TW: Brief discussion of heavily implied suicidal thoughts
The Prince's Quarters, The Palace, July 9th, 11:47am
Elijah
"It's just lunch, how hard can it be?"
Eli shot Jay a glare. "Do you want me to rescind my acceptance of your apology or what?" He tossed a pair of clean socks at his head. "It's not that easy. Did I tell you guys what she said during the first meetings?"
Micah shook his head from where he sat on the foot of Eli's bed. "Nope. What did she say?"
"She said that she can play whatever part I need. I just have to tell her what the script is."
Micah's eyes instantly widened in understanding. He knew exactly what that meant, and why because of that she had been Eli's pick for the first date.
Jay gave Eli a confused look. "Why does that matter? If she's fake, just eliminate her."
Eli shook his head. "A good actress might be just what I need." He sat down in his desk chair, facing Jay, who was sitting next to Micah on the foot of the bed. "There is no way out of the Selection that doesn't involve a wedding or a funeral. Do you understand?"
Micah shook his head at Eli, as if warning him not to consider the funeral option too much. Eli just barely nodded in reply. He wouldn't. Didn't mean it wasn't still comforting to know the option was always there.
"A funeral?"
Eli nodded. "Yeah. Mine."
"Oh, Jesus," Jay mumbled. "Jesus fucking Christ, that's dark."
Eli stood up. "Yup." Better not to think too much about it. He patted Jay on the shoulder on his way out. "Let Micah show you the Selected's forms while I'm gone. Get familiarized, I'm recruiting you too." He headed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
He headed down to the second floor, towards the Selected's Wing, where he knew Brielle was waiting for him. She was waiting by the stairs down to the first floor, wearing a green dress with some sort of texture on the skirt. With heels on, she was almost as tall as Eli.
He smiled at her as he approached. "Hello, Lady Brielle."
She smiled back. "Hello, Your Highness."
"It's just Eli, please."
"Then it's just Elle."
"Alright. Let's try again. Hello, Elle."
Her smile widened slightly. "Hello, Eli."
"There, see? That's much better." He took her arm, and led her down the stairs and into the sitting room where they were having lunch. He pulled out her chair for her before going to sit down on the other side of the table.
A photographer stepped into the room, camera in hand. "I'm supposed to take a few pictures, for a spread on the first week of the Selection."
Eli nodded. "Of course."
The photographer gave instructions, and Eli was very glad that Brielle was an actress. She did very well at pretending to be having a good time, at the photographer's request.
When for the final photographer the photographer asked Brielle to laugh at something Eli had said, he saw his opportunity to break the ice. When she had left, Eli picked up his wine glass and took a sip before saying, "It's a good thing you're an actress, because we all know that I'm not that funny."
She laughed slightly. Eli couldn't tell if she thought it was genuinely funny or if she was just following the script she thought she ought to follow. Damn, maybe an actress for the first date had been a mistake after all. It was going to be impossible to get a read on her.
She raised her own wine glass to her lips. "Did you have time to think about my offer?"
He nodded. "I did." A servant brought in a basket of neatly sliced bread, and set it down in the center of the table, in between the two of them.
"And? What do you think? What do you want me to be?" She daintily reached out to pluck a slice of bread from the basket. "I can be anything. Do anything."
There were a lot of things he wanted, most of which he wouldn't get to have. Unfortunately that was just how it worked. Somebody who understood. Company during the long miserable sleepless nights. Hell, at this point he'd settle for a hug. "I need someone to help me tell a good story."
She raised her eyebrows. "And what does that mean?"
Eli hesitated for a moment, trying to decide what to tell her. She wasn't stupid, so what the hell? He might as well just tell her the truth. "You know the purpose of the Selection, right?"
"To find a queen?"
"Yes and no." He paused for a moment, taking a sip of his wine. "It's for show as much as anything."
"So it is scripted then. I was starting to think it wasn't."
He shook his head. "It's not. Not technically. But also yes. It's about politics as much as it is anything else."
