She sat outside of the keep, silent and swinging her legs as the whole place went mad. The circular wall of the cliffside fortress lay at her back with few guards, for they were all scurrying to the attentions of her mother. The main gate was down, symbolic of the way the Gilded Lily, for all intents and purposes, was closed for the time. Oh yes brothels in the cities would still be bringing in their money and business and the information network that kept impoverished and abused women protected would still be in effect, but the main governance of the society was all but dead. For their matriarch and founder was heavily pregnant, and early last evening she had begun to show signs of labour. That meant all those in the Gilded Lily headquarters were panicking to get everything Philomel Van Der Aart' might want, from olives from Fallien to a blanket made of softest thistledown.

And all of them ignored the fact that she already had a child, a daughter, who remained on the bench thoroughly bored.

"And I was supposed to be the heir and everything. The legacy," she muttered.

But then Philomel had never exactly spent much decent time with Celandine. Cel had had an unusual childhood - the first five years she had been raised in an inn by a brother and sister couple under the pretense she was a whore's daughter. Then she had been essentially claimed by Philomel and whisked away to a fairy tale castle, where for the past four years she had been brought up with a proper education, learning etiquette, sword play, craft, flower arrangement, language, botany, knitting amongst others. Now nine years old Celandine was still feeling like she had lacked a true parent figure in her life. She truly hoped that this time, with this child (that her mother Philomel was not hiding and being very public about) would be raised in love and attention.

At least Celandine was lucky enough to have a Blessing. As if she was a race that lived only a few years she matured quickly. Even though she was only nine she looked like and had the mind of someone twice her age. And she found she could learn things far faster than the average person. What would take someone a year to learn she could accomplish in three months. Any skill came naturally to her, any task she could quickly complete. She could even read fast, and retained so much information it was like she never forgot.

She sighed and looked down at her hooves as someone ran past with a huge roast on a plate. They barely looked at her, and she barely looked back at them. This was her mother's time, after all, and not hers. Despite being called princess and darling of the palace, Celandine was no more in the attentions of people right now than the next deer the Gilded Lily hunted.