This was gorgeous to look at and wonderful to read. The artwork is absolutely stunning and fits well with the prose. Cecily and Agnes are both so messed up in their own ways, but that makes them very endearing to me. Same goes for Queen Avelina, to be honest, haha.
Just speculation, but I have to wonder if despite her "disgust" towards Cecily, she still felt gratification towards abusing her and that's part of the real reason she "let" Agnes keep Cecily around.
With that being said I loved reading this! Your work is absolutely stunning.