~Her Favorite~

Oris tucked the contents of the letter deep in her mind and eased her expression into neutrality. She had practiced so often in front mirrors that she could imagine her face perfectly, down to the slight incline of her lips.

It was the sort of ice cold look that made her courtiers second-guess her humanity. A look she had spent a whole year perfecting by staring at her sister's portraits every morning and evening.

It said, "I am not surprised by your incompetence and nothing you do will shock me."

The only defense royals were allowed against their own people.

Wei Wei had not needed to perfect it because she always seemed to have the entire court on her side, but that would need to change if Oris was doing this, dragging the throne from under the woman.

Even if her plans had to change to seduce Hermes, she couldn't, not right now.

Her current deal with the emperor only existed on the condition that she left after it was done. If she needed to stay longer, she couldn't be the one to speak of it first. He had to want her to stay so much that she'd have no choice but to unwillingly oblige.

That meant that she had to start getting his attention. She couldn't just got through the rest of the tests without planning the impression she was going for first.

Should she be cold and untouchable? Or flirtatious but reserved?

She couldn't even begin to imagine what sort of women he liked.

"Mistress?" Mayree's voice sent a jolt through her, like she had been caught with her hand in a jar of jam. She managed to inject warmth to her face before the doors opened, aided by the guilt that now thrummed in concert with her heart beat. "I have your change of clothes ready."

Oris relaxed her shoulders and beckoned the girl closer, resisting the urge to correct the form of address. She knew she couldn't force it, only time could ease Mayree into seeing her as a sister. "Help me bathe."

"The medicine has cooled," she said, a touch of wariness in the way her eyes darted to the ground, "should I...?"

"You can bring it along."

Mayree's reaction was immediate. She grinned and walked in, tray in hand. "I was afraid you would think it too bitter so I included a plate of honeyed plums."

Oris took the bowl of medicine and emptied it with one gulp, her decision made. "I have never been one to fear bitter things."

~

The kind of dress she would wear was all that was on her mind though her eyes never strayed from Bren's letter. She didn't dare ask for it to be left somewhere to dry, knowing now that there were secret tunnels that opened into different parts of the palace.

The thought of Hermes stumbling upon it had her pacing the room, making a list of possible escape routes, and when her maids finally got her to stop pacing, she decided that she wouldn't sleep tonight.

She would do as Bren asked and pen her reply the moment the letter dried. If the emperor visited before then, she would burn it in front of him and face his questions with an air of innocence.

"A riding habit," Andrea suggested, hands slick with medicinal ointment. Her voice dragged Oris' attention back to the conversation.

Seline placed more food on her plate, dedicated more to arranging the strips of meat and vegetables like they were pieces of a puzzle than eating. "There are two parts of the test. The others have more than one dress."

"Why not the dress we made?" Mayree asked. While she spoke, her hands continued to weave Oris' hair, smoothing the strands through her oiled fingers. "Or is it only meant to be a decoration."

"It's too crude," Keziah answered. She was the only one that didn't orbit Oris, bent over the bedside table, poring over the dresses Mayree had drawn. "And none of these can be completed in time."

"The emperor should have given us dresses. What's the use of fabric?" Andrea scowled and smeared more of the lotion over Oris' neck and arms, where the scars gradually progressed from bad to decent, maybe exotic in the way some were shaped. "No matter what we do, we'll be the laughingstock."

Oris counted the days. Tomorrow they were setting out for Inae's former capital and it would take two days to reach the palace there. That meant three days on the road if there were no delays. "Let them laugh."

The candles surrounding the wine-soaked letter flickered as the solution hit her. "We'll alter the dress."

"After the first test, we'll take off the layers," she explained. "It'll be faster than changing into a new dress and we have enough time to make the alternations."

"Doesn't change the fact that it's made of cotton," Andrea mumbled as she washed her hands. Because of the ointment, the entire room smelled of herbs. "It'll be more ugly with less layers. What if we—"

"What if she has to fight?" Keziah cut in and immediately became the center of attention.

