Vanitas vanitatum: Fantasy

Vanitas vanitatum, he intoned, staring into her eyes. She was flustered. She had been ordered to attend the ball, to be polite to the ambassadors from other nations, because that was her duty as one of the Beauties of the realm. But the ambassador had not seemed flattered that a woman so beautiful paid him attention and listened to what he had to say. She had been forced to initiate the conversation, and though she was beautiful, it took up so much of her time that she rarely was able to investigate other things going on. The rituals of the Beauties were strenuous, and not just the simple applications of powder and paint that other women could do. As she had spoken to the ambassador, his face had gradually become set in unhappy, sour lines. She could not imagine why. And now he--

Inspiration: "Vanitas vanitatum" latin for "Vanity of vanities" - specific meaning of which I don't really know, but find interesting enough that I'll be looking it up. Aha!

The term vanitas itself refers to the arts, learning and time. The word is Latin, meaning "emptyness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaningless of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity." Ecclesiastes 1:2 from the Bible is often quoted in conjunction with this term. From the Vulgate Bible, we get Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas. This is translated to Vanity of vanities; all is vanity by the King James Version of the Bible - Wikipedia

Story Potential: Medium.
Notes: And then she is forced to toil as ordinary women do, blah blah blah. What I actually find interesting enough to lift this from low potential to medium is the notion of the Beauties.