Amarantha's Daughter

Dianthe

His, very much alive, daughter was currently living across the water on a different continent. She went by the name of Dianthe and had no idea who her real parents were, much less that she was not human like her adopted family. The former Queen who had taken her in had raised her as her own along with her older daughter, the current Queen, Queen Briallyn.

There was a knock on her door and Dianthe quickly hid the letter she'd stolen under a pillow. "Come in."

"Your Highness." Morgan, a servant, bowed at the waist as was custom. "Her Highness the Queen is expecting your attendance at dinner."

Fuck. "Is that all?" She asked.

"She's asked for you to..." The servant hesitated. "To make an effort on your appearance...Clothes will be sent for you." They said, ill at ease.

Dianthe was pretty sure her sister had used other words and that Morgan was kind enough to interpret the message to make it sound better. "Thank you Morgan." She said with a nod that dismissed them.

Morgan bowed again and left her chambers, closing the door behind them.      

What dinner would possibly call for such drastic measures? Dianthe didn't believe for a second that there was any good reason as to why her sister wanted her to look good. Definitely nothing that would benefit Dianthe in any way. She sat down on a divan and suddenly remembered the letter that she'd hidden. The letter she'd managed to steal from her sister's advisor, the one who transcribed most of her sister's correspondence. Copies were usually made, so it wouldn't be missed. She'd jabbed a couple of letters this way lately, and had always been careful to burn them after so as to not let anyone know what she was up to. It was the only way to find out what her sister was doing nowadays. She had been no angel before, but when Queen Briallyn, considered the most beautiful of the 6 queens, had returned from Hybern as a withered old crone, all bets were off. It was like her insides had been made ugly too, or at least uglier .

Briallyn had gone to Hybern with the other Queens in order to be turned Fae by some almighty Cauldron. Even if Dianthe had been asked to go, she would have found some way to stay out of it. All of her instincts screamed in protest when Briallyn had left the continent that time. She'd very gently tried to ask her sister to stay, but had only received a slap to the face and a tirade of yelling to show for. Briallyn had claimed Dianthe's warning was out of self-preservation, that she wanted her older sister to grow old and ugly so that she could be the pretty one. That hurt more than the actual blow. The fact that Briallyn didn't think Dianthe cared about her. She was her older sister, and had practically raised Dianthe when their mother died all those years ago.

But beauty and power were the two most important things in life according to Briallyn. Being stripped of her good looks had messed her up badly. She had come home swearing death to someone named Nesta Archeron and would apparently use any means to achieve her revenge. Even Dianthe's inheritance to buy herself a bigger army. An inheritance that had been provided by a distant cousin to the old Queen to ensure she would be raised as if she was the old Queen's own child. Dianthe was adopted within the family and luckily for her, she had the distinct family looks; the black hair, pale skin and black eyes. Briallyn had always teased that if it hadn't been for her looks (and undeniably the money), she would have been raised a servant, and not a princess. Dianthe thought that being a servant couldn't be much worse than being Briallyn's sister.

While it felt like years, it had been about 2 months since Briallyn had returned from Hybern. The whole castle had been walking on eggshells ever since. She had gone out of her way to avoid her, and whenever she couldn't escape it, she made sure to look as undesirable as possible so as to not provoke her sister's jealousy.