A house Of Roses and Thrones
1199 Words
The Ashcroft Estate looked peaceful from the outside. Sunlight danced across the crystal lake. White roses climbed the stone walls. Birdsong drifted through the gardens like a gentle melody, the kind of place that photographed well and told you nothing true about what lived inside it.
As Martha helped Ariana prepare for the evening dinner, Selene's quiet voice echoed inside her mind.
"Don't let the gardens fool you. This house smiles with its face and judges with its eyes."
Ariana adjusted the deep emerald dress Martha had chosen for her and said
"I'll be careful."
"No." Selene sounded almost amused. "You'll be yourself."
"That's what worries me," Ariana admitted, and laughed softly despite the nerves sitting low in her stomach. "I thought kindness wasn't a crime."
"In this house," Selene said, "sometimes it is."
As the clock struck seven, Martha opened the dining room doors. "My Lady. Dinner is served."
Ariana stepped inside, and the room fell quiet around her arrival.
A long mahogany table stretched beneath an enormous crystal chandelier. At its head sat Duke Rowan Ashcroft, his silver-streaked black hair and stern bearing making him every bit the nobleman his reputation suggested. Beside him sat Lady Vivian, elegant, perfectly composed, a smile that never once reached her eyes. On the opposite side lounged a young man in his early twenties, casually spinning a fork between his fingers in boredom.
The moment he saw Selene (Ariana) , he froze — then smiled teasingly and said
"Well. The sleeping beauty finally woke up."
Selene's voice softened inside Ariana's head.
"That's Cassian. My Stepbrother."
Ariana felt herself smile before she'd quite decided to. "I've heard you're impossible."
Cassian blinked. "...Excuse me?"
"You hide books in your sister's room," Ariana said. "You steal pastries from the kitchen." Her gaze drifted to the fork still turning between his fingers. "And apparently, you still play with your cutlery."
Silence dropped over the table. Cassian nearly lost his grip on the fork entirely.
Selene's voice shot through Ariana's mind, in horror, *WHY DID YOU SAY THAT?!*
*You told me,* Ariana shot back, bewildered.
*Yes , BUT I DIDN'T TELL YOU TO SAY IT OUT LOUD, EVERYONE IS HERE, THEY WILL BE SUSPICIOUS!! YOU i***t!!*
Ariana realized her mistake too late. Cassian was staring at her like he was trying to place a face he half recognized.
"...You're smiling," he said slowly.
Lady Vivian's eyes narrowed, the movement small enough that most people would have missed it. "Selene. You seem..." A pause, deliberately, then She whispered "...different."
Ariana's heart skipped. She lowered her gaze, reaching for something enough to hide behind. "My illness gave me time to think about my actions."
Vivian studied her for several long seconds, then smiled — polite, precise, and mocking.
"How wonderful."
Something about that smile settled uneasily in Ariana's chest, She held a breath unable to let go.
Dinner began. Servants moved around the table, setting down warm bread, roasted vegetables, fragrant soup, and trays of pastries still faintly steaming.
Duke Rowan finally spoke, his voice as measured as everything else about him. "The physician told me you've recovered."
"Yes, Father."
"Good" He nodded once, and that was the whole of it. No embrace. No visible relief. Just a quiet, official acknowledgment, filed and closed.
Ariana felt a small pang in her chest on Selene's behalf. "Does he always speak like this?"
"Mostly," Selene said. Then, quieter, as if she'd had years to talk herself into believing it: "He cares. He simply never learned how to show it."
Halfway through the meal, Vivian set down her teacup with a small, deliberate click.
"I heard the Crown Princess of Elaria passed away yesterday."
The estate sat close enough to the capital — half a day's ride, no more — that news like this arrived almost as quickly here as it did within the palace walls itself.
The room went still. Cassian looked suprised. Even Duke Rowan's expression hardened, some old grief crossing briefly behind his composure. Ariana felt her fingers tighten beneath the table, invisible to everyone but herself.
Vivian sighed, that somehow made the sorrow feel smaller instead of larger. "Such a tragedy. They say she was beloved by everyone."
Ariana forced her voice level. "She must have been."
Vivian's gaze fixed on her directly. "I find it fascinating."
"What?"
"That you're showing sympathy. You used to mock the royal family so freely."
*I never mocked them,* Selene said, and her voice trembled
*She simply told everyone that I did, until enough people believed it that it became true whether I'd said it or not.*
Ariana understood immediately. This wasn't a conversation. It was a test, laid carefully across the dinner table like another course.
She met Vivian's gaze without hostility, and without flinching from it either.
"People change"
"So they do," Vivian agreed, and smiled again Not so politely
After dinner,
as Ariana stepped into the eastern corridor, she let out a quiet breath. "That went... better than I expected," she whispered inwardly.
"You survived the first official family dinner," Selene replied, a soft laugh threading through the words. "That's already impressive, by this house's standards."
The laughter faded as footsteps echoed behind them.
"Selene."
Ariana turned. Cassian stood a few steps away, hands tucked into his pockets, studying her with an expression she couldn't name.
"What is it?" she asked.
He took his time answering. "You've changed."
Ariana kept her voice steady. "In what way?"
He shrugged, and said
"I don't know. You smile now. You thanked Martha and the servants which I don't think you've done since we were children. You actually looked Father in the eyes when you spoke to him instead of somewhere over his shoulder."
Ariana said nothing, unsure which answer was safe.
Cassian let out a quiet laugh, more surprised at himself than at her. "It's strange. When we were kids, I used to wonder what you'd be like if you ever stopped hiding behind all those walls you built." He looked at her with a warmth she hadn't expected and wasn't sure Selene had, either. "I think I like this version of you."
Ariana felt Selene go completely silent inside her — like she is afraid that moving or saying might break something.
Finally, Ariana smiled gently and said
"Maybe I'm just trying to become someone better and joyful."
Cassian returned the smile,
"I hope you do." He turned and walked off down the corridor, leaving Ariana standing alone beneath the moonlit windows.
After a long silence, Selene spoke again, quieter than before. "He's never said anything like that to me. Not once, in twenty-two years."
Ariana looked out toward the gardens, silvered now under the moon. "Then maybe this is the beginning of healing. For both of us.A new feeling, totally different"
The night breeze drifted through the open windows, carrying the scent of white roses.
Far beyond the estate walls, near the same tangle of climbing roses where a shadow had watched from the darkness the night before, a raven took flight — a narrow strip of black silk already tied around its leg, a message folded small enough to fit inside a closed fist.
Its destination remained unknown.
- Writer