"Well, of course it is. You're picking the future queen."
"Yes, but it's a little bit more complicated than that. I need to pick a queen, but I also need to tell a good story while I do it, because all of Illéa is watching."
Brielle nodded in understanding. "I think I understand. So we're playing out a love story then?"
Eli nodded. "That's right. You've got the idea."
A servant brought out plates of food, and set one in front of each of them before exiting the room.
Brielle glanced down at her plate, and looked back up at Eli. "Is this coincidence, or did you pick my favorite food on purpose?"
Eli picked up his knife and fork. "It's coincidence." He smiled slightly at her. "I guess this love story thing is off to a good start then."
She took a sip of her wine. "I suppose it is." She tilted her glass slightly towards him. "To a good love story then."
He nodded, and picked up his own glass, clinking it lightly with hers before taking a sip. "To a good love story," he echoed.
The Prince's Quarters, The Palace, July 10th, 1:10pm
Elijah
Micah picked a form up off Eli's desk, and passed it to Jay. "Alright, so here's tomorrow's girl."
Jay scanned it briefly. "Isla Grant? She's kind of pretty."
Micah rolled his eyes and smacked him lightly over the head with Violet's form. "Don't talk about their looks, Eli says it's objectifying."
Eli looked up from the report he was reading. "Because it is, how would you like it if a bunch of women were sitting around judging your looks?"
"I'd be into that," Jay said, flipping a page to read the report on Isla's background check.
Eli sighed. "Of course you would be. I shouldn't have asked." He snatched Isla's form out of Jay's hands, and tossed it back on the desk. "Hands to yourself, please. I don't want to have to punish you." He turned to look at both Jay and Micah. "I honestly do not give a shit, okay? But for the love of God don't get caught." He returned to reading the report, even though it was hard to focus with Jay and Micah chattering in the background.
"I'm not planning on stealing your girls, don't worry." Micah rearranged the stack of forms on Eli's desk. "I've sworn off dating forever."
Jay gave Micah a confused look. "But you went home with that girl from the bar last night…"
"I said dating. I haven't sworn off sex. Two different things."
"Whatever." Jay held out a hand towards Micah. "Hand me Brielle's form again?"
Micah shuffled the stack around until he found it and passed it over to Jay. "Here you go." He reorganized the stack again so it was tidy. "Alright. Eli. Three dates next week. Thoughts?"
Eli shrugged, still attempting to read the report. "I dunno. I haven't even asked Isla out yet, I'm not ready to think about next week yet." He set the report down, and pulled three forms at random out of the stack, and passed them over to Micah. "Here. I'll go out with them next week."
"You haven't even asked Isla out yet? You need to do that. Like right now. She'll probably want time to prepare and stuff." Micah flipped through the forms Eli had handed him. "Erin, Saige, and Malia. Good choices. It'll balance out the fact that you picked all Twos this week."
Eli mentally facepalmed. He had, hadn't he? Fuck. That probably had been a bit of a mistake.
Micah rolled his eyes at him. "It'll be fine, you need to worry less. You haven't fucked up too badly. Yet."
"Was that supposed to be comforting? Because it wasn't." Eli started rummaging around in a drawer for a pen to write a note asking Isla out.
"It wasn't supposed to be comforting, so goal achieved."
Eli nodded. "I figured." He fished a pen out of the drawer, and drew a line across the back of his hand to see if it still had ink. It did, so he set it down and started looking for a sheet of paper.
Micah grabbed the pen off Eli's desk. "Why don't you go see her in person instead of writing a note?"
Jay nodded. "Yeah, girls like that kind of thing. You should go see her in person."
Eli found a sheet of paper, and held out a hand, silently asking Micah to please give him his pen back. "The other girls will get jealous."
Micah stood up and held the pen over his head, well out of Eli's reach. "It's free time for the Selected right now, just go have a look around and see if she's on her own in a small group."
