"Secure the perimeter! Make sure no one gets away!" A man with a missing eye, starts yelling as the Silent Leaf assassins swarm out. Some of them tackling both Hildi and me to the ground holding weapons to our necks but at this point I don't even care anymore.

My body is completely limp from a mix of exhaustion, lack of mana and a broken spirit.

"Identify yourself!" the one on my back yells.

"Zehahahahaha"

"I said identify yourself or-"

"Kill me. I deserve it for what I just tried to do."

He then punches me in the back of the head and sternly repeats, "Identify yourself."

"Kill me!"

I hear Hildi's voice scream, "Stop hitting her! That's my daughter, I am agent Rue and she is a recruit of the Silent Leaf. I have her identification right here!"

The one eyed man walks over to Hildi, looks through the documents, talks with her for a bit then yells, "Let em go, they're our informants."

The one on top of me replies, "I'm not sure it's a good idea to let this one go, Sir. She's talking about having tried something so bad she wants me to kill her."

Hildi, who is now allowed to walk around freely again, says, "Sir, I think the thing she is talking about is trying to kill me so I won't die from the spear of Longinus. It's something that makes her feel guilty but she's not a danger to anyone, she's only three months old, she had enough traumatic things happen to her today no need to add onto them."

The one eyed man thinks for a bit before saying, "Let the kid go."

Hildi then quickly runs over to me, kneels down and hugs me.

I try to push her away, "Let go of me, I don't deserve this."

"You're my daughter, of course you deserve to be hugged."

"Aren't you mad at me? Disgusted? Anything!? I tried to kill you!"

"Oh I'm definitely mad because you tried to sacrifice yourself again but I'm not mad at you for why you did it. You tried to save me, not hurt me," She answers, while petting my head and removing the tick from my ear.

"I don't understand why no matter what horrible things I do, you don't hate me!"

"Tiahahaha, perhaps if you actually start doing horrible things I will but if that's your best, you'll have to try harder. Sammy, the only bad thing you keep doing, is self deprecating and hurting yourself in attempts to help others. I mean, just look at Pavel sulking over not knowing whether to console or yell at you."

"I'm not sulking! Sure the kid is an idiot but we all knew that. I'm just angry I wasn't able to step in sooner. Do you know how shocked I was when I noticed she took the necklace off!? I thought something happened! Upside of it being off though, was that I was at least able to make sure she is okay quickly. When that brute dragged you by the hair I nearly jumped in but I had to make sure I could actually be useful, so my timing had to be perfect. What's even worse is, that her majesty kept making fun of me for being that invested in your well being!"

I then start crying as I lean into Hildi's hug and say, "I don't deserve you guys."

The air suddenly gets colder and I can hear the sound of armored steps marching outside.

"Mommy we need to run! There are more knights coming!!!"

"No Sammy, this time I think it's your parents." Hildi answers, tightening her hug ever so slightly.

The marching comes closer as multiple knights, wearing what looks like armor made of ice, storm the entrance hall. It looks like most of them are related to cold regions as I see polar bear and orca Faunites in their hybrid form as well as a lot of cold, snow, or ice elementals. There are other non cold related races like ogres or humanoid Fey present as well but it does seem that the one related to cold regions are quite overrepresented.

They surround us with their weapons drawn and a Polar bear Faunite with multiple scars over his face walks to the front and loudly asks, "What is going on here!? Explain yourselves!"

The one eyed assassin walks up and replies, "We're from the Silent Leaf, we didn't ask for backup, so you explain yourself first."

As he says that, the Silent Leaf agents start getting into a combat stance.

"We are here to retrieve the kidnapped princess. How dare you point your weapons at us!"

"Princess? We came here to prevent the plan of the Archlich and a follower of the divine. The contents of said plan are top secret so butt out of our business. We work directly under the crown so we outrank you."

"Oh yeah!? Well, we are the royal knights and under direct order to retrieve the princess. You might outrank us in authority but you do not outrank our majesties' direct order, so go back to the shadows where you belong!"

Pavel then loudly whistles and walks up to the two of them, "Can you stop your fucking bickering and do your jobs already?"

"And who the heck are you!?" the knight and assassin ask in unison.

"Sir Pavel, Captain of the royal guard, protecting her majesty the White Queen."

"And you want me to believe that!?" the polar bear knight scoffs.

The one eyed assassin scoffs, "And even if you are. Why should we listen to you!?"

"Because unlike you two idiots I know where the princess is."

