"Excellent form, Zeatrix! Simply elegant."

"Thank you, father."

"Your hard work and training has paid off. You will be a wonderful Empress of Imperium someday."

The praise helped, even if at times she couldn't ignore the disapproving look on her sister's face. 

After their father left the throne room, the silence that emerged was deafening.

It wasn't always like this. Zeatrix could remember a time when she and Beatrix got along, as impossible as that notion seemed now. They were best friends and for the first few years of their lives, inseperable. 

Back then, Zeatrix couldn't imagine ever being separated from her twin sister. They learned and studied together, played make-believe, Beatrix had even been amazed at her powers. 

Now, she shunned her powers and Zeatrix along with them. And she felt their bond being stretched thin until eventually, it disintegrated, as if it was never there in the first place. Though they shared the same home, the only distance greater than theirs was in death. 

But their growing apart didn't happen overnight. Beatrix became annoyed with her, as all siblings did. But it became frequent and soon turned to anger. Zeatrix wondered where the line was between anger and hatred and whether Beatrix already crossed it.  

She supposed it didn't help that their father often told Beatrix not to bother her when she was training. It didn't matter how many times she reassured him that Beatrix was not 'in the way' or interfered with her ability to train. Sure, sometimes they got carried away with playing but Zeatrix wanted to have fun with her sister. Their lives were busy and scheduled down to the last minute, that left no room for fun. 

But she was first in line to the throne. This meant Zeatrix had duties and responsibilities that went beyond what she wanted. She was reminded of it whenever she made a mistake, acted disgracefully. So Zeatrix strived for perfection, something she knew was a foolish undertaking.

Though it wasn't only their father that might've caused Beatrix to act this way towards her. She showed off her powers often, especially in front of him, knowing how much it angered her. Zeatrix wasn't without feelings herself and while to their father and the rest of the kingdom, she conducted herself in the manor they expected her to, that was not the case when she was alone.

Zeatrix herself was furious. At her sister for treating her as if she was the worst person alive when memories of laughter, joy, and friendship spun in her mind, clashing with the present. At her father for his unacceptance of anything less than perfect. And even sometimes at the duties that lied ahead. Her destiny already written, already decided for her. All because she was born a few minutes earlier. The fate of the firstborn was a heavy burden on her shoulders. Now even more so because it was part of the reason her sister resented her. 

"You must think you're awfully precious." Beatrix snapped. And the silence had shattered like glass. 

Surprised by her sister's words and how she said them with such hatred, Zeatrix faltered, a moment of uneasiness in her usual perfect and calculated demeanor. Before she could respond, Beatrix scoffed.

Zeatrix watched her sister leave the throne room, wishing things would be different, cursing the powers that kept her so far away from her dear sister. None the wiser of the plan that Beatrix was concocting to rid herself of their father and of her.