Weiss stared down at the pool in despair. Isolated… She was so isolated. Winter had been cast out from their lovely home some time ago. She had promised to bring Weiss when she could, but she had no idea when that would be. How could Winter abandon her like this…? She didn’t know. To leave her alone with their father and mini-me brother… She had never felt such gut-wrenching despair in her life.

  She wept into the pool, staring down at her reflection. There was no recourse, no ability to get out of here as far as she could see. She’d always been trapped but at least she’d had Winter.

  But now, no longer. Her sister sat somewhere in the mortal world, tossed asunder from the immortal realm. How Winter would survive, she had no idea. She’d heard stories of the mortal world and how terrible it was… It sounded like a pack of rabid dogs.

  How anybody could survive in the mortal realm was beyond her. But all she knew right now was the fact she was incredibly lonely. Whitley was no company and her drunken mother was nothing but a bump on a log. And Lord Jacques, nothing but a miserable pile of abuse and manipulation. There was nothing more she wanted than to escape this miserable, gilded cage to be away from him, but what could she do? So far, there was no escape. She had no friends amongst the gods or even lower creatures due to the isolation of living in this terrible place.

  She gazed into the pool, her only window into the outside world. It brought up an image of a girl about her age, cloaked in deep purples with cat ears and black hair. She sat in flower field, something Weiss had never known. She wished she could smell flowers in a field like that and make crowns as the girl did, but she knew it would never happen.

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  The dark purples drew her attention, though. Weren’t such deep hues the color of the underworld family? Why would the pool show her a daughter of the underworld? She seemed unsupervised which Weiss couldn’t wrap her mind around. Who would let children out of their sight, especially a daughter? Weren’t parents afraid of losing her to kidnapping or rape? There were some goddesses who could fend for themselves, but to leave a maiden unsupervised… It felt like an unnecessary risk.

  The girl looked happy, though, making flower crowns and handing them to the flower nymphs that surrounded her. Some unheard joke passed between them and the girl laughed an obvious loud laugh. Unladylike!

  But Weiss couldn’t help but feel envious. She looked so carefree and unbothered by the world. Weiss had only known high standards—outright impossible, even—while this girl looked happy and carefree. So many people she glimpsed through the looking pool looked so happy. What must it be like to not have a care in the world? She wished she knew, but she never would.

  “My, my, what do we have here?” The cold, smooth voice turned Weiss’ blood to ice.

  Lord Jacques.

  He walked up and looked in the pool before Weiss could banish them image of the girl. “Looking into the world, are we? Now what are you looking at?” He looked down at the pool, Weiss’ heart remaining frozen in her chest. “You have been morose since Winter left. How about I get you a new playmate?”