There is a bit of silence before the polar bear says, "Oy, you better not be lying to me or-"

A somehow slightly familiar sounding female voice intervenes, "That's enough. I know him, he is speaking the truth."

The Polar bear then salutes and says, "Yes your Highness," and the knights part, revealing a woman in a fancy suit of armor behind them, causing the silent leaf assassins to kneel and lower their heads.

She looks like an Elemental of some kind, her skin and hair looks like the night sky. Even her eyes are black with a white star as her pupils that look a bit like the north star, maybe she's some sort of night elemental? She's undoubtedly beautiful but there is also some sort of uncanniness to her.

"Sir Pavel, would you kindly show me to my daughter as quickly as possible?"

"Certainly your Highness. She is sitting right over there in the arms of her adoptive mother."

Our eyes then meet, causing me to quickly look away and ask, "Mommy? There is no way that's my biological mother, right?"

Completely baffled, Hildi answers, "I…I think that…You might be a princess, Sammy…"

"What?"

The queen then starts running towards me, tears streaming down her face, and kneels down in front of me, "My daughter…Finally we can meet like this. Do you remember me?"

"I…I don't think we've met before."

She has a pained expression on her night sky colored face, "So you don't remember me…Oh, wait. Perhaps this will help," Black smoke then starts surrounding her, shaping into a moth-like shape as her eyes turn red.

"Shadow Lady!? Mommy, that's the shadow Lady I told you about! Is Santa here too!?"

She pets my head and answers, "Yes, your father is here as well. Say, can you show me the thing with the eyes again?"

"The thing with the eyes? Oh! You mean this?" I turn my soul seeing eyes on, catching a glimpse of a pink soul in front of me before needing to turn it off again due to feeling dizzy.

"Yes…There is definitely no doubt about it anymore, you really are my precious daughter. Now there is just one question I have," she gives Hildi a look that I can only describe as a death stare, "Why does she call you mother instead of me?"

I think I feel Hildi shiver a little as she answers, "I…That is because I found her abandoned in my territory, I took her in and came to love her as my own daughter. So I adopted her and raised her as my own."

"Yeah! She is completely innocent, your highness, the one that kidnapped me and put me in this flesh prison is King Denever!"

"What!? Tell me what do you mean with flesh prison? Also how is King Denever involved?"

Hildi speaks up, "It's an enslavement ritual that imprisons one's very soul in the corpse of a human sacrifice. It can be conducted by Druids who are using the powers of a powerful patron Fey. It also requires them to know the true name of the one being imprisoned. Someone cast that ritual on her but it failed to be completed because Human knights were conducting a raid to eradicate the druids on that day and killed them before it could be completed but she is still stuck like this right now. The reason we suspect King Denever to be the culprit is for a few reasons. The Druid order behind the ritual was completely loyal to the autumn court and didn't have any powerful Fey patrons that others knew about. There was also a tier 0 anti-scrying artifact with the clothes prepared for her, it has an acorn symbol on it."

I then pull out the necklace and show it to her, "See, we're telling the truth."

She inspects the necklace and says, "I will need to have this identified but even if all of what you said is true it's just circumstantial evidence. It's not nearly enough to accuse King Denever over…" She grips the necklace tightly and adds, "But it is more than enough to have him investigated."

The queen then looks back at me and asks, "So, how come you can speak to me like this now but not back in the Astral Plane?"

"Oh, that's because I don't know Fey Speak yet. The only reason we can talk is because of this tier 2 translation artifact."

"I see…Is there anything else I must know?"

"Yes, I am reincarnated. I was a human boy in my last life and I lived until I died from internal bleeding at fourteen years old. Also, I don't want to be separated from my mommy, Hildegard." The queen visibly gets a little upset after I tell her the last part but I needed to say it with conviction to make sure she knows I'm serious.

"I understand," She pets my head again and asks, "So, would you like me to call you my son then?"

"Actually, I've grown quite accustomed to being a girl now. I think I prefer it to being a guy. So, daughter is fine."

"It makes me happy that you don't have to suffer being the wrong sex then," she looks down at my hands and asks, "Are those scars from the flesh prison?"

"Oh, no, those are from when that pastor over there nailed me to the ground with his prayer crosses. I had to rip my hands and feet through them to escape which caused them to be cleaved in two."

"You…WHAT!? Are you still hurt!? Are you okay!?"the queen asks while gently holding my hands and looking me up and down.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Compared to my other injuries, this one wasn't that bad. It just sucks that it leaves these big scars."

