Chapter-55 The Smile Of Hunger

The washroom of the Velvet Veil was quiet, cloaked in a warm dimness that felt oddly intimate. Only the gentle drip of water from the faucet filled the air, each droplet echoing softly against the polished marble basin.

Frederique stood alone, leaning heavily over the sink, her fingers curling around the edge. Her breath came slow but shaky, like she was trying to steady herself, but the trembling wouldn't stop.

The candlelight flickered, casting pale golden reflections along the mirror's surface. She stared at herself... at the damp strands of scarlet hair clinging to her face, at the hollow exhaustion beneath her eyes. Her skin felt clammy, cool from the water she had just splashed there in a desperate attempt to ground herself.

Selora's lesson lingered.

' Presence. Control. Power without violence.'

It made sense. It was logical, even elegant... the way the fox-like Pooka had shown her how to shift the air around herself, how a single glance, a subtle shift in body language, could make people listen, feel.

And yet...

Frederique exhaled, tension knotting tight in her chest. It felt unnatural. All that subtlety, the quiet implication of strength... it was like trying to wear a mask she didn't understand.

"You did well tonight."

The voice wasn't hers.

Frederique froze.

It hadn't echoed from the walls of the washroom but reverberated in the hollow space behind her thoughts, like a whisper curling around her spine.

' Frideria.'

Her reflection shifted... just slightly... but enough.

The dark pools of her eyes seemed deeper, the pupils sharper, almost predatory in their stillness.

No movement.

Just watching.

Frederique's grip on the sink tightened.

"...You're awake."

A pulse.

Cold.

Familiar.

" I never sleep."

Frederique's lips parted, the retort dying on her tongue. She could feel her there... coiled beneath the surface, pressing against the edges of her mind with quiet, patient hunger.

"You were... watching?"

" Always."

The words lingered, soft but absolute.

Friderique's reflection remained calm, but the way her head tilted slightly... just a hair too much... made it clear who was speaking now.

" You learned a valuable lesson tonight,"

Frideria continued, her voice smooth but with a tension underneath, like silk stretched too thin.

" Selora understands power. Control. But you only saw part of it."

Frederique frowned, wiping the cold water from her face with the back of her hand.

"Part of it? What does that mean?"

The reflection's lips curled... almost a smile, but not quite.

" Influence is a weapon, but you are learning to blunt it. Why do you think Selora taught you this? To be gentle? To ask for respect?"

Frederique's stomach twisted. She shook her head.

"It wasn't like that... she showed me how to hold myself, how to make people listen without violence."

"Without violence, yes."

Frideria's voice sharpened slightly, her reflection leaning closer, until her face was nearly pressing against the glass.

" But without power? No. She taught you to dress it differently. To hide it behind a mask."

Frederique swallowed hard, stepping back from the sink. The chill in her veins wasn't fading.

"You're twisting it."

Frideria didn't blink.

"Am I? What is power, if not the ability to make them feel something?"

The reflection shifted... darkening, the candlelight no longer reflecting quite right in those bottomless eyes.

"She taught you presence. Control. You want them to look at you and feel drawn in, soft and safe. But I watched, Frederique. I watched how they moved when she demonstrated it. And I watched how they reacted to me."

Frederique shivered as the weight of Frideria's words settled in her chest.

"...What do you mean?"

They weren't drawn to her. They were curious.

The reflection's lips parted, and for the first time, the edges of her mouth curled into a smile... wide, sharp, unnatural.

" But when they looked at me... they were afraid."

Frederique took another step back, her pulse quickening.

"That's not what this is about. Selora was teaching grace. Control without fear. She... "

"And she forgot the strongest tool of all."

The reflection pressed closer against the glass, the image distorting slightly, like the mirror itself was bending under the weight of her presence.

"The smile, Frederique."

Frederique blinked.

"What...?"

" The smile. Not the soft one she showed you. Not a mask."

The reflection's grin widened. Not fully predatory yet... but the promise was there, coiled like a viper behind her teeth.

"A smile is not a mask. It is a weapon."

Her voice dropped lower, more intense.

"Selora wants them to feel safe. I want them to feel... watched. To feel the weight of my teeth behind that smile. To wonder... what would happen if they angered you?"

Frederique's breathing grew uneven.

"...You're talking about fear."

Frideria's grin remained, but the intensity in her gaze sharpened.

"Fear... is just respect with sharper edges."

Frederique shook her head.

"No. You're wrong. You can't..."

"Can't I?" Frideria's voice dropped to a whisper, and the reflection rippled once more.

Frederique's face remained hers. But the eyes... the smile...

The teeth gleamed sharp as daggers, pearly white but just a little too jagged.

"You don't need to threaten, little one. You don't need to raise a hand. Just... let them see you."

The image in the mirror leaned closer, the candlelight catching those too-sharp teeth as the grin stretched unnaturally wide.

"Let them see me."

Frederique's pulse hammered in her chest.

"That's not what I want... "

"But it's what we are."

* Silence.*

Frederique trembled, heart racing as she stared into the distorted reflection, the monstrous smile lingering even as her own lips remained neutral.

The quiet pressed in, suffocating.

Then, slowly...

The image shifted back.

Her face.

Her normal face.

No jagged teeth.

No unnatural smile.

But the echo of it still lingered, just beneath the surface.

Frideria's voice softened.

"We are two sides of the same coin. You can be soft. Gentle. But when you need to remind them..."

The whisper curled like smoke.

"Smile."

Frederique exhaled shakily, staring at her own reflection for a long, silent moment.

She wasn't sure what scared her more.

The fact that Frideria was right...

Or the fact that, deep down...

She already knew how to smile like that.