The war preparations were beginning to take their toll on Queen Odette. Lucerne was far from prepared for war in the first place; they had not gone to war for many years. Odette was still surprised the king had declared war now. In her mind, they had no solid proof that Pommern was holding their daughter hostage. But the king was determined and, peaceful though he may be, he was beyond stubborn. She wouldn’t be able to sway him, she knew that. All she could do was hope for more news.

The search parties had all but given up. Now that the cart’s tracks had been found leading to Pommern, it was widely believed that there was no longer any need to search Lucerne. Mirabel clearly wasn’t here. Odette was the one who had insisted they keep looking. Tristen, of course, was almost enthusiastic about it. Anything to get out of his lessons. But Odette figured that even if Mirabel was no longer in Lucerne, there may be someone who knew something. Someone who had seen something that night. Perhaps the kidnappers had stopped someplace for the night, or-

Odette stopped herself. She was overthinking it again, she knew she was. It was a bad habit of hers. But she was sure there was more to it than Pommern simply kidnapping Mirabel. She couldn’t explain why, but she had a feeling. Why would Pommern, after so many years of peace, decide to rekindle the old rivalry? It didn’t seem to add up.

Her stress levels had only increased since the war preparations had begun. And higher stress led to her thinking too much. With such a small military force, men were being drafted from all over the country and being trained as soldiers. Many of the manservants had been drafted, even, which meant more work for everyone in the palace, including Odette herself. To try and keep up with the workload, she had needed to hire more maidservants to take the place of the missing men. None of which helped her stress, of course.

The new maids had to be trained, and the experienced ones were too busy to help them very much. Odette had to assign some of the maids who were getting on the older side to help them out. The old women, while not spry enough to do all of the work themselves, had the knowledge to teach the new maids what to do and how to do it.

But the queen hadn’t been the only one busy these past few days. Ever since the king had declared war, Odette had been seeing less and less of him. He was either in meetings, or out supervising the training of new recruits. Lately, he rarely even showed to meals. She assumed he was having servants bring him his food, but she hadn’t asked. If he wasn’t, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know. But if he didn’t show to dinner in a few hours, she promised herself she would do something about it.

For now, though, she had other things to be worried about, such as the preparations for dinner. And the gardening. And the cleaning. She sighed; running a household as large as this one wasn’t easy. The palace was huge, and there was far too much to do. Things had been running smoothly, despite the chaos of the missing princess, but now everything was falling apart. She still hoped the king would call off the war preparations. Her hopes of that were fading however as the days went on.

She ran a hand down her face wearily. It seemed no matter what she tried to do, her mind kept returning to the war. But that was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about. Instead, she made an effort to turn her mind elsewhere. But what else was there to think about? Everything revolved around the preparations right now. It was impossible to escape. It was either war or work, and neither helped to calm her.

Maybe a walk in the garden. Last she had been there, the bushes were looking a little raggedy, after all. She should go check on them. She knew she was making excuses, but she didn’t care. She needed to get away for an hour or so, and the garden had always helped to calm her.

Recalling her wedding day, she smiled. She had been so nervous. She couldn’t believe it now, but back then, when she was younger, she had been shaking with nerves. The now-king’s mother had noticed, and had asked her to take a walk with her. Getting away from the chaos of the wedding had been exactly what she needed then, and she had been grateful to the queen. She wasn’t sure how she would have made it through the day without her.

Odette sighed, her thoughts taking a darker turn. She wished she had someone like that now. Someone to confide in, someone to help lift the heavy burden she felt resting on her slim shoulders. Normally, she would confide in her husband, but he was so busy now that that wasn’t an option. Not only that, but she wasn’t sure they would agree on many things right now.

The babbling sound of a fountain brought her back to the present. It seemed her feet had carried her to the garden without her noticing. She didn’t really mind, though. She stopped in front of the fountain and watched the water glide down the marble. It glistened in the late afternoon light, shining like the silk of her finest gowns.

She was already feeling calmer. A soft breeze brushed against her skin, smooth and delicate. Letting her eyes close for just a moment, she took a deep breath.

Soon she decided it was time she returned to her duties. Turning away from the fountain, her eyes fell on a bench. It was the same bench where she had found the slate tablet so long ago. Or at least, it seemed long ago. While she had lost track of the days, consumed by the chaos of the palace, she knew it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks.

She shook off the sadness that had fallen over her. Perhaps Tristen was back by now. Or Adrien. She would go and ask. Any news would be better than knowing nothing.

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A/N Hello! Me again, bringing you another update. I'm sure you're all so excited. Yup. I can tell by all those loving comments. And votes. Yup.

Anyway, this one is kind of short, but it's mostly to fill you in on what's happening elsewhere (which I promise is important). And the next chapter more than makes up for the length of this one in my opinion. I'll probably have the next one up in a few days. We shall see >:3

Vote. Comment. Fan. I'll give you brownies.