BGM Set
[X] Try to find out what happened to the rest of your tutors; if your mother doesn't know or can't tell you, maybe you could ask your uncle, the King?
[X] Work on your 'special' talents.
[X] Your healing ability has a 'remember wounds' setting.
You put forth great efforts in trying to improve your wire-crafting; it's a bit of a calming ritual for you, helping you center yourself. Resting on your bed, you weave strands together randomly, by design, or by hazy dream-memory- you practice many different ways. You wish you could share this with your mother, but you're the only one you've ever heard of who has an ability like this. You've shown her some of your work, but as they dissolve so quickly, she can't keep any of them you give to her.
Your hard work pays off when you finish your latest creation. You've managed to put together a coherent matrix of wires in the shape of a small bird. It chirps at you, and you blink at it, nonplussed. You can tell immediately this one is different from the patterns you've created before. You can feel it's presence. Even with your eyes closed, you can point precisely to where it is. When it dissolves, the feeling fades with it. It didn't last very long- five minutes at the most, by your guess.
You can create it again from memory- it's easy, now that you know how. This one is put together in just a couple minutes. You experiment some with it. You can direct it with your thoughts, sending it flying about the castle. You can't see what it sees, so your second pigeon dissolves when it collides with a wall you didn't know was there. Your third pigeon, you tell it to fly around the castle rather than directing it manually. This time, it doesn't collide with anything. It seems like it can follow simple instructions on its own.
It's neat, but the biggest drawback is that it doesn't last very long. You also doubt it would be very effective in a fight except as an annoyance. You want to figure out how to extend their lifespans, but you can't think of anything other than more practice. Hopefully it will improve with time.
Skill improved: Creation and Forging E-
New Section: The Wire Menagerie. By experimenting with your creations, you've stumbled across something effective and easy to recreate. Wire animals that you can currently make are listed under 'The Wire Menagerie.'
New Creation: Wire Pigeon
You find a stray cat padding across the castle grounds as you take a stroll under the midday sun. It's so fluffy and cute, you want to pick it up. How to entice it..?
"Here, kitty."
"Meow..?" It looks at you suspiciously. You try being as nonthreatening as possible, kneeling a few feet away from the cat, your hand held out for it to sniff. It treks over slowly, taking cautious steps. It takes all of your self-control not to try jumping the cat and scooping it into your arms. After it gives you hand a sniff, it rubs its head against your hand, meowing at you. Success..! You can't hold it in anymore, and grab the kitty before it can dash away.
You hold onto the cat tightly, not letting it go, and savoring the feeling of its soft fur. The cat jerks and twitches in your grasp; something about the way it is doing so causes you to let go in concern. When you lower it to the ground, the cat doesn't run away like you expected. You can see.. blood. Blood is leaking out of the cat onto the dirt. Looking at your forearms.. they too are slick with blood, and the cat is mewling piteously on the ground as its life-force rapidly seeps away. It is a scene that will haunt your nightmares for years to come.
You try frantically to heal it, to reverse whatever you just did- but you only end up making it worse. In no time at all the cat is dead, the wounds all over its body killing it in less than ten seconds. There is nothing but a hideous corpse left.
"No.. no.. no.." Tears stream down your face as you stare fixedly at the dead animal lying on the castle grounds in a pool of its own blood. Minutes pass as you try to process what you just did. If anyone stumbled across the scene, they didn't interrupt you. You finally snap yourself out of your trance, and decide to bury it properly.
You procure a shovel to dig out a shallow little grave for the dead cat. You are thankfully uninterrupted. It probably made for a very undignified scene; the Princess carrying out manual labor like this, but you won't get any rest until you finish. You're not a very strong girl, so even the tiny hole you make takes you hours of work to dig and fill in again. When you're satisfied, you make back for the castle before you worry your mother. You hear a few high pitched mews as you're walking back, and you freeze.
You carefully make your way over to the source of the noise, and find four tiny little kittens behind a bush gazing back at you. They bear an uncanny resemblance to the cat you just buried. You can put two and two together.
You swallow thicky. These cute little kittens are looking up at you with such innocence, after you had just murdered their mother. It's overwhelming. You have to look away guiltily. There's something you can do here to try to fix your mistake. Wiping away the tears threatening to fall, you fetch a blanket to carry the litter of kittens. You'll just have to convince your mother to let you take care of them as pets.
