Oris wished she was as noble as Mayree said she was. She wished that she had come to the palace with some great aspiration in mind.

But she hadn't.

This had all started because she hadn't been good enough. Her parents had considered her the weaker child and chose to send her away as an infant instead of raising her. Her sister was the perfect heir while she wasn't. When that changed she had been called back like a handy spare, not even able to have her own identity. She could only live in her sister's shadow and smile and nod at those who propped her on the throne; a puppet ruler.

With no real power, she hadn't had foolishly held any grand desires. She just wanted the ability to protect the people she cared about but even then she wasn't able to. She could only watch Bren slip away from her till they were nothing more than familiar strangers who had too much control for a drunk night of passion.

Then Hermes conquered her state. She had wanted to give up her life to protect her people but in the end ran away with the fantasy of rebelling and freeing them from oppression.

For two years, she hid away and bided her time. How long would she have continued waiting for an opportunity to strike back if she hadn't been kidnapped for the sake of a priest's daughter?

To save Bren's life, she had run away with him. To protect Eve, she went to the palace. To protect her maids, she decided to be a good subject under Hermes' rule. To protect the people she endangered with her schemes, she had threatened the most powerful man on this side of the Great Sea with her measly life...as though it would make a difference.

All she had ever wanted was to keep the people around her safe. How was that kindness or selflessness? She just didn't want guilt to consume her because of her actions.

If anything, she was selfish. Selfish to have let her sister die in her place for the sake of first love. Selfish to go to palace with thoughts of killing Hermes for revenge. Selfish to inspire her maids to the point that they felt that she was worthy of their sacrifice.

"Mistress?" Andrea called softly from beside her. The girl stared at her with obvious worry, the fingers of both hands twisting around each other furiously as she frowned.

"Don't clear the broken plate," Oris said, but her voice didn't seem to be coming from her own mouth. It was hallow and far-removed. "You might cut yourself."

"Are you upset with us?"

"Upset?" Caught off guard, Oris couldn't help but look up at the girl. "I think you all are foolish but that won't change anything. Mayree has said so much, what can I say?"

"Thank you, Mistress," Mayree rose to her feet. "I will clear up the plate."

"No need," Oris' voice had regained some strength but as she stood her posture was unsteady. "I will do it."

"Mistress, you—"

"It was inconsiderate of me to waste food like that, especially when it's so hard to come by in our situation. Andrea, help me clean those cakes."

Oris stooped to pick up the first shard by her feet. She traced her finger along the broken edge. "I must be getting silly."

"Mistress, you aren't wearing shoes. Let me do it," Mayree grabbed Oris by the arm to help her up.

"You should stop calling me Mistress, you say that I treat you all like sisters so you should call me Big Sister."

"Mistress, what are you saying?"

"Do you know a knight by the name of Mikeal? I claimed him as my son the second time we met. Now I have four little sisters, I didn't think it was possible to get extra family before I married the Emperor. Lucky me."

"Andrea, help our mistress to the bed."

"I just woke up," Oris said, brushing of her maids' concern. "The last thing I need now is rest."

"But now you have a fever, we need it to break before dawn."

"A fever?" She moved her hand to feel her face, not realizing that the shard was still in it.

Mayree stopped her before she could cut herself, prying the jagged piece of earthenware from between her fingers. "I will make you some soup."

"You can't make soup out of thin air."

"I've made soup out of less."

The two women got to their feet and Andrea rushed to grab Oris by the hand.

"You really do have fever, Mistress," she said as she steadied the swaying Oris.

"So Seline and Keziah's disappearance was all part of my delusions?"

Andrea bit her lip then shook her head.

Oris grimaced, her fingers brushing her wound as she felt the heat of her skin. "I thought so."

Her gaze strayed to the potted plant by the corner, a slight lift to her lips as they walked towards it. "I guess we didn't need to wait three days."

The three of them watched a yellowed leaf fall off a branch onto the soil by the plant's roots, joining the pile already there.

"I will throw out the medicine," Mayree said, horrified, then turned to march towards the dresser.

