A long, weary sigh escaped pink lips as Petra stared into the mirror. There was a sullen set to her lips and dark circles under her eyes. The last few nights had been late and lost in thought. Today was the day that she had been worrying about. Today she was to be paraded out for an envoy of a general that had taken control of the neighbouring lands and had threatened her father with the same. Her father had taken only minutes to offer her up in exchange for immunity from this mysterious warlord's wrath.<br/><br/>There was little doubt that her father's wife had put the idea in his ear. The woman had hated her all of her life. She had no say in the circumstances of her birth, Petra was not the one to blame that her father had been unfaithful with an elven diplomat. It was not her fault that her mother saw fit to leave the evidence of her affair with a human on the  steps of the manor house yet she had carried the blame her whole life. She has largely been treated like a shameful secret, hidden away in the upstairs guest room, kept out of sight as much as possible. The only people that had shown her kindness were the nanny and her tutor and even that had cooled once they had drawn the wrath of her step mother.<br/><br/>The sudden sharp tug of her freshly washed long black hair drew a hiss of pain from the young half-elf. Her brow furrowed and her bright blue eyes caught the brown eyes of the maid in the mirror. Petra's shoulders slumped though and she grit her teeth while the dour, largish woman twisted her hair into a braid the hung to the small of her back. He had learned better than to start an argument. Some of the staff had taken to harassing her, seeing her as a spoiled child raised in a noble house but knowing that her parents would not care if she went to them. There was a certain irony that the maid was meticulously gathering her hair up to keep expose her slightly pointed ears, being that normally Petra had to be careful to hide them. Once they had found out that the envoy was an elf though it had been decided to accentuate her elvish features.<br/><br/>Once again, Petra's eyes settled on her reflection in the mirror and her small white teeth sunk into her lower lip. The dress was a deep blue that complimented her eyes and form fitting with a low cut neck, baring her chest and modest cleavage. It was sickening that she would be paraded out like livestock, a sale of flesh. Her stomach sank at the thought of being a concubine for a general that no one had apparently seen. He worked through an envoy, the one that was due to arrive shortly. There was a harsh pain that drew her from her miserable day dreams and she cried out. The maid was cruelly pinching her cheeks. "What the hells are you doing?!" She hissed.<br/><br/>"You need some colour in those pasty cheeks. Otherwise it might be assumed that you are sickly." The maid growled back and pinched her cheeks again even harder. Petra slapped the woman's hands away and there was a moment when it looked like the woman would strike her. Luckily the moment passed when a commotion was heard from out the window. Without a word the maid took a hard grip of Petra's slim wrist and started dragging her toward the door. The stocky woman led her down the hall toward the front door. "Stand up straight, don't slouch, don't fidget, and keep your eyes down. I heard this envoy is a wild elf and you don't want to be seen to offering a challenge. Curtsy, and be silent unless addressed directly."<br/><br/>Petra stopped listening when the neared the door. Fear rose up in her and the maid had to drag her through the door. Outside her parents were waiting and her father's wife glared at her, taking her from the maid and dragging her to stand between her father and her. "Smile, you little brat. If you sabotage this, I swear you will be locked in the cellar and forgotten." A call from the guards on the wall broke the moment and the gate started  to open. Petra took a deep breath and peered at the gate, curiosity overcoming her fear.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>