Sigrid had no interest in the beauty contest and she had no plans to stop Emmah from launching her new fashion. She had bigger plans for the night which was why as the tea party went on, she moved closer and closer to Lady Blythe.
Through a carefully designed accident, they bumped into each other.
"Your highness." Lady Blythe curtsied and then tucked a strand of he hair back. "Pardon me for bumping into you, I did not see you."
Sigrid tilted her head and smiled coldly, "You must be blind, I advise you to make an appointment with a doctor and have your eyes examined."
Mauve and some other ladies snickered which angered Lady Blythe Ye. Despite the anger, she could not retort harshly because Sigrid was the crown princess. She did not want to make a scene at her tea party which the crown prince and even princes Elarin had graced with their presence.
This tea party needed to be a success, there was no room for scandals like the kind which had occurred at the the bachelors auction ball.
"You are right your highness, my eyes were at fault." Lady Blythe curtsied again. "My apologies."
Sigrid waved the apology away, her right hand plucked a petal from the closest blossom tree. Looking into Blythe’s eyes, she squeezed and threw it to the ground. "Hmm, what a waste of such lovely trees and flowers."
Lady Blythe’s lips quivered in anger. "Whatsoever do you mean your highness?"
"Don’t move." Sigrid ordered her.
Sigrid’s face maintained its cold-neutral look which the Eldorians had grown to love. She plucked another petal, another, and another, removing as many as she could until the tree remained bare. Without the beautiful pink petals, the tree was just ugly thin brown wood.
Lady Blythe almost convulsed with every petal that was plucked. She wanted to scream but again, the manners which had been imbued into her mind from childhood and Sigrid’s status stopped her.
She forced a smile and asked with as much grace as she could muster, "Crown princess, why did you pluck all the petals from my tree? How has it offended you?"
Sigrid placed her hands behind her back and replied slowly and coldly, "My brother Elowin traveled to Vecentia in the past. There is a saying there that a tall tree attracts the wind." Slowly, she moved to another blossom tree and pulled a petal from a branch. "Beautiful flowers, beautiful trees and beautiful women are the same. If they try too hard to stand out, they attract disaster to themselves. Someone always comes along, admires their beauty and then plucks them. After being plucked, they start to lose their natural glow, they wither and fade away. Eventually, they are trampled on and left to rot."
She gestured at Mauve to trample on the petals. Mauve curtsied, nodded and then jumped up and down stepping all over the petals than Sigrid had plucked. She did it with mischief, adding buzzing sounds deliberately while smirking at Blythe.
Blythe’s breathing increased, she heaved, anger swelled in her like a balloon being pumped with air. "I do not understand what you want to say your highness."
Sigrid scoffed. She raised her right hand slowly, deliberately with grace and touched Blythe’s cheek. "So much gold, so much wealth. Even the servants in your family dress in gold. Today the king addressed the kingdom, he was dressed in plain silk. The crown prince and I are also dressed in plain silk.
Our gold is being used to pave new roads, feed the soldiers, fight hunger in the North, expand the experimental agricultural fields in the East. We have so much to do but so little gold. Your tea party has truly been eye opening." She tapped Blythe on the shoulder, moved closer and whispered. "Congratulations, you win. Enjoy it while it lasts."
Something in her words made Blythe afraid, it caused her to tremble and her legs felt a weakness.
Sigrid sniffed the air and looked at the cup of jasmine tea in Blythe’s hand. "I have been yearning to taste this since I arrived. I hope you don’t mind."
She took the cup from Blythe and took a sip. She took two more and then put down the cup. "Let’s find a bathroom." Sigrid whirled around and told Mauve.
Mauve’s foot crushed one more petal, it was about to attempt kicking down a tree when Sigrid decided to find a bathroom. Off they went, walking past Lady Emmah and her group of admirers that were literally eating out of the palm of her hand. Benjamin was watching her like a smitten fool.
"I am so glad I never married that fool." Mauve muttered.
Sigrid responded with a laugh. If this was the original story, Mauve would be singing a different tune.
Less than a minute after Sigrid and her entourage headed to the bathroom, Lady Blythe and some of her cousins excused themselves from the party. It was Blythe’s intention to change into her second dress of the day, her cousins that had just learned of her plan decided to change as well.
It was another opportunity to show off their wealth. Their group met with Sigrid’s group on the second floor of the house and learned that the crown princess was lost. Somehow, despite of the Ye’s owning many servants, none of them had pointed the crown princess in the direction of a bathroom.
"What is happening here?" Oliver Ye approached them. When he saw Sigrid, his face became cold and his eyes they flashed with anger for a moment before his hid away the hostility inside.
"It is..." Blythe started
Suddenly, Sigrid hunched over and moaned, blood fell out of her mouth.
"Crown princess." Lanai screamed in fright. "Help, the crown princess has been poisoned."
The scream and the words poison, sent everyone into a frenzy. The Ye’s traded nervous gazes, dread settled in their blood. If it was true that the crown princess had been poisoned at this tea party, heads were going to roll.
Nobody noticed a short mage appear behind the group and chant a spell and disappear. Suddenly, it was if the Ye’s had gone insane, and they started fighting Sigrid’s maids.
"Brother, stop them. If she is saved and accuses us of having a hand in this, what will happen to our family? She drunk my tea and now she is poisoned." Blythe cried out.
"It’s you," One of Blythe’s cousins turned on her. "You poisoned her and now we are all in danger."
Sigrid’s maids screamed louder for help. Her knights were rushing to her aid and yet they were slower than usual.
Oliver growled, ripped Lanai and Mauve away from Sigrid. Somehow he was faster than her knights as he reached her in time, pulling her up by her neck. When he tried to grasp it firmly, Sigrid pushed herself backwards with her magic and she went flying through the open window.
As her body landed on the ground, her mouth formed a smile. Somehow, this reminded her of her death, then and now, her fall had been a personal choice. A dramatic one.
"System, terminate the pregnancy right now." she ordered.
She bit on a pill that had been tucked into her teeth and passed out immediately.