The Livanna Orphanage was known to be the best and biggest orphanage in the entire kingdom of Vensah. It was an open secret that this orphanage mostly took in the illegitimate, or disfigured children of nobility. The orphanage was particularly famous because of how every child who was adopted would be well-behaved.
Before the car entered the street - home to Livanna Orphanage - the princess ordered the driver to turn into another street and stop the car.
As the royal family's chauffeur, he knew better than to question his rider's decision. As soon as the car stopped at its destination, the princess opened its door and stepped out. Once she was fully out of the car, her appearance- under the cape- turned from that of a young woman's to an old lady's.
The skin on her face and hands changed to become wrinkly and saggy. Dark spots started appearing on her face along with crows feet on the corner of her eyes. Her dark brown eyes changed too, with one being a light brown and one being white.
She walked down the sidewalk slowly and with each step she took, her ramrod straight back would turn to hunch downward, and her hands, holding the baby, started slightly trembling, as if burdened by the weight in her arms.
In the darkness of the night - briefly under the streetlights - she looked nothing less of a witch.
When she finally reached the front door of the orphanage and was about to leave the baby in her arms there, she hesitated and then proceeded to put her and the baby's forehead together, with her appearance still changed.
Feeling as if she had wasted enough time, she quickly kissed the baby's forehead, put her on the ground, in front of the door, and after ringing the doorbell, she turned her back on the baby, continuing to walk forwards towards the car.
While she was halfway to the car - tempted to turn back - the front door of the orphanage opened, it was oddly quite inside, because the orphanage was mostly lively even in the middle of the night, because of the cries and laughter of children. But princess's original vigilantism was nowhere to be found because of how messed up her emotions were at that moment.
The young maiden who opened the door did not, in any way, look normal. There were tears falling down her face, which had contorted in fear and desperation. She tried her best to look at the entire street without visibly moving her head in search of a person who could offer aid. In the corner of her right eye she saw a caped figure, that was stopped in the middle of the sidewalk with it's back towards her.
She glared at the figure with burning hope In her eyes, trying her best to make the figure notice her stare and turn back. In the middle of her attemt, as she - very slowly - picked up the gaping baby from the ground, she felt something very cold on the back of her neck, and her eyes widened with her entire body tensing up. Her tears desperately kept falling while she gave up all hope.
Trembling she took the baby in, closing the door behind her.
* * *
The princess swiftly got into the car, closing the door behind her. She didn't know why, but she felt like she had left something very important behind….. she felt empty. Her appearance changed back to it's original form in the blink of an eye. She had turned from an old hag to an elegant lady once again as tears continued to flow down her face.
Her heart hurt, her throat was choked up and she felt exhausted. The one thing she wanted to do now was to lay in a quite grave beside her husband. But she knew that wasn't possible. She had made a promise to him about trying her best to raise their son so that he wouldn't feel the loss of his father.
She didn't know how, when, or why her view of fulfilling their promise had been manipulated to make her think that she had to make her son king or else she would disappoint her husband.
'How did I forget that my first priority should have been to make him a good human? How?.....What am I doing? Why am I doing this? That child is the true successor of the throne!'
"Venard….turn the car b-"
Suddenly the only thing the princess could perceive was pain, confusion and chaos. The entire car was flung upside down, rolling multiple times.
The last thing she remembered before blacking out was heat, fire and worry for the little child she had unintentionally doomed.