or heat from the sun. It had a large hood big enough to cover her head down to her lips, which was good because of the second feature she needed to cover: her eyes.
If her hair called attention then her eyes screamed it, Bailey had told her once that she had the most entrancing eyes of anyone he's ever seen in Solarel. Her eyes were a mystical shade of Azure, a color she'd once heard was the shade of the Magical River.
Draping on the cloak she glanced at the door one last time, noises could be heard getting louder and louder, she's been caught, it was time to leave. The dressing room had only two openings, the door through which she came and the window. Since the door was now a danger zone there was only one escape route left. She looked down through the window, took one deep steadying breath, pulled over the hood and jumped. Putting phase four into motion.