Aster wakes up the next morning feeling perfectly fine.

If you can call heartbroken perfectly fine, then yes, terrifically peachy.

She wishes she had caught a fever. That way, she could avoid coming down for breakfast and meeting the royal family, avoid seeing Florian and his stupid boyish face and his stupid boyish hair and the way that he just didn’t care.

Aster wants to take a hammer to her memories and smash them to smithereens. What had she seen in him six years ago, to make her replay the night they’d met countless times in her head? What kind of spell had been cast on her to make her actually want to see him again even after getting snubbed all those years ago?

“I shouldn’t have had my hopes up,” she mumbles miserably into her hands, rolling onto her side so she can curl in on herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She should’ve listened to Damien. She should’ve known better.

Aster doesn’t know how long she stays like that, wallowing in her own self-pity. But eventually, there’s a knock on her door, followed by the gentle sound of it opening and closing.

“Good morning, my lady,” she hears Seraphina say. “It’s time to get ready.”

Maybe she should just pretend to be sick.

Her hands feel like stones as she forces herself to pry them away from her face. She rises to a sitting position. “’Morning, Fina,” she greets.

“You seem tired, my lady.”

“Just a little.” Aster offers her a wry smile. “Seems like it’ll take me a while to get used to falling asleep in this bed.”

“I see, that’s too bad. I hope your quality of sleep improves soon.”

“Thanks, Fina. I hope so too.”

After a quick wash in the bathroom, Aster sits at the dresser as Seraphina combs out her hair. The face reflected in the mirror is pale, the shadows under her eyes only amplifying how pasty she looks.

“You’ll be joining the royal family for breakfast, yes?” Seraphina says, hands gentle as she works out the tangles in Aster’s hair.

“Yep. For breakfast and every other meal on every single day.”

Oh, what fun. What fun, fun, fun, fun, funnnnnnnnn.

Aster forces on a smile, the side of her mouth quirking up at Seraphina’s reflection. “Make me pretty, Fina?”

“You’re already very pretty without my help, my lady.”

“You’re just saying that.” Aster flaps a hand at her, pleased despite herself. After all, Seraphina didn’t seem like the kind to pay lip service just for the sake of it.

“I have no reason to lie, my lady.” Seraphina offers her a slight smile, attention focused on bringing her hair into order. “Oh. How strange.” Aster watches through the mirror as her maid pulls a stray leaf from her hair. “How did this end up here?”

Face carefully clueless, Aster shrugs back. “It’s a mystery.”

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Aster fingers the hem of her sleeve absentmindedly as they make their way to the dining room, passing by lush hallways and the occasional servant. Not everyone openly stares, but she can still feel the weight of their gazes on her as she walks past with Seraphina as her guide.

She keeps her chin up, eyes focused straight ahead as she tries her best not to shrink under their stares. She will no longer be the little girl who was once fazed by stares and whispers; the girl who hid herself within her mansion walls to avoid the scathing words of others.

“Please don’t mind them, my lady,” Seraphina says quietly. “It’s out of the norm to have the prince’s betrothed stay at the palace before they are officially wed. Everyone’s just a little too curious.”

Aster looks back at her in surprise. She hadn’t expected Seraphina to bring up the passing stares, much less try to comfort her about it.

“It’s fine.” Aster looks ahead, warmed by the gesture. “Even I’ll admit it’s unusual, me staying here.”

Seraphina leads them out onto a narrow walkway, where a grand staircase in the middle of the path spills down onto a lower floor. Lining the wall to their left is a collection of portraits. Aster’s gaze lingers over the first painting in the row: a depiction of a striking blonde man with kind features and twinkling amber eyes.

“I still can’t believe that Queen Annaliese prepared so many dresses for me,” Aster says as they step down the staircase. She’d been surprised to discover her closets already filled to the brim with an array of dresses while unpacking with Seraphina the day prior. “I barely have any space left to store the dresses I brought from home.”

“And there will be more to come, my lady.”

Aster looks over at her incredulously. “More dresses?”

“Certainly. What’s in your closets now are only dresses tailored for winter. Naturally you will have other dresses for the other seasons, not to mention special events, holidays, and any trends that may come and go in the meantime.”

“Is that much really necessary?” Aster takes in this information with wide eyes.

“Certainly. A lady of your standing must always be in fashion, my lady. And with your status as Prince Florian’s betrothed, even more eyes will be on you once the two of you are presented to the public officially.”

Aster can’t help but heave an inward sigh. Certainly, she liked beautiful things as much as any other girl; but not to the extent of keeping up to date with the latest trends and whims of high society. She’d never thought it necessary, considering how she'd barely left the Vastein Estate to begin with.

“Does fashion not interest you, my lady?”

“Well, not quite. It’s more like… I never had to think about it much before this?”

“Ah, so that explains it.”

"Explains what?"