Cinder X Bella ~ Forty!

- Prince Cinder -

Cinder turned and walked away from the doors of the palace, knowing there was nothing he should do to catch up to the fleeing Bella. He held the glass slipper in his hand, staring at it with confusion. “She gave me her shoe. Why would she give me her shoe? She already told me who she was and where to find her. What am I supposed to do with this?”

Returning to the masquerade, he put an easy smile on his face and started making his way through the people lost in their revelry. Even as people brushed past him, tried to speak with him, or otherwise impeded his progress, the prince never stopped his steady pace across the space. He had a goal, and he was going to achieve it.

That was what he did. That was who Cinder was. He made progress happen.

Finally, he arrived at the area reserved for the royals, needing to remove and set his mask to the side to get past the guards. He stepped forward firmly, feeling the weight of displeasure in his mother's stare as she watched him approach. “Your majesty, I-”

“The whole point of wearing the mask, Cinder, is so no one can be certain where you are at any given time during this party. I did that for you.” The queen interrupted him immediately. “Why would you then go and throw that all away when there are hours remaining until our guests go home? As soon as you step away, you're going to be swarmed. You know this.”

Cinder bowed sharply, knowing better than to cause a commotion in public if he wanted his imperious mother to listen to him. “It's a matter of some urgency, your majesty.”

“It better be.” Queen Liora grumbled for a moment, only to go still and look at him with suddenly-sharp eyes. “It couldn't be… that you found the woman who will be publicly betrothed to you?”

“No!” he yelped in reply, letting out a nervous chuckle at her now-arched brow. “I had three guards with me who can attest to what I'm about to tell you. A young woman was here, wanting nothing more than to speak with you and advance her class. For some reason, she's been unable to get to a Class Shrine and so was hoping you would do it for her as a gesture of goodwill.”

“Not a terrible idea, frankly,” the queen mused. “It's been quite a long time since your father or I directly advanced someone not of the high nobility. Actually, yes, bring her here.” 

“Well, abyss, I would have loved to know you'd be so open to doing that.” Cinder sucked in a breath through his teeth, “So…”

“What did you do, Cinder? Just spit it out. Did you have her thrown out?” Liora leaned slightly to the right, putting the pads of her fingertips against the temple of her forehead. “By the system, sometimes the hints of paranoia I’ve seen in you since your father was attacked-”

“Mother!” 

Cinder broke protocol, causing her to look up at him with a freshly-sharpened glare.

“I was just worried… that she may not be who she said she was.” The glare softened at this, and Liora sighed softly at being proven correct. Cinder pressed on. “She claimed to have earned her Breakthrough Skill, but had not yet awakened it. Wanting to keep some distance between you and her, but also wanting to give her the benefit of the doubt, I had one of the guards fetch the awakening shard that's been rotting in the vault since grandfather was king.”

“I hope you put it back after you finished indulging her braggadocious fantasies.” The Queen shook her head slightly. “Wait, why would you want to give her the benefit of the doubt? How long were you speaking with her? Cinder… what color are her eyes?” 

“That's not important… they’re blue, with a small, brown section in her left one.” Cinder sputtered slightly as his mother clapped once, a wide smile blooming on her face. “Stop that! She's in trouble. She ran out of here, saying something about magic laws that would get her in trouble if she were discovered out of her house?”

“Impossible.” The queen shook her head. “I decreed that every qualified young lady be allowed to attend. That would supersede any other guardianship magic.” 

“I said the same thing, but she said you hadn't put anything in the decree about staying here.” At Cinder’s words, whatever Liora had been about to say didn't come out of her mouth. “Apparently, she was brought here, then sent home early.”

Liora waved over a guard, speaking to him quietly for a moment before shaking her head and returning her attention to Cinder. “No, the only person who went home early was Isabella Vigatori. She's a sickly, misshapen young thing who isn't all there. Apparently she arrived, rushed to the food and gulped down as much as she could before being sent home for the sake of her health. You remember her, she was at the party we went to quietly for your second cousin and his new wife Rosa. You danced, for some reason that still eludes me.”

“Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about.” Cinder’s face twisted slightly as he thought about what his mother had just said. “Isabella Vigatori. Why do you keep calling her sickly and misshapen? She's as lovely as anyone I've ever met.”

“You… are joking?” Liora studied her son then shook her head. “Isabella is certainly a common name, perhaps in her haste to leave, her words became garbled?”

They stood in silence, both of them uncertain why they were unable to properly communicate with each other. Cinder tried again. “You saw her with me, or at least your guards did. She was in the luminous dress, and she… here! She gave me her shoe.” 

“What in the-?” Liora leaned away as Cinder offered her the glass slipper. “Why would she give you her shoe? Wait… my crown is… it can’t be. Put that on the ground, right now.”

Hearing the seriousness with which she was speaking, Cinder set the shoe down and stepped back hurriedly. “Are you worried that it might be coated in some kind of contact poison? I don't think she-”

He and his mother both gasped as the shoe shifted in place, the toe sweeping around to point south and a little east. 

“It's Enchanted.” Leora breathed lightly then looked up and met her son's eyes directly. “The Awakening Shard. It activated, didn't it?”

“It did.” Cinder bobbed his head. “She told me it was from her Basic Class, that she hadn't even unlocked her Advanced Class yet. But, that's why she was here in the first place. She didn't even know you could do both. Frankly, she didn't seem to know anything about skills, nor your role, at least not what someone of her age and status should. There's more. She said her guardian is a literal Witch and that we needed to bring soldiers with us to rescue her. Mother… she was terrified.”

“That settles it then; it can't be the same person.” Liora sat back and tossed her hands to the side in a light shrug. “The guardian of the house is Signora Vigatori, a widow now that her husband has been taken by plague in a distant land. They've been at functions and events many times over the last years, and never once has there been a complaint against them. They are perfectly lovely, by all accounts.”

