Nicoleta became six again, sketching anything in sight, from her room, to the sky, the people that sat on the benches on the weekends.
At some point she attempted to sketch herself, yet the more she drew closer to finishing the sketch, the more disgustingly she looked like her mother, and she didn't waste a second to burn the paper.
She tried to draw her father again, but the pain in her chest prevented her from doing so, she tried a ridiculous amount of times, and each time she couldn't finish the drawing before breaking down in tears.
And each time she thought about how similarly she looked like her father's murderer, and that made her break more and more.
Learning Wovis, and sketching became her solace, yet even those managed to remind her of her sorrows.
"Radpsres"
"What does that mean?" The Captain tapped on the word beneath it, Father.
strangely enough she learned mother two days later.
She used up five pens in a week, her room was being littered with note books, and still her heart ached, though soft it was consistent.
On her window seal she drew the sun, then burned the paper, and drew the sun again, she groaned, not satisfied with the way it looked, burning it again.
She decided to draw the moon instead, as she did, the wind carried over a soft beautiful melody gracing her ears, and making her body fall into a strange relaxation.
Nicoleta looked outside. A phoenix flew by. Wings spread out beautifully letting the wind guide him as he glided through the sky.
Her hand moved across the paper ditching the moon idea, and capturing the mesmerising essence of the Phoenixe's frightening allure.
She noticed his eyes, and could immediately tell who it was.
Levi.
Her dull heart ache disappeared, replacing it was a strange stringed feeling, a strong pull towards him, an unavoidable rope tugging at her flame. Whispering soothing words she couldn't understand.
A blanket fell over her, a covering for a place she did not know was bare. Nicoleta leaned back on the window, her body falling into comfort never felt before.
She watched in awe, never taking her eyes off the charming sight.
He lowered his flight nearing her window, so close the wind slapped her in the face at his wake.
He disappeared afterward, and Nicoleta dropped her eyes on the note book, drawing him from memory, though she didn't have to try hard, because all that grace and beauty had been imprinted into her mind.
She added the finishing touches of her drawing, before looking out the window again.
In the court yard, in fleshy form was Levi, wearing loose pants and a tank top.
His clothes were drenched with sweat, the heat wasn't sparing even a fire breathing creature like himself. He hadn't noticed her lingering gaze as he drank water that sweated from being refrigerated at freezing point.
She wondered why she didn't think about trying that out for herself when he poured the water on his head, shaking out his pitch black hair.
She narrowed her eyes, then as he brushed his hands through his hair, she nearly fell out the window when she leaped yelling for him to stay still.
"Stop, stop, stay completely still!!" She shouted, shocking Levi. Nevertheless he stayed still.
She rushed outside, opened her door so quickly the hinges would have flown off. "Take me outside!" She screamed in the Captain's face. He blinked somewhat in shock as he asked. "Why so your highness?" She slammed the door behind her and took off without a second thought, forcing the other two to follow her.
The stairs had never felt longer, she wiped sweat every five seconds, panting with each step downward.
When she made it to the court yard, Nicoleta fell to her knees in despair, grabbing her hair in total and absolute disappointment.
"No" she cried, all three of them came to her aid, "your highness do not harm yourself I beg of you" the Captain gently removed her hands from her hair, and helped her to her feet.
Levi looked almost pained to see her like that, he struggled but eventually found his words.
"What did I do wrong?" Her chest vibrated, "you ruined the pose- it was perfect" Nicoleta groaned, catching her face in her hands as she crouched once, and bounced up.
"Your hair was positioned perfectly, the shirt revealed just the right amount of skin, and the sun's hue has even died" she threw her arms up, and sunk into the benches.
Levi blinked repeatedly, confused, yet willing to fix his supposed mistake he returned to where he was standing before.
"Was it like this?" He asked, angling one arm above his head, and another hanging by, his cheeks burned with embarrassment.
"No it's not" Nicoleta answered, her frown deepening, he switched the pose, "this?"
Nicoleta looked at him, then considered, if he pursed his lips the pose would be near perfect- she stood up on her feet and squeezed his cheeks the touch sending sparks through her arms- forcing him to purse his lips, before asking her pen and note book from the captain, and Leonardo.
She ignored Leonard's chuckles every time he looked up at Levi, and encouraged Levi with even more embarrassing words such as…
"Don't mind him you're an artist's dream"
By the end of the sketch, Levi was burning red, but his persistence to prove he wasn't embarrassed to Leonardo pushed him to sit down beside Nicoleta, forcing Leo to the edge of the bench.
His embarrassment might have been large, but Nicoleta's artistic ability was impeccable, if it weren't blue, Levi believed for a second that he was looking at a picture of himself.
"Wow" he muttered, Nicoleta bit her lip, narrowing her gaze at the sketch, tapping the side of the bed on the paper in thought.
"It's wonderful your highness" said the Captain, Leonardo reading her thoughts, said the very words that were lingering inside her mind.
"You should add some colour" he said, they locked eyes, a wide smile appearing on Nicoleta's face.
Leonard's suggestion didn't go over deaf ears. Nicoleta a day later sat in front of a canvas capturing the image of Levi in the air in her much preferred way of art.
Painting.
She used to paint all the time when she was little, six year old Nicoleta messed around with paint so much that her father had to put her on a ban, which made her result to drawing and sketching.
However in doing so her father helped her discover that she was a jack of all trades with art, Master of only one, which was painting, but the rest was still new.
She learned water coloring later, after she started messing around with too much water and paint, that was what led to her paint ban, but she found a way to water colour with yellow coloured shampoo, and blue conditioner.
When she was six and a half, she took interest in sculptures, and asked her dad at an exhibition how those statues were made.
When Ambrose told her, Nicoleta then began to mess around with rocks, grabbing the biggest rocks, and attempting to shape it into something as magnificent as Michelangelo's Hercules- or better.
Nicoleta's journey with art told only one story. She was born to be an artist, born to paint, sculpt, water colour, sketch, draw, and perhaps even potter.
She was born to be the next great, the name future generations would talk about, the artist future generations would look at and wonder, admire, awe…
Nicoleta Konstantina Ariti.
She sighed, tracing vermillion across the canvas. She had painted so much that her room was becoming storage for her art, she pushed her bed into the corner, to get more space, and was close to destroying her bath if it weren't for how relaxing the maidens made her baths.
In a week her room had become art storage, and even then she wasn't satisfied, the less space she got the more inspired she became.
At some point her stylist complained about how she barely had space to get her all dressed up, to which Nicoleta responded to her in Wovis saying. "I'm in an artistic flare" which she smiled at when she remembered her father saying something like that once at some point.
She remembered asking him why he was littering the house with some much to be projects, and he picked her up, kissed her cheek with yellow lips, and said.
"It's one of those rare moments sweetheart- I'm going through an Artistic Flare."
When her stylist left, she laughed, and found the bravery to paint her father.
After her father she painted herself, and dreaded it because she just made a younger version of her vile mother with dirty blonde hair.
She set the painting on fire, watching it burn in her hands, as she stared at the faint reflection of herself in the window, looking past that at her mother who was in the court yard, alone.
Her gaze burned scarlet, as she imagined her mother being under the painful burn of her flame instead of the painting.
It was ecstatic imagining the Queen screaming in agony, begging for Nicoleta to stop, but Nicoleta would never stop.
If she got the chance, she would watch her mother burn, and relish it.