“Finally, it is over.” Leticia whispered, as the door to the chambers closed, and she left the banquet hall.  

The candles had dwindled down, as they flickered on and off with a passing breeze by a few opened windows. The drapes of blue swayed and fluttered, as her own hands touched them as she passed them.  

They left much to be thought and much to be desired as her memories of this place seemed to continue to remind her that she once walked these same halls at one point in her life as a princess. Her heart thumped, and her hands tightened, with her eyes wavering through each hall she passed as the laughter of children and the clanging of dinnerware can be heard.   

“Hurry up!” the laughter of two young boys running down a hall and her two little feet following behind them, trying to reach them. 

Leticia had her hand out, as she had leaned down to reach her younger self, as she vanished within her fingertips. “Ugh.” She coughed out, as she tried to put on a brave face, while she stood there in the same empty halls that were now dark and left unattended.   

She could never go back, so she walked and walked till her own feet could walk no more. It took her to places that brought her joy, sadness, and anger.  

A wave of petals of roses and lilies had blown past her, as she placed her hand against the stone column that still stood by the archway that led to the open courtyard. The moonlight tonight was so bright, that it lit a perfect path of cobblestone and stone right before her eyes.  

Ah. Nothing has changed.  

The garden of the royal palace was still as beautiful as it was, from what she could remember. It had been maintained, with the rows of roses and lilies in the color of blue and red that were in full bloom that had slowly begun to lose their petals. 

Another wave of petals flew, as Leticia held out her hands to catch them, as she walked into the courtyard to the sound of splashing and gurgling of a spouting fountain of marble and stone that glistened with the moonlight. An eagle with its wings open, as if it were to take flight and its mouth opened was spouting out water.  Below its grand figure, was a large body of water, big enough to fit several people with a hue of blue and green that it reflected the moon perfectly. 

“It is quite a lovely night.” 

Leticia had not expected any company, especially out here in the palace courtyard that was reserved for royalty and of the few select nobles. Her eyes would scan the surrounding bushes of rose and lilies to see a figure standing by one of the few trees that had planted recently with the renovations.  

A woman in what looked to be a dress of white and the extraordinary color of silver upon her hair that looked exactly like the color of the moon. Her eyes too expressed her peculiarity, as she stared at Leticia.  

In all her time at the royal palace, Leticia had heard many rumors and stories that had been passed on from one descendent to another. A woman of great beauty, unmatched by any had once graced themselves within the royal palace. She was to marry into the royal family line from what her mother had once told her.  

A lover of one of the former kings, and later imprisoned when she had chosen to leave the royal palace with another man. She had originally wanted to break off the marriage and get divorced, but the king had refused her request. He would lock her away within the palace walls, for he would not dare to let another man look at her.  

A woman that was never allowed her freedom, and never allowed to leave the towers that she had been imprisoned in. The former king would often visit her, and did what he wanted with her, against her wishes. It was said that she chose to die then endure anymore suffering under his tyranny and threw herself out of the tower window and killed herself.  

Yet, she stood here in front of Leticia, now with her body pointed down towards a bush of roses. Her fingertips continued to touch each rose softly, till she pulled her hand away abruptly.  

Drip by drip. Drop by drop. The woman’s blood soaked the ground below, while her eyes remained fixated.  

“Your finger.” Leticia subconsciously whispered, and the woman merely burst out laughing. 

“It is merely a prick of the finger. I will not die from it.” She placed her bleeding finger into her mouth. “Your face says you pity me.” She spoke with a soothing voice that made Leticia feel at ease.   

“Is that what it seems? I am curious as well to what a lady like yourself is doing out here alone.”  

“I found the flowers beautiful, so I came out here to admire them, but it seems I had gotten a bit too close.” She admitted, as she stuck her finger up to Leticia to reveal they weren’t bleeding anymore. 

“The roses bloom all season, so watching them from a distance should be more than enough, but for you to touch them.” Leticia immediately stopped her conversation as she caught her own mistake by mentioning this secret that only a few knew. The roses here, were bred differently so they would continuously bloom throughout all four seasons. 

“You are quite knowledge Duke Fredrick.”  

Leticia’s brows elevated as she had called Fredricks name. This woman, she knew who Leticia was, but how? She should have passed on before Fredrick's birth.  

“There is no need to be alarmed. I am not, who you think I am.” The woman assured Leticia, as her fingers grasped both ends of her dress.  

“Are you not a former lover to the former king?”  

The woman blatantly shook her head. “I am not.” She had made her way to a nearby rose bush and without hesitation she plucked a single rose and stated, “sometimes the most beautiful can also be the most deceitful.” and with her free hand she lifted Leticia’s hand open, and she placed it in her palms. 

It was a warning. 

The woman then leaned in, “You might want to be careful. There are many eyes that watch you from the shadows. The way you talk, to the way you walk, is much too different from Duke Fredrick.”  

She knew that Leticia was not Fredrick.  

The fountain in the background thundered behind Leticia, who still stood silently with the rose in her hand. Her fingers lost their grip, as the rose fell to the ground, and unraveled.