ᴡᴍᴍᴀᴘ: ℌ𝔢𝔯 𝔊𝔬𝔩𝔡𝔢𝔫 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔰

Danse Macabre: the Wheel of Fortune

D+22

It's the evening of the long anticipated soirée, and the two royals are sitting at the very front. Claude is sitting at the head of the table, his presence all but simmered down to a bare lingering awe, Athanasia taking the helm just to his right, still ever so beautiful and sweet to the eye. 

Her hair in loose waterfall curls down her back, wearing a sleeveless, off the shoulder gown in light blue chiffon. Delicate lace on the hem, and a single necklace draped on her neck, the single diamond a tasteful addition to the formal look.

The invitations had been sent out weeks in advance, giving time for everyone to prepare for their standings. Dresses and suits took a while to make and tailor, a thing Athanasia knows very well from personal experience.

She had to suffer through hours and hours of standing in front of a floor length mirror while her dressmaker circled around her like a hawk with her tiny eyeglasses, and prodded her with pins and flouncy ribbons of different colors.

Claude sitting near them on a chaise and pointing out things that needed fixing in his eyes. 

"The edge should be trimmed more, add some lace there." 

"Athanasia, do you prefer this in blue or in this shade of white?" 

"Are you sure you want a small necklace like that? I can have a more expensive one delivered before the event, just say it- " 

Was it her that was getting dressed or was it Claude at this point? She loved him to bits but sometimes he was more on the picky side wasn't he?

Athanasia's side glance at Jennette turned into a stare as she looked unabashedly at Jennette's clothes and jewelry. 

Jennette isn't underdressed, far from it to be perfectly frank in her opinion, and Athanasia could see some of her own accessories adorning Jennette, and some are personally from Claude. 

She would recognize those designs anywhere- having followed her father around for weeks, begging to see them before he had them made to his specifics.  

Those one of a kind pieces of precious gems, fine gold that wrapped around them in clever little detailing.

 How dare she. 

Jennette may not know- probably didn't even care to know anything outside of her own image, but Athanasia knew. Knew just how much, exactly just how hard, she had worked for those pieces of expensive jewelry. Ones "she" had dared not covet when they had adorned Jennette's neck at one time. Now? 

They were Athanasia's, and hers alone. Athanasia felt a twinge of pain in her jaw, and realized, much to her chagrin, that she had been clenching her teeth so hard, her usual smile for guests had fallen through the cracks, breaking the sweet facade of the princess manner she had perfected from a young age.

Quickly rectifying the issue with a slight glance around her to make sure no one had noticed her small slip up, and her fury remained hidden. It lay deep within her heart, locking it away from view, her head repeating to her heart that it was not the time nor the place to act out of line, in accordance with the plan, she would stay the innocent, beautiful fairy-like princess everyone adored. 

Her power imminent, yes, but she wasn't going to use it in front of these people, for them perhaps, but not against someone right in front of their eyes. Had there not been an audience, she would have let the guards pull her away for misconduct and thievery, but she would have to wait for the ending of their splendid meal for that bite of long awaited dessert.

As much as she wanted to act out in front of them all without a care in the fucking world, to just get it all over with and stomp over to slap Jennette until one of her eyeballs just popped out and lay on the table as a bizarre ornament of sorts, Athanasia held herself back all together. Filling her veins with vile contempt, and snide commentary within her head.