"Absurd!" Mayree snapped, her tone mirroring Seline's horrified expression.

"The emperor wouldn't endanger the lives of noble women for the sake of the selection," Andrea said under her breath, but Keziah heard her regardless.

"And what of the unnoble women? The ones who do not have ministers for fathers?" Her tone was sharp. Andrea blushed a deep red. "The easiest way to get rid of the commoners—"

Seline set her fork down, the crisp sound piercing through the conversation. "Keziah. Enough."

Keziah turned back to the drawings without another word. Andrea put aside the lotion and joined Seline at the table. The two girls ate silently, occasionally adding morsels to the pile already on Oris' plate.

Oris cleared her throat in an effort to dispel the bad air. "I can fight if I need to."

Mayree responded by tugging too hard on her hair. Seline choked on her rice and Andrea spilled the cup of water she was about to give her.

Only Keziah didn't react, but that was as strange as it was normal.

"What is wrong with the four of you?" Beneath the usual tension that resulted from being dark horses of the Selection, there was a sliver of unease.

The girls who had worked so seamlessly with each other when she first met them where now bickering, either verbally or silently with their gazes over a dress. It didn't make much sense.

"This is the first time we have all been together like this since you were taken away." To her surprise, Keziah was the one to speak. "Since we were grouped together two years ago, we have never been apart and now that we were, Seline almost died."

Seline's eyes darted to Keziah, a look that said she should shut up, and now Oris couldn't ignore how stiffly the girl sat, or not imagine how much pain she must have been hiding behind her calm expression.

"Andrea is the youngest and you are most protective of her, but out of us four she is the least likely to get hurt."

If Keziah had sounded angry, Oris would have tried to defend herself, but Keziah was rarely angry and her words were nothing but facts.

She had considered Andrea a naive child and the rest of them experienced. In her mind, they were least likely to say the wrong thing and get themselves killed. They were capable and smart, and could handle themselves.

But that wasn't true at all. They were all young girls not much younger than she was, and not much older than Andrea. All that separated them were a handful of years.

Seline and Andrea were barely two years apart but their diametric dispositions blinded her from that fact.

She spent more time with Andrea, not because she was her favorite, but because that was the only protection she could offer. If the girl was always in her sights, she could keep her safe.

In comparison, the autonomy she gave the others seemed almost heartless.

If Andrea had been a normal girl, Oris wouldn't have been wrong to do so, but Andrea was a member of the aristocracy and would have been the empress. No one dared offend her father by offending her, and the staff in the palace had watched her grow.

The degree of her family's influence showed in the fact that though Wei Wei had wanted to get rid of Andrea, she could only demote the girl's status in the palace. It wasn't imprisonment, execution or banishment, but demotion.

Mayree, Keziah and Seline had to have known all these things, yet they didn't tell Oris and instead let her pamper Andrea unnecessarily.

They had kept Andrea's secret and disregarded how it affected them, because they were each other's family and Oris had been a stranger.

She didn't have to ask why Andrea had not been chosen by the other bride candidates.

No one would want to be served by someone who had been ranks above them then fallen. It would have been impossible for them to sleep without keeping one eye open.

"I'm sorry." The words came out strangled, the corpse of a whole lot of feelings that had died in the time they had been spoken. "Forgive me."

She wanted to say that Andrea had never been her favorite, but words were useless things and she didn't quite believe it herself. Instead, she reached towards the table and took her plate.

After chewing a few mouthfuls, she called Keziah to joined them and felt relief pool in her gut when she did.

~

The dress problem is solved. Oris has decided to stop being a wallflower (?) and the trauma they all constantly face as low status employees of the palace has been discussed in a roundabout way.

Some ages:

Mayree is 18
Keziah is 16
Seline is 15
Andrea is 13

And Oris is 21 (and will be 22 at the end of the year... which is close, I guess).

Risa died when she was 19.

And Hermes is 28.

Andrea would have been quite the child bride if her family didn't bend to her whims/weren't strong enough to oppose Wei Wei.