#felidia

Lily raises Claude's abandoned child in the ruby palace, out of sight from her murderous father. The child looks so much like Diana it hurts, but she raises Athanasia with all the care and love she has, and she watches her little girl grow until she can read the old fairytales Lily had read to her by herself. Her little girl grows by the day, and she couldn't be more proud if what she's become. The other maids come and go, but Lily stays by the forgotten princess's side for years.

  When her little girl turns five, the red knight who usually never leaves the emperor's side comes with a little gift for her girl. She doesn't expect to see him again, but he comes nearly everyday afterwards, even if he can only stay for a little, playing dolls with Athy when Lily is busy, or helping out. Lily wonders why he does this, but she never questions it. They settle into routine, taking turns playing with Athy while the other cleans up, silently brought together by the memory of a dancer woman with shining magenta eyes, long gone but still there in some way.

  One day little Athy asks what her mother was like.

"Your mother was wonderful, just like you." Felix says before lifting his little girl high into the air while she giggles. And Lily smiles, her little family complete. The ghost of a long dead dancer hovers with them, watching her child be thrust into the air by a man whose smile still makes her heart flutter, while she stands side by side with Lily, whose kisses she still remembers. And they're happy. All of them.

  On her ninth birthday Athy meets her birth father for the first time. He has the same jeweled eyes as her, so she knows it must be him, but when she introduces herself, he acts like he doesn't know her. She's ignored, like she's not important enough to even count as his daughter in his eyes. She runs away until she doesn't know where she is, she's lost, and a pair of arms wrap around her.

It's ok dear. You'll be okay, trust me.

She see the arms now as they wrapped around her. She felt protected in this woman's arms. Safe from everything that could harm her.

Now, follow me Athy, I'll take you back to the Ruby Palace.

The woman's arms released her, and she took her little hand, and Athy trusted her. This felt right, as she looked up at the beautiful woman leading her back home, who looked so much like herself, and felt right. Like this was how it was meant to be.

  The woman lead her to the doors of the Ruby Palace, and that's when it clicked for her.

"Mom?" The woman smiled softly and nodded, before holding her daughter in her arms like she wished she could've in life.

I have to go now sweetheart. But know I love you.

The woman disappeared leaving Athy alone outside of Ruby Palace. Lily had been up all night waiting for her with Felix, and they embraced their child happily, as she told them of her mother, who'd led her back to the palace, and he knows it's silly, but still Felix can't dismiss the feeling Athy is telling the truth.

  Years pass, and their happy lives are disrupted during the debutante, when Roger Alpheus presents a new princess Jennette, and somehow she melts Claudes icy heart with her kindness, something Athy was never able to do. Lily and Felix comfort her best as they can, but some part of her will always long to be loved by Claude. And then, disaster strikes.

   Jennette is poisoned and Athy is accused. Claude throws her in jail without a second thought, to be hanged at dawn for her treason. Lily and Felix know it couldn't be her. They know how much she used to long for a sister, they saw how much she loved Jennette, and Lily defends her. She tells the emperor he's wrong, and how much Athy loves her sister, and he has her taken to the dungeon for being complicit.

    Athy and her mother spend their last night in jail together, as Diana wishes she could comfort them. But she can't. She already used up her one visit to the ground world, and so she can only watch as her daughter sobs into Lily's arms, knowing by this time tomorrow she'll be long gone.

    Morning comes, and Athanasia is marched to the noose, dying almost immediately, and soon after Lily joins her. All the while Felix's blood boils as he itches to kill the king he'd sworn to protect. But Felix is smart. He knows it won't work. He'll have to find some way to kill Claude, but it won't be today, where he would get caught for it. He just needs someone to help him, and it just so happens the lovely princess has just awoken from her coma to find the most important person to her dead because of the emperor.