The Roof, Sunday Afternoon

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

It was a beautiful day outside, so Anemone had taken her paints to the roof of the dormitory, hoping for some peace and quiet as she worked on the painting she had begun yesterday.

She breathed in the lovely air and smiled as she set brush to paper, praying she would be left alone to finish her work. Her classmates were too boisterous to understand True Art.

[OOC: Looking for one, but open roof is open.]

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[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Good day," Alice said, stepping onto the roof and glancing about. Ah, Anemone, the pink- dark-haired girl. They were friends. It was good to have such, in exile. It gave her strength.

"What is it that you are painting?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Flowers," Anemone answered, glancing up from her work with a smile. "A dream of flowers, really. I think I had some like this growing outside my window once, when I was little."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"They remind me of a place I knew once," Alice smiled, toying with her locket. "A garden with such flowers you might never believe. I will go there again, one day."

And destroy the Grand Vizier and let her parents' deaths be avenged, once and for all.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone laughed, carefully selecting another color with her brush. "My name means 'windflower,'" she admitted. "I think my guardian doomed me for a love of flowers and the wind in my hair, much to his dismay. The Colonel often laments that I am more of a nymph or dryad than a lady."

She leaned forward as she worked, her locket swinging free from her dress. "Sometimes, I think if I could grow wings, I would."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I should not mind much, being a butterfly myself," Alice mused. She noticed the other girl's locket, and froze. "Forgive me, but where did you get that necklace?"

It looked so much like her own ... but that was impossible ... Ayana's killer had stolen it ... how had it come to this girl?

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"This?" She tangled her fingers in the chain, holding it up for Alice's inspection. "The Colonel said it is my inheritance from my birth family. I suppose it's silly of me to wear it, since he is the only father I know, but I find it soothing and pretty."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

It was only a similar locket, Alice told herself. It only looked the same.

"Does it have photos inside?" Alice asked, opening hers with hands that were now shaking. "Of Mum? And Dad?"

It couldn't be ...

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"It would be a poor locket if it did not," Anemone said slowly, sliding the chain over her head and clicking the pendant open to show Alice. "I've often wondered who they were, but the good Colonel always looks so uncomfortable when I bring it up that I stopped asking ages ago."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"They're my mother and father," Alice said softly, holding out her own to show the matching portraits inside. "Your birth family ... were you taken from them? At a very young age, hardly more than an infant?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

They matched. Anemone couldn't keep the shock off her face, and she kept glancing between the two lockets.

"I - I have no idea," she stammered, clutching her own necklace tightly. "I suppose. Colonel Dewey's country estate is the only home I can clearly recall, even these images," she lifted the locket slightly, "seem a dim dream, more created through their pictures than actually remembered."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice could hardly believe ... it wasn't true ... it wasn't possible ...

"Ayana?!" she breathed.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone shook her head. "I don't know that name!" she protested, even though it felt familiar in an odd way. "I'm Anemone, Alice. Anemone Novak, ward of Colonel Dewey Novak. The Colonel would have said something if I was this 'Ayana.'"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Would he?" Alice asked, eyes widening. "What if it was him, who stole you out of your cradle when you were but a baby? All these years, I thought my twin dead, lost, and she breathes. Ayana."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Why would he steal me?" Anemone asked, shaking her head in confusion. "Who are you, and who are they," she gestured at Alice's locket, "that anyone would care to take me?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"King, and Queen," she said solemnly. "Though both have gone to meet the angels, of late. Killed by their own Grand Vizier, a dark and powerful man who seeks to rule alone. I am believed dead, as well. And my twin sister -- Princess Ayana -- she was killed so many years ago, none might hope for her to draw breath."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"That still doesn't -" Anemone broke off and looked down at her fingers.

"The Colonel currently leads the resistance against the Vizier," she said abruptly, holding up a hand with an engagement ring. "I am betrothed to his other ward, Dominic Sorrel, and I have received word I am to leave school and return home at once."

So that was it. He had never loved her, never cared for her beyond as a pawn in his own schemes.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Would he assist us?" Alice asked. "If he fights the Grand Vizier -- perhaps he was only calling you home to tell you of the truth. That you are indeed -- my own -- sister?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"He made no mention of anything like that in his letter, merely that the campaign went well, and I should return and wed Dominic sooner rather than later." Anemone paced the roof, painting forgotten. "If he knew, why did he not tell me sooner?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps you aren't," Alice said sadly. "Perhaps Ayana is dead, and that locket came to you by other means. But the Vizier -- it is so great a coincidence."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"I was raised in seclusion, forbidden from ever attending court despite my foster-father's noble rank, and I am engaged to his other ward." Anemone shook her head. "Perhaps I do not give my guardian enough credit, in which case I will be ashamed later, but this reeks of conspiracy to gain the throne."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I fear it does," Alice agreed. Her frown deepened. "Perhaps you and I should rise against the Grand Vizier ourselves. And when his blood has stained the ground, we may ask your guardian what his intentions were. Will you join me?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone's smile was less than pleasant.

"I have been Anemone for a long time," she said sweetly. "I can remain the death of hope long enough for the Vizier to see his dreams die a violent end, until I can reclaim Ayana for myself."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"And we shall rule, together, as we were always intended to do," Alice said, her own smile just as cruel. "We have much work to do."