Dark crown

Preparation

Mae had been escorted through an endless maze of staircases and hallways so even if she did try to escape she would be lost first. Finally they stopped at a door one guard opened it the other shoved her in and behind her they slammed the door shut. The room was tiny with a small fireplace and straw mattress with a window above it which gave an eerie view of the black wood. Mae laid down on the straw mattress and silent tears began to run down her face when she realized how alone she was. 

One moment she was celebrating with her family and the next her mother had sent her running begging her to keep some royal blood alive in case they didn't survive. He had done this to her the monster who called himself a man had killed half of her people and enslaved the rest. Until the end of her days Mae would fight for her people and in order to do that she had to escape first.

 She would have started now if the knock on her door hadn't interrupted. Before she could even make herself decent three women entered all tan skinned, dark haired, and beautiful. One holding a basin, the second two buckets of steaming water, and the third had an array of soaps and towels. They set everything down and left before Mae could even manage a hello. She wiped the tears from her face face and stared at the basin one bath couldn't hurt. She quickly striped off her dress and stepped into the basin pouring the water and soaps in. She sat there for a minute thinking about how her escape plan would go where she would go. Slowly as the steam rose and her eyelids grew heavy Mae began to hum the ancient song her father had taught her. She never bothered to learn the language it was in. 

When night began to fall and the water grew cold Mae stepped out of the basin ad wrapped herself in a towel and let her red hair down and waited in the room for the monster to call her. Instead two of the three women from before came bustling in with a basket of cosmetics. None of them spoke to her as they began to work. The oldest looking one pulled out an array of pins and a hair brush and hustled Mae over to a chair so that she could work on her hair. The second one was short and her dark hair just brushed her shoulders. She pulled out lip stain and coal nothing more and went to work. 

Each women worked silently not making a sound or even looking at Mae. Just when boredom as setting in and Mae was nodding off the third woman came in a long dark blue gown in her hands. She shooed away the other two and stood Mae up leading her across the room. "Take off the towel," she said with a thick accent. Mae hesitated and the woman rolled her eyes ripping the towel from her. And holding out the gown. 

She looked at Mae then the gown and let out a sigh saying something in Amwraithian which Mae recognized as something along the lines of to short and tiny. The taller woman signaled for Mae to step into the gown then spun her around and muttered something. Mae had to admit the gown was beautiful but a bit to risqué for her taste. In the back no zipper was present only a deep cut v which went all the way to the center of Mae's back. 

"Finish," the tall one said to the other two and then left. The longer haired one finished pinning up Mae's braids so that they represented a crown along with several star shaped pins. They gave her a reassuring nod and left. Mae looked in the reflection of her window and saw that her makeup was darker than normal from the deep red lip stain to the coal that lined her eyes. "Miss," a man said from outside "Dinner is prepared." Mae swallowed hard and slipped on her silver heels ready to face death himself.