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"Other injuries? What other injuries!?"

"Ehhh….I don't even know if I remember all of them. I guess first I got bitten by rats, then wolves I had my windpipe crushed by Dick, I got my lungs pierced by a spear and my skull caved in, my fingers were broken, I lit myself on fire, I got dismembered by a Red Cap, pierced by arrows, had my spine broken and my bones crushed, was burned alive and then the thing with my hands and feet happened. Now that I say it out loud, I thought it was more but I guess that's it."

When recounting my injuries, I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings but when I look at the Queen again she is crying, her tears a sparkly black liquid, and has an extremely shocked expression, even Hildi is holding back tears. "Ehm…Should I not have said that? I don't want to make you guys feel bad."

The queen suddenly hugs me and answers, "You are not going to have to live through any of that again. You're safe now. Sir Polaris!"

"Yes, your highness!?"

"Inform my husband that we found her. We're leaving."

"Of course my Lady!"

"Now my daughter, let us go home."

"I…I'm not going anywhere without Hildi!"

"I understand. She is coming with us as well…" Her gaze then goes from kind to hostile again as she looks at Hildi and says, "I have much to discuss with her as well".

She holds out her hand to me. I take a look at Hildi who nods with a teary smile and I take the Queen's hand and walk with her past the assassins and knights, while Hildi follows shortly behind me. As we leave the front door of the manor, I can feel a sense of heartbreak as this place, where I spend so much time with Hildi, is just being left behind after getting desecrated by the pastor.

Things then go dark as the Queen holds her hand over my eyes and says, "We'll walk a bit like this, you shouldn't have to see this."

I can suddenly feel the air getting colder. When she removes her hand from my eyes, we stand in the middle of what looks like a military fort, surrounded by knights saluting us. There seem to be multiple maids and butlers standing in front of a carriage made of ice. It has multiple sculptures chiseled into it and seems to be drawn by giant white wolves.

I don't know why but all of this is making me feel extremely uncomfortable. It just feels a lot different to the quirky ElBEEzabeth and her carriage. This feels…More serious, I guess.

As we approach the door to the carriage, Hildi speaks up and says, "She doesn't like portals that she can't see through, your Highness. She might need some encouragement."

"Is that so?" The queen goes down on one knee and puts her hand on my shoulder. "Will it be okay as long as we go in together?"

"Can I go with mommy instead?"

When I say this, the queen gets a sad look on her face before petting my head and going back to a smile, "If that's what you want, you can."

I then take Hildis hand and together we enter the carriage right after the queen. Inside, the layout is similar to ElBEEzabeth's carriage but a lot bigger and more extravagant. It seems ice and stars themed. This carriage even has an upstairs and downstairs area. It's probably bigger than the manor we lived in.

"Uhm…Your Highness, is this ride going to be long? Because mommy and I really need some sleep."

She looks at me with a warm smile and answers, "You don't need to call me by a title. I'd prefer it if you would call me mom but for now Shadow Lady is fine too. If you want to sleep, I'll have the maids show you to a bed, I'm going to have a talk with Miss Hildegard and afterwards she may go to sleep as well."

"Will that be okay with you mommy?"

"Of course, go to sleep honey."

"Okay, I love you mommy."

"I love you too"

"I love you too," Both Hildi and the queen say simultaneously.

There is an awkward silence that gets broken by a maid, "Please follow me to the bedchamber your highness."

I then follow her to a room with a giant fluffy bed and just fall onto it. I'm too exhausted to get changed and I don't trust the maids enough to do it for me. I really hope AbBEE is okay… There are so many things I need to think about right now but this bed is so comfy and cool that I quickly fall asleep before I can think of anything.

When I wake up, I'm in a different room, a different bed and different clothes. There is a bigger bed next to mine where the Queen is sitting.

She looks at me with a smile and says, "Good morning my little snowflake, did you sleep well?"

"Huh? Yeah…I guess so, where's-"

"I'm right here," Hildi replies from the corner of a room. She is wearing some sort of maid uniform.

"Pfft, what are you wearing, mommy? Hahaha."

"Well, her highness and I had a long conversation about the wants and needs of us and you…"

The queen adds, "And we came to the conclusion that it would be best for Miss Hildegard to stay with you, not as your mother but as your Nanny. She will still be able to accompany you as long as you wish, as your personal caretaker, any time your father and I's duties interfere with being with you."

"Hmm…So I'm allowed to stay with mommy?"

"Yes, as long as you want but please do call her "Nanny" instead of "Mommy" from now on."

