Chapter Text
It wasn’t right, what the Emperor was doing.
Elpis had been brought to the Ruby Palace to serve as the nanny to the Emperor’s new charge. When she’d been told the location, and the occasion of her hiring, she’d been…very concerned. When she’d been told that her charge was called ‘Lovely’, she’d been terrified.
“But what’s her name, Your Majesty?” She’d asked, her head still bowed. The Emperor had laughed. At his side was the child in question.
“Her name is whatever I wish. And I’ve settled on Lovely.” The child had offered no argument.
No one knew where the child had come from, only that Anastasius had brought her to the Ruby Palace and treated her as if she was a princess. He showered her with gifts and attention, took her as his escort to balls and political occasions that called for a partner, and was rarely away from her if he could help it.
Elpis was very, very concerned.
Lovely was a quiet, intelligent child, very isolated.
How couldn’t she be? When the Emperor refused to let her near children her own age?
She looked at the Emperor like he was the sun and stars, and the Emperor looked at her like she was something to be studied. Elpis trailed behind them as they walked in the gardens and the Emperor held her hand while Lovely asked her questions.
He was oddly knowledgeable about flowers.
The first time Elpis found out he tucked Lovely into bed she’d panicked.
What was going on?
It wasn’t natural, the way he treated her.
The more time she spent around them, the more concerned she grew. Occasionally there were bruises on Lovely, bruises that matched with being struck, thankfully. And when Elpis, quietly, and privately, asked if the Emperor had ever touched her in places he shouldn’t, she was given a very confused denial that could only be true.
One day, Elpis brought them tea and heard them talking before she entered the room. Against her instincts, she paused to listen.
“…and one day, when you’re a grown up, you’ll be my wife. How does that sound, Lovely?”
“That sounds nice.”
When she had entered a moment later, Lovely was playing at the Emperor’s feet, and he was watching her like a cat might look at a defenseless bird with a broken wing.
Elpis couldn’t stand by, even though it was her Emperor.
She packed a bag for the child and began saving money, drips and drabs, and kept her eyes and ears open.
“Would you like to go for a walk?” Elpis asked Lovely one night, waking her from a deep sleep. “We can go see the stars.”
Lovely- they would have to find her a real name- smiled happily and allowed Elpis to dress her (it was dark enough that the child couldn’t see that she was in clothes plainer than the Emperor would ever allow).
They got further than Elpis had feared.
Lovely grew tired, and Elpis carried her.
But not as far as she had hoped.
The Emperor’s personal knights surrounded her, and, fearing the worst, she put the child down.
One of the knights pulled her away, and Elpis was struck over the back of the head.
She heard Lovely screaming as the world went dark.
-x-
“I trusted you with my Lovely and you spit in my face,” The Emperor tsked. Elpis, her hair sheared short and her tongue cut out, could only scream wordlessly.
“Lovely belongs to me.” He said coldly. “I don’t appreciate people trying to steal what’s mine.”