Even if Matthew barely knew how to look after a small kid like Seraphina, he was a very close Honorary Knight to Vespera. He saw how she treated her daughter—and as an uncle—he tried his best to give the same amount of affection to Seraphina.
Although, no one can replace a mother's love from a child's life.
Truth be told, Seraphina wasn't working yet. She was still too young to start with whatever she would be handed later on. But because she had to fool her dad, she would do that.
Besides, Matthew didn't want her to get into the tough politics right now. For the time being, he wanted her to get closer with people who loved her from her mother's age.
And truly, Seraphina got along very well with them.
***
Knock. Knock. Knock.
She was only laying in bed, staring where she remembered seeing her mother lay beside her since a very young age. Her finger idly tracing shapes and letters into the silk sheets when that aggressive knock came.
Fina groaned, throwing a pillow towards the door. But the knocking didn't stop. It went on and on and on.
Finally, she let out a sigh and walked up to the door with a pillow under her arm and a blanket tossed over her shoulders.
"Francesca! What do you want?!" She asked while aggresively throwing the pillow at her face.
"You missed the meeting! I came to check in you!" Her best friend answered back while throwing the pillow back.
She let out another groan. "I don't want to get back at work today." Her hand reached to shut the door, but her desperate friend never failed to get the subtle hints.
"Fina... Something is bothering you." Cassie asked. That was her nickname. Both Seraphina and Francesca were too long to say. It was one thing about Guardians naming their children with more than six letters. Just because it sounded more fancy and noble.
"No. Nothing is bothering me." She added while shutting the door. But Cassie said outside for more than fifteen minutes straight. It made her feel more and more uncomfortable.
"What?" She unlocked the door and looked out.
"The meeting starts late. That is what I came to say. See you at eight." Cassie waved and walked away. With a roll of when eye, she shut the door for the final time and slumped down against it from behind.
For a very long time, she stayed staring ideally at the marble floor. Then slowly raised her knees towards her chest, burying her face while letting those welling tears drip down and soak her night gown.
An hour later, she was back at the Justice chamber. She looked like a decorated doll with those dangling accessories and a massive cape wrapping her shoulders—just because she started to feel cold.
Her hands were stuffed inside her black gloves, trying to keep her fingers from trembling from the sudden drop in temperature. It wasn't because she had a fever or a cold—rather—her emotions were draining her skin and making her feel sick all the way down to her feet.
She took office an year earlier. She didn't even know how to handle it the way her mother had.
Justice was forced to take custody of her at age six because she was not taking care of herself enough from the grief. She was raised with Erebus, having to look at Victoria every single day until she was twelve and understood enough about the world.
Now, she was finally taking over her mother's throne and looking after it to preserve the love and effort spent on it. She gazed at her trembling hands as a single drop of blood dropped from her nose.
She was already afraid of dying, after hearing her mother tell her that it was both expensive and cheap—
"Seraphina?" A voice called out to her ears.
Suddenly, her mind centered back from the corners of her thoughts. She panicked while wiping the blood from her nose and answered. "Yes, my Sovereign?"
"You seem to be dragged away with something. Might we know what had been troubling you?" Justice asked while looking towards her direction with a hint of paternal concern for her.
"No. Nothing related to the Guardians."
"Sure. Then why not you explain what you have found out about the sudden war breakouts within the Smod territory? There seems to be a very weird statue there."
The meeting commenced normally for a very long time.
She felt like she could breathe after she walked out of there. Her lungs finally taking in a new batch of air and releasing the one she was holding. However, the day just didn't go the way she wanted it to. She saw Erebus happily walking down the corner to meet his mother.
Fina truly wished she could spend more time with her mother. It made when want to tear the walls down just for air. She swept her gaze away, ready to walk away. But—
"Hey! Aqua—Fina!" Her brother shouted at her from the distance. "How has your day going?!" He sneered.
It didn't take long to realize that he took a lot of his mother's arrogance into him, making him a hostile candidate in her life too. However, she couldn't even open her mouth or click her tongue at it. Being called a water brand, can't be that bad.
Cassie rushed forward to pull Fina away. Within minutes, the loud chattering of Erebus was a distant echo. Cassie left her a few paces away from her quarter, and rushed to her own.
It felt extremely lonely...
She spent the rest of the days working at her desk. Although they didn't have much taxes and this and that—there were things like magic users and how much they were using, the daily cost of magic stones being used to keep the magic users to keep her nation protected, names of criminals who had defied more than just laws. Like grave diggers for short—who don't want the dead to rest in peace.
Then there was clearing a date to go back to the territories and check if there was anything left unchecked. Fixing it secretly by herself, while leaving letters to some noble houses of they weren't taking good care of their land. It was like an eviction notice. Because Guardians were one step above Emperors and Empresses, they could have a direct link of communication. But it was scarce. Then there was also missions from Aethalgards to take care of.
Like it was stated; Great power comes with great responsibilities.
Being was Guardian, she finally understood what had driven her mother to death. There was no timing in the Guardian Realm, so she had to take care of the hours using a normal pocket watch.
Fourteen hours of work non-stop. One hour of meeting, two hours filled of getting personal hygiene and two meal times at most. That makes seventeen hours. It leaves her with only seven hours to get some adequate sleep.
She stood up from her chair—her legs were already numb and she stomped her way into the bathroom. Within fifteen minutes, she was ready for bed. Her teeth was brushed, her clothes were changed.
Just when she was about to flop face first into her bed—a series of knocks echoed into the empty room like a war drum.
Fina practically dragged her legs to the door and violently opened it. "What do you want Cassie?! I am not in the mood today! You know why!"