"As long as that's the only stipulation, I'm fine with that. I'm honestly quite glad that this went so well…I was expecting you to tear us apart or not want me in the first place."

She looks flabbergasted as she asks, "Why wouldn't your father and I want you?"

"Many reasons, I'm a pretty damaged person, I'm reincarnated and I was a boy in my last life. Also I keep messing up and getting hurt in the process which only makes those around me suffer."

The queen then takes on a slightly pained expression, "Both your father and I love you Eleanor, in fact we love you so much it hurts. We know that to you we're just strangers so we can't shower you in love and affection without making you feel bad. It takes a lot of restraint for us to give you the space you need and allow someone that you consider your parent over us into our castle to take care of you. The reason your father is not here right now, is because he doesn't think he can restrain himself enough to show only small signs of affection. He is a very expressive person, so he hides himself away in his research to free you from your flesh prison as soon as possible instead of being with you like he wants to. But even if that hurts us, we still do it gladly if that means it makes you happy. We feel extremely guilty about what has happened to you and it saddens me even more that you think less of yourself because of what happened to you. As for you being reincarnated, both your father and I see it as us being extremely lucky. If you hadn't retained your memories, you probably wouldn't be here with us today. Your nanny also told us a bit of some of the things you have experienced in your last life and I want you to know that we love you no matter what gender or sex you want to be or how manly or feminine you wish to act. In fact, in a sense, we think that you're such an amazing person that we fear we are not going to be enough for you. You became a valued person to the White Queen, you successfully became an assassin and you survived so many horrible things the world threw at you. While your father and I frankly failed you as parents. I guess at this point though, I'm just rambling… Either way I want you to know that both your father and I love you very much but will also respect your wishes in how involved you want us to be in your life."

"I…I'm not sure how to feel right now. To be honest, I'm very overwhelmed right now. A lot of all this just doesn't feel real yet and I'm just expecting there to be another great disaster happening any second. Right now I feel fine, great even, but I'm also afraid that if things actually do slow down and nothing bad happens, I'm going to break in a way I can't come back from. Right now, I'm not even near a point where I can sort out the feelings I have for you or my apparent father. I hate how that makes you feel horrible but I can't help it right now, so please do forgive me. There is also something selfish that I want to do using your power and influence. I know it's horrible to ask something of you when I can't even return your feelings right now but I must use this opportunity as a way to find the world from my past life and bring my little sister here where she can be safe."

"There is no need to feel bad, it's a parent's job to do anything in their power for their child. We have ways to connect portals to anywhere in the Feyrealm but we will need to know the location of the part of the Feyrealm that connects to that world. That's not something I can do."

"So it's hopeless?"

"No, we'll just have to ask the right person. The White Queen should be able to tell us. She owes us more than she can ever repay but it will be a start…" she then snaps her fingers and a butler familiar appears "Tell her Highness to prepare for our arrival."

"Yes your Highness."

The butler then disappears again and the queen holds out her hand to me, "Let's go give her a visit, my little snowflake."

"Yeah…I need answers."

I take her hand and, almost instantly after that, find myself in a giant dining room being carried by the queen who seems to be in her Shadow Lady form.

"Aaaah, if it isn't my favorite mother-daughter duo! What brings you to my castle on this fine day? Here for some tea perhaps?" The White Queen says from the other side of the table, hiding most of her face with a fan.

The Shadow Lady answers, "We're here to allow you to pay back your debt."

"Ooooh? And what would that be? I remember being nothing but hospitable to the both of you, Ohohohoho."

"Is that so? Then why did you lie to me when I kept pleading for you to find my daughter?"

"Oooh? But I didn't lie. I had no idea where she was when outside my domain because of that amulet of hers. I even offered her some knowledge about you looking for her! I'd say I did a quite fine job."

I then speak up myself, "White Queen, can we not play your games right now? To keep it short, there is something I want and only you can give it to me."

"Ohohoho, how utterly fascinating, YOU finally want something from ME? What a turn of events! But before you ask, let me ask you something. How come your mother is practically radiating killing intent and you don't?"

"That's because I'm not as mad as she is."

Her head tilts and her eyes widen, "And why is that?"

"I already answered your question, I'll tell you more once you grant my request."

"Ohohohoho, you've acquired some business skills haven't you? Fine, I shall abide by that. What is your request?"

"I need you to give me the coordinates I need to create a portal to a part of the feyrealm connected to my home world before I reincarnated."

