Chapter 3: Enemies meet on a narrow aisle

The sunlight streaming through the windows set a harsh light on the considerably large lump on the bed. Outside the windows of a fair young maiden cheery songbirds sang such marvelous songs beautiful enough to rival the Faraway orchestra.

"Bothersome birds." Gabriella who was still half-asleep was most unappreciative of their melody and yawned from under the covers, groggy and still a little unwilling to separate dream from reality. It was a splendid dream. Gabriella smiled subconsciously.

The songbirds continued their melody right outside the Gabriella's window as if singing for her alone. They played and frolicked almost lulling her back to sleep.

A sudden and very loud harsh, croaking call brought an end to the serene atmosphere. It jolted Gabriella awake and scared the songbirds off with a flurry of feathers and tweets.

The noise continued without stop as it did a few mornings making Gabriella curse out ill-manneredly from her comfy spot beneath the blankets. She emerged finally, arms outstretched and wide open with a full yawn Gabriella looked straight out of a painting with her wild mane of hair, glassy eyes and rosy cheeks. The only mismatch in the portrait was the scowl on her face which she directed towards the window in front of her.

Getting out of bed Gabriella soon opened her windows. The cold morning air flooded into the room making goosebumps pop up on her arms. She leaned against the window sill and let the slightly chilly air blast against her entire body. Her gaze, almost as cold as the weather settled on the dark flying crow in front of her.

The crow stopped halfway through a shrill squawk, it cocked it's head and with it's small black beady eyes examined the vexed girl in front of it. An eerie laugh bubbled up it's throat.

"See you've yet to become someone's dinner, Morfeo." Gabriella said cooly, hiding her trembling hands that were not from the cold.

A harsh, grating voice uttered, "And you've yet to learn basic manners I see but I won't quibble over a good morning." Still flapping it's wings Morfeo's eyes had a strange gleam to them. Though only but a bird it had an imposing and sinister air about it.

The ominous Therak beast was happy to disturb the mornings of this particular human. It hadn't been here for two months and now it's mistress had another positively wicked assignment for Ella.

It hid his glee and proceeded to relay the message carefully.

Gabriella's face paled with each sentence that came out the birds mouth. She clenched her fists tightly on the window sill.

"…before the third full moon." Morfeo's grave and sinister voice concluded.

Gabriella swiftly looked out the window and crossed the room over to the door. She opened it and searched both ends of the corridor for any evidence of a soul and only then did her heart barely settle.

Coming back to the window, there was a silence ringing in Gabriella's head. She wanted to refuse. Even if she'd successfully completed other tasks in the past this concerned taking someone else's life.

The thing was Gabriella knew she was being used. She was a drudge to one of the most wicked and evil beings in the Planes but she had no choice. Anger and self spite rushed through her as she cursed the day she allowed herself to be weak enough to be manipulated into servitude for Her.

The crow took a minute to enjoy the different emotions that played on Gabriella's face before it opened it's pointy beak again, "Know that Mistress has you in mind every single day. She worries for you and hopes you make the right decision." Morfeo crooned snidely and Gabriella gritted her teeth.

"You are an intelligent person. It should be very clear to you on whether or not you can refuse. If you can successfully retrieve what is asked of you, I will promise you on my beautiful voice that—"

Gabriella impatiently cut it off, "I don't wish to hear your empty and unnecessary promises. I'd like to be graced with an audience with her Evilness." She was tired of talking to her other puppets.

The crow's obsidian eyes revealed a human-like cunning, it's eyes looked at her with such disdain it made her skin crawl. Morfeo's shrill and grating voice uttered out a chilling sentence as if mocking her,

"His life or yours. You decide."

Gabriella wasn't that kind of stupidly selfless person, she wouldn't be in this situation otherwise and she also didn't have the spirit of self sacrifice. Although she usually maintained a gentle exterior only she truly understood the extent of the empathy she was willing to show.

The knock on the door quickly brought Gabriella out of her thoughts. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked back at the door.

Gabriella turned around to chase Morfeo away only to find him gone without so much of a trace. She sighed in relief and went to open the door.

'Curse my luck it just had to be her.'

Having just finished talking to the damn crow Gabriella thought being called down to breakfast by her most perceptive sibling was more of a mental workout than was required for the whole day.

"Oh." Gloria gave her sister a brief look over. "Well you're a mess."

'Blunt as ever'

"Well I'm not exactly a morning person. I'll be down in five minutes." Gabriella explained and tried to use her body to shield her room from Gloria's prying eyes.

"You're going to need a whole lot more than five minutes to fix—"

"What are you doing?" Gloria's eyes behind her glasses were filled with suspicion.

"Well you're especially nosy this morning. I'd like to get ready please." Gabriella slammed the door on Gloria.

