Some people are born to be alone. Audrey wholeheartedly believed she did not belong to this category, even if all the evidence around her was to the contrary. There were people who were bound to be alone, but she was cute, charming, intelligent and powerful. It would be against the laws of nature for her to end up a sad, lonely child. Yet, as she sat on a giant dining table alone, she wondered if she was wrong. That thought was quickly dissipated; she was far too smart to be wrong.
Audrey has parents, they just didn't like her. Well, there were a lot of people who didn't like her, which was fine because there were a few people who adored her. That was the proof; they didn't just like her, they were obsessed with her and loved her dearly. They told her that she was the most important person in the world to them, so who cared what anyone else thought?
It was too bad that none of those people were alive anymore.
Audrey had turned ten years old today, which was a major milestone. Her late nanny, Mathilde, used to say that the first decade completed would be a huge achievement, especially because so many people wanted her dead. Now, it was never pleasant to hear that people would prefer you never existed, however, those people had clearly managed to fail to kill her. She stood short, at barely four feet, but alive and healthy. Many have had it worse, as her late knight Thomas used to say: There were people without limbs or consciousness, and Audrey has both; therefore, she is better off than others them.
Of course, Thomas and Mathilde were both dead because they had tried to protect Audrey. As she sat alone, sipping some poisoned soup, she wondered if anyone would turn up today to wish her a happy birthday. In three hours, she would have to bed, so they would have to come soon. Her eyes never left the doors of the mansion she was imprisoned in, waiting for someone to show up.
Her soup, as mentioned before, was poisoned. Most of what she ate was poisoned; she was simply immune to all poisons because of her gifts. Her mother and siblings possessed powers of light whilst she possessed darkness; it pulsed through her being, and it made her eyes and hair as dark as charcoal. The same way that light made their hair and eyes bright and almost transparent. Her father possessed some fire and water abilities, he was just a regular brown-haired elemental noble, only Royalty possessed powers of light and darkness. Of course, people with powers of darkness only appeared rarely, once every five hundred years, and they're often not bad people but were all killed off by their families before they reached the age of thirty.
But Audrey was going to break that cycle. She felt it in her bones. She was going to live to be ninety years old, with little grandchildren. She already had a fiance, Charlie; she was a princess, after all. She hoped for his letter, or, even better, that he would come and visit her. He was originally her only sister's fiance, but she went missing 8 months before Audrey was born, incidentally, it was the night the Queen found out she was pregnant with Audrey. Her sister was the sun, and everything in their family had orbited around her, so when she went missing and darkness fell... well, let's say darkness literally being birthed was rather unexpected.
Although, some say that the Queen's grief is what had birthed a child of darkness. Audrey believed that it was the hidden shadow of the showy, perfect royal family that led to her being a child of darkness. A child they could do anything to, and no one would stop them or care, and those who tried would die very quickly, which she had seen firsthand. However, unluckily for them, the God of Darkness himself had blessed her, so she was incredibly protected. Poison was useless, although it sometimes made her tummy hurt; physical abuse healed overnight, and whenever they would start hurling insults at her, she would simply stop listening. Her heart was inpenetrable, they couldn't hurt her (well, they could physically, and they did, but she would just get over it pretty quickly).
As Audrey sat and stared at the door, it suddenly swung open, and a long-faced, single-spectacled man called Henry walked in. He had the energy of an old, tired beagle and the swagger of one, too. "You are being summoned to the palace, Princess Audrey." He announced, his voice nasally as ever. And although she insulted him in her head, he was the last person left on the planet who would attempt to give a crap about her, so Audrey generally did what he asked of her. Even if it meant having some new type of poisoned food every day, because if she didn't eat it, he would face the consequences. She had learned that the VERY hard way.
She didn't have any maids anymore, two cleaners came on weekends. and cooks and Henry all day every day. Thus, she was always dressing herself, which was a good thing because no one could stop her from wearing whatever she wanted. She had chosen a yellow dress for the occasion. She had dark features, and her skin was also a nice tanned colour from all the time she spent in the sun. She thought it suited her, but many pale-faced, white skinned nobles turned their noses up at her. Her family all had low-contrast features, pale faces, pale eyes, and white-blonde hair, so her having the same on the opposite spectrum felt unified. However, that was just her opinion, most nobles found it horrid. They also found that it resembled commoners, who were largely born with tanned skin as they spent most of their time in the sun. No one suspected they were blessed by darkness, though, because they all had light hair and eyes, though, none as light as the Royals.
Anyways, the pale yellow dress truly popped on her, she felt magnificent whenever she wore it, which wasn't often because it was her special occasions attire. It was getting a bit small on her now, she'd last worn it two years ago when it had been far too loose on her. She walked into the carriage they had prepared for her, trying to be as regal as she could, however, she knew that it ultimately would never matter.
Her parents and brothers lived quite far from her home, which, by all means, was a lovely place for anyone to live, but it wasn't a palace. Her parents lived in THE palace, so large it would take 8 hours to travel from one end to the other, and it took her two hours to travel there in a carriage from her home. By the time she arrived, it was getting very close to her bedtime. As always, a single servant led her to her parents; it was usually a butler who looked like Henry, but today it was a maid. She didn't seem to know where anything was so Audrey ended up leading her to the correct room. The maid seemed to fear being touched by Audrey, which was a common misconception commoners had with people who had a prowess with dark magic. Her skin wasn't lava; it could be touched, but very few had been so daring.
She curtsied as deeply as she could in front of her parents, and she wasn't allowed to rise up until they acknowledged her. They usually wouldn't for a while, but this meant she had incredible calf muscles. Today, however, they were quick to acknowledge her presence and then toss her to her brothers, none of whom even looked at her. It was because they hated her, just like her parents, but she didn't care too much. It's hard to care about people you only see a couple of times a year.
A girl entered the palace, hair, eyes, skin, features that resembled Audrey's family, and suddenly everything made sense. The princess who went missing at the age of two years and four months had returned on her birthday, both their birthdays. She was beautiful like their mother, and Audrey couldn't help but stare at her. She wondered which of her features resembled their parents, but she knew that any mention of a resemblance would make them incredibly angry.
"We present Princess Cecilia Alexander, home at last." The Queen announced, beaming.