She might've protested, but seeing the incredibly earnest expression on your face combined with the sheer cuteness of the kittens eroded any doubts she possibly had. She impressed upon you that you'd be totally responsible for them, and that she wasn't going to help you. You think she just wants to see how you'll handle it.
Thinking back on the incident, you hover your hand tentatively in front of your face, inspecting it. Your healing powers were always very abnormal, but this is one you're not going to show anyone. The way the mother cat just died from wounds appearing all over its body was horrifying. It makes you seem like a walking plague of some kind. You don't want to take any chances that you'll repeat your mistake. You take to wearing a white pair of gloves just to make sure. To your relief, there are no more incidents, though you become just a little bit wary of touching people or animals, even with your gloves on.
You practice the ability on yourself covertly over the next few weeks. It's incredibly painful, as your Nerve Control ability is reset every time you 'remember' a wound. You persevere- the dying cries of the cat you killed echo in your ears, driving you to master this ability no matter what you have to endure. Your efforts pay off, allowing you a measure of control over it such that you don't risk killing people by hugging them. Whereas your healing ability erases the memory of the injury, your decay ability makes past injuries reappear. Heavier injuries are harder to 'remember,' and the longer it's been since the injury occurred, the harder it is to make it reappear. You don't take off the gloves, though- you've grown attached to them. You snuggle one of the kittens in your arms, petting it's soft fur as it mews in discontentment, trying to break free from your grasp.
"So cute~"
Skill Healing F becomes Healing and Decay F+
New Skill: Pain Tolerance F-
New Trait: Contact Phobia E
New Item: White Gloves
Asking your mother yields no information, so you decide to go straight to the top- if anyone knows, it would be your uncle. It's hard arranging a meeting with him, but as a privileged member of royalty, you can slip into his schedule with minimal fuss. You pose your question to King Joseph sitting on his throne, feeling incredibly nervous.
"I've been learning a lot from the tutors, but mother says there aren't any left to teach me, that they kept going away until there were none left. I want to know what happened to them. Can you tell me?"
He looks down at you from his elevated position, apparently thinking. "Really.."
You squirm under his gaze. You can't help but feel very small and overly self-conscious. Was this a bad idea after all? You can't tell anything from observing his expression. What is he waiting for? What is he thinking? The silence stretches long enough to be uncomfortable before he finally breaks it, calling from the shadows a woman you hadn't noticed was present.
"Sheffield."
She kneels before him in respect, awaiting his instructions.
"Accompany my niece. See that she learns what she wants to know."
"As you wish, my lord." She turns to you and gestures for you to follow before exiting the hall. You spare one last glance back at the King, but his expression remains inscrutable. You rush to catch up with Sheffield.
You're not sure precisely who this woman is, but if Joseph says that she can help you, you'll listen to her. You try asking Sheffield questions as you travel, but she completely ignores you. You like to think you have a lot of patience for your age, but you have your limits. You snap at her in frustration.
"Hey-!"
She interrupts you before you can say anything rude. "We're here."
Taken aback, you look around. "Huh.. we are?"
You hadn't even noticed your surroundings had changed this much. How did you reach a place like this so quickly? You weren't
that preoccupied. "What is this..?"
"What does it look like?"
You can see headstones lined up in neat rows, some of them adorned, others forgotten. "It's.. a graveyard.."
Kneeling at the foot of a dusty grave, you brush off some of the dirt, recognizing the name on it. "No.."
The old maid you learned from just a few weeks ago.. she's dead. Was she truly that old? She seemed healthy and hale the last time you saw her. You don't want to accept that she just passed on naturally.
"I see you recognize this one. I thought you might. There are others, in different places."
"They all died under mysterious circumstances. Almost like being around you too much was a curse." The way she says it indicates that she's taking way too much pleasure in your distress.
"That can't be it.." You shake your head in denial. A small part of you fears that maybe it's true.
She smirks. "I can help you discover the truth. You won't be able to do much on your own. What do you want?"
[ ] Accept Sheffield's help. You want to unearth the truth of their deaths.
[ ] Decline Sheffield's help, and try to investigate on your own.
[ ] Leave it be. There's nothing you can do for them anymore.
[ ] Something else. (Write-in.)
Also, name your kittens. (There are four.)
[ ] ? (Write-in.)