The Tributes (Sable)

Clockwork Thrones and Tumbling Floors

"Your Majesty," said the tall-haired woman immediately, moving forward and dipping into a low curtsy on sighting the Queen. Sable was sure she hadn't imagined the slight inflection of fear in the woman's voice.

A beat later, all the gathered girls dipped into their own versions of deep bows and curtsies in the Queen's direction as well.

"Rise," said the Queen immediately, sounding careless of the gesture, and they obeyed, all of them sending hesitant and covert glances up at the Queen as they stood in uneasy silence.

"First of all," the Queen intoned without preamble, "raise your heads. I don't much appreciate being stared at discreetly. Mostly because none of you seem to know what discreet means in the first place."

Sable slowly raised her head at that. The Queen's earlier command to her in the main courtroom had mirrored this preference of hers for people to look at her. And as she hadn't even once revoked the order, or seemed angry at her compliance with it, Sable was a little more confident now about taking advantage of it.

A quick side-glance at the rest of the young girls near her showed some of them nervously complying, while others just raised their heads and averted their eyes back down.

When Sable glanced back up in the Queen's direction however, she froze when she met a pair of dark eyes directly staring at her. Luckily, the Queen's dark gaze, while intimidating, seemed more contemplative than anything else. And thankfully, she only subjected Sable to that stare for a moment before her eyes shifted to regard the crowd of girls as a whole.

"Throne," she suddenly intoned, and everyone else in the room (except 'My Lady' and the two maids with her) flinched as clockwork machinery sounds filled the room on the Queen's command. Then, as they all watched inawe, a throne similar to the one in the main courtroom came together with the turning of automated screws and wheels and bolts, the wall in front of them more or less revolving and sinking in on itself to bring out the throne tucked behind it, while steps and side-stands simultaneously rose from the ground right in front of the throne and on either side of it.

With a flourish, the Queen's black cape billowing behind her, she turned and made her way up the steps to seat herself. Then, as they were still taking in the sight, she raised her arm, twisted her hand in a delicate yet sharp motion, and further intoned, "Seats."

This time, all the girls yelped and tried to get out of the way as the floor beneath them shifted to bring up cushioned chairs. The chaos in turn caused more than one of them to fall over and collide as they scrambled away and into each other, while some tumbled over and into the seats around them.

Sable herself had darted away when the ground had shifted beneath her, immediately collided with a girl on her right (which had caused that girl to be pushed into a seat), lost her balance as the force of the collision shoved her to her left, and then tripped over a chair to fall over backwards and rather painfully onto the floor. The resultant fall found herself seated haphazardly on the floor and with half of her dress skirts caught over the back of the chair that had tripped her.

It took her a good three seconds to get her bearings and realize that she'd finally stopped tumbling all over the place. And better still, the floor was thankfully solid and unmoving under her again.

And hard, she noted next, inwardly sighing at the new bruises she'd earned.

"If you're all quite done," drawled the Queen the next moment, capturing all of their attention again, "I'd advise you all to take a seat."

Sable glanced up and could see her eyes glittering with mirth, a smirk tweaking up the corner of her lips. And no doubt so could the rest; the Empress's amusement would be obvious even to the blind.

Sable took another second to look for 'My Lady' and her maids. And when she did, she saw them unflustered, upright, and well away from the area that was chaos a mere moment before.

Lovely. Apparently, this was a regular thing they did to the tributes then.

No one except the Queen was snickering or looking amused, though. So either they were so used to it that they didn't care anymore, or they were too afraid to laugh in front of the Queen.

Sable didn't try to decipher which it might be. She'd already delayed herself a moment, and she needed to take a seat as ordered.

So, shifting to get her knees under her, Sable tried to tug her skirts back down from the backrest first. But while a good number of them obeyed, one of them got caught on the left decorative side-knob at the top of the chair's backrest. And an extra strong tug from Sable suddenly ripped it through.

Sable froze for a second as the skirt tearing sounded loudly throughout the large room, even echoing slightly, as the final skirt fluttered down around her to join the others. 

But there was nothing she could do about it now. So she tore off the dangling strip of fabric, stuffed it somewhat discreetly up her sleeve, and heaved herself up off the floor and into the chair that had just helped her ruin the most expensive gown her village could afford.

Sable glanced up after a long moment, more than a little terrified that she would find the Queen's gaze on her again, especially after she had so obviously called attention to herself. So she couldn't help a quiet sigh of relief when she saw that the Queen's attention was roving over all of the room's occupants instead of singling one person out to focus on.

A furtive glance around her showed that the other girls in the room had more or less settled into their own chairs as well, nervously fidgeting in some way or the other and peering around in their own secret ways to take in their company. 

Even the more self-assured girls from earlier seemed flustered now... And who could blame them after the spectacle they had just been a part of?

AN:

Black Queen, looking at the young, apprehensive girls who came as tributes: 

 Let's move the floor out from under them.