The little girl had always held adventure to her heart like a dear friend, for adventure was always by her side when she seemed to need it. It was there when she explored the millions of shadowed nooks and crannies that made up the Thortan castle. Adventure was the one to hold her hand when she dared to do what seemed impossible to an eight year old child.
And adventure was here now as well.

Across the courtyard from where the young girl hid in the shadows, her mother guided a young boy through the gardens of crimson roses and bright flowers. She smiled at the boy the way that she had only ever smiled at her daughter. A smile that was supposed to be for her, and only for her.

The sunshine seemed to shine down on the pair as if they were the only light in the world as the girl lurked behind the shadows of cold stone, alone. She watched with a gaze of longing as her mother laid a blanket across the emerald grass for the laughing boy. They seemed so happy as the munched upon tiny sandwiches and extravagant pastry tarts. Her mother with her halo of bright red hair, its color yet to expire with age, laughed as she broke of little pieces of the pastries and tossed them in the air. The boy would run around in circles, making a game of trying to catch the pieces of pastry in his mouth.

She wanted to play. But she knew in her heart that she could not be included. Not a single soul was supposed to know that she was here. The girl was forced to lurk in the shadows with the filth and the rats. Just now, one of them scurried along her foot.

That was, perhaps, where she belonged. Places of dark and the shadows were becoming more common to her than her own name.

She picked meticulously at the ground underneath her, not wanting to watch them anymore. Perhaps she should go home. There, things were made up of black and filth there. The girl did not belong in this place of beauty. She was of worn rags and toenails that were rotting off. They were of vivid colors.

She missed her mother, who she only saw rarely. She missed the stories that she would tell her and she missed the way that her mother would help her create dreams. But it did not appear that her mother missed her.

The girl wished that she had someone to miss her. Someone to laugh and eat pastries with her. She wished to have someone loyal, who stuck by her side no matter what.

A friend. She had never wanted a friend before.

"Usually this is my spot."

She jumped, her body sprawling out in surprise. With the sudden movement, she nearly revealed herself to the whole castle.

The first thing she saw were his shoes, Finely made with tight leather. The kind of shoes that only important people owned.

Her eyes drifted upward to the boy, where he spoke with mischief carried in every syllable. "I agree, the prince is a prick."

She was off the ground in a matter of seconds. "How did you know that I was thinking that?"

"I have my ways." He replied arrogantly with a wink.

The girl held her back straight, her chin up. She could be strong just like him. "And who are you to question the prince?"

"I'm Bennie, of course. Duh." The boy smiled, offering his hand as a sign of good measure. He thought highly of himself, that was evident enough. "The Sorceress's apprentice."

Magic. This boy could do magic.

Lexa had just found her first friend, she determined.

She grinned, feral like a cat.

"I remember that day too. What a menace you were, even as a child." 

Lexa stood in front of the long, jewel studded mirror, admiring herself in the sapphire dress and through the mirror watching the boy sprawled leisurely across the sofa behind her.

"Stay out of my head, Bennie." Lexa demanded coldly as she examined different pieces of jewelry.

"Ah, but that takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it though?"

"For you, perhaps." a small tug pulled at the corridors of her mind, like a nudge of an elbow poking her.

She spun around, glaring at the elated Bennie. "Would you stop that?!"

In response, he arched an eyebrow. "You've been missing your lessons, Lexa. It would be so incredibly simple for me to take control of you right now. Only one measly barrier in your mind for you to fall apart."

Lexa turned back to her task as she spoke. She had things to do, and she would be damned before she let Bennie distract her. "I am not you, Bennie. I was not graced with copious amounts of magical talent when I was born."

In fact, much less than that. Every child in the kingdom underwent magical testing on the eve of their first birthday, and Lexa had been deemed magically inferior. They had told her mother that it was nearly impossible for her to wield any kind of magic.

But yet, here she was. Even if she needed the aid of spell books and Bennie to do it, she was inhabiting a body that did not belong to her.

"Well, as your teacher with 'copious amounts of magical' talent, I say you need to practice more. With me."

Lexa continued to speak with her back to Bennie, still focused more on her jewelry than she was on her friend. "If I do remember correctly, you were the one that has been missing for this week."

"Well we need to practice now." Lexa didn't fail to notice the glint of hope in his eyes through the mirror. Lexa wondered if he had always been this desperate, or if she was just now noticing it.

Bennie strided over to her, but Lexa still remained focused even as his gaze bored into her.

She sighed, eventually giving in with slight gaze at him. "I'm busy, Bennie."

