Chapter 1
“Hurry, it’s time to get up!” a hurried voice broke through the comfort of Evren’s deep sleep. Evren groaned and rolled over attempting to reach for her now forever lost dream. Sadly, the owner of the voice left no time for her to succeed, a swishing of fabric from the curtains brought in bright beams of sun. The warm blankets were ripped from her, and she was helped to a sitting position on the bed. As Evren finally awoke from her daze, she realized something was off.
Looking around the now sunny room, she saw intricate carvings on a fancy bed post as well as gold decor all over. As her eyes roamed the unfamiliar room a huge mirror caught her attention, and while extremely detailed and ornamental, that’s not what struck her as intriguing. It was her, Evren herself that caught her eyes. Her hand mindlessly reached for her face and the ‘her’ in the mirror copied.
Pitch black locks of hair flowed all around the girl in the mirror. Although her previous hair color was close to a black originally, it was definitely closer to brown than what it is now. Her skins as fragile and white as porcelain, reddened just from her hand brushing over it just to disappear as soon as her hand fell. Eyes a burning orange flame and lips just as vibrant with a red hue.
‘This isn’t my body, who’s is it?’ Evren thought. Without any time to dawdle on her confusion, the maids quickly got to work cleaning and prepping her with familiar ease. They hurried her into a bath with lavish scents and salts, carefully washing her body and hair quickly without a word.
The warm water relaxed her and finally she felt like she could breathe, she looked around for clues of what’s happening and where she is. One moment she was neck deep in a juicy read and the next she’s being pampered beyond what she felt comfortable with by strangers in maid costumes.
After what seemed like an eternity of them delicately brushing her clean the maids lifted her out and patted her dry with soft, fluffy towels and quickly went to fetch her under garments. They arrived back, changed her into them and scurried off again.
She was left standing in the cold of her underwear as they took a while to return with a grandiose dress. What once took her 10 minutes to change now took 2 hours even with help. They put it on her layer by layer, carefully tightening and tying her up in it. They then took her to a vanity desk and brushed her delicate hair without even a tug on her hair as if it was the most precious thing in the world.
After the hair it was light makeup and finally jewelry. After what felt like a torturously long time, she finally was fully dressed and she looked into the mirror once again. The fiery eyes still startling her, she better saw how dainty this body was; it looked as if just breathing would topple her over by accident. Was this body abused? Otherwise why was it so dainty?
The dress they had chosen was a silvery grey that sparkled against her pale skin and made her hair and eyes bear a striking impression on any who saw. She nodded in approval, never having thought a grey dress could look this complementary to anyone’s features before. She stared, star struck at the mirror until the maids hurried her out the rooms and down the long, wide hallway.
They arrived in front of two large, dark brown wooden doors, the maids bowed as what seemed to be a butler opened the door and bowed politely as well, one arm leading forward as if to guide her in.
She walked in and before her was a long empty table with plates placed all around it, down at the head of the table was an old, gentle looking man and to his right two young men sat. They all stared at her as if waiting for her to move. She quickly sat at the empty plate placed at the left of the old man.
As soon as she sat, a line of maids brought out silver platters of food and carefully served the food and backed away to the wall with their heads down. No one talked for a while as they ate. Evren hesitantly picked up the utensils and started eating. The old men and two young men paused while eating and stared at her in shock.
“Ar-are you finally done with your food strike?” The old man asked carefully as if afraid to offend Evren. Unsure of how to answer, she just nodded in agreement. The old man sat back and visibly sighed in relief with his whole body. He continued, ”Good, there’s no reason to be hung up on that man.”
Evren almost spat out her food, hung up on a man? She is? Although she loved romantic books, she never once wanted to chase a guy. She had always just figured one would find her one day or she could just adopt a cat for company in her old age.
But to think the original owner of this body would go as far as not eating trying to get a guy, her expression turned grim. The old man panicked and tried to appease her changing mood,” Don’t worry Evrendalia, I have an old business partner that can help introduce you to even better and more eligible bachelors.”
She went wide-eyed and quickly shut down his proposal, "No thanks, I’m done chasing guys!” The young men across from her dropped their fork mid bite and stared at her as if they just saw a ghost. The old man’s expression got overjoyed at her statement and clasped his hands together.
“Good, good. You should forget about chasing men,” he broke out in hearty laughter. The young men whispered amongst themselves, "Ha. You actually believe that? What is she planning now?” The old man slammed his fist down and glared at the two men and they immediately silenced their mouths.
After that they started talking about current events and business between the three of them and through their conversation she learned a few key pieces of information. The old man was Marquess Chevalier, the father of this body. The two men were Sylos and Cyle, they were her brothers. She was the youngest of this household at 21 and it seemed the original owner was very selfish and love struck, always chasing a different man and easily falling in love with the next if that one didn’t work out.
After the food was removed and everyone started going about their day, she stood and headed back to her room. Two maids who helped dress her earlier followed after her in silence. She looked closely at them, they were both young women maybe around mid twenties at most.
She glanced back and forth at them for a few minutes before gaining the confidence to ask them, “Do we have any books that I can read?” They looked at her frozen in shock before quickly regaining their composure and answered, "Yes young miss, the library is next to your father’s study.”
“Good. Lead the way,” Evren gestured. They started out of the room and down the hall, passing the room they were eating in previously. After a few more turns there were a few murmurs from passing staff as they stopped in front of another set of huge dark brown doors. The maids opened it and bowed, gesturing her in.
Evren took a deep breath, the nostalgic scent of pages tickled her nose and edged her forward as her eyes scanned the multitude of shelves. She looked around, occasionally grabbing a book and reading the title just to immediately put it back. After a few hours of doing this, she realized something dreadful, they were all academic books not comfort reads.
She turned back to the maids, embarrassed, "Is there perhaps books for entertainment somewhere?” They nodded, led her to a desk in the library and quickly disappeared. After a few minutes they came back with newspapers and a few books.
She skimmed through each of them just to feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment. The newspaper was just daily gossip amongst nobles of the empire. The books seemed to be children’s fairy tales.
The newspaper read: “The Lady Chevalier has once again set her sights on another unlucky man!” Below that caption was a picture of her staring at a handsome man. Evren felt a headache coming on and put down the newspaper and picked up a random, romance looking book. On the cover it seemed to be a blonde haired prince with a sword protecting a silver haired woman from a demon with black hair and red eyes.
The book read : “Once upon a time, there was a prince who dreamed of reaching the stars. He did everything in his power trying to travel to them. He eventually went as far as to try to shoot down one of these Goddess given treasures. But no matter how much he tried, he could never reach them. As the prince grew, he became violent and unjust. He felt if he couldn’t have his dream, no one could have theirs. He spent his time tormenting the people of his land. At a ball in the neighboring country, he saw the prince of that country and a cheerful girl happily dancing under the moonlight. Enraged by jealousy, he kidnapped her and thus started the First Ever War. The Neighboring Prince’s army eventually won and brought the damsel back home, but she was never the same again. The Evil Prince had tainted her mind and she aimed to torture those around her just as the Evil Prince had. In the end the Neighboring Prince had to end her with a tear in his eyes. The Prince became our first hero, Palin Montreo. For he had sacrificed for the greater good.”
She felt another headache with the fairytale. The amount of plot holes was unreal and it seemed to be made for children based on the colorful pictures included. She decided to just head to her room and sleep after her disappointment. She arrived back and the maids quickly went to undress and bathe her once again. This time only taking half as long to finish, they put her in a soft white nightgown and she went into a deep sleep on her soft, luxurious bed.
