I sighed as I fingered the edge of paper again, still crisp as when it had been delivered due to the time magic placed upon it by Papi... I mean, 'the honorable grand duke' I grimaced as I corrected my thoughts, not that the old man ever really cared what the heck I call him, I've sworn at his face before and only gotten a hearty chuckle. The problem was my nursemaid, I groaned at the thought of the lecture I'd get. It was always 'the great' this or "the mighty" that with her. Not like it lasted long thou, she always stopped when she almost mentions a families honor, it was always a sad reminder to both her and me that I didn't have a families honor to uphold, after all my father died fighting for this nation. On top of that my mother died before the letter he wrote on his death bed even got to her because she died shortly before in childbirth. 

It's laughable, most people would at least have a closest of kin, but I didn't have that either. My father's eyes forever closed before signing a name on that letter, but even that didn't matter as both my mother and father had thrown away their family names long before when they had come to this nation and gotten married. I would have been seriously screwed if the duke hadn't been taking care of them, I would have been left parentless in some orphanage somewhere. 

Instead, the duke had named me his heir for some reason the whole world couldn't fathom. 

The story that began to circulate is that it was for the sake of staying true to his deceased darling, who died before being able to produce an heir. That being said, everyone knew the duke could have chosen someone else, someone actually from a noble family, with the magic and the blood to uphold the title he had given me.

But nonetheless, it was what it was. I bit my lip then mumbled to myself,

"and hence 'the Nameless Noble' was born" 

I sat up in the tree branch I was perched on and watched the leaves fall till I heard a shout down below,

"Phoenix! Phoenix!!!!" 

I sighed as my nursemaid called me from down below before I responded by calling down in kind, mimicking her tone;

"Annamaria!!! Annamaria!!!!! I'M HEREEEEEEE"

She clicked her tongue when she saw me in the tree, but before she could give me a lecture about being ladylike I jumped, startling her as I landed in a crouch and then deftly pushed lightly at the ground, standing up straight on my feet before speaking again, with a grin on my face as I poked at her exasperated moody state,

"Anna, if 'God is kind' why can't you be? oh, what would your parents think!"

She rolled her eyes before brushing off the hem of my sleeve while retorting,

"My parents think fine of me if I do say so myself, but dear Phoenix, when will YOU rise from the dirt and ashes you roll in all day and act like a proper lady!?"

Her tone indignant and frustrated, but teasing nonetheless. 

I smiled as she fussed at my dress, the crisp lines from the iron slightly crinkled from the climb despite how careful I had been climbing it. I chuckled slightly and her lightly crinkled brow softened, the warm sunlight doing both of our moods good as it shined down only parted by the occasional wispy cloud. She commented mumbling as she finished,

"and I think you know best my little Cinder, that god has never been kind or else he would have stopped both my parents and the duke when they were naming us for such cringy things"