One of Islana's many new tasks with the advent of the Selection was to supervise her own legion of junior maids and ensure that they were looking immaculate and kept busy at all times. It was an honour and a millstone and Islana resented it.
Ordinarily, this was a task reserved for the older women who had worked in the household for longer - but with thirty five extra girls flocking to the palace needing three maids apiece and tighter security measures making hiring impossible, the palace was running a skeleton staff until some of the girls had been sent home.
That left girls like Islana in charge of other girls like Islana, which was not a great idea.
Today, for example, she had to attempt to diplomatically retrieve a tardy, absentee maid from his Lordship's boudoir, whisper-shout at her about her naivety and foolishness for falling for his act, and then awkwardly comfort her when the other maid promptly burst into tears - "I thought he loved me!" was the common refrain of all women, maids and ladies and interns alike, that Demetrius set his eyes on, and it broke Islana's heart. The sharp edges of her broken heart sawed away at the knots of anger in her chest, until she found that she could not stay upset with such a sorrowful colleague.
No, she was just angry at Demetrius, but who wasn't?
It was while Islana was comforting poor, dear Reesa with awkward words and gentle pats on the back that the blasted, thrice-damned prince, man of the hour, Julien himself, stumbled upon their hiding place.
In hindsight, the pair should have retired to the kitchen to nurse Reesa's pride, but Islana rarely kept cognitive function once tears began to pour and they found themself crouched by the window-seat at the end of a cul-de-sac hallway on the second floor that would soon be home to thirty five Selected.
"Is she alright?" was the first words out of his mouth, and Reesa just pressed her head into Islana's shoulder, shame flushing her cheeks and overwhelming her. It was in defense of her fellow maid that Islana herself set her jaw, met the prince's eye directly and spoke so bluntly - all things a good maid should never, never do.
"No," Islana said. "She is not."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"You can speak to your bastard of a brother, is what you can do."
Her mother would have killed her. First the fiasco with the Selection, then this? Islana would be lucky if she was fired. No one spoke to the royal family like this and kept their head.
Julien met her gaze rather than aiming above it, and those clear, steady eyes cut straight to the heart of her, and Islana was glad for it, because it meant that the sharp-eyed lanky boy she had first seen was still hidden somewhere in this gentleman's body.
He looked past her, then, to tiny, beautiful Reesa, as though ensuring she was safe, before he nodded.
"If you're sure that she is alright," Julien said. "Then I will do just that. I'm sorry to intrude on this."
He turned on his heel and the maids watched him go.
The Report was ending, and Julien did not have butterflies in his stomach.
They were everywhere - in his veins, in his arms, in his chest in his head in his lungs in his ears. He took his position next to Gavril, and his arms shook and his legs shook and he couldn't hear anything but wingbeats in his ears.
But no one in Illea would ever see that. To Illea, he was as laid-back and relaxed as ever - he smiled with his sister during the report on recent skirmishes near the border, he spoke quietly to his father about the agricultural report, and he gave a friendly wave and a wink when the Master of Events mentioned his name.
But that was all the prince. Julien himself was far, far away and not in a pretty place either.
Gavril patted his hand in a fatherly gesture, ensuring the cameras did not catch sight, and the photos began to appear - had they always been so fast?
Alphabetical order this year by province, so Angeles appeared first, with a study in contrast of azure and rose and ebony as their representative. Gavril called her name -
"Eden Lamarie of Angeles, Two!"
That was the last concrete impression Julien got of any single girl, because for the rest of the Report, by the time he had seen the photo and caught the name, they were on to the next and he had no time to think about his reactions - he smiled, he looked thoughtful, he nodded, he whispered to his father, he laughed, he looked star-struck, struggling to ensure he did not look bored or displeased at any girl. But he had to wonder what looking at their photos will achieve. What does their name and province tell him about them?
There were so many of them - a sly-looking girl with dyed hair, a beaming girl with long golden hair, a dark-skinned girl wearing a headscarf, an athletic girl with her silken hair short as a man's, an aristocratic, hopeful girl with perfectly ringlets and emerald eyes.
Surely there will be one he can love.
Then, the last girl appeared.
She was as beautiful as the others, as all Selected must be - her skin was mahoghany, her eyes smoky, her hair raven, and her cheekbones were sharp enough to slice through steel. She was not smiling.
But all of the girls were beautiful, and so that was not what got Julien's attention.
It was the announcement that went along with it.
"East Smith from Zuni, Eight!"
An Eight?
They were joking. They had to be.
But somewhere behind him, Julien could hear Demetrius begin to laugh derisively. He could hear Gavril's sudden intake of breath and Madrigal's hiss of surprise and the concerned murmurs of his father and the advisors that the camera did not dare focus on, and Julien realised that this was not a joke nor a dream nor a mistake.
For the first time in Illean history, an Eight would be in the Selection.
His Selection.
The Report ends.
The country erupts.
For Eden Lamarie, her Selection has been taken as a concrete fact from a young age, so that there is little surprise in her family's glamorous Angeles home during the Report amd the reveal of the Selected - indeed, her mother's only comment on her Selection is to criticise her daughter's photo in snide tones.
