Beginning of the end

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No one can recall dates any longer. Help was coming, they had promised. Who wouldn't believe the promise made to by the brightest minds of the time to the richest families of the time? It had been long enough now that the original citizens of Rapture now had young adult grandchildren. The city had been built just for them. Their lavish playground, or so they liked to believe. It was many years now since anything had been truly 'lavish', it was only as the joy now made them see it; glorious and delightfully decadent.

Some families considered themselves better than others, and rightly so. Few had the money and the power, while the many lived in squalor. One of these families were the Jansen's. The eldest son had two beautiful daughters, who in the society they had left would no doubt have been attendees of many parties and balls, all for the purpose of finding a husband. As it stood, the youngest girl seemed the most adept at wearing her mask. By day she was the spoiled little princess she was supposed to be, making fun of the lower classes and generally being a horrible person. But as night fell and her joy pill began to wear off... She often thought of life outside her parent's massive apartment, of life in the 'workers' levels of the city. Anika Jansen would fall asleep troubled by the things her imagination thought up. It was this particular night that she had finally plucked up the courage to slip out of her parent's home, though of course she would stand out a mile in her expensive clothing and perfect make up.

The king offered Victoria a wolfish grin as he politely inclined his head. She was indeed a lovely curiosity, he would certainly have to speak with the mystic about the magic bond that made the younger girl his Queen.

"Have I?" Anika challenged. "As I recall, you pushed me into the river." She added, her prim little nose in the air. "How do I know you wont feed me poison scones?"

The king would be surprised to learn that the magic teether had been severed and twisted to wrap around Anika instead of Victoria. Amelia loved her eldest grandchild and did what she could to prevent the marriage, even changing the color of her eyes. Her magic was woven so tightly around the secret it would take a good mystic a week to even scratch the surface of what she'd done.

"Did you not notice that you weren't even wet or that your dress doesn't have the slight speck on it?" Elliot countered.

It would make perfect sense to Anika, in explaining why she had a constant feeling of being trapped by an unseen force. The magic had been slowly killing her, and would have done so, had she not found herself in this strange new world.
The king offered Victoria one more devilish smile before he was gone as though he had never even been there at all.

"That... That isn't the point!" Anika spluttered. "You still pushed me against my wish! I could have died!" She declared, rather dramatically.

"We're going to have to get home." Victoria muttered. "I'm almost out of joy." She followed behind them, wondering why every so often the man they were with was nodding. 

"Actually you asked me to. I couldn't have brought you here otherwise. And no, you couldn't have died." Elliot said with a soft laugh.

Each girl would find they had been given their own bedroom, much grander than what they had even had in their own home. Anika's response had been that of a child. There was never any real caution with her, like she had always known her young life was going to be cut suddenly short. Right then the younger sister had kicked her shoes off to bounce on her bed.

Victoria watched her sister bouncing on the bed and shook her head. She didn't go to her own room, too worried about the younger girl. "Stop that. We can't afford the things here."

"They're not asking us to buy them, Tori." Anika replied, though she did stop bouncing and simply flopped down into the soft silken sheets on her bed.

The king had been waiting for Elliott as he left the two girls alone in Anika's room. "What do you think of them?" He asked, rather out the blue; the king never asked Elliott's opinion of anything.

"This place is scaring me, Ani." Victoria admitted as she too sat down on the bed. "They have an enormous rose garden set up. You should have seen it. It was...beautiful...An old woman told me their master had been growing it for you. It's just like grandmother's stories. All of it. Even the hallways..." She paused, resting her head in her hands. All of this was wrong. None of it could be real. She'd believed her Gran crazy, no matter how much she loved her. But the old woman had spoken with such conviction and certainty. "Who is that man you are speaking to as if you've known all your life?" She asked finally. "You just followed him into the river like he was the Piped Piper. Have you lost your mind too?" 

