They spent the next two weeks traveling. Throughout that time, Annlynn found a rhythm where she would help the elves clean up, and then she would cook for the group on the fourth night.  And as Spring returned to the plains, their travels were relatively uneventful.

Until they reached the capital city of the kingdom, that was. Rumor had it that somewhere on the other side, that was where the Gwynisar was. Regardless, Annlynn found herself distracted, her memories from the past overtaking the moments of the present, when she had lead a different life.

She last saw the capital at seven. And although she was a young child still, she knew something was wrong with her parents. At a certain point in her memory, she ha begun to notice how they argued with each other, even overtaking the family moments. As they were the king and queen, one of their close advisors had once warned her that they had gone through tough times. Even still, her parents had tried to shield her from the chaos. And yet the chaos had followed them anyway, even until her parents had met an untimely demise.

She kept glancing over her shoulder, thinking about how at any second, she was certain someone would notice them. Someone here in the city would glance over at them, look at Annlynn, and see right through her age to the point where they had recognized her. Then, they would alert the authorities, they would take her to the king, and she would face her demise.

To her surprise, no one bothered her. With the three elves leading her forward, and with a hoodie over her head, maybe Annlynn just appeared as an elven child. She tried to remain invisible, hoping that none of the guards would see her.

Eventually, Asonya turned back to her, giving a questioning look. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Annlynn lied. She paused for a moment, froze, then turned back to them. “Maybe we can talk it through somewhere that’s not so public. But I don’t have good memories of this place.”

Asonya nodded. “Safety first. Let’s get you out of here.”

They would pass through the city throughout the next day, As evening fell, they found a small inn at the outskirts. There, they picked two suite rooms; they would have given Annlynn her own room, but for the fact that they needed easy access to her room in case things went wrong.

“So I have unfinished business with the king,” Annlynn said. “I remember that square for reasons that aren’t as pleasant as one would like to admit. I know you said it was a superstition, but I can’t get over the idea that there was some truth it.”

The memory of the emotions still lingered. She wanted to scream out during it, feeling helpless. The emotions of a scared kid, watching violence she had scarcely had warning for. And now, as she found herself in the center of it again, she panted.

Valaris looked out at an old statue of Annlynn’s father. “I mean, at one point, you were supposed to be the future heir here, were you not?”

“In a way, I guess,” Annlynn said, staring at the statue. Guilt twisted its way through her as she saw the statues. She had seen, and understood how her parents had hurt the people.

If it wasn’t for their laws, she was certain that her stepsister would have been alive still. And for that, she understood. But there was a twisted grief as she saw the statue. She wanted her old life back, rather than whatever her current one was.

At least if she’d kept her old life, then maybe she wouldn’t have witnessed Tarvos’ death. Nor would she have had to deal with her stepmother. Nor would she have to deal with any of the deaths. Her parents, in all philosophies, had decided she would learn such things starting at eight years old.

“Am I wrong for missing them?” Annlynn whispered, casting her father’s statue one last glance.

“Hey,” Valaris said softly. “Grief can be complicated, and that’s okay.”

Annlynn looked up at her. “I just feel so guilty. Over things I didn’t have any control over. They beheaded my parents in that square. I was seven. I watched. They then broke my own magic afterward hoping it would be enough to stop some fated prophesies, on the account that I was a girl. Because they thought it would be enough.”

“I’m so sorry,” Valaris said. “I hope that your new life in the elven world will be much kinder to you.”

Annlynn nodded. “Thank you.”

Over the past few years, she had done her best to try and ignore this side of herself—the part that could have been the heir to the throne. She had attempted to become a regular peasant. But the stories of Prince Aleksei and the elven world lingered, and there were times where she daydreamed about the stories in more than one way.

Maybe it didn’t matter whether or not the elven ghost was real—maybe she still had unfinished business. Besides. She shouldn’t have felt the way she did about the events—not with the way things were that morning. Instead, she should have felt nothing. Or at least, she could hope to feel nothing.

Instead, she found herself face to face with her own ghost, and she did it with the most unexpected people. The elves had every right to turn away when she had started to get emotional. But, in many senses, they hadn’t.

“Listen,” Asonya said as they attempted to make their way into the inn that night. “Every one of us here has a complicated past, for one reason another. And so you will never find any judgment for that at all.  By Raelyth’s grace and Orthanik’s curse, if we did so, we would be hypocritical.”

Annlynn looked up at the Inn’s text. It was called The Chicken’s Coup. Such a place had been designed for royals who had been craving a quaint weekend. She had seen that before. Dealt with it. Gone on a small holiday with her parents.

“We will get you your own room, although it will be close by,” Asonya said.

Annlynn nodded, an old funny feeling still lingering. “I know this place. My parents took me here once, in an attempt to disconnect from palace life. But thank you for all of that. I suppose that’s what I should have said first.”

“If you need anything from us at all, or if there is any danger, we will come help,” Asonya said. “And if there is ever anything missing that you feel like you need from us, please come talk.”

To have her own room that night was a blessing which she hadn’t anticipated. To have the space by herself, and to be able to sit in silence, had left Annlynn with a satisfaction she hadn’t known. The next day, they made their way out of the capital, into the sprawling grasslands. A river had made it a prime spot for the city, but once they were past that, the only things greeting them were the short grass prairie, and then in the far distance, mountains. The elevation had changed, leaving more challenges for Annlynn as she and her company traveled.