~~~~
Serena’s first week in the palace went about as well as expected. Not for struggles as a maid, the young girl managed to move with the dignity and grace expected of her position. It also helped she rarely interacted with any higher nobles outside of Lady Aphros, Ze, and the princess. Honestly, the palace was so massive that she could go hours without seeing so much as a guard or another servant. Alas, her real problem was the youngest princess.
Irene had no patience for anything, perhaps expected of a small child, but not for a princess. The youngest princess was nothing short of chaotic, sometimes waking at 7:00 am sharp to run around the palace in pajamas. Other times she’d sleep until 2:00 in the afternoon…just to run around the palace in her pajamas. Worse yet, such examples were only the start of the princess’s day.
Serena struggled to keep up with the ball of energy, both figuratively and literally. The young woman didn’t know how Irene managed to sprint at speeds that’d make world-class track runners blush. Especially since she almost exclusively wore those impractically long dresses that the royal family favored for some reason. Despite having only inhabited the palace for a week, their hourly chases had become almost routine.
It was on one such chase that Serena followed the youngest princess into the palace garden. In line with the rest of the structure, the gardens were tremendous, as though they were cultivated by literal giants. Several of the plants towered over the young maid while the trees dwarfed some buildings. However, the most impressive of all was a single massive tree at the center of the garden, and perched atop one of its thousands of branches was Princess Irene. This wouldn’t be too concerning if it weren’t for the fact that said branch, despite being among the lower ones, was three stories high.
“Princess, you get down from there this instant!” Serena yelled, dropping any and all pretenses of formality and the supposedly large social divide between them.
“Don’t wanna,” the princess shouted back.
“Don’t make me call Lady Ze again!” Serena threatened. It was a hollow threat, as Ze had left the city yesterday on important business and wouldn’t return until next week.
“Look how high I can go!” Irene began climbing higher up the tree.
“Princess, no,” Serena scrambled after. However, she stopped immediately as she realized the distance between her and Irene was three stories of sheer wood with no handholds. “How’d she even get up there? Is she half spider? Can she fly?” That wasn’t the issue though, the real one was how she would stop the princess from hurting herself. Serena didn’t feel like having her head on the chopping block only a week into her employment because the princess got hurt; or, heaven forbid, died under her watch.
“Cool, there are birds up here,” Irene’s voice began more distant.
“Dammit,” Serena kicked reason to the curb and decided to scale the tree anyway. Thankfully, the past two months of painful training paid some dividends. Even in her maid outfit, Serena managed to scramble up the tree in record time. The adrenaline certainly helped. Alas, the princess had a three-story head start, and only Serena’s longer limbs could hope to close the distance.
“Wee!” Irene played among the branches like a monkey. By some miracle, her long dress hadn’t managed to catch itself on one of the branches…yet.
“For heaven’s sake, princess, stop that before you hurt yourself!” Serena closed the distance between the two.
“You sound just like Victoria. She never climbed up the tree, though,” Irene commented as she hung from one of the branches like a baboon.
“Princess!” Serena scrambled across the tree branches with a level of agility she didn’t know she had. If she had paused to think about what she was doing, she likely would have fallen flat on her face.
“Yay, Victoria never played with me like this,” Irene monkeyed across the tree and tapped Serena’s shoulder. “Tag, you’re it!”
“Princess, this is no time for games,” Serena grabbed for Irene’s ankle.
“No tag backs,” the princess spun atop her branch like a world-class gymnast, effortlessly dodging Serena’s grab. With inhuman dexterity, she continued to scale the tree like a gibbon.
‘Dear lord, I hope Orion’s having a better time,’ Serena mused as she renewed the chase.
~--~
“Achoo,” Orion sneezed. He stood alongside Princess Atlanta in a large grassy field at the opposite end of the palace. Several targets were set up across the area, and each one was placed at various distances away. The blonde-haired young man had an eclectic set of ranged weaponry shoved into a bag slung over his shoulder.
“Coming down with something?” Princess Atlanta inquired.
“No, my princess. Just a tickle in my nose,” Orion assured. “Now, would you prefer the bow and arrow or the throwing knife?”
“The 12-gauge, Orion,” Atlanta ordered with her back turned.
“Aw, but wouldn’t my princess prefer a more elegant weapon?” Orion proposed.
“The 12-gauge, Orion,” the princess didn’t even bother to look at him.
“As you wish,” the blonde pulled out and loaded the shotgun.
~--~
“Got you, princess,” Serena exclaimed as she finally successfully captured Irene.
“Aw, you caught me…My turn to be it!” Irene never missed a beat.
“Princess, perhaps we should continue this game on solid ground,” Serena proposed as she gestured to their position. The two were tangled in a mass of branches. Serena dangled upside down by her legs while holding the princess in her arms.
“Okay,” the princess reluctantly agreed as she realized being trapped in the branches made it hard to play.
~--~
After, by some miracle, Serena managed to get herself and the princess down from the tree without hurting themselves. The maid led the princess back inside the palace to get them both cleaned up. Serena didn’t know what her and the princess’s dresses were made of, but whatever it was, it was tear and dirt-resistant. Irene’s dress was completely unblemished, aside from a few more wrinkles. At the same time, Serena’s uniform only had the most minor bits of dirt and scratches.
Running the princess through a quick bath and the like was surprisingly painless. It helped that Irene actually held still while getting clean. Of course, the second they finished with the bath, the princess tried to run off naked. Serena only managed to catch her on pure instinct.
