Grace sighed as she sat at a quaint wooden desk in room barely suitable for meeting a noble in. Jade was sitting on the desk next to her arm. It had not been a pleasant week since her meeting with her mother. Grace thought back to how it had ended. That moment where she had been struck by her mother before being told the fate of her and the goblins. She sighed at this. She felt a tear well up, but she knew why it had to be done. She also had a suspicion that her mother had ulterior motives beyond the obvious one.
Grace was currently in a small office. She was no longer in the capital. The princess was now living in a mansion in the northern reaches of the Empire. Two days after the proclamation, she left and spent four days by carriage traveling to the village of Lyrell. It was once a mining town at the foot of a mountain is part of Lost Range.
It was a jagged mountain range that had been found impassible. Every expedition that had been entered too deeply into the range were never heard from again. As dangerous as this might sound, living near it is quite safe as nothing has ever come down from the mountains and monsters seemed to avoid them. Sadly, this safety is well known for fooling adventurers into trying to travel it to see what lies beyond. None of them have ever returned.
For Grace, it had been a novel experience. The Capital, Aelune, is a great port city on the northern tip of Qalm Gulf. The western peninsula that forms this is where the Empire started. There are very few coasts on the known continent. It was when boats came about that interests rose in the single largest coastline. It was there that Aelunia created a port town that rapidly grew into a city. It was there that became Aellunia's lifeblood as trade shifted from land to sea. It was there that the House of Winfield came into power and has ruled since.
The point of the matter though, is that Grace was used to seeing the gulf and smell the salty breeze of it when the winds picked up. The smell of this place was different. She smelled clean air bereft of the smells of the city and sea. Instead, she smelled flowers and fields. The air was cooler and brisk here. However, the silence that seemed to come from the mountains was disquieting. Sure, there were the sounds of nature near the mountains, but once you passed a certain threshold, those sounds faded to nothing. It was because of this that towns and villages were set so close. It meant that pests and other such creatures that could disturb a community were lacking in the area.
One might recall that this place was once a mining town however. If so, why was it a farming village now? The answer was simple. There was an incident a couple decades prior that lead to the total collapse of the mines and them being sealed. With the main source of income gone, many had abandoned the town. This included the former noble who had been placed in charge. She had declared the place a lost cause and returned to her family home to take on new responsibilities. As for the citizens. Those that stayed considered this place their home. They began breaking down and cannibalizing the town for resources to reopen the mines. They never succeeded sadly, but some of them held on and toiled to master the land itself. Their toil took a toll, but they were able to turn the land into fields and they began to grow crops in the area.
Even still, they were only scraping by. The land where the town once stood was not suitable and thus the few villager remaining set up homes and fields in the lands to the east and west while staying in the quiet safety of the mountains. There were a few building still owned and run in the village. There was the inn where traders stayed as they passed through on their trade routes. There was a blacksmith who stayed in business off of repairs and selling new equipment made from imported goods. There were a couple other businesses that helped provide small necessities as well. Besides that there was the manor. It had been largely left alone due to it being a government building despite not being in use.
At least it was unused until a day ago when Grace arrived. The reason for this was her mother's sentence. Grace was to remain here until one of three things came to pass. She could return if the village became a thriving town once more or in ten years depending on an evaluation of her work and efforts. However, the third method was to assume the crown should her mother fall. Grace understood very well what this was as did the nobles present at the court that day. She had essentially been placed in exile. However, Grace knew that this was a last chance from her mother. The mistakes made a week ago had led to many questioning her ability to lead the Empire. Worse, she had lost decorum and broke well established protocols in court. She may have had her own reasons for this, but this did not excuse her behavior that day.
