[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/H0jWy99h.png[/img][/center]
[color=gray]
[color=slateblue]Time:[/color] Dinner Time
[color=slateblue]Location:[/color] Banquette
[color=slateblue]Mention:[/color] Clarence [@helo], Thea [@Tae], Gideon [@princess]
[color=slateblue]Interactions:[/color] 
[color=slateblue]Appearance[/color]: Light blue gown with Silver accents


Ariella hadn’t expected it to cut so deeply.


Clarence’s words weren’t loud, but they struck with a weight that landed square in her chest. [i]To fear them is to insult me. [/i] They hissed against her ear like venom, and her breath caught in her throat before she could stop it. Her face went pale. Her fingers stiffened where they clung to his sleeve.


He hadn’t said it to wound her,but he had. And the worst part was that he wasn’t wrong.


She wasn’t afraid for Clarence. She was afraid because of herself. Because she didn’t know what she was yet,not really. Because she still flinched under the gaze of the powerful, still played the part of someone soft and small while something far more dangerous may be simmered under the surface.


Clarence moved on quickly, already offering Duke Gideon polite farewells, already slipping back into his place at the table, controlled and unshaken. But Ariella stood frozen for a moment too long, blinking past the sting in her eyes, her breath a little too shallow.


She couldn’t keep doing this. Couldn’t keep pretending that her journals were just scribbled nonsense, that the box under her bed didn’t hold pieces of the truth she was terrified to face. She had locked it all away. But safety was a lie in this world. And normal no longer applied.


Whatever happened with Callum’s mother, it was no accident. It was a performance, staged by the crown, and Ariella knew enough to see it for what it was. The King never played fair. If Alibeth had been dragged away, it was because it served some hidden end. And the next time the curtain rose, it could be her family in the spotlight.


Her brother. Her father. Callum.


She had to be ready.


[color=slateblue]“I’m ready to leave,”[/color] she said, voice smooth and calm.[color=slateblue] “Let’s not keep Mother waiting.”[/color] She gestured to her father with a look of exhaustion. Ari looked over at Thea and smiled[color=slateblue] “I’ll see you at your birthday”[/color] she reached out and squeezed Theas hand with reassurance before leaving towards the carriages. [/color]