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Title: Flowers in a Vase
Fandom: Odin Sphere
Rating: PG-13
Length: 550 words
Content notes: Gwendolyn/Oswald, mention of forced marriage and mind control magic, spoilers
Summary: Gwendolyn woke up as if from a deep sleep.

Waking from the spell was surprisingly easy, as if it had just been a confusing but not unpleasant dream in a long, refreshing sleep. A child of constant battle with both other nations and rival factions within her own, that in itself felt wrong, Gwendolyn NEVER fully slept, it involved letting her guard down in a palace full of her father's enemies. As soon as she realised where she was, how wrong it felt, she rolled out of the large, comfortable bed and reached for her weapon in what should have been one fluid movement. Instead, she failed to grab onto anything except a bouquet of roses left on a bedside table, presumably for her, and managed to knock over the priceless antique vase as she tumbled to the floor in a heap of soft silk sheets and woolen blankets that had been draped over her as she slept. She had been too deep in magical sleep to notice. She wasn't dressed for the weather - what in Odette's name was she wearing and why was it fighting with her attempts to move properly? - but it was a lot warmer than normal Ragnanival temperature wherever she was, so she still woke up sweating. Not good... she was still drowsy... she needed to escape and report back to...
 
A chill ran down her spine when she remembered how she got here. Her father. He had really made good on his threat. He had given her away as a bride... from the looks of the castle, not even to one of their own warriors. Had he been using her as a bargaining chip in his old political games again? 
 
Checking herself for injury or... other interference with, she was relieved to find herself completely unharmed, in fact, unusually well rested. She couldn't find her weapons or armour but a quick check revealed that she was not magically sealed. Unless there were clever shields or a mental compulsion to stay had been put on her (it didn't feel like she was incapable of thinking it, at least), she could very well just summon her Valkyrie's wings and fly away. Moving in this ridiculous dress would be difficult but...
 
Looking at herself in the gilded, polished mirror by her bedside, she was taken aback for a second. This had been her mother's dress... meaning her father still at least remembered her mother existed... and Gwendolyn looked truly, enchantingly beautiful in it, like a real bride, not a caged bird of prey...
 
Soft footsteps approached. She tensed. Grabbing the broken shards of the vase - the only vaguely lethal weapon in the room - she prayed to whoever in this cursed world still listened that it wasn't anyone she was magically conditioned to obey. 
 
"Oh, you fell," said a soft, weary voice, "I hope you were not hurt."
 
The black armour and red glint in his eyes and the certainty of what had happened should have filled her with terror but she couldn't seem to bring herself to feel anything natural or sensible about the pale, slender but obviously powerful figure in front of her, and she had enough magical awareness to know that this was nothing to do with enchanted rings.
 
"I am glad you have finally awoken, my Lady," he addressed her.

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