The one thing is, Grace knew her mother wanted her to succeed at all costs. So it brought to mind one question.~Why did mother send me here? This place is barely holding together and the mines are unrecoverable.~
She pushed these thoughts aside as she looked to her... Companion. Jade was looking at her intently They knew that they had been putting this little talk of theirs off for almost a week now due to how busy the now exiled princess had been getting ready and studying her new "responsibilities". It was time they talked about what was going on between them. Grace set the outdated document she was looking over in an attempt to scrounge up some missing facts in the currents files she had gone over the past week.
"Jade, I can tell you're nervous. I think it's time we settle the matter from a week ago," Grace confronted the wolpertinger look a like sitting on her desk by her arm. Jade seemed to tense up when first addressed before relaxing.
~Very well, Grace. In all honesty I have been a little worried on how to address this to you.~ Jade stopped for a moment as they locked red eyes.~I guess the first thing is that I want you to know one thing. Above all else, I am happy to finally be able to talk with you. Not that I'm not nervous about explaining how and why I've been essentially spying on you all this time.~
"Well, I guess that's nice to here... Say for the part about spying," Grace replied while reaching over to scratch Jade between the ears like she used to. However, she caught herself and stopped before her hand ever reached Jade. Old habits could be odd sometimes she mused. Then Grace shook her head gently to clear her mind and focus. Jade seemed to be looking down. If Grace had to guess, she looked disappointed," If you could please explain?"
~Well, it's a bit of a long story, but the general points are that your mother and father both shared a connection of sorts to Minerva. However, this connection wasn't blessed as I'm sure you well know. They sadly were never able to remedy this before your birth. This sadly left you open for influence by various forces. Normally this isn't a major issue. People are often born under such circumstance. In fact, its a little known fact that this is how some great people came about. Be they good or evil in the eyes of others. Your case, however, was a dangerous one. You bore a connection to a goddess with a number of enemies and did not have her protection. Several of those beings afflicted you with curses. One twisted your body in the hopes to make you suffer and die. Another sought to end your line and used you to render your mother infertile while leaving a curse that made it impossible to speak to men. The last of these influences twisted fate to ensure loneliness then found your soulmate and cursed their soul so that their love would always end in tragic death.~
It horrified her to hear this, but she remained silent as she listened to Jade continue.
~It was even found out later that there had been several deals made by mortals and various deities to ensure your parents could never be blessed together. However, Minerva answered these actions with blessings. She shifted the nature of what was done to your body to give you a different form of beauty and to lessen the worse of the changes. You would have died from the sun otherwise. She answered the other two curses with a blessing of love. You are blessed to live a long and happy life with the one who earns your love. Though your end may still be tragic. Sadly she had not noticed the curse designed to hurt you and isolate you. It was when the greatest tragedy of your life to date brought this to her attention, that she had me descend to watch over you and try to offset this curse. However, I was never meant to engage you too closely for fear of how the curse will react.~
It was confusing and horrifying to Grace to know this. Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered the tragedy that cost her the life of her best friend and later killed her father. Even after a decade, it still ached to remember. She shuddered at this. It took her several long minutes to get her thoughts under control. Then she take a few more to consider what had been said.
"So then, what will happen now? And why did you break your rules," she inquired.
~Well, allow me to answers those in reverse, Grace. I broke those rules because those goblins hold a possibility. They are important to you... Well that, and I like my ears thank you very much...~
"Ears?" Grace wondered at this. Jade actually jumped at this. It seemed the second part wasn't supposed to be said," What are you hiding?"
~Well, it's better not to worry too much. The smart goblin just does whatever she thinks is needed to get results. Though from my understanding, she's only like that if drunk. Moving on, I should mention I don't know what will happen next everything has been thrown into chaos. What I can tell you is this, we all have a lot to work through if we want to get through this.~
"By the way," the princess had one more burning question," What was with the transformation?"
~Well, I currently have no body besides this one. Worse, it can't handle my powers. However, I can latch onto another soul and channel my actual power into it. In your case, your body became more like it would have without the curses. Though, the armor, wings, and eyes are my own.~
"Really? Well-"
It was at that moment that the doors to Grace's office burst open.