In Atlins, Jasmine White is so delighted to see her face appear onscreen, scar and all, that she actually and accidentally jabs her sewing needle right into her finger and has to contend with finding a bandage for it, swearing under her breath even as the entire house erupts in joy.
There had only been one possibility for the Baffin Selected girl, because the war-hero and fighter pilot Charlotte Cohen had entered the Selection and there was no other quite able to compete with her - it is with great relief that her mother sees Charlotte's face appear onscreen and realises her daughter will be safe from any danger of the airborne kind at the palace.
On a small farm in Bankston, Talyah Ahmed allows herself a small smile as her name is announced and her family reacts in total shock.
Then to Bonita, and Rosalyn Akerman's television is so old and broken-down so that the family can only catch every second garbled word of the Report and it isn't until Rosalyn's ex-boyfriend turns up on their doorstep that they realise something amazing has occured.
In the locker room of Calgary University's lacrosse team, far from home, Kelley Winston's best friend Lauren shrieks so loudly at Kelley's appearance on the Illean report that Kelley herself doesn't even hear her name being announced and has no idea what is going on as her teammates begin to chant her name loudly - "Kel-ley! Kel-ley! Kel-ley!"
In a cozy Carolina home of Threes, Anabel Moritz shrieks in delight as her face appears on-screen and her little brothers began to pelt her with popcorn as her mother covered her mouth in surprise and pride.
In Columbia, Addie finds herself holding her parents' hands, one on either side of her, as she waits with bated breath - she thinks her brothers may be even more nervous than she is, if that is even possible, and relieved, but not entirely surprised, to see her appear onscreen.
In Dakota, Lani Watson privately believes that her father is nearly as happy as she is when her name is announced and they see the prince react with a smile to her photo - her younger siblings flock to hug her and she cannot help but laugh and cry in equal measure.
Twos do everything in style, so it is with a large toast of champagne that Eilinora Winslow's family and friends celebrate her long-awaited Selection in their Dominican mansion while the Report continues, ignored, in the background.
In their small caravan in Honduragua, the Xanşayim family celebrate their daughter Tañdalğan's Selection with applause and jokes, laughter and yells, and hearty thumps to the back as the poor girl smiles and smiles and smiles until she can't smile anymore.
For the elevated Labradoran Daughter of Illea, Trinidad Mavuto, her Selection is actually met with laughter from her father, in equal measure incredulity and amusement, as her mother makes a sound of discontent but says nothing.
In a large Likely community hall where the crowds gather to see the Selection, Kelsey Olsen is distracted for a moment by a comment by one of her friends that are gathered around her, so that it is a brief moment between the announcement and her realization that she is in, she is in, she is into the Selection, as everyone floods around her.
In Kent, Destiny Barrow is staring intently at the screen above the counter in her father's convenience store, so intently that for a split second it takes her a moment to register that the beautiful girl they are showing is her - in that split second, the phone begins to ring and will not stop.
In the attic of a once-grand Midton house, Evangeline Jones-Fitzwilliams is so focused on staying quiet as she watches the forbidden Report that she does not allow herself to celebrate her Selection until much later that night, when the entire world is asleep and she is free to clasp her hands together and cry with relief.
In Ottaro, Clio Nightingale is not in the room when her name is announced - she is tending to her sick sister, Akhira, in a back room so that it is only when her aunt calls for her with rare happiness in her voice that Clio races to see what has happened and nearly faints in shock at the sight.
In Panama, Elizabeth Hancock allows herself a quiet, glad smile as her face appears and her mother shrieks in delight.
In Sota, Katherin Matthews has only just rushed in the door from a tutoring assignment to catch the tail end of the Report and to find her parents so gleeful and glad and joyous that it takes her several minutes to decipher what has happened.
It takes three further days for the news of her selection to reach Jesse Wren, isolated as she is in the Sumner mountains, so that it is only when her aides show up at the door of her hermetic home with forms to notarise and waivers to sign that the cadet realises what has happened.
In a busy Waverly street, people begin to pour into a tiny New Asian restaurant to applaud and offer enthusiastic congratulations as the newly Selected waitress blushes to her roots and cheers along with them.
In Whites, Clementine Georges is swept into an impromptu waltz around the living room and then right out the door by the boy next door as the entire Five neighborhood seems to erupt with joy that one of their own has been chosen - that one of their own may become a lady, a princess, a queen.
And so many others as, across the nation, the people celebrate and mourn the Selection of the elevated Daughters of Illea. Fireworks scream into light above the world and no house is silent - everyone is talking about the Eight, making bets on who will marry the prince, scrutinising the Selected and laughing together.
The Selection has already fulfilled its purpose of uniting the nation.
If only that was the end of it all.
And in Zuni, the dust is still settling over the newly-fallen Provinical Hall, site of the latest conflict between rebels and government forces, when there is a yell of delight from one of the many Eights crowded around the black-and-white television screen in the middle of the street, and a girl with blood under her nails and dirt on her face and ash in her hair laughs and laughs as her face is shown onscreen.
So, the Selection shall begin proper soon! Please vote for your favourites thus far in the reviews - theories and critiques appreciated. Let's get this show on the road~~~