"No need." Oris stopped her. "We just need a new potted plant that's all."

"Mistress?"

"You really should call me Big Sister," Oris said and slipped out of Andrea's hold. "I have thought about it just now. All I care about is us being of one mind. If you all want to die young, I cannot stop you. Thank you for leaving a way out for Andrea, she is too innocent to be caught in all this scheming."

Andrea's face scrunched up in confusion just as Oris clasped her hands and turned her back to the dying plant.

"What have you learnt?" she asked Mayree.

"You need rest, Mistress," the older maid said and curtsied. "We can discuss this later."

"I have a fever. I have had one for days now, it won't kill me. What will is your constant betrayal. First starvation then this. I won't punish you because all this was put into motion long before what I said in the hallway but one more time and," Oris drew a finger over her neck,"off with your head."

Mayree smiled a little at that and held her hands behind her. "Whatever you wish, as long as you cease in your anger towards us."

Oris walked to the bed herself and sat down. Her bearing reflecting the bearing of a matriarch, and the complete opposite of how she was mere moments ago.

"How was that?" she asked. "If I behave that way in front of a royal physician would he believe I was poisoned?"

The maid paused, her smile freezing, "Either that, or you would be diagnosed insane. But royal physicians only attend to members of the royal family and those the Emperor permits..."

"You are saying that my acting wouldn't matter if the Emperor wants me dead, yet moments ago you wanted me to be queen. Ridiculous," Oris waved towards Andrea. "Get me some tea, and stab a needle into those pastries."

"Wrinkles can be pressed out," Mayree said with an overly kind smile, "but even the gods cannot change facts."

Oris raised both hands into the air by her right and clasped them. "Who can know the Emperor's mind?"

"You suspect that you have been poisoned?"

"Mildly," Oris said with a sly smile and examined her fingers, glad that Mayree had caught on so fast. "What other reason is there for the constant fever?"

"The Emperor and his mother want you dead?"

"Not related. They wouldn't be this clumsy."

Andrea returned from the depths of the room with a tea cup balanced on a saucer gripped in both hands. "What are you two talking about? I don't get it. When was Mistress acting? Did you know all along, Mayree?"

Oris grabbed the saucer suddenly, nearly making Andrea loose her grip on the slender plate. "This tea is quite delicious. Where did you get it?"

"My mother gives me some every month. Why?" she asked, staring earnestly into her mistress' eyes.

Oris lifted the lid off the teacup and inhaled the rich scent rising from within. "I just like it."

"I have been extremely careful since you got wounded. You couldn't have been poisoned," Mayree supplied after a moment's pause. "You haven't eaten any food since the Great Hall."

"Where do we get our plates and cups from?"

"The Distribution Bureau."

Oris hummed and grabbed the silver needle she had been embroidering with. Flicking her wrist gently, she used it to stir the tea. "I find it funny that they don't give me food and put us in such a tiny room yet include a brazier, kettle, tea set and plates. It's almost as though I'm being forced to survive on tea and snacks."

She tapped the needle on the edge of the cup then used it to circle round the rim. By the time she lifted it up, its tip had turned black.

"You broke the plate on purpose." Mayree's eyes widened slightly.

"Newly made but already chipped. How can deformed ceramics find their way into the palace? And why bother giving us something expensive in the first place? Why not wooden plates and cups since we have such inconsequential statuses?"

"There is something wrong with the cup?" Andrea asked.

"I have been very cautious." Mayree shook her head. "It must have been tampered with from the beginning."

"How can someone be poisoned so easily under the scrutiny of the imperial guards?" Oris scoffed and set the cup beside her. "The Emperor doesn't want me dead immediately and the Dowager is not impatient. These ceramics were carefully crafted with poisonous substances, even if the plates are identical to other ones in the palace they would not be as structurally sound. For them to be here means that they had been prepared for a long time, but I don't think they were made to deal with me."

"Not for you?" Andrea mused. "Then it's for the previous owner of this room?"

"That may not be the case. But what is certain is that someone wanted to use a borrowed knife to kill me."

Mayree shook her head in disbelief. "How utterly ingenious."

~