"Fine, it will take me some time but after five minutes or so in your world I should have it," I can then see her face and body contort into her more owl-like shape as she says in a distorted voice, "So tell me, why aren't you mad?"

"I am mad. But I also think I understand why you do the things you do, so that makes me a lot less mad than her."

"Ooooooh? Please continue, why do I do the things I do?"

"Because you're ancient, bored and lonely. The only people you have around you are your own children who worship you like a deity and even if they didn't, there is only so much you can do with infinite time in a finite space. It's a wonder you haven't gone completely insane yet. So I understand why you play games with the lives of others. It's still immoral but it's understandable."

"Oooh? Big words calling someone's acts immoral, what do you suppose I should do instead?"

"I have thought about it and I can confidently say I don't know. But I can offer you at least temporary relief from your boredom."

"And what would that be?"

"I was thinking that once I have the mana to do so, why don't you just accompany me like Pavel does? You'll get to see the outside world and you won't have to be bound to some pact to do so. I won't go out of my way to entertain you but watching the life of a princess in a different realm than yours is probably more interesting than staying cooped up in here."

She then gives me a blank stare before reverting back to her usual self, "Ohohohoho Ohohohohoho! Eleanor, Eleanor, what a performance. You just keep entertaining me with your little surprises. It seems even I have to yield under your unbridled idiotic purity of heart. Congratulations, you are truly my current favorite performer in this play called life. I just can't wait for the moment that life has corrupted your heart. It must be beautiful to behold! What struggles will you face that will finally break you and drag you down into the dark pits of corruption? I wish to witness the birth of a black rose! Ohohohoho!"

The shadow lady speaks up "White Queen, I swear to you, if that day ever comes and I find out you had something to do with it, I will do everything in my power to kill you."

As she says this, color comes out of her body and mixes with a moth springing forth from the White Queen creating an ornamental butterfly that lays down at the White Queen's side of the table. A pact has been made.

"Ohohoho, how utterly entertaining. I do love a good dinner conversation, though I do recommend you actually eat as well, that daughter of yours seems to have quite the weakened soul."

The Shadow lady then looks down at my cracked soul body and answers, "I sure hope you prepared a meal worthy of a princess."

"But of course I did, I'm nothing if not welcoming, after all," She then claps her hands and multiple servants enter the room decorating the table and giving both the Shadow Lady and me a meal. Mine looks a little different than the last time, this time the glass is shaped like armor. The Shadow Lady's dish seems to be a fruit dish covered in chocolate pudding.

Getting up from her seat, the white queen waves us goodbye, "Now then, I'm going to take my leave, enjoy your food while I take on the perilous task of helping that daughter of yours, toodeloo."

As the white queen disappears, I ask the shadow lady, "Can you put my food just on my back or something? I want to get out of here quickly."

Gently putting her hand on my head, she answers, "Well, it isn't as bad now that the White Queen is gone. I know it's probably not pleasant for you but for me it is a great pleasure to be able to carry you in my arms like this and feed you."

"Well…It's not unpleasant for me… I do like you more than just a stranger, I just don't think I see you as family yet."

I can then feel a tear drop on my head as she says, "That's already a lot more than I was expecting... I love you Eleanor."

"I know…"

We finish our meals in silence and return to the bedroom where Hildi promptly asks, "How did it go, your highnesses?"

"About as well as it could have Miss Hildegard. We shall get our answers soon."

My body then suddenly feels heavy and in pain as a wave of exhaustion hits me.

"Uhm, I…I'm not feeling too well…I think I need to…"

It is then, that I pass out. But not for long. Over the next three days, I keep waking up in extreme pain before passing out again. It feels like my muscles are continuously being scraped off my bones before attaching again a bit looser than they were before. Each time, it becomes more and more painful until the third day when I open my eyes and there is no pain.

One of the doctors around my bed then notices I'm awake and yells, "Quickly, her Highness is awake, prepare the pain relief spells!"

I am then surrounded by multiple people preparing both medicine and spells. I believe I remember some of them from the times I woke up but my memory is quite blurry so it's hard to tell.

"Hey doctor?"

"Yes your Highness!?"

"You don't need to cast anything, I'm not feeling any pain."

"That's very good news, your Highness. Are you feeling anything else concerning besides pain?"

"Just…Exhausted."

"That is to be expected, we're just going to use some diagnos-"

Feeling things go blurry, I fall asleep before I can listen to the end of the doctor's sentence. This time it's different though, I'm able to actually dream. I dream of spending time with my little sister.

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