Elliot frowned at the king, the lines in his forehead knitted in an ornate pattern. His majesty seemed so desperate to know. He had an odd feeling he'd be hanging on every word. "The younger one is far too trusting. Far too willing to believe. I don't think she takes the joy that Amelia prescribed. The elder is jaded. She's been fed lies about herself. The ugly duckling comes to mind. Poor thing. I will do my best to find her a husband when I take her back if that's what you wish." He told the elder man, careful not to really give him an opinion at all.

Ani seemed to smile almost dreamily when Victoria mentioned Elliott, then shook her head. "I think you're being over cautious, Tori. I didn't 'follow' anyone anywhere. And you know I can't stand roses, why would someone i've never even met assume I like them enough to want a garden of them?"

"Or she could stay here, and you marry her." The king remarked with an almost wolfish smile, simply to see Elliott's reaction. "You spoke to the younger one quite a bit, will she make an acceptable Queen?" He asked, having already made his own decision that she would be quite the opposite.

Victoria shook her head. "He seemed pretty upset at me for landing in them. Went so far as to chase me in the woods over them." She muttered, picking the last of the petals out of her hair. "He's a bully and he's dead set on you. I won't have it. I'll...stomp on his boots before I let him near you." 

Elliot made a face at the thought of marrying the eldest. "The youngest is far too flighty to be queen. More like a demanding princess. And the eldest is far too worried about tiny details and she smells like roses. Disgusting. I will take my chances as a bachelor, thank you very much."

Ani wrinkled her pert nose and shook her head. "I always told you I didn't want to be married!" She insisted. "If he made that garden just for his queen... Perhaps you were the one he was waiting for?" She suggested before hopping off the bed to investigate the rest of the grand bedroom.

"I could make it an order." The king reminded Elliott. "Perhaps a wife would make you less... mopey." He added with a chuckle.

"That's not what grandmother said and you know it." Victoria said, cringing as she watched her sister walking around touching things. "Be careful. We can't afford that." She hissed. "Put that down, Ani! That man will have our heads for touching his things. I told you how upset he got about the roses! I'll go fix you a bath. Stop touching things." 

Elliot blew the human hair out of his eyes and rolled them. "I am not mopey. I simply chose to think about things rather than speak more than I should." He muttered. He nearly tumbled into the room when the door to Anika's room was jerked open. 
"Where is the bath? My sister needs one." Victoria said, looking straight at the king. She didn't seem to care that he was someone important. No one else in the castle or beyond would dare to speak to him that way.

Ani poked her tongue out, watching her sister's back as she opened up the closet, simply to be contrary. 

"And your sister cannot do this for herself?" The king asked rather coolly. "Have you really raised her to be so helpless?"

"Isn't that what one expects of a queen?" She countered, raising an eyebrow at him. The corner of her ruby red lip was raised, clearly mocking him. "I am simply doing what a good servant would. Shall I expect some of your rose petals brought in to please her?" She added, waiting for him to explode. 
Even Elliot was waiting for it. No one spoke to the king this way. He had done it once and he regretted it even to this day.

The king simply stared down at Victoria for what seemed like an eternity. "A queen in your world, perhaps. Here, she would be expected to defend her kingdom." He finally responded. "What colour rose petals would your pampered sister require?" He asked coolly, seemingly showing no sign that Victoria had offended him.

"Oh Tori! You have to see this!" Ani suddenly came bounding into the hall wearing a flowing ballgown she had found in the closet."

Victoria didn't look away for several long moments. Her icy stare down with the king continuing. "Red." She hissed, telling him her favorite color but not her sister's. When she did look away her mouth fell open in shock. "Ani! Put that down! That thing is horrid!" She cried. Behind her Elliot choked on his laughter. "You'll break your neck trying to walk in it!"

