#retelling

Seven years had passed since the day Princess Amara arrived in O'khasis, and the laughter that once echoed through the palace gardens had long since died away.

Zianna had been sure the day Amara arrived that she would be responsible for changing the family for the better, but all good things die under harsh conditions. Whatever Garte had told Zane that day had awoken something dark within him.

Amara, now thirteen, stood perfectly still in the center of the palace courtyard. Her once lively colored dresses from her home had grown much to small, and in their place came the stiff Blue and Black's of O'khasis. She was quick to learn over the last seven years that Zane, the man she would be made to marry in 3 years time was anything but a joking man, and he wanted even less of a person than he wanted a pretty statue to look at.

So in her moments of down time, after so many years of being taught to be nothing but a statue. All she could do was stand in the very garden that once upon a time a very different girl used to roll around in the grass and laugh until her sides hurt, or play with Garroth and Vylad.

Now she just stood so straight and unmoving that the trees infront of her seemed to hold more life within them.

Her eyes, once bright with curious sparks, were cast downward, fixed entirely on the tiles of the garden walkway.

Garroth and Vylad more often than not, now searched for something, anything to prove that the girl that once brought them together still existed. Was still able to be saved, but it was harder then ever to even catch a glimpse.

Amara had fought Zane for a good while at the beginning, pushing back when he tried to control her.

Though it only seemed to make him more angry. Then one day, Amara and Zane went on a walk and all the came back was Zane and a ghost.

Nobody knows what happened that day. Amara speaks to nobody unless it is her Lady in waiting or Zane, and only if and when he allows her to speak to him.

Garroth knew he couldn't so easily approach her. Not for his safety, but for hers. He on more occasionally that he would like to admit have seen bruises on Amara's hands and arms. Sometimes even on her face, covered by makeup that just cant cover the extent of damage caused. He had spoken to his father and mother about it a many of times and was only ever met with a sad frown from his mother and his father telling him to pay no mind to issues that were not his own.

So when his father and brother left for a weeks trip to future Zane's education among the several O'khasis churches, Garroth felt this might be the only chance he has.

Seeing her outside, standing in the sun as stiff as she always did, Garroth made his move towards the door and pushing it open gently.

"Amara?" Garroth called out softly, taking a single step toward her.

At the sound of his voice Amara's shoulders visibly tensed. He breathing beginning to even out as she moved quickly but gracefully to check and see if Zane were around.

"Its okay! He left with my father a few hours ago. He will be gone a weeks time." Garroth tried

Amara's shoulders slightly relaxed at the news, but she made no attempt to speak to him.

"Amara please!" His voice raised to a desperate plea, his hand coming to try at touch her shoulder only for him to be met with her flinching away like had struck her.

Her arms wrapped around her body as she trembled.

All Garroth could do was look down at her in horror. How could he let this happen. Had it not been him who promised his mother he would protect Amara all those years ago.

"Okay…..okay….Im sorry." Garroth backed away from her

Amara's heavy breaths began to slow as he did.

"Irene…..what has he done to you….what have we done to you." Garroth said, his left hand covering his mouth as he looked at her cower away from him.

All he could do in the moment was sit down in the grass.

"I am so sorry…..I am so so sorry….." Garroth began to cry

"I should have done something, I should have done more. You deserve better than his place……than him!" Garroth told her

Amara couldn't help but look to the blonde boy, her hands shaking where they clung yo her arms. She knew he wouldnt hurt her. Not Garroth.

Garroth would rather eat his own sword than ever harm a women, let alone her.

Amara slowly began to sit onto the floor infront of him, her long blue dress fanning out around her. Garroth could only look at her with some sort of relief.

Together they sat there for awhile doing and saying nothing. Despite wanting to talk, Amara wasnt quiet sure what he voice even sounded like anymore. It has been awhile since Zane permitted her to speak, and when he did allow her, she never had anything to say.

As the sun began to go down, Garroth vowed to make a promise to her that he would keep.

"Amara?"

She turned to look at him

"I promise, on my life, that I will protect you from him. From my father. From this place, from this day foward. I promise. Whatever and wherever that promise takes us." Garroth told her

Amara nodded gently to him. It was beautiful words, and a beautiful gesture. Yet there was no safety here for her, and she knew it just as well as Garroth himself knew.

The week would pass quickly, and sooner than later with a new dawn brought home Zane and Garte.

Garte ever the performer would always put on the niceties when around the princess, but have never ment any of what he said. Jealousy was a quality he possessed so much of, yet was so bad at controlling.

As he grew older his hunger for power over Ru'aun grew bigger as well, as if his own biological clock pushed his need for control into overdrive. He would send Zane out and about throughout the region to recruit lone churches and turn them toward O'khasis'a own practices, and with the turn of the churches came the turns of towns and villages that would quickly be invaded by O'khasis and made into extended O'khasis territories. To say the population doubled by the day was an understatement.

And while these long trips away from the palace provided lots of ample breathing room for Amara, she always seemed to pay for it upon his return. As his gain of trust and worth within his father's eyes, became a lack of control and unnecessary jealousy upon Zane's returns.

No matter what Amara did, or didnt do, Amara was always chastised or yelled out for something. Most commonly, Garroth's stares. Something Zane had come to notice more and more, and while Amara never looked back at him or even made attempts to, he knew something was happening behind his back, and that is something he would not stand for.

And as months turned into years, Zane's anger only grew. Scolding became berating. Berating became shoves. Shoves became being thrown to the floor, and being thrown to the floor became being hit. When that was no longer enough in Zane's eyes, he decided the only way to get Amara to behave is to show her how truly little she really ment to him, how disposable she is.

If she could not keep his oaf of a brother away now, he would make it so she never left the safety of his room to allow Garroth the chance to look upon her again.

So one night, Amara and her Lady and Waiting were walking through the dimly lit halls of the palace on an evening stroll. Despite the cold and cruelty from Zane ans Garte, her Lady in waiting never stopped treating her the way she always had, as if her own.

From Amara's understanding, she had help her mother greatly when she was born, especially due to the complications that came with her birth. This one person had known her since before her first breaths, and was sent with her as an extension of her own mother. The only good thing she was afforded to have left.

As they walked, her Lady in waiting, Melissa, talked quietly of Falcon Claw from before they had come here. Of her family. People who everyday she wished she remembered the faces of, the sound of their voices. Yet that was just another thing taken from her.

Melissa knew the Princess would never respond, not after what Zane has done to her. Though she knows listening to something other than the echoes of their feet against the tile could do good every once and awhile.

In those same hallways that night, were both Zane and Garroth. Garroth traveled much farther behind them, completely unaware of them being there at all, while Zane who had just come back from a meeting with his father walked ahead of them, walking down the hallway towards them.

Everything that happened that night happened quicker than it ever felt.

One moment Melissa was helping Amara into her the door of her bed chambers, and the next she heard a noise behind her turning to see Garroth who had stopped a ways away eyed locked to Melissa for a moment too long in pity, and then to Amara who began to disappear into her room completely unaware of his presence at all.

Unfortunately for her, it was more than enough to break the final straw in Zane's eyes. As he knew Amara hadn't even been the one to make contact with his brother, so his problems must be stemming from this outsider who is contaminating all his hard work to sculpt Amara into the perfect bride.

And with their marriage impending in the next few weeks, he could not let temptation spoil his marriage before it even began.

Zane also saw it to be Amara's own fault, she could not control her own help. If she could not control them, he would have to take her help away.

Zane watched from afar as Melissa and Amara disappeared behind her door. He watched as Garroth just stood there, completely unaware he was being watched, and a few moments later he watched him sigh, shake his head, and walk away.