"You know this only makes you look more suspicious." Gloria called from behind the door.

Gabriella just rolled her eyes and made to freshen up.

She was heading downstairs when done, only to stop in front of the standing mirror in the hallway. Gabriella looked at her reflection and sighed.

Ordinary.

She looked like any other person one could find on the street. The only thing that was special about her face were her lips. Pretty as sin they were.

The sound of Gideon clattering the pots and pans around drifted over from the kitchen.

"Our young master Gideon is handsome, gentle,a pleasant conversationalist, perfect in all his wifely duties, and respectable and gracious, of course he's also a wiz in the kitchen." Genevieve praised on the dining table as Gideon came out the kitchen with a pot of piping hot protein porridge.

Gabriella took her seat beside Gracelyn, who was reading the paper, Primeria Today, with the utmost of concentration.

"But when will such a man straight out of a fairytale bring home a pretty sister-in-law?" Genevieve continued to ramble on as she scooped her share of the meal in a bowl.

Gideon gave Genevieve the stink eye, prompting her to stuff her mouth and shut up.

"Where's the bread?" Gabriella couldn't see a loaf on the table.

"Ah, that." Gideon took off his silly cook hat. "Well we're out of flour among other things."

"Other things like what?" Genevieve asked. She really couldn't keep her mouth shut for more than a minute.

"Well we're out of eggs, sugar, oatmeal, potatoes, rice, barley… You don't expect me to list them all, do you?" Gideon sat at the table, shoveling down his meal.

Gloria took off her glasses and explained they were running low on funds and that their winery wasn't doing too well. She talked a lot of gibberish about the account books that Gabriella didn't understand.

Gloria stood beside the creaky old wooden dining table, taking inventory of their life necessities. She had carelessly tied her long hair into a ponytail, and her plain yellow dress looked dreadfully commonplace. In her current state, nobody would think she was a noble Lady.

"What says the paper today, Gracey?" Genevieve asked when Gloria was finished talking with Gideon about a new fermentation lock for the wines they made.

Gracelyn bit her lips and whispered sullenly,"Amelia Longwood's on the paper. She was interviewed on her thoughts for the ball this evening."

Gabriella caught Gideon's eyes as they both sighed. Amelia Longwood was Gracelyn's archenemy in the sense that they both fought for the royal family's favor to marry the Crown prince.

Gracelyn was set to marry the Crown Prince of this continent. Over the course of the decades, the Gael statuses dropped. They were now considered to be a declining middle-class aristocratic family. They were both incapable and held no real power in the kingdom. This meant that as a lowly orphaned aristocrat, Gracelyn would never be in line to marry the prince.

"You're so obsessed." Gloria muttered in her unique blunt tone. She put her glasses on and excused herself from breakfast. Gloria stumped her way upstairs and grumbled, "Get a life."

There was an awkward silence among them. Gloria wasn't the only one frustrated with Gracelyn's continuous involvement with Prince Henry. Gabriella thought quite hypocritically that there was a limit to how low one could go for a man.

"I need new jewelry for the ball tonight." Gracelyn took a deep breath and looked at Gideon. "Tonight, it's different."

Gideon just tidied up the table and blatantly ignored her.

"How do you know it's different?" Genevieve asked.

"I just do." Gracelyn replied offhandedly, "It's a socialite thing, you wouldn't understand."

Gabriella didn't get it either.

Gabriella could see themselves not eating eggs and pastries for a long time.

There were too many things to prepare for tonight's party. First, she needed a dress. "Do help me with a dress. I want it… a little on the daring side." Gabriella asked hesitatingly.

Gracelyn gave her a searching look but still replied,"Sure but I'll need a lot of silk." And she left leaving two parting sentences, "I'll be down in ten. We're going shopping."

Gideon watched Gracelyn's retreating back with a scowl.

"She says shopping like she has a stash of gold just lying around somewhere waiting to be spent on diamonds." Gideon grumbled, ticked off.

"You say that every time and you still manage to come up with the money." Genevieve mocked.

Gideon bent over, took off a shoe and chased Genevieve who screeched like a banshee all the way upstairs.

Gabriella took over the cleaning up, thinking about tonight.

