Dancing on Strings

The Fading Girls

~Massive chapter - late night - totally unedited for now - sorry for all the weird mistakes~

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Mai startled awake the next morning to find Genevieve all but rolling her out of bed, she was shaking her so hard.

"What?" she snarled, slapping the hands away and looking towards the clock on the mantelpiece.

It was barely even seven in the morning.

She groaned and pressed her face into the pillows. It had been a late night and she didn't have morning classes that day, why was her sister – who wasn't known for her early rising at the best of time – getting in her face?

"Mai, Liana never came back last night," Genevieve said, shaking her again.

Mai glared into her pillow. Liana... the lady with the beggar boy lover?

She yawned. "So? She probably stayed out with whomever she stepped out with."

"No, you don't understand, Liana wouldn't do something like that."

"So why are you telling me? This is for her servants and family and palace guards and police. I'm hardly going to start playing detective."

"No, I just need you to come with me?"

"Why? Where?"

"Liana was last seen talking to The Black Rabbit. I want to go ask him if he'd seen her since. I just want to talk to him."

Mai was quiet for a moment, then sat up – her eyes still squinting from tiredness. She spied Joliette and Henri in the doorway, peering in and she gestured for them to come in. Henri hurried away to pull on a wig and his satin, feminine dressing gown while Joliette walked in.

"Is there any actual reason to feel concerned?" Mai asked as she slid out of bed, "Do you really believe she would not have stayed out last night?"

"No!" Geneviève cried, "You don't know Liana, she would not stay outside the palace. She can't sleep without her feather mattress and hot chocolate. Her maids are becoming frantic."

"Are her parents with us at present?"

"No, she came ahead because she's about to start as one of my ladies-in-waiting."

"So why is it you need me awake?" Mai asked even as Joliette exchanged her nightdress for a simple day dress.

"Because I need to talk to The Black Rabbit."

"And can't you? You're the one who invited him here."

"No, I haven't ever actually spoken to him – not properly – and you speak to him all the time. You're friends aren't you?"

"Oh I'd say we're far from that," Mai replied and Henrietta came in to fix up her hair in a simple chignon.

"Please, Mai, just come with me. I'll ask him, I just... he's so..."

Mai glanced at her sister to find her face had turned red. She rolled her eyes and shrugged on her cape. "Fine," she said as Joliette put on her stockings and shoes. "I'll come with you. Go get your cape."

"Thank you!" Geneviève shrieked and raced out.

The trio watched her go then Mai leant towards the other two and said, "Don't let her be alone with The Black Rabbit – she'll embarrass herself."

"We'll pass on the message," Henrietta muttered and the pair bowed as she strode out, Geneviève running after her once she'd collected her cape.

The servants were awake, of course, but none of the royals or guests were, expect probably their father.