Royal Imitation | Kylo Ren

Money And Power

"I don't understand. Why would anyone need three different types of forks and spoons for just one dish?"

I observed the fork in her hand with questioning eyes which then, glance to the multiples by my empty plate. The golden handle bringing a welcoming touch of coolness to my grazing fingertip after the heat of the day.

"Each form of cutlery is used for a different form of dish." Ruby sighs from the other end of the table, rolling her eyes as she also picks up a silky form of material and folds it over her lap,"You would know that already by now, if you were listening to anything I said – Anyway, I'm talking about the table cloths now and how to properly fold your napkin."

I blow to myself quietly and ignore her new lesson as I begin to run my fingernail along the cold spoons now instead.

Like everything else in this grand castle, the spoon was expensive in its weight and shiny to the lights. The table spoon had an opening foliage at the blunt end, delicately fashioned in the gold, then after a slender stalk it opened out to a regular roundness that brought nothing but the reflection of the table's centrepiece of petals to my wandering daydream that muffled the rest of Ruby's words.

I plucked it from the left end of the smaller two, holding it to my sight and blocking away the ginger girl at the other end of the rectangle, oakwood table.

Upon the back of the gold, my reflection was utterly perfect in clarity, my hair limp by my face without a gentle breeze. The tiny flicker of a birthmark that was etched beneath those eyes of hidden melancholy. The crown above my head, even matched the simple spoon perfectly. But when I flipped it around, my reflection became all distorted and upside-down in the concave – As if, upon further inspection, even the spoon realised I wasn't who I tried to make myself be.

I let it drop to the empty table, which was full of emptier plates and cutlery. The sound of the gold, rattles on the oakwood and dings against the side of my empty plate before me as I lean my elbow by it and rest my cheek in my hands.

Ruby jumps at the startling sound of my dropped boredom but when she takes sight of the shaking spoon, her eyes harden upon the gold and then on me too.

I speak before her scolds can even form, "I'm bored of this, Ruby. Why must I even learn any of this? I'm not going to need it unless anyone is sober enough to notice, which by the looks of the Kingdom, nobody is ever sober at the banquets."

Ruby only scowls at my disinterest. Shaking her head to herself lightly as she speaks in a potent voice, "Because if someone sees you use the wrong fork for your salad, who's to say that they won't then connect the dots and notice that you are an imposter?"

She picks up the plate that sat empty in front of her casually, huffing a breath onto the dish and then wiping at it with the napkin in her hand. I roll my eyes and slump in my chair with a loud sigh, ignoring the way my crown slightly falls to the left upon my head. I begin to twirl the shiny spoon upon the table again, watching the way my reflection sways in the gold.

"If you don't hurry up and find the real Princess soon, I'm sure some will find suspicions soon." I mumble tiredly, "Either that, or the Prince will surely kill me before anyone has the chance to realise."

A loud clatter erupts the small hall that we sit in. China and gold crashing and dinging on the surface, as the plate in Ruby's hand falls the short drop back onto the table. I glance up to her and etch my forehead together in question, as the plate she polished with her napkin, falls before her as she scrunches the silk into her tight fist, which she then leans her forehead on as if she was frustrated.

Her voice comes slow and worn out, as if she had repeated the words she next spoke, a thousand times before, 

"The Prince is mentally unfit and physically atrocious," She says with a bored tone, blowing a loose strand of her perfect, ginger hair, away from her pale eyes which then latch onto me, "I know it must have been frightening when he pulled the dagger on you, but it's not something that I haven't seen before."