Born into the lap of luxury and a time of turmoil, Duchesse Eleonore Vigneron experiences her coming of age in the Court of Louis XVI . Embroiled in the chaos that surrounds Versailles, Eleni uses her unique blend of wit, charm, and beauty to ensure...
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17 decembre 1803 Roma, Italia
Dearest Journal-Friend,
The darkness grows longer and the air grows both sombre and cheerful at the same time. It is my favourite time of year, the coming of Christmas, and yet it is a bittersweet time. It is not my birthday, but the season during which I became what I am now. It is approaching the time of my second birth. I never know if this is something I am meant to celebrate or mourn, and so I always feel I am doing both. Lucretia tells me I am still young enough to remember my last year of my existence and so I fear the end of the festivities shall culminate in my death.
She is not wrong. Something in the air is different, a heaviness and suspicion that should not linger moves in the air. It controls everything, and soon, nothing shall be the same. We all have different gifts, or at least that is what Lucretia has taught. Mine is my charm and my mind. I have never been of any impressive intellect or scholarship, nor was such ever encouraged by any but Maman, who did not wish a stupid daughter in the Court of Versailles.
She looked at La Reine, and though to speak her thoughts aloud were treason, I always could tell she thought little of a woman who allowed herself to be a pawn for the amusement of men. It was not what her mother, the great Reine Marie-Terese, admired in women. Our La Reine grew so idle she had little to do but concentrate upon frivolity. This boredom became her downfall. Maman, she could see that it would, even before it did. Maman did not wish me to grow to be a vain and frivolous woman. Such creatures do not survive.
I was always a bit of both, even before my second birth, and education bored me. What is the point when one is born into a world destined to murder itself. After the change, I was meant to be both, but I have found other talents. My intelligence is something different than what is taught in books. I look at faces and see thoughts and feelings. I close my eyes, and my visions whisper secrets. I see the burdens others carry, I know when it is correct to bide time and when it is right to make a move. I grow more powerful, more wealthy, and more admired for this trait.
Since my rebirth, frivolity is not my heart but my masque, a vivaciousness akin to charm and seduction. Beneath the masque, I am always watching. I can hear the voices of those around me even when they do not speak. I never sleep, but when I close my eyes, I can see the entirety of the Universe. I travel through what feels like a confusing maze of spiderwebs to watch others as they dream.
I am told that one day, I shall become powerful enough to show myself in these dreams, and then to control them. I can use them to summon, I can use them to torment, or I can use them to bring great pleasure and make certain one cannot stop thinking of me. When Eleni is not so prudish and naive, Lucretia murmured to Henri, she shall rule the world.
I do not desire to rule the world, only to enjoy it and profit from it. I know when I see Henri and Lucretia, I am looking at love and that makes me envious. She has promised I shall have two footmen enthralled by her and trustworthy enough should I ever need to leave, but the exchange is that Henri shall no longer be my knight in shining armour. I should have died yet again if not for him, but she has given him the closest bond an immortal can share with a human. I do not doubt he shall become like us one day, for Lucretia is the sort of woman who does not love often and will not have love taken from her.
