Chapter Text
The night was long while princess Collette lay awake in her chambers. She had had an awful dream that she just couldn't shake. Visions of fights and death and the end of something beautiful. But it was just a dream, and as she lay awake, she heard something peculiar to her left. The window of her chambers creaked open, and she let out a gasp as someone entered her room. Before she could scream, they hopped to her bed and slammed a hand across her mouth to silence her. They wore a mask, black as night and covered in white symbols. She continued to scream as they produced a blade, holding it up to her delicate skin.
Collette thrashed about and tried with everything she could to get the blade away from her. She looked the man into his bright blue eyes, the only thing showing in the mask, and reared her knee up, hitting him where no woman should. Collette panted as he got off of her, and she quickly left the bed. As she ran towards the door, she screamed for help but was pulled back from her hair.
With a shriek, she fell onto the cobbled floor and thrashed for his hand that gripped her head.
"Shut up!" The man whispered with a thickly accented voice, taking out the knife again. Collette managed to block the strike with her arm, slicing the pure skin as blood wept from the wound. She howled in pain, gaining more attention from the guards. Two burst into the room, and Collette took that as her cue to leave. Picking up her nightdress, she ran to her parent's chambers, sobbing and bleeding onto the floor.
"Mother! There was a man in my room!" The princess shrieked. Her parent sprung from their bed to console their daughter before her father got into action. He grabbed his robe and threw it on before he grabbed his sword, walking out of the room without a word as Collette sobbed into her mother's chest.
"Sh... it alright, my dear. Your father will handle this." Meira, her mother, whispered into her ear. Her mother began to wrap her wound with the extra cloth on their table as her father had gotten a wound the day prior.
King Gustus walked back into the large chamber with panting breaths as he threw his clean sword onto the ground.
"Did you find him?" Collette asked, wiping her tears and holding her mother's robe close to her body.
"He escaped." Her father spoke grimly. He rubbed his beard and knelt to his daughter.
"How?" Her mother asked.
"There were others on horses with the same mask. This was an attempted assassination, my dears. We will find out what happened. But for now, we just need you safe. I will send for someone to watch over you." Her father explained quickly. Collette was too shaken up to argue about having someone watch her every move, so she stayed quiet and eventually fell asleep in her mother's arms.