1 ONE: Sephora

I watched as her pacing grew more intense by the second, I watched as she kept moving back and forth soliloquizing. I have never seen her this much agitated, her well manicured fingers kept running through her light ginger hair as she kept bumping into furniture occasionally and wincing at the pain. Each time she does, I rush to her but she just waves me away and goes back to pacing.

"Your Highness, you have to calm down" I said, but wouldn't anyone panic if they were getting married to a complete stranger to honor a Kingdom treaty.

"Calm down? Calm down Sephora, how can I be calm at a time like this?" She cried with a panic-stricken voice as she turned to look at me.

Her aqua-blue eyes which always reminded me of the ocean, slowly filled with tears, her gentle face sculpted with soft features as fragile as glass and her skin as pale as ivory had turned red from anger and frustration. I was afraid because she looked like would shatter anytime soon. She was beautiful, Ethereal if I may put it. Seeing her standing in her lavender day dress, blinking back the tears welled up in her eyes, gulping air trying to suppress her urge not to cry brought a stab of pain to my own heart.

She went back to pacing back and forth, to her dresser and back to her study table, while I stood at the edge of her bedpost, watching her anxiety get the best of her. She needs comfort at this time but I am just a mere handmaid.

Eventually, she stopped pacing and plopped down on her Canopy bed, causing a crease on the perfectly laid bed. Her palms pressed on her face as she sobbed quietly, I passed her a handkerchief and she accepted it muttering a soft "Thank you" then wiped the tears on her eyes.

"Sit, Sephora." She sniffed, patting the space on the bed next to her.

"Your Highness…" I began to say, but she cut me off.

"Please." she pleaded and so did her eyes.

Reluctantly, I sat down next to her. She took my palms in her's, Her palms were as soft as a baby's bottom compared to mine that were as rough as Sandpaper. My gaze shifted from our interlocked palms to her face. She was gazing at me with a look of curiosity and mixed emotions. She must be really sad

"Have you ever been in love, Sephora?" She asked. Her eyes now looking glassy, searched my face for an answer.

Have I ever been in love? Of course, I have been in love. I loved the princess but not in the way sisters love each other. Such love is a forbidden one. I nodded my head in response and she gave me a small smile.

"I have always wanted to marry a man I loved, like in the books I read." Her words were soft with a hint of sadness, "It is quite unfortunate that we don't always get what we want, isn't it Sephora?"

"Yes, Your Highness… it is." I responded. It was as if she knew.

She let go of my palms and stood up, fingers curling her hair as she slowly walked towards the window. She stood staring at the palace garden. With time she became lost in thoughts, silence echoing through the room while I sat on her bed wishing that she was still holding my hands.

"Do you think I could love him?" She asked out of nowhere, her fingers playing with her ginger hair. "The man I am about to marry, do you think I could love him?" Her attention and gaze were on me now and all I could do was stutter.

"Th-that entirely depends on the kind of man he's like Your Highness," I replied and after a pause I added "Who knows he might be the one for you."

"But, I've never even met him. I don't even know what he looks like." She cried heading towards the bed and plopping down next to me causing an even larger crease.

It got silent for a while with the both of us staring into her large bedroom painted and decorated with hues of mint and gold. Everything in the room starting from the chandelier to the center carpet had the same color pattern, except the polished hardwood floors which were Mahogany brown.

There were gold sculptures of winged people mounted on the walls and a gold harp in the left corner of the room which she played often. She gave a deep sigh after a while and laid her head on my shoulder, sniffling.

I pulled her into a hug and rested my chin on her head while stroking her long wavy hair. At times like this I remember that she's more than just the princess to me she's my best friend Aiyana.

"Aiyana?" I whispered

"Yes?" She responded with a hum "I was wondering when you would drop the formalities" She added chuckling.

I fixed my gaze on a portrait of the royal family which hung on the wall, it was painted on Aiyana's Eight birthday as a gift from her father "Remember that promise we made as kids?"

