Chapter Text
When Natasha is six the King of Eddis sends a peace mission to the court of Attolia. The Attolian palace is overridden by children from the royal family of Eddis. One of the children, a boy close to manhood, moves with natural grace. She is envious, awkward and sweltering in her court dress. He teaches her how to walk on her hands and ruffles her hair. Crown Princess Maria of Eddis spends most of her time in the training yards, wearing breeches and joking with her boy-cousins. Maria and Natasha whisper jokes in each others ears at parties, trying to keep their faces impassive. Natasha, the younger by three years, is the first to break into giggles. Her father, the King of Attolia, is not pleased. Princess Maria hides steel under her bright blue eyes and Natasha wants to be like her so much that she begs her nursemaid to dye Natasha’s hair. Her nursemaid refuses but finds her a pair of breeches to wear in secret. When the delegation from Eddis leaves the palace is echoing and empty.
When Natasha is seven her father swears at the elusive Thief who has stolen state secrets from the inner chambers of the palace. The King curses Eddis and decides that Attolia needs a thief of its own. Little Natalia, ignored in favor of her brother for so long, finally has a purpose. Her old nursemaid who read her fairy tales with happy endings is replaced by a younger woman who reads stories of honor and duty.
When she is eight she learns how to pick a lock and throw a knife. She discovers the secret passages honeycombing the palace and uses them to escape from her tutors, men with hard hands and harder eyes. She becomes the spider in the walls, watching the schemes of the court through mirrors and carefully placed paintings. The workings of the kingdom are a fragile tapestry, woven and rewoven. Natasha does not like the picture that it makes.
When she is nine she is betrothed to one of the border barons. Natasha is young enough to cry but old enough to wait until she is in the familiar safety of the walls. After she finishes crying her face shifts back into a mask. She reaches the passage outside her room to find a handkerchief stuck in the space where the fake wall swings to become a door. It’s white with green olive leaves embroidered around the borders.
When Natasha is ten her father dies. She realizes that being trained as a thief is the same as being trained as an assassin. Her brother takes the throne and already Natasha can see the elaborate tapestry of court intrigue begin to strangle him.
When she is eleven she befriends the guard captain, James Barnes. He and his men are enchanted with the little flame-haired princess. She takes them water and asks childish questions, all the time listening and learning. James notices the way her eyes follow the mens' swords and offers to train her in secret. She accepts. He doesn’t question how her hand-eye coordination got so good or how strong she is for a girl-child.
When she is twelve her brother sends her on her first mission. A minor noble plots treachery. She kills him in his sleep with a silk cord wrapped around his neck and disappears back into the walls. Her brother begins to see plots everywhere, creating enemies where there were friends. Her hands soon become drenched in red.
When she is thirteen James teaches her how to dance. Not the staid dances of the nobles, but fast dances that leave her breathless and laughing. She wheels in circles, wondering what it would be like to be just Natasha without the title of Princess to weigh her down.
When she is fourteen her brother dies. The doctors speak of natural causes but their eyes say poison. Natasha’s husband-to-be, thirty years her senior, arrives at the palace the next day. When he enters the throne room Natasha nods to James. The guard captain steps forwards and shoots her suitor in the chest with a crossbow. More guards filter into the room alongside James as the body hits the ground.
“Attolia already has a ruler,” Natasha informs the shocked crowd. “Would anyone else like to propose marriage?”
No one speaks. Natasha smiles serenely from her throne.
When Natasha is fifteen she sells the bulk of the royal jewelry to free herself from the debt her father and brother collected. To the rest she adds hidden needles and hollow gems that swing open. Her dresses are fitted with hidden knives. Natasha trades favors and keeps the barons squabbling amongst themselves. She survives her first assassination attempt with ease.
When she is sixteen the officer corps of the army is struck with a strange illness that strikes only the corrupt and grossly incompetent. Natasha promotes by merit, not rank, and uses her newly full treasury to increase wages. She would not have survived the second assassination attempts without the loyalty of her guards. It is not quite love, but it warms her all the same.
When she is seventeen she forgets how to laugh.
When she is eighteen the Thief of Eddis steals the Tesseract from her vault. As far as she knows it is a worthless relic, but she is furious. The theft is a statement of power from tiny Eddis, a reminder that even with a small army Eddis still has her Thief who can strike at any time. Natasha sets vicious traps throughout the secret passageways she explored as a child.
When she is nineteen her guards capture the Thief of Eddis for the first time. She sweeps down to the dungeons to interrogate him, James at her side. A guard, chest swelled in the triumph of the capture, hands her the Thief’s bow as she enters the prison. Barton is chained to the wall, one eye swollen, breathing labored from what her doctors inform her are two cracked ribs. He looks up at the sounds of footsteps, letting out a whistle as his eyes run along her body.
“Princess. It’s been a long time. You sure grew up nice,” he says with a half-hearted leer.
“Pity I can’t say the same,” she returns. “You may address me as Your Majesty.”
“Well, now that you have me, what do you plan to do with me, sweetheart?”
James kicks the Thief for his presumption. Natasha sees Barton’s fear, poorly hidden under the bravado. His eyes dart from side to side and his arms pull, almost unconsciously, against the chains.
“Your bow is thing of beauty,” Natasha says, running her fingers along its length. His bow, famed throughout Eddis and Attolia both, is well-used and lovingly maintained. “What would you give me for it?”
“Anything you want, I can steal,” Barton boasts, relaxing back into the wall.
“I want your skills. Your knowledge of Sounis’s castle. Your service.”
“I already have a mistress.” Barton says, grin gone.
“And am I not superior to her?”
“You are lovelier, but she is kinder.”
Natasha steps forward and slaps him, exacerbating his earlier wounds. He looks up at her, the fear in his eyes replaced by something else.
Natasha brings her lips next to his ear. “Come into my palace again and I will hang you from the walls.”
She nods to James and walks away, her back to the cell as her guard captain snaps the prized bow across his knee.
The Queen of Eddis, formerly Princess Maria, pays a small fortune for the Thief’s release.
When Natasha is twenty Baron Von Doom gathers enough support amongst the barons to force her into an engagement. He gives her chunky diamond earrings set in platinum for a gift. She smiles sweetly at him, only a slight tightness around her eyes giving away her true feelings. He kisses her hand and she pats his cheek with apparent fondness. Von Doom is found dead in his bed the next morning, from natural causes. The fragile alliance between barons falls apart.
When she is twenty-one the diamond earrings she never wore are replaced with emeralds as she sleeps. Next to her jewelry cases are two disassembled traps, with a note informing her how to make them more effective.
When she is twenty-two the Thief of Eddis is caught for the second time.