The Tributes (Sable)

Nowhere to Hide

"Eyes up here. I want your attention," came the Queen's order, once more snapping all of the room's attention to the woman seated in front of them. The command had been spoken in even tones, but somehow, her voice had carried all over the room. And now that Sable was properly looking at her, she realized that, despite sitting quite a ways away from the throne and towards the back of the room, she'd not only heard the Queen very clearly, but she could also clearly see her in full view.

Sable had no idea how that worked. But she became more alert and tense at the prospect that, even in a crowd, the Queen would probably be able to observe every single person in the room at a glance. After all, if everyone could see the Queen clearly despite their position, it only made sense that the Empress could see each of them in turn.

Her breath faltered at the realization.

Back in her village, she'd at least had the option of being able to hide when she could. It had also helped that the villagers preferred to forget that she existed a lot of the time. So, having seen all the girls in the room she'd been put in, and having guessed correctly that they were the other tributes the Queen had collected, she had gained a tiny amount of comfort from the thought that she'd be able to blend in and become invisible among them if she tried.

But ... if the Black Queen had gone to the trouble of putting them in a room and seating arrangement where everyone could see and hear her, and she could see every girl in turn ... it didn't seem likely that she would let anyone slip her notice any time soon.

The thought made ice creep into Sable's veins.

"I'll be brief," said the Empress, "as I doubt any of you could remember too many instructions at the moment. I have little faith in your mental abilities as a whole, so rest assured that repeating instructions will be a common theme for the entire duration of your stay and training here. However," and here, her eyes flashed as her expression instantly and intensely shifted into a menacing glare, "what I will tell you now should be considered permanent and non-negotiable. Whatever rules might be mentioned or appended later, it will never modify or disregard what I tell you right now."

She paused here for a while as her eyes swept across the entire room, alighting, it looked like, on every single person in the room, lingering a few seconds more on some than others. She even seemed to make eye contact with the maids and 'My Lady' at the back of the room.

Sable was relieved when she only received the briefest of glances herself. That glance on its own had been unnervingly intense, and it was obvious that the Queen was making a point of making eye contact and delivering a silent warning to each and every one of them.

"The group of you are here together. So remember this well: Despite the differences your level of individual knowledge and family background will cause, you will not under any circumstances sabotage each other in any way!"

She glared at all of them for a moment more, and then casually leaned back in her throne, the sudden picture of calm in both expression and tone, for all that her very next words were quiet and chilling: "For, if you are found out in the act of willfully harming, ostracizing, belittling, or in any way bullying your fellow trainees ... consider your life forfeit.

"And, if I decide to let you keep your life, know that you will wish I had killed you instead."

Sable sat frozen in the minute of terrified silence that ensued.

The actual instruction barely got her notice. (As if she would waste her time sabotaging or bullying someone else when all she wanted was to remain as unnoticeable as possible and simply survive.) It was the threat that took up all her attention, having chilled her to the bone. A big part of her badly wanted to look at the other girls around her to get a read on their reactions to the threat. But she didn't dare take her attention off the Queen, half-terrified that doing so in itself might look like she was disobeying her edict.

"Other than that," the Queen finally continued, both her tone and her demeanor not quite as threatening as a moment before, "for those of you who have had no previous training in etiquette or have received no education at all, know that your lives are going to be very different from what you've been used to. As for those of you who have had either or both before ... l advise you too to be prepared for unfamiliarity. For, a lot of what you know might well be turned on its head. At the same time, what you learn might also be very similar to what you already know. In short, do not presume anything -- either to your benefit or to your disadvantage.

"However, I advise that you try not to disregard what you already know in the course of your training here. Learning to become nobility isn't supposed to empty out your head and replace your personality with a shallow copy of what is presumed to be a stereotypical aristocrat. Rather, optimally, you will remain yourself and will simply append the knowledge and skills you gain here."

Sable blinked. That ... that sounded rather ... Well, she didn't know how to describe it, exactly. But, something in her relaxed ever so slightly as she processed this particular instruction. Sure, it had been delivered in a clinical way and with the same superior dulcet tones that Sable was starting to automatically categorize as uniquely the Queen's. But the message behind this instruction, thankfully delivered without an accompanying dire threat, was a lot more comforting than anything else she'd heard or learned that day.

Or, at least it was until the Queen added, "But I have little faith that any of you are capable of such a feat."

'Oh, for -- Then why say so at all?!' thought Sable, suddenly vexed.

Before she could properly stew in that spark of irritation though, something moved in the corner of Sable's right eye and distracted her, and she shifted her gaze automatically, without turning her head, to see what it was.