Cassie only tilted her head to look into her room. "You sure you are doing alright?"
"I am! I just—" she tried to slam the door onto her face. However, it was stopped by a person out of her field of vision. She pulled sit back to see who.
Two other women were looking at Fina with smiles on their face. One of them was specially someone who barely smiled at all.
A tall woman with hair the colour of a sun setting, her hair too ended with bright yellow much like Seraphina's. She had a pair of very pretty bi-coloured eyes that drew everyone's attention wherever she went. One eyes was blue and the other was green. Representing the colour of any word containing humans. She wore a very intricate dress. The fabric was drapped multiple layers with pearls holding the seams together.
Meanwhile, beside her was a taller woman. (All Guardians are tall and good-looking.)
She had hair the colour of a cold winter morning—buried under snow that kept you stuck indoors for three days—but for a very enjoyable moment otherwise. A light blue that doubled as a very light grey. Her eyes were the same shade as her hair, and her dress was mostly furs and coats.
Besides that, Cassie was white hair with a few blue strands. She wore attires like tailcoats and top-hats—which twined with Seraphina's go-to during emergency appearances in front of the Aethalgards. The thing wasn't with how good she needed to seem—she just didn't want hear Victoria telling her that her mother was incompetent in raising her.
"Hey kid! I heard we were having a sleep-over. Wondered why we weren't invited, so decided to just barge in." The Guardian of Frost spoke with a smile on her face. Behind her was the Guardian of War. Both from the Rise Faction.
"Wha—sleep-over—?! Hey!"
Without listening to any of her words, she was pushed aside and they walked right in, shutting the door behind them.
"Besides, all of us are someone you trust. We all know what you have been going through." Athena spoke while sitting down on the plush rug in front of her bed. "Khione brought pastry from her territory. We all can sit and taste it at the same time."
They dragged Fina onto the ground. Within minutes, she was starting to tense down.
She sat kneeling with a regal postor that was built from all those hours of work and facing Guardians. She stared down at the half-eaten pastry.
"So... Fina. You aren't always this silent. What happened?" Athena asked while looking down from the armchair a little bit to the side.
She immediately looked up at the woman with fiery hair colours, rubbed her eyes and continued to eat her pastry.
"It's not much. Just that... It's been ten years since my mom died. I just miss her." She whispered while biting down on the fork like it was the only thing keeping her sane.
"We understand it kid. We all miss your mom. She was a very powerful woman. Too bad the work caught up to her." Khione whispered back while moving to pat her head.
"Yeah... It is just so hard to accept. I keep feeling like... She is a pace away."
"Mother's are truly a thing. Without them, we can't survive and with them we can't stand them. Why... I sometimes wonder." Athena added. "They bring life, they get blamed for everything, they are always the one at fault. Like... Why?"
"Standards and society. Men say men are always right. If they beat up their wives, it is right. That is all I can say for now." Fina asked while finally leaning against the bed frame behind her. "Take my father for example. First wife was useless but suddenly the daughter she bore is worth more than gold. Weird..."
"Hey! My father wasn't like that ever, alright!" Francesca shouted.
"Seraphina has a point." Khione answered while sitting cross-legged on the rug. "Daughters are meant to be treated like royalty while wives—especially first ones—are properties to be owned and slaves to the bought."
"Yeah! I remember seeing a couple on the street arguing and the woman was asking; 'If I worked the same hours as you, then come home and take care of the kids—who is working harder everyday?'. And the man was like; 'the man. Of course it is always the man'. And to top it of, he was unemployed and running on his wife's money." Athena scoffed.
Fina let out a deep breathe while shutting her eyes. "Now that that is mentioned, I wonder what I should do about my father's offer."
"What did the first Aethalgard say?"
"I am to chose whether I want to take my mother's throne as the third Aethalgard just yet."
As soon as that left her mouth, a pillow smacked onto her face from above as Cassie flopped face-first into Fina's soft bed. "You are getting too~ grumpy Seraphina! We are having a literal sleep-over right now!"
She irritatingly pulled the pillow away and sat cross-legged. "Yeah well I don't remember hosting this sleep-over!"
But truly, she liked how much better it felt right now. Normally, she wasn't like this. She was always a very radiant personality. That was also why people used her.
Not the people her mother introduced though. Mostly those arrogant workers of Victoria from the Rise faction.
"By the way... Although we said we were going to stay for the night, we have actually got some missions to head out to the next morning. So we better start leaving now." Khione addressed while letting out a sigh, then standing up.
"Oh right... The 'missions'." Fina frowned, watching Athena stand too.
"We will be back before you know... Don't worry."
With that, they left.
Five days went by with absolutely no contact.
Seraphina stood in front of her full-length mirror, adjusting her clothes before heading out for the meeting. Her gloved fingers working with millimeter precision, just because she was uneasy about something.
Suddenly, a black butterfly with blue tails fluttered through the window and set on her shoulders. Its wings flapping. This butterfly was a part of her magic, and she used that magic to answer her doubts.
"My Sovereign... I have a good news and a bad news."
"What is the good news?"
"You are now assigned the titles of two different Guardians. Frost and War. You will be known as... Morana."
Seraphina let out a sigh while dropping her hands to the side. She felt like vomiting.
"And the bad news..."
"You already know." The butterfly replied before vanishing into thin air. Seraphina looked out the window, where the light snow of the Realm seized for a short few seconds and then restarted.
The rest of the Realm knew they were gone on the long missions... But Fina knew the truth. She rushed to the bathroom while holding her mouth. Her mind spiraled with the same thoughts.
They were now... Dead.