"Oh, yes. I forgot. Your date tonight with the prince of pricks." Bennie's expression remained with its mischievous grin as he teased the prince, but it was not enough to hide the twinge of jealousy in his tone.

"Don't be like that Bennie. We need William to accomplish our plans."

"Your plans, Lexa."

She ignored his jab, knowing that aggravating the topic even more would only bring up more conflict. "It needs to be done regardless if I'm going to make it to the throne. We've already been over this."

"I just don't see why we need him."

"Because, Bennie, if I can't get close to him I can't make the alliances needed to keep the throne once I seize it. William is the heir to the throne. He knows anyone and everyone who is important to keeping the power."

Lexa knew what Bennie wanted to hear. She knew what words that would keep him in line, by her side. So she said them. "And then it will be just me and you, Bennie. The sorcerer and the queen."

He adverted his eyes. "As Adelaide."

Lexa nodded, confirming. "As Queen Adelaide."

He raised his chin, meeting her gaze head on. "And whatever happened to my best friend? Whatever happened to Lexa?"

He held her gaze, challenging her to answer with even an ounce of honesty.

Before she could respond, a knock sounded at the doorway of Adelaide quarters.

No servants were in her quarters to answer the doors at the moment. Bennie had used compulsion to convince them to leave when he had snuck in. He may be a reckless fool, but he was not an idiot.

Not a single soul could know that Bennie was in here. People's minds tended to jump to only one solution when two adolescents were in a bedroom together. And for woman like Adelaide, they were not kind.

"You need to leave." Lexa demanded. "Now. Teleport away"

She expected to feel the whoosh of wind complementary to teleporting, but instead he stood his ground. "No, Lexa."

She reeled back, shocked. "What did you say?"

He didn't even flinch. "I said no. If you're going to be Adelaide from now on, I should at least get to know your new friends."

Before Lexa could stop him, he strides over to the door, flinging it open.

Cleo stood on the other side of it, flanked by her current mouse of a servant.

"Who is this?" Cleo examined Bennie with a sharp satisfaction. She looked from Adelaide to Bennie, Bennie to Adelaide, and then back again with a look in her eyes like she had found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Lexa had to get a control of this situation. It was getting out of hand too fast, too unexpectedly.

Lexa hated everything and anything that she did not plan. And this was one of those moments.

"This is Bennie, the apprentice of the sorceress."

Cleo smirked. "And why is the apprentice in your quarters, lady Adelaide? Surely you would know as a proper lady that this is not suitable behavior."

"It is nice to meet you, Lady Cleona. I have only heard incredible things. As to the reason of my precede here, I was helping Lady Adelaide," he said the word with so much contempt that she prayed that Cleo would not notice, "connect to some magical traditions from her home. I have family that originate from Wallachia, so it was my pleasure to aid Lady Adelaide."

Lexa felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders once she saw that Cleo was not going to immediately call to anyone about this incident. But it was short lived, for another pressure was placed there. The weight of bearing the question of what Cleo was going to do with information was only worse.

"Bennie was just leaving. Weren't you, Bennie?"

They stared each other down, daring one another to break down first. It had been this way since they had been children. Two defiant souls consistently battling for dominance.

And just like this time, she always won.

"I was." He replied, his tone taut. He nodded briskly at Cleo in farewell, then left without another word.

Cleo immediately turned to Adelaide upon his departure, practically bouncing with excitement at this play of events.

"It was very kind of the apprentice to offer you aide. It really makes me wonder..."

Lexa knew that Cleo was leading her on. And she also knew that Cleo knew that she was not a fool enough for that to pass her by. But she had no choice but to play along.

She was cornered.

"And what is that, Cleo?"

"Oh just one thing. Nothing major."

"Alright, then." Lexa commented, attempting to end the conversation. There was only one way that it could go, and she could only hope to avoid it.

Of course, though, Cleo did not want to terminate the conversation. She continued to speak. "Just that I doubt William would be very happy to know that the apprentice of the sorceress was previously inhabiting the room of his fiancée. Alone. But we're sisters now, right? Sisters aid each other in times of need."

"Of course we do." Lexa agreed through clenched teeth

"I just help that you can help me as well, when the time comes. Or else you wouldn't be a very good sister. And if one cannot aid her own siblings, how can she take on the role of wife of a king?"

"She cannot."

Cleo locked eyes with Adelaide, a challenge and a threat held within the gaze. She had Adelaide right where she wanted her, and she was going to take advantage of that. It's what Lexa would have done.

Good for Cleo maybe, but very very terrible for Lexa.

"That's right," she responded, venom echoed in her tone like ripples, "and you would do good not to forget that, sister."