Eli gave him an annoyed stare. Holding the pen above his head was a dirty, dirty trick. Completely unfair. Fine. If that was how Micah was going to play, Eli could play dirty too. "I order you to give me my pen back."
Micah just laughed. "What are you going to do if I don't? Cane me? Banish me from Illéa? Have me demoted to an eight? Throw me in prison?" He laughed again. "I don't think so."
Eli rolled his eyes. "Fine. Fuck you," he said jokingly. "Next time I will banish you. But fine. I'll go see if I can find Isla." He stood up, and headed for the door.
As he was on his way out, Micah called after him, "You like me too much to banish me."
Eli laughed. "We'll see." He flipped him off, and shut the door behind him.
Eli made his way down the stairs, into the Selected's Wing. He hadn't been there since before the Selected had arrived, so it would be interesting to see what had changed.
The curtains on the windows throughout the wing had been pulled back, allowing the sun to shine through and make patterns on the floor. It was significantly cheerier than it had been with all the curtains closed. Eli could hear voices coming from a sitting room to his left, and the sound of someone playing cello coming from the music room, on his right. On a whim, he turned and headed inside.
Zenya was the one playing cello. That wasn't much of a surprise. He smiled slightly, and waited for her to finish, hovering in the doorway of the music room, one hand on the doorframe. She didn't see him, eyes fixed on the sheet music in front of her, completely engrossed in her playing.
When she finished, Eli stepped into the room and walked towards her. She looked up and spotted him when he was halfway across the room. He smiled, and waved at her.
She paused in her rearranging of the sheet music and lifted a hand to wave back, smiling. "Hello." She tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. She was very pretty, Eli couldn't help but notice. He hadn't noticed before, when they had first met, he had been too busy trying to figure out how they were going to communicate, but now he noticed.
He sat down on the piano bench across from her, hopefully close enough that she could see what he was saying. "How do you play, when you can't hear?" He gestured towards her cello. He played guitar himself, he couldn't imagine doing it if he couldn't hear it. How would he know if he had fucked up the finger placement if he couldn't hear that it was off? He wouldn't even be able to tune it, since he did that by ear too. He paused for a moment, wondering if he had screwed up. Probably. Better to apologize. "I was just curious, I'm sorry if that was a rude question. I play an instrument myself, and I do so much by ear, I couldn't imagine playing without hearing it."
He couldn't tell if she had gotten any of his apology, but she didn't seem to be offended. "I feel the vibrations of the music through the strings, and that's how I know it's right." She finished neatly stacking up her sheet music.
"Ah. I see." They lapsed into silence for a moment.
Alright, this wasn't going to work. At all. Eli fished his phone out of his back pocket and quickly typed something out in his notes. Do you have a phone?
He offered her his phone, and she read it, and shook her head before passing it back. "No, I don't."
"Well, there goes that idea," he said. I'll get you one so we can text, he typed, and passed his phone back over.
She looked surprised as she read the words on his screen. "Oh, you don't have to do that. We can communicate just fine as things are." She handed his phone back to him.
Eli raised his eyebrows, but didn't correct her. He'd let her stay stubborn if she wanted to be stubborn. But he'd buy her a phone anyway. "Well, I had a reason to come here, other than to listen to you play cello, so I'd better go."
She nodded. "Okay. Have a good day."
He smiled at her, and stood up, heading out of the room. Behind him, he could hear the sound of her beginning to play again.
He continued down the hallway, stopping to peek into an empty sitting room. He waved to Addie as he passed her, and stopped outside Isla's room. The door was slightly ajar, and he could hear the sound of voices coming from inside. He rapped on the doorframe, and waited, listening to the sounds of someone standing up and coming to the door.
Isla pulled the door open, revealing two easels set up in the middle of the room, with a cloth beneath them to protect the carpet. She had obviously been painting at one, and Violet was standing at the other, paintbrush in hand. "Oh, Your Highness!" Isla curtsied awkwardly, trying not to get any of the paint on her hands on her dress.
