A background character is what they'd call her. A loyal handmaiden forced into the shadows by no one but fate was what she was. Forced to witness the life she could only dream of, the life she could watch, but never attain.

She watched with content and a hint of jealousy as her beautiful, raven-haired princess fell for the powerful and fair prince she possibly saved from death's grip, a prince guaranteeing her throne. She saw her rage and hurt when said prince was seen walking into princess's bastard half-sister's chambers, the very sister who challenged her heirship.

She watched her mistress sulk and make blatant insults towards the one who broke everything. She watched the return of the prince and the hidden excitement of the princess, paired with the conniving, seductive plans already churning in the bastard's mind. She watched the jealousy blossom from the porcelain royalty as her half-sister threw herself upon the prince, batting her eyelashes and flipping her hair.

The loyal girl could only observe the scene unfolding before her very eyes from the window in her room. Her mistress had had enough of the two parading their "love" around her court. She marched up to the two walking near the pond and outright pushed her sister in, and before he could respond, she kissed him passionately. He returned it and before long, they returned to the castle to rekindle their fated love, leaving a humiliated seductress in the waters, surrounded by courtiers and their wives gossiping about.

She waited at a foreign castle with her princess's naive lady-in-waiting whilst their mistress was out at war, against her own kingdom with the backing of the prince's upon learning her father plans to put his bastard on her throne regardless that she won his idiotic competition to everyone's shock.

She proudly recited "long live the queen" when her mistress finally took what was hers and she sat on the throne of gold she was born for. Princess Jadelyn was now Queen Jadelyn and the bastard Lady Victoria became nothing but a prisoner.

Loyal and dutiful to the very end, she was. Even when Victoria escaped and attempted an assasination on the newly crowned queen and her consort. She was given the choice to stay silent about the matter and become the prisoner's lady-in-waiting when she was crowned, or to alert the guards and get her throat slit.

She chose her queen.

And so the next morning, Victoria was put to death for treason, whilst the corpse of Ophelia Astor, the young handmaiden not even 25 years of age was put into the ground. She would never find love, never start a family. She watched on the sidelines her whole life, content but longing for a different fate. Her tale would be lost in history, forevermore staying in the shadows.


A/N

Should I turn this into a more in-depth story through the eyes of Ophelia? I apologize for any grammatical errors, I wrote this after a random burst of inspiration in the middle of the night, please leave a review and tell me so I can fix it.

XxElizabellexX