Ani looked genuinely crestfallen that her sister had called the violet gown horrid, as she thought it was the most beautiful thing she had every seen. The younger girl smoothed her hands over the front of the bodice, then nodded quite sadly. It sounded like she whispered the simple word 'sorry' before she turned around and retreated back through the door.
"Ah yes, I can see you are indeed her faithful servant." The king remarked with laughter of his own. "The bathroom is across the hall from the bedroom you refuse to even look at, dear girl. The petals will be waiting." He added, bowing rather theatrically.

Victoria gave him a theatrical curtsy of her own, coming very close to childishly sticking out her tongue. "I won't be needing the bedroom. I'll be sleeping on the floor to watch over my sister but thank you all the same." She said haughtily, pushing her sister in the room and slamming the door. 
Elliot couldn't help but laugh. "There is your queen, sire." He said. "Anyone daring to stand up to you is worth the effort."

Ani was clearly sulking now as she threw herself down on the large bed and simply stared up at the ceiling above her; even that was ornately decorated.

The king gave Elliott a withering glare. "I'm glad you think it amusing, you have a great many rose petals to collect."

Victoria ran the water, her body aching for the feel of it. She would bathe once her sister was done and not until. "Damn the king." She muttered, already forming her plan. 

"As you wish." Elliot growled, disappearing.

As often happened, Ani had given her bid sister the slip. The 'horrid' dress would by lying in her place on the bed, Ani herself wandering the place she and Victoria would soon be calling home. Just as the elder girl didn't want her sister marrying the king, the younger sibling was looking for a way out of the arrangement all by herself.

Anika would find herself in the rose garden where Elliot was making short work of one of the bushes. He was mumbling under his breath, petals flying all around his head like rain.

Ani grinned as she watched Elliott, something about him seeming so different to anyone else she had met so far. With steps light as a feather the young woman managed to sneak up on the angry goblin and blow gently against his ear.

Meanwhile, the king had come looking for his bride, realising they hadn't formally been introduced. "Anika?" He called as he gently pushed on the door, assuming the sound of running water to mean the young woman hadn't yet undressed.

He said something in a language she wouldnt understand and the bush he was pulling roses off of exploded. Petals rained over them both and Elliot turned to her, giving Anika an angry glare. "What was that for?!" He demanded.

Victoria had only just discovered her sister missing and wasn't about to give the secret away. She quickly turned off the lights and threw a towel over her head as she were planning to get in the water without getting her hair wet.

Anika shrank back slightly as rose petals continued to rain down, collecting in her dark hair. "Do I need a reason?" She replied rather defensively.

The king was certainly surprised to find the room bathed in darkness, but stepped through the doorway nonetheless. "Forgive my intrusion, but I was hoping you would join me for breakfast tomorrow? The wedding is in a day and we have yet to really speak."

"Why are you here? I thought you were going to bathe." Elliot asked, trying to catch some of the petals before they landed in his own dark hair. 

"I don't wake up for breakfast." Victoria breathed, trying to keep her tone breathy and light. Her sister'svoice was much softer than hers. Not to mention she was trying not to panic over the time of the wedding.

"Are you saying I smell?" Anika asked the ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Then lunch." The king pressed. "If her soon-to-be highness cannot rise before midday, then neither shall I."

"Well...not outright." Elliot said with a wide grin. "But some of the garden servants are starting to lick their lips at the sight of you."

"We should wait until the wedding." Victoria pressed in a soft voice. "What is there to discuss when you already know my fate?"

Anika was quick to glance around her, though she saw no one. "The enjoy smelly, horrid girls?" She asked, still rather sore from Victoria's reaction to the dress she had found.

The king sighed heavily and smoothed his fingers over his golden hair. "If that is what you wish..." He replied, actually sounding rather sad.

"Of course. All goblins do." Elliot purred, grabbing her around the waist and tickling her before he'd thought beer of it. "We love to eat them for breakfast!" He roared playfully. 

"We could talk now..." victora said suddenly, hating herself for being weak. "What difference does a day nake?"