"Just Eli is fine," he said, running a hand nervously through his hair, probably messing it up.
As Isla greeted him, Violet looked up, and hastily put her paintbrush down to curtsy herself. "I'll be going then. See you later Isla." She left the room, brushing past Eli on her way out.
Isla reached for a cloth to wipe her hands. "Come on in." He stepped inside, as instructed, and hovered awkwardly in the doorway. "What brings you here?" She asked.
Eli shrugged. "I was just wondering if you'd like to go with me to an art museum tomorrow. As a date."
She shook her head, and started clearing away some of the painting supplies. "No, thank you."
He blinked at her, slightly confused. "No?" He hadn't been expecting that answer. The whole point of the Selection was to date, after all. "Why not?"
"It's weird," she said bluntly. "You're dating everyone else here, most of us who you've never met and you don't really know any of us. If I was in your shoes I'd feel a lot of pressure on every date that I went on, and I don't want to do that to you." She screwed the cap back on to a tube of paint. "So no, I don't want to go on a date. But I will go to an art museum with you tomorrow. But as friends. No romantic expectations. How does that sound?"
That actually sounded incredible. Eli smiled slightly at her. "Alright. You've got yourself a deal. I'll see you at one o'clock tomorrow in the entrance hall, alright?"
The Prince's Quarters, The Palace, July 11th, 12:46pm
Elijah
"Here's your date plan for next week, how does that look?" Micah handed Eli a piece of paper. "I don't know how, but you've somehow made me organized."
"It's a miracle," Eli said absently, accepting the piece of paper and giving it a brief glance over before setting it down on his desk and leaning down to tie his shoe. "Looks fine." He didn't actually take in a word of it, and Micah could tell.
"You didn't even read it." Micah rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I have other things on my mind."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, the whole fucking country?" He straightened up. "I have something else I want you to do today. I need you to go down to the Selected's Wing, and find out from Lainey what her time with Melissa on Saturday night was about."
Micah raised his eyebrows, and Eli suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to tell Micah about that. Whoops. "I'll explain later, just ask her what Melissa wanted to talk about. Okay?" Eli sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm over the Selection already and it's only been a week."
Micah laughed, and patted his shoulder. "It's going to be alright, man."
Eli didn't know if that was true or not. He wanted to believe it, but he really really doubted sometimes that everything was going to turn out okay. "Thanks." He stood up. "I'd better go, if I want to get to the entrance hall to meet Isla early."
Micah nodded. "I'll go talk to Lainey then. Good luck."
Eli nodded, and headed out of the room.
Outside of his room, Mel was waiting, one ear pressed to the door. Her eyes widened in shock when it opened and he stepped out. "You're going on a date?"
He gave her a mock irritated glare. "What are you doing here, you little spy?"
"Well no one tells me anything, so…"
He shook his head at her. "Go play, okay? You don't need to worry about this."
"Can I go see the Selected?"
Eli shrugged. "I don't see why not, but go and ask your mother."
She stuck her tongue out at him in irritation and sprinted off, presumably to ask Melissa if she could go hang out with the Selected. Eli didn't like Melissa, but he wasn't about to overrule her when it came to Mel. She deserved that much.
He didn't get to the entrance hall until a little bit past one, and Isla was already waiting for him there. When she spotted him, she smiled, and curtsied slightly. "Hello."
"Hello." He offered her his arm. "How are you?"
"I'm good." She accepted his offered arm, and they walked together out to the car that was waiting out front. It was a nondescript black car, with no outside clue that it contained royalty.
The driver opened the door, and Eli slid in, letting Isla follow him into the back seat. She smoothed out her skirt, and reached for her seatbelt.
The driver climbed in the front seat, and the car pulled away, heading down the front drive of the palace. As they headed for the gate, another black car pulled up in front of them, and another one behind. Their escort for the day.
The museum wasn't far from the palace, so it didn't take them very long to get there. There was hardly anyone else present at the museum, since it had been closed down for the afternoon for Eli and Isla's date.
