17.

a lush garden

Compared the lush gardens of home, with their sprawling green carpets and tall belladonna stalks, this garden was empty.

The princess looked around, her gaze reflected back at her through a thousand diamonds, and lamented herself. To save her family, to save her sister...this is what she had done.

Listlessly, she snapped the soft gold stem of a ruby daisy and held the flower to her nose. Nothing but the grotesque tinge of metal. It was all she smelled, lately. Certainly, he had been kind to make her something so beautiful, this resting place. Even if it was a grotesque parody of her own gardens back home. She appreciated it, truly in her heart.

But at that moment, the girl would trade her entire family for just one plant that could grow.