Mei Ruan March 28th, 20XX

I stifled a reaction as Lillian phased into the room like a detached shadow and avoided the impulse to make eye contact with her. The other fairy kept her eyes trained on my older sister’s stocky figure and stood silently in the middle of the room until my elder sister finally acknowledged her presence.

“Report”

Lillian dropped onto her right knee and folded the wing on the same side, having learned her lesson from last time. She was our mother’s official aide and served as both a guardian and servant to the three inheriting daughters of my mother.

There was no reason for her to act so subserviently to Jaya, but since my elder sister thrived on such surface displays of respect, Lillian must have decided it wasn’t worth the effort to educate her on the proper rules of etiquette and posturing.

“Reporting on behalf of the third Daughter of the Ruan Family, Aruna.”

Aruna was the third inheriting daughter and had inherited control of the information network my mother had founded. It wasn’t the most powerful network out of the four duchies and had nothing on the royal family’s network, but it was large enough to need an official head.

She should have attended this meeting, just like I was, but on account of her being so young and the fact that she feared Jaya, she would send Lillian to report in her place. On top of being our mother’s Aide, she was also the leader of the information gathering team and assisted Aruna.

“Our sources in the castle have told us that the prince had arrived. We are still unclear of where he was, or how long he was out of the castle, but they reported him to have had a human appearance upon his arrival. This inclines us to believe that the rumours of the prince being ill in the castle were false.”

Jaya pursed her lips in thought and raised a hand to stop Lillian from speaking. The word ‘rumour’ piqued her attention and her eyes narrowed in a sick excitement. There were few things she enjoyed more than hearing bad things about those superior to her. The fingers on her right hand rhythmically rapped on the table as she mused out loud.

“The sickly prince of the fairies walked around the royal palace looking like a human? Is that even possible?... Esmeralda, what exactly have you been doing all alone in that enormous castle?”

She tossed out the question like she expected an answer, but then kept talking without giving her imaginary partner a chance to reply. Jaya finally turned to Lillian and looked down on the dark themed fairy.

“What of the old Queen? Not the prince’s deceased mother, but the one before that.”

“She is still in ‘rest’ and will not be out until the prince and his partner’s coronation. It is unlikely that she will resume the throne.”

“She will surely be pleased to have a ‘beautiful’ granddaughter-in-law from the Ruan family, correct?”

Lillian carefully gave out a response and took pains to choose each word. Jaya was trying to belittle me by reducing my value to my face, but it looked like Lillian was reluctant to agree.

“The current state of the Royal family would benefit from being paired with the Ruan Duchy. If we leverage on the late queen’s words to your mother, I doubt there would be an issue with the match.”

Jaya looked annoyed by Lillian’s completely factual answer, but couldn’t find a reason to punish her. She forcibly relaxed her posture and beckoned me toward her. It looked like I would be a scapegoat again. She clapped a heavy hand onto my shoulder and tightened her grip enough to hurt. I fought the impulse to fling her arm off me and mentally looped my vow of coexistence.

“Why aren’t you thanking me, Mei? If not for your adoring elder sister, how could you have gained the opportunity to become the bride of royalty!”

The mental roar of an impulse to take her out to the field and battle her to one of our deaths roared in my head, but I fought it down and looked down at the floor. She loved to shame me in such ways, but as long as I could keep my cool, that was as far as she would go.

Despite my best to hide my internal struggle between upsetting the entire duchy and letting her prick at my pride any more than she already had, some intense emotion slipped onto my face.

She lifted a hand to my chin and forcibly tilted my face upwards,

“Mei, my darling little sister. You must be the only female in the entire land that is ever going to heed their man’s word before they act! Isn’t that such an honour?! You’ll go down in the history books!”

My heart grew colder and colder at each mocking word she threw in my face, and I could feel my rationality slipping away.

There was no reason for her to be so antagonistic toward me, so I wasn’t sure why she never missed an opportunity to shame me like so. She was cold to our younger sister as well, but she never humiliated her as she did me.

Even on the account that she worried about one of us attempting to usurp her position as the Duchess of the Ruan territories, not that either of us had ever shown such ambition, I didn’t see any reason in tormenting me like this.

“Why don’t you respond, sister? Don’t you agree it’s a wonderful thing to go down in history?”

A sharp pressure fell onto my shoulder blades and I felt myself being pushed onto my knees as she waited for me to thank her. The pressure slowly but surely increased in waves and it raised in intensity by twofold for every second I resisted. Soon enough I felt like I was carrying a behemoth on my shoulders, but I refused to bend and kept my vision on Lillian’s left hand.

As soon as I was about to break and attack my sister in response, I saw Lillian twist her pointer finger and thumb into a circle and extend the other three in a straight line. I gave in to the weight and crumpled onto my knee with a bitter expression.

Jaya enjoyed seeing me in pain, so she wouldn’t have let me go if I didn’t show any sort of discontent at her tyranny.

“My apologies, Duchess. Thank you for the opportunity.”

I felt an outside source of magic paralyze my face and instinctively fought against it, but caught Lillian shaking her head. She tapped under her eyes and then smoothly returned her wand to its holster before Jaya caught her.

My face had probably grown too vicious again, and I couldn’t let Jaya feel like I was anything but satisfied with her occupation of the Duchess role.

But one day. Not today, nor the next, but one day for sure. I would make sure she paid every inch of what she did to me with interest.