[color=lightgray][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/YGxzxVR.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/wA3P0IB.gif[/img][/center]
[color=D0B4EC]Time:[/color] Evening 
[color=D0B4EC]Location:[/color] Ballroom
[color=D0B4EC]Attire:[/color] [url=https://i.imgur.com/XgrtOQU.png]Outfit[/url] 
[color=D0B4EC]Interaction:[/color]  [@Potter]  [color=#8FBC8B]Olivia[/color] [@Oso] [color=lightsteelblue]Cassius[/color]  [@FunnyGuy] [color=salmon]Lorenzo[/color]
 
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Charlotte had returned the hug with extra vigor, squeezing the poor girl as tightly as she could without sending them both toppling into the table. Olivia had really grown to mean a lot to her over the last few weeks. She was loyal, kind and one of the best friends someone could have. 

As the conversation came back around to  the subject of activity, she couldn't help but wince at the idea of a drinking game. It made her think of choking on ale at that tavern, and she had learned the hard way, if nothing else, that it was not her forte. 

Nonetheless, she smiled at her and patted her stomach with performed seriousness. [color=D0B4EC] "I wish to consume food until my tummy explodes."[/color] Charlotte told Olivia and then added with a small giggle. [color=D0B4EC] "It would also be absolutely [i]divine[/i] to sit here and gossip with you two for hours on end."[/color]

[Color=salmon]“ARE YOU MAD?![/color]

She straightened at once, blinking rapidly. The shout had torn through the air and immediately caught her attention. Lottie had recognized her stepfather's voice at once, yet she had never heard him sound that angry before. 

[Color=salmon]“Do you think I would ever entertain my daughter ever being with you?!"[/color]

Her head whipped toward the throne and her mind took the scene in piece by piece. The princes staring wide-eyed. The nobles frozen over their glasses. The king standing with fury darkening his face. Lorenzo before him, red-faced and trembling. [Color=salmon]“A man who had his wife killed for all to see?! FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO SEE! And now you hold a damned ball and sit alone as if it didn't even occur! You may be king but you are the FURTHEST from worthy enough to even consider her!”[/color] 

The words reached her slowly, then all at once.

Charlotte rose from her seat abruptly,  not even excusing herself as she started toward the scene. 

Alibeth's chair was gone. 

Had Edin asked— No, he would never want the disgraced Vikena daughter as his queen. That was for certain. That meant... 

[Color=salmon]“I may be seen as a fool in your court, but you will FOREVER be miserable! Your ilk will never forgive you and love will forever be far from your grasp! AND IF YOU DARE THINK OF TAKING HER…”[/color] 

Her stomach turned and her skin crawled. She felt absolutely disgusted by what had been most likely suggested in this conversation. Beneath it all and burning hotter than her shame and disgust was her [i]anger[/i]. 

[Color=salmon]“Take my title. Take my power if you wish it, but know that I will [i]always[/i] be her father.”[/color]

Those words broke something inside her.

Tears filled her eyes so quickly that the room blurred before her, but she did not stop. She kicked her heels off her feet without any care for where they landed. She grabbed the front of her dress and crossed over to the scene.

Whatever horrid implication had been made about her, Lorenzo had not offered her away. 

He had fought for her. 

Charlotte reached him and threw her arms around him with all the strength her body could manage. She clung to him like a child who had almost lost him. Her face pressed hard against his shoulder. 

The pieces of a memory came back in that moment, one late night when her late parents had thought she was fast asleep.

[i][color=8882be]“Emina… how could you?”[/color] Walter demanded, his voice cracking beneath the rage. [color=8882be]“How could you agree to sleep with him?”[/color]

[color=a38ddf]“Because he has little more patience left for your outbursts,”[/color] she had answered, her voice shaking. [color=a38ddf]“And even less for my inability to give you a son!”[/color] 

[color=a38ddf]“...If I did not do this, he would have us divorced. He would force you to find another wife, and I would lose you anyway.”[/color]

[color=8882be]“So you chose to let him have you?”[/color] Walter said, heartbreak hanging on his every word. [color=8882be]“You thought that would save us?”[/color]

[color=a38ddf]“No,”[/color] Emina breathed,  [color=a38ddf]“I thought it might save Charlotte.”[/color][/i]

When Lottie lifted her head from his shoulder, tears still spilling freely down her cheeks, she looked at Edin with a fury intense enough to kill by look alone.

 [/color]