They headed inside, and wandered through the gallery, taking in various pieces. Isla provided tidbits about the more famous works they passed, and Eli responded with stupid jokes, or occasionally serious thoughts on the art hanging on the wall. They didn't hold hands, and Eli was glad not to feel that he had to try.
When the date was over, Eli didn't really want it to end. He could have happily spent more time just hanging out with Isla. Especially since there was now no pressure to be romantic with her. But unfortunately work called, and they had to leave the art gallery.
On the way back to the palace, Eli turned to Isla and said, "We should do that again sometime, don't you think?"
She smiled at him. "We should. As friends."
He nodded in agreement. "As friends." He gave her a thumbs up. "Sounds good," he said, smiling.
The car pulled up outside the palace gates, and the driver opened the door. Eli was the first to get out. He held out an arm to walk Isla back up to the Selected's Wing. When they arrived there, lessons were going on in the Women's Room. They stopped outside the door.
"I'll see you around," Eli said as Isla let go of his arm.
She nodded. "Of course. I'd better go in to lessons, I've probably missed a lot."
"Yeah." He nodded understandingly. "I have to get back to work. Good luck with Lindsey."
He could hear her laughing as he walked away down the corridor.
The Report Studio, The Palace, Angeles, July 12th, 5:41pm
Nefertiti Gamel, 3, Zuni
The Selected filed into the studio, wearing all different shades and colors of sparkly dresses. Nefertiti herself wore an orange mermaid dress with a sparkly top section. Lindsey was waiting, holding a clipboard, dressed professionally, but casually. She would be behind the cameras tonight.
She directed the Selected to five rows of seven chairs that had been placed on the stage, giving each Selected instructions on what row to sit in. Nefertiti found herself on the front row, in between Brielle, who had had a date that week, and Addie, who was wearing a light pink dress with a high neckline.
The other girls chattered nervously behind her, but none of this was really new to Nefertiti, so she wasn't terribly nervous. She just glanced around, taking in the scene of the studio.
Techs scurried back and forth, adjusting and testing cameras and microphones. The red on air light on the back wall was off still, and would be for another fifteen minutes. Michelle, the host of the report, fussed with her hair, looking in a mirror set just off the stage.
She wanted to get up and ask all kinds of questions about the Report, to find out details about how it was created, but Lindsey had her watchful eye on all of the Selected, and Nefertiti didn't think she'd be particularly happy if one of them wandered off thirteen minutes before the Report began, so she just contented herself with watching everything that went on in the studio.
Jenn was fixing her lipstick in a mirror, calm, cool, and collected. Nefertiti wanted to try to get to know her, since she didn't know much about her. Jenn was dressed in a long light grey one shouldered dress, and her brown hair was pulled back in an elaborate bun.
Across the studio, Charles was glaring daggers at Eli, who didn't notice. Eli was sitting in a makeup artist's chair, letting her fix any possible blemish on his face while he scanned a document. He finished reading it, and handed it off to a nearby tech. She didn't hear what he said, but she did see the thumbs up he gave the tech. Whatever it was, he seemed to have approved of it.
He leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes as the makeup artist worked. She finished, and stepped away, letting someone else take her place. Eli looked up at the newcomer, and shook his head, running his fingers through his hair and saying something. He said something else that was lost in the chaos of the preparations for the report, and tilted his head slightly, which moved his hair back out of his face, and the woman turned away.
She wondered what was really up with Eli. She hadn't seen any hint that he might be the bad boy the media made him out to be since she had arrived at the palace. In fact, he just seemed… tired, really. The makeup artist had covered them up now, but he had bad dark circles, as if he never got enough sleep. Perhaps the lifestyle changes she had seen in the media last year had never been real at all.
