"Being a Queen is relatively easy."
Cassie, Queen Seraphina's handmaiden, spread out rolls of multicolored fabrics.
"You find your people, you do not betray your people and you follow the three Es: Eloquence, Elegance, Efficiency."
Queen Dowager meandered around the dark glass table, running a finger over the fabric of her choice. She picked it up and held it against Daisy's constipated face.
"Elegance associates with peace. No matter the circumstance," she flicked a finger against Daisy's forehead, "No matter the people who surround you," Cassie lent a smile to Daisy, "You are to be the picture of refinement and peace."
Daisy forced her lips in a smile as Seraphina flung the fabric away.
"Indomitable," she flicked the little girl's back to ease her posture, "Unhindered," she swatted Daisy's clenched fists to open up and relax, "Pristine."
A white lace fabric flew its way onto Daisy's chest owing to Cassie's flailing.
"How many friends do you have?" Seraphina asked, gesturing Cassie to choose the fabric that landed over her.
"Uh, I don't have many— or, well, any. I do have Bran! But— you asked me to stay away from the Thomas', so...no one," Daisy replied with wandering eyes and fingers tapping against her sides, resisting the urge to clench.
"You need a person to be your eyes and ears when you're not around. Someone who stands on a similar level ground as you and isn't just a follower, but an advisor and a comrade. A Queen's aide is never merely a servant," Seraphina turned to smile at Cassie, "She is a model of undettering loyalty."
Seraphina stepped back from the little pedestal Daisy was standing on.
"Come back to me when you've made such a friend."
"Huh?" Daisy all but spluttered, weirded out by such a strange order. She considered Royalty to sail the ships of their lives solo, owing to the forces of power and money— and here the former Queen was asking her to make a friend.
Daisy stepped down from the little black pedestal, her gaze not leaving Cassie — who introduced herself as Matilda just a day ago. Reeling back to their first encounter, Daisy realised that it was Cassie who did all the talking, leading and handling.
She hadn't heard a peep from the woman in the veil and it is safe to say that she couldn't have associated yesterday's sewage escapades with the Queen Dowager, of all people in the land, if the woman in question hadn't reached out to her — via kidnapping and proposterous declarations of partnership.
"But I don't know how to make friends," Daisy said with a frown.
Her frown was met with an even harsher frown from the Queen Dowager.
"A Queen never complains, especially without even attempting a try. A Queen delivers, and so shall you; find a kindred spirit and establish a friendship. This shall be your first test and it shall supremely determine if your journey to the throne would be gruelling and perilous or wholesome and adventurous."
Daisy gulped. Did she really want to do this? Would it be worth it? If she was Queen...she could surely provide better for the Thomas'. It's not like she had anything better planned for her life in between dishwashing and flower stealing.
"May I ask a question?" Daisy asked, enunciating her words as softly and primly as possible.
"Indeed," the Queen Dowager walked up to stand before Daisy and looked her in the eye.
"How did you meet your aide?" She asked, hoping to get hints out of their story to forge her own on a similar parameter.
"Why of course, I married into the family and she was paid to assassinnate me." The Queen and her handmaiden shared a chuckle in front of Daisy's baffled face and pursed their lips, as if dispensing any further information would cause a civil war.
Certainly, Daisy's story couldn't be forged anywhere around the Queen Dowager's. Not as long as she valued her peaceful life.
Her shoulders slumped as Seraphina ordered, "Take as long as you want, but not too much. Understand that if you betray me — everyone around you bites the dust." Her emerald eyes darkened like a poisonous concoction ready to pour itself in Daisy's soul and corrode her whole. "Cassie, lead her out," Seraphina pointed at the door behind them and twisted on her heel to walk away.
What a witch.
Daisy shuddered.
"Come now, DaYsaY," Cassie uttered her name in a mocking tone.
"After you, MaTiLldA," Daisy retorted.
The older woman let out a small chuckle, "You're plaguing my queen's mind," she commented, offhandedly, "And she may be a kind queen but I don't, by no means, hold a candle to her values." She looked down at the confused little girl with a devious smirk on her face, "I'm giving you seven days," she held up three fingers, "And if you're not back by then, I'll start to pick apart your Thomas family's farm. Mr. Thomas will go broke and unhappy without his eggs, he'll vent his rage on poor Mrs. Thomas and I do not guarantee what will happen to her pretty little limbs — and oh, little brandon boy wouldn't be able to study anymore so there flies away his prospects for a bright future. He'll end up being a farmhand somewhere, struggling and milking for the rest of his pathetic and maybe short life."
A cold gust of wind embraced Daisy's feet and she could feel the chill race up to her spine.
She gulped, held up seven fingers, and said, "S-seven days, right?" Her body visibly sweated.
"A week," Cassie rolled her eyes and pulled out a sheathed dagger from God knows where. She twirled the weapon over her fingers for some special, albeit unnecessary, grandeur because Daisy was already sweating profusely.
"A-a-aye Captain," Daisy saluted, eyes wide and stance stiff.
"Now now, off you go. Don't get spotted or..." She flicked the dagger to stop against her neck and pulled it in a line.
Daisy ran down the grand staircase, scrambled her scattered stuff inside her jute bag and dragged it out like a dead body. She ran, as fast as her small limbs could propell her, and did not stop until the familiar Kitchen tower graced her sight.
She panted, hands over her knees, gasping and moaning for air and water — away from the clutches of darkness and into bright light.
What in evil's name did she get herself into?!
"Friends," she gasped out, looking up to see nothing but green hills and the bustling kitchen building. "HOW DO I MAKE FRIENDS?!" she cried out loud, into the air and descended to the ground.
Over the course of the next few days, two and a half to be precise, Daisy tried — the utensils bear witness to her repeated efforts — to strike up a conversation and make friends. Her unanswered "Hello"s resonate in the areas she uttered them in, echoing everytime she passes by, making her spiral into lip-numbing awkwardness.
The vegetable picker Donnie, the sweeper Lane, the peeling girl San — Daisy stood beside all of them and waved her hand in a greeting to be acknowledged but to no avail.
She even persisted in a one-sided conversation with Jilian, the Sous Chef, when the Head Chef had broken into a fit of rage over, "A little girl in the Outer World is creating dishes for the Emperor! What are we doing here?! Have you not a grain's worth of creativity to lend me?!"
"A grain would be too small, don't you think? I think he should ask for a bread's worth, right?" Daisy commented, only to be met with the most menacing grimace on Jilian's face. "Oh—okay, maybe a grain is enough. Grain is good! Do you like grains? I love grains!" She all but cried out, taking small steps to get out of her perspective and disappear into the fields.
Not having to steal flowers at the break of dawn and making trips to the town had left quite a good amount of time on Daisy's hands — time in which she'd like to do anything but make friends.
"I wonder if the Thomas' miss me," she sighed to herself as her little feet treded to unknown territories whilst her mind was occupied.
She certainly missed them. She missed Aldith's food. Her stomach grumbled as if to agree with her mind's grievances. Kitchen only offered left over scraps to the Kitchen maids which were hierarchically distributed and what came in Daisy's plates was never satisfactory.
"I bet Queens eat till their stomachs fill up," she patted her growling belly and pursed her lips. "Then again, Queen Dowager doesn't look like she eats much," she pouted, "Then again, her castle is weirder than everyone else's."
Daisy shook her head and as if her mind recalibrated with her senses, the pink cherry blossoms swirling around her and the musical laughter of royal children at hand's length made her realise that she, a kitchen maid who isn't allowed to leave her sector, was trespassing the royal grounds of the Great Lake in broad daylight.