"Attention please."
The duke's daughter stood up on her chair at the banquet being held in her honor. This drew everyone's attention. It was a joke enough that she showed up at the event in a dress uniform, instead of a dress, but this was without precedent. Everyone knew things had changed since the curse had been lifted. Some were scrambling to get back into her good graces, others wanted to get rid of the new threat.
The lady hit the side of her glass with a fork a few more times, "Everyone? Yes? Good." She bend down to put both the glass and fork carefully back into place at her seat, than straightened back up, "As you all know, the curse has recently been lifted, judging by my face."
She had looked like a hideous troll up until now. However, with the lifting of the curse she looked like a beautiful, young lady with perfect, ice like features and silvery hair. She was clearly beautiful beyond compare.
"I objected to this pointless dinner, but the prince insisted on it anyways, but clearly not everyone knows what happened." This caused some murmurs. On the surface, that sounded like an insult to the crown.
"The truth is, the curse is not lifted. It is worded so that I will look ugly on the outside, until I stop being emotional. The moment I stopped caring, I stopped feeling... anything. The moment I allowed the ice to enter into my heart, my beauty was restored and the power of my bloodline-" She conjured up a spike of ice with no effort and held it daintily in her off hand, "Was mine to command. I suspsect it is some sort of failsafe. A way to make sure this power never falls into the hands of someone who is ruled by emotions. As long as I am ruled by logic, the power is mine."
The crowd gasped as she stabbed her other hand with the spike.
No blood came out.
She looked at the shard of ice impaled through her hand with detached fascination, "I'm completely dead inside."
She made a fist and the ice shard shattered, leaving a hole in her hand that she looked through at the now horrified prince, "So you can see, the curse is still in effect." She dropped her hand, "I know you would love to win my heart and marry me. Yes, logically, I would be an excellent choice for queen." She flexed her hand and frost built up in the hole. The frost then melted away and her hand was healed, whole, flawless.
"So for those of you worried that I might hold a grudge about how you treated me, don't." A faint smile appeared on her face, "I don't care. About anything. No hate. No love. No Joy. No Sorrow. No Happiness. No... nothing." She thought for a second, "Well, that's untrue I feel... A sense of satisfaction. I am... comfortably numb." She nodded once to herself, "Yes. That's it. I am... comfortable."
She looked down at the prince, "So while I agreed to attend to this banquet, please stop your advances towards me. You are only interested in me because I am now heartbreakingly beautiful. If you ever did succeed in winning my heart, I'd become the hideous beast you made fun of just a year ago," She tilted her head slightly, "In a way, if you ever won, you'd lose."
She hopped down, pulled in her chair and sat down, "Now that I got that out of the way, we can all go back to this meal and go through the motions, pretending that this isn't awkward." She picked up her napkin and put it in her lap, "So please, stop saying your sorry, stop trying to make things up to me, stop with the proposals, and stop trying to befriend me."
She folded her hands in her lap and looked around with a well practiced smile. It was the final piece of the mask that now slid into place forever sealing away her heart forever more. She knew that from that moment forward, she would remain ever youthful, forever young, and she would never die.
"Because I just don't care."