"We made a lot of promises as children, Sephora," She broke away from my embrace, sitting up to look at me "You will have to be specific."

"Well…" I was interrupted by a knock on the heavy mahogany double doors that served as the entrance to her room.

"Who is it?" Princess Aiyana called.

"It is I, Noelani, Your Highness." A tiny voice behind the doors replied.

"Come in." Princess Aiyana responded while I quickly got up from her bed as servants are not allowed to be friendly or too comfortable with the royals.

Aiyana and I were born on the same day, My mother was and still is her mother's; The Queen's hand maid. It was only right that I became the Princess's hand maid. Aiyana, being friendly and nice as she has always been, saw me as her only friend. We used to be closer when we were kids before she went off to the Royal Academy to further her education on her Royal duties.

The door opened noiselessly and the maid Noelani flitted over to the princess.

"Your Highness," Noelani bowed "The Royal dressmaker is here."

"Thank you, Noelani. I shall meet her in a minute." Princess Aiyana replied, giving her a soft smile.

"I will inform her, Your Highness." Noelani spoke with her thick accent while bowing, she looked up at the Princess and parted her lips as if to say something but closed them back as if she were saying 'Nevermind'. She left the room rather and I guessed she must have noticed the Princess's eye bags.

Noelani works as a parlor maid in the palace. Two years ago she and a couple others of her kind were sold to the King by slave traders. They are very dark skinned.

The first time I saw them I was quite surprised because I had never known there were people with skin darker than mine and I had the darkest skin in the palace before they arrived, my mother said everyone on her side of the family did.

Noelani braided her hair in rows, she said all the women from her tribe did and so did the rest working in the palace. They all had thick hair with tight coils which weren't very long compared to the rest of us. I thought they were beautiful with their thick lips, broad noses and thick accents. Everything about them was and still is thick.

"The dressmaker is here already?" I asked.

"Father says the wedding shouldn't be delayed, the earlier the engagement the better for the kingdom." Aiyana replied, rubbing her temples.

"Oh!" I responded.

She got up from her bed and went to her dresser, looking into the mirror at her eye bags. I followed and stood behind her.

"I'll apply a little makeup on it." I said, opening the drawers to unveil different shades of lipstick and sets of powder.

"You know sometimes I think I might be better off being a peasant." She blurted and I banged the back of my head on the table drawers as I lifted my head quickly in shock.

"I am sorry." she laughed as I winced and rubbed my head in pain.

"Why would you say that, Your Highness?" I asked.

"A peasant's life seems so free, you get to do what you want, go wherever you want and marry whoever you want, no one dictates your life for you. I want that life." She responded with a sigh.

I gently pulled the ribbon free from her hair and let it fall freely below her shoulders. I ran my fingers through her soft hair untangling it. Her hair smelled of strawberries today, she always smells nice.

"Hand me the comb please," I requested. She handed me the mint and gold decorated comb sitting on the table. I brushed her hair with it in silence.

"You know, being a peasant isn't as free as you think." I said after a while.

"It's not?" She asked inquisitively

"No it isn't, you see peasants are guided by the rules created for the kingdom which makes them limited to certain privileges you royals have." I explained.

"I know that." Aiyana responded.

"Of course you do, peasants are mostly poor and usually unable to fend for themselves. Most of them marry their daughters off to Dukes or rich people so that they can benefit from them, something like what your father is doing to you, getting you married off to gain Allies for the kingdom. Purely beneficial" I added styling her hair into a chignon.

"I guess I am not that much different from a peasant now, am I?" She asked, looking at me through the mirror, I glanced at the mirror and caught my reflection looking very dark and ugly compared to hers. Of course She is different from a peasant, peasants don't have what she has.

"You are different from a peasant, You are a princess." I reminded her and dabbed some powder under her eyes to hide her eye bags.

"All done." I said when I was finished and she looked at herself in the mirror, she was lovely as always.