“Moth-”

“We are in public, Cinder,” Queen Liora quietly spoke over him. “Please remember that. Guards, I need my advisors. Cinder, pull up a seat.”

A trio of nobles ranging from elderly to quite spry hurried over a few minutes later, their eyes shining with curiosity as they looked between the two seated royals. The queen looked stately and calm, while the prince was slumped in his seat and clearly frustrated.

“How wonderful!” The eldest of them smiled as he walked past the guards. “It appears you must have chosen our future princess, Your Majesty. Might I be the first to offer my congratulations, as well as the first to ask who it is? I know my daughter was attending; she was wearing the most lovely yellow-” 

“No, it's not that.” The man appeared slightly crestfallen, so Liora reassured him by saying, “The princess has not been chosen. However, we are seeking out a mysterious attendee who fled rather suddenly. Prince Cinder was with her as she awakened a Breakthrough Skill, and she fled without registering it with the crown.”

There were gasps from the advisors, who turned to each other and murmured for a long moment before turning back with solemn expressions on their faces. “That's quite the crime. Do we know what her power set was, how dangerous she will be to bring in?” 

“She's not dangerous,” Cinder grumpily stated, sitting forward in his chair. “She broke through in her Basic Class. As far as I know, she's not even breaking a law. There's nothing that says someone too young to have their Full Class must register their skills.”

“Her Basic Class?” Liora tilted her head at him. “Then it's even more important we find her.”

“What do you mean?” Cinder balked at the sheer edge in her tone. “Why is that so important? I've never heard of anyone achieving Breakthrough in a Basic Class skill.”

“Exactly, Cinder.” The queen motioned for the advisors to stand closer and kept her voice down as she explained, “If she truly did so, that would make her the first to unlock the third skill of a Basic Class in… as far as the written history of our kingdom goes. She must have gained a truly impressive system merit for doing so, which means whatever she does next will be incredibly impactful. You say she hasn't unlocked her class? I want to do so personally, so we can bring her under our wing.”

“How shall we proceed with finding her, your majesty?” The middle-aged advisor questioned as he stroked his long beard in contemplation. “Do we have a name, a lead on how to find her?”

“Only one lead, but no name.” Liora’s answer caused Cinder to jerk his head to stare at her in shock. She rolled her eyes at him, continuing by saying, “She gave a false name to the prince then ran away as soon as her skill was awakened fully. We must assume she has an extremely dangerous new skill.”

“She didn't give me a false name, she…” Cinder swallowed as four sets of eyes turned to stare at him pityingly. “She wasn't like that.”

“An Enchantress, perhaps?” The youngest of the advisors finally spoke, nudging his senior and winking at him. “Let me guess, love at first sight?”

“She gave the name Isabella Vigatori, but everyone knows the Vigatori girl is frail and sickly and has gotten worse after the loss of her late father.” The queen shook her head at Cinder crossing his arms. “Prince Cinder, that's hardly the type of girl to galavant around at balls and leave behind her footwear. Well, actually, the second part might make more sense if that were the case. But she left behind Enchanted footwear. Not just magical, not simply skill-touched. Enchanted.”

A guard stepped forward and adjusted the slipper, only for it to twist and point in the direction the mysterious young woman had fled not long ago. Cinder shook his head and reiterated, “She told me who she was. She's in danger. We need to send guards to bring her safely back here.” 

The advisors chuckled slightly, even as the queen raised her hand to silence them. “My son, what we need right now is a creative solution. Not to simply smash our way into some unfortunate low noble’s home and destroy it over a young woman falsifying information about herself. We also need to do this within the bounds of the laws of our kingdom.”

“Yes!” The youngest advisor snapped his fingers, pointing at the shoe. “Making a law targeting only a single person will not mesh into our ward structure. If we want to do this right, we should do it just as we did the masquerade: a royal decree that whoever the slipper belongs to must return to the castle and marry the prince!”

“Whoa, what, no!” Cinder nearly fell off his chair as he thrashed backward, away from the grinning advisors. “That's not what this is about! There's a powerful young woman out there who didn't register with the crown, that's all!”

“I second the motion.” the middle aged advisor stated, while trying to hide his grin. “Clearly, the young prince has deep, convoluted feelings about this young woman. It's more than anyone else can say about another of the fine ladies of our realm.”

“A grand search throughout the kingdom!” The eldest advisor tapped his cane on the ground in excitement. “Every maiden shall try on the slipper, and thus we shall find your mysterious damsel and return her to your side!”

“I'm telling you, I know who she is.” Cinder pointed at the shoe in frustration. “The slipper is even telling us where she is. All we need to do is go and find her, and if it points another direction, we just keep following it!”

“Think of the celebrations, your majesty! Each village we get to we could hold a festival, bringing life back to the populace!” The youngest advisor was speaking again, absolutely ignoring Cinder and leaving the young man to seethe. “We shall leave no foot untested!” 

“Why not?” Cinder barked at them in frustration.

“Well…” The youngest advisor hesitated, but the middle-aged one smoothly stepped in and filled the silence.

“You are the Crown Prince, Your Highness. This entire event has been put together strategically, with a clear intent of improving the lives of your people. Now, as we search for the young maiden who mysteriously vanished after the prince so desperately wanted to speak to her? The people will be expecting a show, and we shall give them one! Plus… what young woman here won't think it is herself? If you think your desired lady is truly in danger, then putting the royal procession together quickly and publicly closing in on her location may be able to forestall any untoward activity.”

“Good enough for me.” Queen Liora clapped her hands and smiled at her advisors. “Send everyone home, and let the slipper saga commence!”