There were not many dress shops that made dresses with good enough quality to suit such a ball, yet still within their budget. So normally, Gracelyn made their dresses or tinkered with the ones they already had. She was a genius in that area. The handiest skill she could've picked up during her post breakup spiral so they didn't have to repeat their dresses all the time or wear a good laugh to a party.

~~~~~`~~~~~`~~~~~

The two Gael sisters, Gabriella and Gracelyn were at a dainty jewellery shop, looking through the latest season's collection.

Various types of exquisite necklaces were hanging on the shelves, under the light, they were magnificently lit up and very dreamlike.

"We have naught to wear to the ball tonight." Gracelyn whispered. "Almost all my jewellery has been used up during this ball frenzy."

The blonde girl looked through each and every brooch, necklace and bracelet with a critical eye, sighing and shaking her head as she mumbled something to herself.

Although every piece of jewellery looked heavenly they still suffered a harsh criticism. Gracelyn was a perfectionist.

"Oh, this looks like it was made for you Ella." Gracelyn held up a silver brooch shaped like an exotic bird and inlaid with green emaralds. "There is a miniscule gap in the placement but it is not unforgivable. You like the color green. We have to get this."

Gabriella just feigned interested and gave it a look over, nodding.

So the two girls looked through everything on show with the blonde giving random remarks and the dark haired one nodding every now and then in an uninterested way.

The bell jingled in the shop, signalling the arrival of a new customer.

A flock of giggling women, about six of them, came in one after the other with a pompous looking young woman right in center. She parotted, "...and then I said you better not be thinking of my prince charming." The women around her laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world when it was anything but.

One of the women in their circle spotted the Gael sisters who were for the life of them could not be bothered with them, picking out jewellery. The woman proceeded to call her friends attention to them.

"Some people really do live in a fantasy land where the sun shines brightly and the birds only sing for them. If I were them I would be too ashamed to show my face to the world after the circus show their mother put them through." The woman in the center said in a purposely loud voice.

 Her entourage giggled.

"Amelia, they must have pretty thick skin since life keeps hitting them hard." One of the women, Lady Penelope said between giggles.

Gracelyn's countenance turned grim as she turned to the side to look at the group who had obviously tried to provoke them.

Gabriella could barely restrain her dagger's intent. It was a temperamental thing.

Gabriella quickly took a hold of Gracelyn's arm and looked over at the bunch. "We shouldn't lower ourselves to the likes of them." She said trying to soothe her sister.

The Amelia girl guffawed as she swept her brown hair behind her ears. "Lower yourselves? To the likes of us?" Amelia crossed over to the hairpin isle and stood in front of the two sisters.

"Sometimes I pity you and sometimes I just say the gods are really fair." The obnoxious Amelia sighed as she met Gracelyn Gael's inflamed brown eyes with her baby blue ones and gave a provocative smile.

"Just a few years ago everyone was on about how Gracelyn and the Prince of Faraway were the perfect match. I, Amelia Longwood wood laughed at such rubbish. The royal family have been linked to our family for fifty years. We Longwoods have been the rightful other halves for the cream of the crop in the kingdom. You were just like a flash in the pan."

Amelia produced a prideful scoff. "Back to lowering yourselves. I think I would be the one losing self worth and respect if I am seen anywhere next to you."

Amelia had her fun and had made ready to go back to her coterie when Gabriella took hold of her arm.

Amelia showed a surprised look and tried to take away her hand. "Let go of my arm."

Amelia cowered at the look in Gabriella's eyes. Gabriella looked at the fair hand and thought of gruesome things to do to it. Her dagger was practically singing in her subconscious, wanting a taste of Amelia's blood.

Gabriella took a deep breath in. "You have said your piece, and now you have to listen to mine." She pretended not to hear Amelia and kept her hold on the girl. She looked at Amelia's friends who looked about ready to come over and said,"You really are shameless enough to say this and that when you have yet to get engaged to Prince Henry. Who was the one whose father came to mine that year to threaten him about how the Prince was yours and no one else's? You lot are really good. A bunch of conceited swines."

Gabriella gave a mocking laugh. "You say the Prince is yours so he becomes yours? If he was already in your pocket or the royal family even considered you an option then we would not need to attend a ball at the palace every other day.

"The royal family knows what I know." Gabriella brought her face close to the positively enraged and frightened girl and said in a low and even tone. "That you're just not good enough."

Amelia breath caught in her throat. The pain in her arm was long forgotten as she gnashed her teeth together wishing a thousand times over that the two Gael sisters would just drop dead.

"You can keep the Prince. I wouldn't want him for a dog not to talk of a brother in-law." Gabriella snarled and let go of the ashen faced Amelia's arm and the other girl struggled to right herself. Her cronies immediately got to her to support her.

Gabriella then turned to her sister who was still staring daggers at the offending Longwood. "Gracelyn, really some people should not mistaken our magnanimity for weakness. Jealousy is really not a befitting color on them."

Gracelyn let out a heavy breath and looked back gratefully at her sister. "I suddenly feel a little unwell Ella. I think we should have enough to shine at the ball tonight." She gave a short laugh then said, "I would like to see who really gets the title of the crown princess at the end."

Amelia pushed the hands steadying her away and looked almost convulsive as she stared at the backs of the sisters. She screamed. "Gabriella! Know your place!"

Gabriella didn't even bother turning back as she replied, "The way I see it, it's way above yours."