The Crown cannot Help You

Chapter 1: The Princess

Straightening out her crown, Audelia stared into the mirror. A faint brush of a smile appeared upon her face as she imagined how proud her dad would be.

She could see him now, standing behind her and grinning brightly enough that it lit up the entire room.

The crown she adorned against her white locks was heavy. Its thick silver frame and expensive jewels felt as though they were crushing her skull. She tried adjusting it to reduce the feeling, but after several failed attempts, she couldn't help but think that maybe the heavy feeling was just the guilt.

Then, a delicate knock came at the door, in perfect time to break her away from her thoughts before she spiralled too far.

Audelia swivelled her head carefully as to not disturb the crown, and her eyes were instantly greeted with the sight of her mother.

Queen Camilla Belmont.

Any remainder of a smile was gone as she watched her mother glide into her room, sucking all the air out of it as she went.

"I thought I told you—blue is not your colour." Her mother seethed through an unnatural smile while looking Audelia up and down.

Audelia wasn't taken back by her comment; in fact, she was now used to them. So, she dismissed her mother's thoughts and took her own glance at her dress. Her eyes fell from the dress' delicate neckline to its silky skirt that gracefully flowed to the ground.

Audelia liked it.

"It does not matter now!" Her mother proceeded, filling in the silence as she rushed towards Audelia.

Once her mother had crossed the room, she clenched her hands around Audelia's shoulders. Audelia bit her tongue to avoid lashing out and allowed her mother to forcibly turn her around. And with the back of Audelia's head now facing her mother, Camilla instantly started to grapple at Audelia's hair.

Audelia's face soured at the pain as Camilla continued to sharply yank at fine strands, but still, Audelia said nothing.

As she knew that even if she opened her mouth to protest, to claim that she was old enough to make her own choices, her mother still wouldn't have stopped.

"You look more elegant when your hair is up." Her mother stated, not caring for Audelia's input as she had already started to create a bun.

Audelia awkwardly shrugged her shoulders before beginning to glare at her mother through the mirror without Camilla knowing.

The quiet of the room allowed Audelia to concentrate on not snapping, but she always found that her mind was starting to wander.

Her thoughts danced around from subject to subject until she found herself stuck upon an idea. The glaringly odd proximity between her mother and herself. No one else would have noticed the oddity of the situation. Still, it was all too apparent to Audelia as her mother usually made a blatant show of maintaining a boundary similar to that of acquaintances.

This new closeness of theirs meant it didn't take long before Audelia remembered why she, too, felt comfort in their distance.

Her glare turned into a stare as Audelia compared herself to her mother.

Camilla was a poised woman, her face glowed in an elegant yet aged way, and she had a tall and slender frame that kept her head above most people.

Camellia looked like every storybook queen that kids rooted for at bedtime.

And while Audelia and her mother did share a few traits in common, Audelia looked more like her dad. She had a pale complexion in place of her mother's olive-tinted flesh and dark green eye colour in place of her mum's eye colour, which was a blue so bright that it resembled glass.