"It's beginning my dear," her mother whispered softly to her. "Our plans are coming into place, my sweet Anastasia. The nation rises...not as quickly nor as powerfully as I hoped, but...they are rising.  The traitor queens' world is on a knife edge, my daughter. We are the ones to tip the balance. The spark to light the flame. And when we do..." Juliet Isidore paused and looked down at her. Anastasia shivered. That pause never meant good things.
   "What happens when we do, Anastasia?"
   "We will rise. You and I shall take our rightful places. The goddesses shall come to earth and they will reward their chosen, those who remained loyal to them."   Anastasia said, repeating her mother's words. Juliet smiled.
   "Good, my child. If only...no. The goddesses chose to give you to us when you were young; I shall not question their decisions, though if you were older there would be more you could do, no?"
   "As Belle wills it, mother." Anastasia said, dipping her head. She wasn't sure whether she believed this woman's words, but she trusted in the goddesses. She felt them sometimes. Whispering to her. Watching her. Not in the ever-judging, ever-analysing way of her mother, but gently. A reassuring presence in the back of her mind.
   "Good girl," her mother smiled. "Very good, indeed. I must go now, sweet. I shall see you soon."
   "Yes, mother," Anastasia said, dipping her head.
   She watched as Juliet left the room and shivered a bit when she peeked out the window and noticed where she was going. A quiet cave in the Western Marshes.  Over the years, people had come and gone from that cave. More and more recently.
   Sometimes, if she listened closely, she could hear the screams that emerged from it at night.