I made it to the stables without being seen, I was expecting the stable boy to be sleeping like the rest of the Palace but he was instead in the stables, cleaning out a horse's pen. "What's this one's name?" I ask, looking at the snow white horse he is cleaning.

"Milky," he says simply, humming as he strokes her coat, "My sister named her, she's only a foal, her ma and pa are those two over there," Arden points to a honey and white horse, "Their names are Rudy and Sugar."

I look at the horse couple, they're in different pens next to each other, the female horse, Sugar, is rubbing her head against Rudy, nuzzling the other softly. "Do you wanna pat one?" He asks me.

I shake my head, "My mother is allergic."

"So is the Queen," Arden points out, "The royal family never comes down here."

"Really?" I question, looking away as I ask my next question, "They're been in a lot of drama lately, hey?"

He shakes his head, "I wouldn't know."

"What—" I tilted my head to the side, my curiosity peaked, it's illegal to not have a tv in Illéa, every Friday people must watch the Report, it's one of my father's many dumb laws.

Arden looks away, "Our tv is broken and I can't afford magazines, we don't socialise much with the other Palace staff so..."

I grin, for the first time in my entire life, I'm meeting someone who doesn't know who I am, who doesn't already have an opinion of me just because of who I am related to. "Horses are better entertainment," I say playful, "Who cares what a bunch of royals are doing when you can hang out with horses all day!"

I glances at me, perhaps trying to figure out if I'm being honest or making fun of him, he decides to laugh, "Yeah, especially if you're homeless!"

"Hey! Not homeless."

After a few hours of hanging out with Arden and waiting for my sister to join me, I decided to head back but stopped as I heard the sound of laughter, "Ardy, we're back!" A little girl exclaims.

Walking into the stables was a little girl with black hair and an older girl with red hair, the redhead glares at me, "Who's this?"

"Eurydice—" I grin, waving at the intimidating girl, she reminds me a lot like Xoie.

The redhead frowns. "Why are you in the stables?" She flicks her hands towards the palace.

I cross my arms, not understanding why this girl reminds me so much of Xioe, "Am I not allowed to be here?"

"Ugh! Forget it!" She walks away, rolling her eyes and throwing her arms up in the air.

"Okay..." I roll my eyes, turning to Arden, "Girlfriend?"

The younger girl laughs, Arden's cheeks turn red as he shakes his head, "No! No! Gross, Arizona is basically my sister!"

"Cait?" I heard my sister's timid voice calling out to me. I grin, happy that she could come! "Cait! Where are you?" Cora peeped her head inside to see me standing beside Arden and the young girl...

"Cora!" I exclaim, giving my sister a hug.

She embraces me tight. She let go of me to speak with Arden and the girl. "Hi! I'm Cora!" She cheerfully replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Cait and Cora..." Arden muttered, shit, "Wait— Princess Caitlyn and Cordelia?" He questions, looking at Cora and then me.

Cora frowns. "Is there something wrong?" She flickers over to me and Arden.

His eyes widened, "I called the Princess a homeless lady!" Arden glared at me, "And you didn't fire me!"

My sister snorted, smiling at me. "Relax! No is going to fire you!" Cora waves off his worries with a teasing grin. "Did he actually call you homeless?" She wasn't upset or offended, just curious.

I nod, grinning as I remember how he attacked me with a broom. "I'm Seylah!" The younger girl exclaimed, as she bowed. "I can't believe I'm meeting the Princesses!" Seylah squeals as she hugs Arden.

Cora grimaces as she looks at me warily. She feels bad for blowing my cover by saying my nickname that she always calls me. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know that I lied to Arden about who I was.

"Yeah... It's nice to meet you, Cordelia," he held out his hand for Cora to shake, surprising her, usually commoners bow but instead, he was acting as if she was just a random person he met off the streets, "I'm Arden."

Cora shook his hand. "You too, Arden, sorry if I cause any trouble."

"Sey! Your dad wants you to help me in the kitchen!" A girl yells out as she walks down the stairs. Cora gasps, turning to the redhead girl that I saw just seconds ago. Her face went pale as she tried not to make it obvious that she wasn't looking. "You're the royal from the lake!" She announces as she spots my sister.

Cora flinches stiffly. "No! I wasn't at the lake." She brushes her hair back. "I don't recall seeing you at all."

Seylah shakes her head, "Oh my gosh! It was you! Where is your handsome prince? The one with the cute curls?!"

"I need to go!" Cora steps back, her breath heavy as she looked around.

"Cora—" I cry as she ran away.

The redhead ran after her, calling out her name as she followed up the stairs. I wanted to go after her as well but I wouldn't know what to say, I sigh, staying in the stable as my sister is probably somewhere crying.

"I'm sorry..." Seylah frowns as she looks down, "I didn't mean to make her sad."

I shake my head, "You didn't make her sad," I lie, "Cora is just going through something, she needs some time and then she'll be happy again."

Arden raises an eyebrow, "What is she going through?" He asks.

A million different lies come to my mind but I decided to go with the truth, "Being a princess is hard, sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do," I frown.

Seylah goes quiet, clearly that's not the answer she wanted to hear. Arden notices her mood, "Sey, I need to get back to work now, go home and check on Baba."

The little girl nods and walks off, I grin, although she was a bit energetic, the girl was adorable. Arden turns to me, pushing his black hair out of his eyes, "Sorry about her."

I shake my head, "Honestly, it's fine, Cora will understand."

"So..." Arden starts as he picks up the broom, getting back to his job, "You're a Princess."

I roll my eyes, "I thought I was a 'homeless lady'," he blushes as I grab his broom, "Trust me, I'll not here to spy on you or anything."

He giggles and I couldn't help but notice what an adorable sound it was, "The thought hadn't even crossed my mind."

I grin, "Good! And to prove it," I start sweeping, "I sweep the floor but the pens are all yours, I'm not going anywhere near those things," I point at the horses and shiver.

He gasps, "Did you just call my horses, things?!"

"They're gross!

Arden gasps again, this time cover his heart as if I had just called his mother a bad word. I roll my eyes and get to work, the sound of his laughter music to my ears as I pretend not to listen.