[center][color=royalblue][h3][i]Valentine/Edelessa of Luxième[/i][/h3][/color][/center]

Prince Akio chattered away at her, and it took all her focus to keep from just tuning out.  Did he never stop?  Or was he just making up for her inability to contribute to the conversation?  ...Oh and now he thought she might be mute.  What a wonderful way to start things off.  She pried the hand not holding her champagne free of her purse strap and flicked a quick pair of fingers in the prince's general direction.  If she wasn't so nervous she would have been red with shame.

'Nice to make your acquaintance'?  What a laugh.  She was a sham, a lie, destined to be a figurehead and probably unable to do even that right.  Introduce him to people?  And how was she supposed to do that, when she couldn't even manage a hello?!  Prince Akio's attempts at conversation were only making her feel worse.  She wanted to hide, or run, or...just go anywhere to be left alone.

Unfortunately, between the shame and the anxiety, she let herself grow careless.  The first sign she'd done something wrong was the subtle snick that she felt in her fingers more than heard.  She relaxed her grip at once, but it was too late, and only served to permit the severed base of the glass to fall in a slow arc of failure to land ringing like churchbells on the floor.  It wasn't that loud, with the talking and the band, though she heard it clearly as it hit and shattered in pieces at her feet.

But that wasn't the worst of it.  The pain across the middle of her fingers could only mean one thing, and she couldn't handle that.  Not here.  Not now.  Val watched in mute horror as the hand that didn't seem to belong to her slowly uncurled, heedless of the other half of the glass it still held.  Empty noise filled her ears; the color drained from her face; now she did lean against the wall behind her as she stared blankly at the drops of blood welling from where she'd cut herself on the edges of the glass.