Prologue

Elegant hands masterfully hides her smile behind her fan just as she'd been taught. Her lilac dress swept the smooth newly installed marble floors, white gloves encasing her slender fingers as purple ribbons laced her sleeves and neatly kept her hair. As much as she smiled, she wasn't really paying much attention to the conversation the other ladies were having as they carelessly drank their cocktails.

No, those dark eyes were drawn again and again to another figure in the room. Dressed in deep royal blue, gold laced her wrist as she declined yet another advance made towards her. She watched as the Empress herself came to speak with the young lady in blue. She couldn't quite make out the words or much of the context of the conversation they had. Her gloved hand reached for the fair arm of a girl in green, the child was confused but figured out where she was going. A quick look around the room was enough to confirm her dear brother had disappeared already. He was never one for events such as these anyways.

" What did she say?"

The girl in green asked her when they finally made it across the ballroom just as the Empress left.

" Did Grandmother say anything interesting?"

Another voice interjects, dressed in a modest cream dress with little laces at the end. She loomed over the three of them, making the girl in lilac feel rather nervous in her presence.

" Well?"

" Nothing much."

Dark eyes exchanged an amused look as she looked around at her sisters.

" She said my eyes could kill."

The eldest sister snorted as the other two snickered.

" Well, she's not wrong."

The girl in lilac, Casia, admits.

" Do you need anything?"

The young lady in blue, Amary, pointed to the banquet table they came from and the two younger sisters nodded.

" I'll get the drinks, Harlow can get the snacks."

" I always have to take the snacks. Not complaining."

Harlow added as she followed her sister to the banquet.

" The garden should be open,"

Holly told them.

" Do you ever think you might be treating our sisters like slaves, Amary?"

" Of course not."

Amary inspects her nails, they were due a good manicure by the week.

" Harlow's the only slave, Casia's a servant. Don't you remember promoting her, Holly?"

" Ah, right."

The eldest laughed.

" I did do that."

The two older sisters smiled as the servant and slave returned with the drinks and sweets.

" Gardens, let's go."

She told them as she leads the way out of the stuffy ballroom, dark eyes ignoring whatever looks were thrown their way. The onlookers would simply turn away from a mere glance of the cold, calculating glare of the lady in blue. Just as their grandmother had said to her earlier, the onlookers whispered,

" Those eyes could kill."