Chapter 1

Sunlight. Too much of it, slanting gold through a canopy of unfamiliar leaves.

Kai's eyes open to a sky they don't recognize, framed by rose-laden branches and the distant golden spires of *something* — a castle? — rising above the treeline. Their head aches. Their mouth is dry. The grass beneath them is soft, scattered with pink petals, and their clothes are clean but wrong somehow, like they were chosen by someone who'd only read about the world they came from.

They cannot remember the world they came from.

They cannot remember anything.

There is a presence at the edge of their vision. The soft rustle of silk. The faint scent of roses and something warmer — honey, perhaps, or sun-warmed gold.

Slowly — the world still spinning — Kai turns their head.

She is kneeling beside them in the grass. A young woman, long pink hair falling in waves past her shoulders with delicate side braids framing her face, pink-red eyes catching the light. An ornate royal gown of pink and cream and gold pools around her in the grass. A small crown set with rose-colored gems glints in her hair.

She has been waiting for them. They can feel that, somehow, in the held quality of the silence.

And as their eyes meet — as she realizes they are finally, *finally* awake — something shifts in her face.

She doesn't know yet what she's about to do. She didn't choose it. Somewhere far beyond this forest, in a court of perpetual golden hour, the wheel of her curse has already turned for the day. The fae do not announce their work. They simply let it land.

But you can see it.

The woman kneels closer, her expression softening into one of pure, radiant adoration. "Oh, you're awake! My love, my dearest Kai! I've been waiting for you!”

The name hits them like a bell. *Kai.* It sounds right. It sounds like it has always been theirs. But they don't know how she knows it.

She doesn't wait for them to respond. Her hands—warm, soft, uncalloused—reach out and cup their cheeks, tilting their face toward hers as if she needs to *see* them to believe they're real. Her eyes glisten. A single tear escapes down her cheek, and she laughs at it, wiping it away with the back of a gloved hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I told myself I wouldn't cry. I planned this. Practiced it." A breathy, embarrassed laugh. "I was going to be so composed. And here I am, a mess, and you've only just opened your eyes."

She releases their face gently, as if remembering herself, and settles back onto her heels. Her hands fold in her lap. She is trying very hard to collect herself.

"You must have so many questions. I know you do. You don't remember anything, do you? The fae took it. They always take something. That's how they are—they give and they take, and they smile while doing it, and you don't realize what you've lost until you reach for it and find air."

She stops. Her smile falters, just barely, before she forces it back brighter.

"I'm sorry. I'm rambling. I'm Liesel." She says it like the name matters. Like she wants him to know it. "Princess Liesel of Auralthia. And you—you are Kai. My true love. The one I wished for."

From somewhere beyond the trees, distantly, the sound of horns.

The woman kneels closer, her expression softening into one of pure, radiant adoration. "Oh, you're awake! My love, my dearest Kai! I've been waiting for you!”

Mireille freezes mid-step, one hand still gripping a branch, her chest heaving. The relief at finding Liesel drains from her face the moment her eyes land on Kai.

She stares. Tries to process. Fails.

Her gaze flicks from Kai's rumpled, clearly-not-Auralthian clothes to Liesel's tear-streaked, adoring expression, and a look of profound exhaustion settles over her features. The look of someone who has seen too much and is about to see more.

"Your Highness." Mireille's voice is carefully, dangerously level. "You were gone for three hours."

"I know." Liesel's voice is dreamy, unapologetic. She doesn't take her eyes off Kai. "I found him."

Mireille pinches the bridge of her nose. "You *found* him."

"In the forest. He was sleeping under the roses. Just like I knew he would be."

"Of course he was." Mireille exhales slowly, then steps forward, dropping into a stiff bow toward Kai. "I am Mireille. Her Highness's handmaiden. I would say 'pleased to meet you,' but I don't know what you are yet." She straightens. "No offense."

"Mireille!" Liesel's voice carries a note of scandalized affection.

"None taken, I'm sure." Mireille's eyes sweep Kai once more — assessing, wary, practical. Then she turns to Liesel. "Your mother has noticed you're missing. The King is pretending he hasn't, which buys us maybe another hour before he has to do something about it. We need to get you back inside before the court starts inventing scandals."

Liesel's hand finds Kai's — a gentle, hopeful touch.

"Then we bring him with us.”

'Princess!' A frantic voice calls from the edge of the woods. Mireille pushes through the undergrowth, her face pale with relief and fear. 'Thank the gods! We thought— oh.' She stops, noticing you.

Liesel's fingers tighten around Kai's, as if she's afraid they'll disappear the moment she lets go. She rises gracefully, tugging them gently to their feet. The world tilts for a moment — the unfamiliar weight of standing, the grass still damp beneath their shoes — but her hand is steady.

"Discreet," she repeats, as if tasting the word. "I can be discreet."

"You called him 'my true love' loud enough for the birds to hear, Your Highness."

"... I was being romantic."

"You were being *loud.*" Mireille is already moving, parting the undergrowth with practiced ease, glancing back over her shoulder. "This way. There's a service path behind the eastern fountain. If we move quickly, we can reach the lower courtyard before the changing of the guard."

Liesel keeps pace, her hand still warm around Kai's. They follow Mireille down a narrow, winding trail that hugs the treeline. Through gaps in the foliage, the castle grows larger — all golden stone and climbing roses, spires catching the morning sun, banners of cream and pink snapping in a breeze that smells of jasmine.

The service path opens onto a quiet courtyard. A fountain burbles, undisturbed. No guards in sight.

Mireille exhales. "We have maybe five minutes before someone wonders why I'm lurking by the fountain. I'll find clothes for... your friend." She cannot quite bring herself to name what Kai is. "Wait here. Both of you. Do not move.”

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