Helene
"Princess.. Princess! Please, you must get up!" The frantic voice of my chambermaid woke me up with an unpleasant start, fear gripping my heart in it's fiery fist. Surely, I still had one more year until everything was ashes and dust? Has the year passed me by while I was pleasantly lying asleep in my bed? Oh, please don't let it be so!
"What is it? What is it Laila?!" My voice was still heavy with sleep even though I was fully awake and trembling underneath the heavy covers.
Laila looked at me strangely, and spoke rather calmly-a contrast to her overly frightened eyes.
"Princess, you must get up and get dressed. there will be a carriage waiting for you outside the gate. We need to get you in there as soon as we can. You need to leave this place!"
I sputtered, my eyes growing as large as hers--mine were not with fright; but with shock.
"W-what? What are you saying? I am to leave my parents, my home, my people-"
"They do not matter right now. What matters is that you stay alive! Come on, princess! We don't have much time--the darkness is almost upon us!"
The mention of darkness spurred me to action; I threw off my covers and got out of bed, all the while Laila was giving me instructions on what route to take through the dungeons to get to the carriage. I nodded with every sentence she spoke, as I hastily put on the dress I was wearing the day before.
"Wait-Laila! Aren't you coming-"
She was rapidly shaking her head, while my heart sank with the thought of not having her by my side. She had been with me, my shadow, since I could spell out my name.
"Now go! You need to be there before the hour is over-go!"
My eyes filled with tears as I ran through the dungeons to the carriage, but I did not dare shed any. A princess of the House Fairne never cried unless they were in their own chambers, and I was not going to break that tradition.