Although he could just be tired from too many nights of drinking. But if that was true, there was still a reason for it, a reason Nefertiti intended to find out. People usually didn't change overnight without some kind of reason behind it. She had interviewed dozens of people in the years since she had begun working. None of them had made major life changes without a reason. Something had happened, Nefertiti was sure of that.
Mel's nanny had convinced her to sit in her seat already, even though there were still seven minutes left before the report would begin. Mel was fidgeting, though, and seemed completely unable to sit still. Her hair, which had been put up in a neat bun just twenty minutes before, was already falling loose, and her nanny was trying, most likely in vain, to get Mel to sit still enough that she could get it put back together before the report began.
Queen Melissa was sitting in her seat on King William's left, hands folded in her lap, a pleasant smile fixed on her face already. She unfolded her hands, and rested one warningly on her fidgeting daughter's knee, and Princess Mel stilled enough that her nanny could put her hair back in the tidy bun.
King William looked regal in a well-tailored black suit, with the emblem of Illéa pinned on it, marking him as the king. He had a blank expression on his face, with no hint of emotion on it.
The three older royal siblings stayed far apart until just minutes before the cameras came on. Finally, though, they took their seats. Eli on King William's right, Jenn next to him, and Charles next to her. Charles continued glaring at Eli, clearly jealous, right up until the moment a tech began counting down.
"Five, four, three, two, one."
The on air light in the back of the room came on, and the whole royal family changed.
Mel stilled completely, folding her hands neatly in her lap and uncrossing her legs. Queen Melissa's slightly frozen smile remained, but she reached out for King William's hand. He accepted her hand as his emotionless expression became a fatherly smile. Eli tucked a strand of his hair behind his hair, and adopted a half-smile, any trace of the tiredness Nefertiti had seen before wiped from his face. Jenn neatly slanted her legs, and sat up straighter. Charles mostly dropped his jealous expression, but not completely, and the signs were still there.
Michelle stood up, taking her place in the center of the stage. "Welcome, everybody, to the Illéa Capitol Report. Tonight we have the Selected with us, and don't worry, we'll be asking them some questions about their experiences this week, but first, we'll hear from Councilor White.
She stepped back, allowing Councilor White to take the stage. When he finished giving his report, she stepped back into the center of the stage. "Now, it's time for what you've all been waiting for." She headed towards Eli, microphone in hand. "So, Prince Elijah, you've met all the girls now. And a few weeks ago you told us that you'd 'know it when you saw it'. So tell us, what did you see when you met the Selected last weekend?"
He paused for a brief moment, as if he was thinking of his answer, but the pause was too short, and Nefertiti knew that he had pre-rehearsed it. "They're all very lovely and capable ladies, but there's only so much you can learn about a person in five minutes. I'll need to spend more time with them."
Michelle nodded approvingly. "How about we ask some of the girls?" She headed down the middle row, and picked a girl, seemingly at random. "Lady Lydie? What did you think of Prince Elijah?" She held the microphone out towards her.
"He was really nice, and I thought we got along well."
"Oh? Have we got a favorite then, maybe?" She winked at the camera as she headed back for the center of the stage. "Now, Prince Elijah did go on two dates this week, one with Lady Brielle on Tuesday, and Lady Isla on Thursday. Let's see what they have to say." She headed towards the front row.
Michelle interviewed Brielle and Isla about their dates, and asked Addie a few questions about life in the palace, before returning to the center of the stage to close the report out. Nefertiti hoped that she'd get a chance to have a look around and talk to some of the techs after the report. But even if she didn't, it was still enough of an experience just to see the Report in person.
"This has been the Illéa Capitol Report. Thank you all for tuning in, and good night, Illéa."
AN: I asked everyone who gave me a Pinterest board if they would like to pick out dresses for their girls for the upcoming ball, and it seemed to be a hit, so I may consider asking for reader input again further along in the story. Let me know if that's something you would all be interested in! Thank you for reading!
Also, I'm considering posting Chapter 14 sometime this week instead of next Monday so I can post Chapter 15 sooner because I really like Chapter 15. What do you guys think?
