Slapping yourself is enough to tell you’re alive

Who knows how long had it been since Liliana woke up.

There was a clock on the other side of the room but the princess didn’t want to move, she had stopped crying a while ago, but it still felt surreal to her, she was currently processing what had happened.

The how, or why she was alive, were to her,  actually really irrelevant at the moment.
Her head had just rolled and now she was tiny and without scars. How could she care? Anyone who said otherwise was a complete lunatic, are you a moron? Just take the win.

Yeah, you could question the veracity of the situation but did that even mattered? She was alive, she even tried slapping herself and it hurt! - Quite a bit!! And it still stung a little.

So, she didn’t care ‘how’ she was alive, she was. She didn’t question it.
The reason why she hadn’t move and just sat there on the ground till now was much simpler. It was just that she needed to process the fact - before - that. You know, her head being cut off with a guillotine.
She felt she needed to be praised for her efforts of not freaking out but, she was an adult of course, she didn't actually 'need' praise. It would be nice thought...

“Okay! Enough of this!” Liliana proclaimed.

“Ah-That-My diary!” As if having a revelation from the heavens, she quickly got up and went towards her desk, throwing everything away, searching frantically.

“Why isn’t here!?” The dairy in question was nowhere to be seen, although she didn’t search all that good it had to be around here somewhere, right?

I need to know where I ended up! Where is it!?

Before she could scream in frustration a knock on the door took her by surprise.

“Eyyk!”

“MyLady, I-I come to help you get ready for your afternoon tea with Lady Rosetta” A maid on the other side said.

“Rosetta!? I…Okay! Y-you can come in” The princess said.

“?” With a second of hesitation the maid opened the door.

Liliana looked at her in detail, uncomforting the maid, she didn’t recognize her completely  but, her hair and face seemed familiar somehow, whatever it was it wasn't important, just a maid. The palace was immense and the cycle of the maids changed every month, either being fired by her or just a normal rotation, chances were it was just a sense of déjà vu she would need to get used to maybe. The princess motioned her to move.

The most important thing was Rosetta anyway, she had been her friend since early childhood, her sidekick if you will, back during the revolution the Rosetta family, lords of an important Duchy, had remained loyal to the side of the Empire but their forces lost the will to fight when the whole family got executed and with their death, the revolution gained momentum and eventually toppled over the Empire.

The Lady Rosetta the maid was referring to was almost certainly the young Eclair of Rosetta. Her childhood friend.
Although friends, the young lady of Rosetta always behaved as an underling kind of way, following whatever Liliana said or did by example as well.

Liliana had mixed feelings, as she was without a doubt one of the main reasons people or rather “she” hated her, as Rosetta’s actions were linked directly to Liliana.
But, she was an ally a loyal one at that, in this life or another, good or bad.

If she remembered correctly, they first met at a ball and had taken off rather quickly, how long had that been from this point in time? She needed to know, if her diary was missing she couldn’t know her situation, by the looks of her body and her tea date with the lady, she was young, maybe thirteen or sixteen.

The maid continued with her work without a hitch, and doing just that, was actually  baffling, the young mistress was strangely docile at the moment, and her eyes seemed a bit tired. Although it was hard to tell, given her sharp gaze and thick eyebrows and eyelashes. She dared not say anything, who knows how she might react if she mentioned anything, regardless she prepared her like how a princess should look like and fixed everything.

“Thanks. I’ll go to the tea room myself”

“? I-I” Completely surprised, the maid tried thanking her mistress for her words but Liliana ran off into the hallways, leaving her alone.

“Is her highness sick?” The maid turned around and saw a mess around the desk, what had happened? The Princess might have been so angry at something else she forgot all about her, maybe the maid had been lucky.