Lucia and Arianna were happily giggling in bed. Maybe it was that neither of them had communicated much as adults, and they did not know how to speak to each other that way, but it was also possible that their brains had just gotten a little smaller to go along with their bodies. Arianna certainly felt like it was harder to think as in depth as she wished to.
It was frankly annoying. Her legs shook with the effort it had taken to climb onto Lucia's bed, her stomach ached from eating half of a child's portion of stew, and she could barely lift a glass to her mouth even with both hands. Not to mention the fact that her tongue felt stiff and awkward in her mouth and her throat hurt just from the amount of talking she had already done.
Arianna was used to hiding her pain but it was still frustrating. She had thought she might finally be a normal kid without her stupid mana overload, but she was still tripped up by her history with it.
She eventually let the giggles die down and whispered softly to Lucia. "We cannot do anything much just yet, we are only children, but we should start simple. For today it should be enough for us to showcase our skill in etiquette."
Lucia hummed, still hugging her sister, as though Arianna would bother using her strength to sit up. "You are not wrong, but we do also need to still seem like six year olds." She said, her eyes full of amusement. "I think all of our plans will go to naught if we get swept away to be researched. Our mothers would not allow it, but father would send us in a heartbeat."
Arianna groaned, begrudgingly accepting the point. Until they were married or he was dead, the two of them would be under their father's control.
She also had a sinking suspicion that Lucia would not approve of hiring an assassin for their father even though it would make Arianna's life so much simpler.
Arianna bit her lip for a second before letting it go. That was a bad habit and she needed to stop it, it had scarred her lip in their first lives. Taking a deep breath, she admitted her thoughts out loud. "Going back in time does not mean we will have flawless etiquette. Our brains know it, but our bodies do not." Softly, she added one more thing. "Just promise you'll try and catch me if I fall over mid curtsy?"
Lucia looked like she thought Arianna was joking and smiled going to laugh before she saw the truly concerned look on her sister's face. "Promise." She said automatically, as though it had been something they had always done and not her first time ever saying that to her sister.
Arianna smiled and offered her pinky, feeling like it was appropriate for the act. She could not define the feeling she felt: Seeing a lily white hand, only barely larger than her own, hooked with her own more walnut coloured pinky, the two of them laid across a bed as soft as a cloud looked, the warm sun streaming through the window, the canopy keeping it from their eyes, it was something powerful.
It felt a little bit like the blanket her mom had made for her. By the time she was 26 she had been required to stop using it as it was too small, and thread bare, but when she still lived in the duchy, her mother had wrapped her in it every time she was sick. It had never made Arianna get better faster, but it had always made her feel like she would get well again. It had also made her feel like her mother would help her get there.
She did not know what to call that kind of a feeling.
Hope maybe.
Whatever it was... Arianna liked it.
That is where the Grand Duchess found the two birthday girls, asleep on Lucia's bed, fingers interlocked to not let go of the other.
She huffed softly, getting help from the servants to shift the two girls to actually be lying on the pillows, tucking the blankets over them. It was still early enough in the day for them to rest a while before the party.
She carefully undid first Lucia's hair, and then Arianna's, so that they would not have to sleep on their hair pins. Finally, the Grand Duchess pulled the curtains shut to give them a little darkness for their rest, kissing Lucia on the head before walking around the other side of the bed. The only hesitation she had there was to brush Arianna'a hair out of her eyes before she gave her sort of daughter a kiss on the head as well. She smiled softly at the two girls and left the room.
Arianna, who had woken up as the two of them were moved, buried her face in the blankets. She knew what this feeling was, her own mother had given plenty to Arianna, but it still felt strange. Her face was warm, and her eyes stung a little. She wondered quietly if she had simply not noticed, in her first life, the love the Grand Duchess gave her so willingly.