As the two exited the bath, freshly cleaned and redressed, they ran into Lady Aphros. The blonde beamed with a whole new kind of excitement on seeing them. Aphros was a sight for sore eyes in Serena’s case, but nothing more than a mild curiosity for Irene.
“Ah, young princess and Serena, how goes your day?” Aphros asked. Irene made no effort to answer the question, so Aphros turned to the maid instead.
“Exhausting. We were supposed to be at an etiquette lesson two hours ago,” Serena admitted while she maintained a tight grip on Irene’s arm. “I only just now managed to keep her at my side.”
“Better than your cousin, at least,” Lady Aphros stroked Serena’s shoulder. “She spent most of her days here chasing Irene from dawn till dusk.”
“If I may be so bold as to ask, how long did my cousin last here?” Serena addressed the obvious question.
“Well, that’s a complicated question,” Aphros admitted. “Technically, she worked in the palace and in service to Irene for a couple months, but as Irene’s personal attendant, she lasted about three…” The noblewoman trailed off.
“Three whole months? That’s impressive,” Serena replied.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t finish,” Lady Aphros’s discomfort was evident. “I meant three days.”
“Oh,” Serena looked down at the princess, who was clearly tuned out of their conversation.
“I guess, after ten years of her life went into training for this, she couldn’t…” Aphros began. “You know what, I shouldn’t speak of that. You’re doing a wonderful job, Serena. Why don’t I treat you and princess to some lunch?”
“Is that really okay?” Serena inquired.
“Well, technically, a servant shouldn’t eat at the same table as their employer,” the blonde explained. “But I’ll let it slide this time. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”
“That would be lovely, thank you,” Serena bowed. “Shall we go, princess?”
“Food?” Irene made puppy dog eyes.
“Yes, food,” Serena nodded and led the princess as they followed Aphros.
~--~
Serena didn’t expect much when Lady Aphros offered to treat them to lunch. In fact, she thought it’d be as simple as ordering a meal from the palace’s cooking staff. What she didn’t expect was being led back into Aphros’s hovercraft and flown to a nearby high rise with a restaurant on top. The building was an impressive tower constructed of yellow topaz, while the restaurant itself decked out in further shades of yellows and whites. The three were the only patrons, giving Serena an idea of how exclusive the place was.
“Is it really okay for me to be here?” Serena gulped.
“It’s fine, just stay with me,” Lady Aphros assured. “Around this time of day, nobody comes to this place.” Serena nodded as the three sat down. Immediately a waiter appeared seemingly out of nowhere to deliver three menus, three glasses of water, and an iced tea. “Why thank you, Sebastian,” Aphros received the ice tea. “Now, please give us a moment.” The waiter bowed and disappeared just as quickly as he came.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Serena admitted. Even the menu felt incredibly rich, as though it was woven from velvet. It was filled with intricate dishes that the young woman had only vaguely heard of or were completely alien to her.
“Just ignore the first six or seven pages. That’s all the fancy stuff people order to make themselves look classy,” Lady Aphros explained. “I actually made up half the dishes on page four. Sometimes I order them to test the other nobles on their honesty…and to mess with them.”
‘Sounds about right,’ Serena kept her opinion to herself. “So, this is your restaurant then?”
“Yep, yep, yep,” the blonde beamed. “Skip to the last few pages. That’s where the food you should be familiar with is.” Serena nodded and flipped through to find the fancy names, and long lists of ingredients gave way to more traditional meals. Albeit expensive ones like filet mignon and lobster, but a few things like burgers, pasta, and the like were snuck in there too.
“I see, but I still don’t know what to-” Serena began.
“Just order whatever. I won’t judge,” Aphros smiled. “They take requests. If you want your steak in a blender, they’ll do that.”
“I think I’ll just order a burger then,” Serena said sheepishly.
“Burger? I wanna burger!” Princess Irene finally piped up, having been mesmerized by whatever drawings were on the kid’s menu until now.
“I don’t know, princess. Remember what happened last time?” Aphros commented.
“Nope,” Irene replied.
“Okay fine,” Lady Aphros shrugged. “I think I’ll just have my usual then.”
“Of course, my lady,” the waiter appeared out of nowhere again, jotted down their orders, and disappeared.
“Was he there the whole time?” Serena exclaimed.
“There always there, at the ready. It’s that kind of place,” Aphros explained.
~--~
Lunch went by quickly as Serena ate the most wonderful burger she ever had in her life. The only thing marring it was getting the princess to eat hers with some dignity and grace (as much as one can have while eating a burger, at least). By some stroke of luck, Irene didn’t make a complete mess of herself, and Serena got to enjoy her meal. She didn’t quite know what Aphros had ordered. It was some kind of meat and vegetable dish, but as for what meat and what vegetables, Serena couldn’t say.
“What a wonderful meal, wouldn’t you agree?” Aphros asked the two.
“Mmhm,” Irene chewed the last of her food and didn’t reply.
“It was amazing, Lady Aphros,” Serena bowed.
“I’m glad,” the blonde beamed.
“Making friends with the help again, Lady Aphros?” A stern voice asked from nearby. Serena turned to see a tall, albeit slender, man with long cream-colored hair. He wore a similar uniform to Lady Aphros. However, the emblem on his chest indicated he stood but one step below her on the hierarchy. Still, he wore his station with obvious pride; the flowing cape certainly hinted as much.
“Lord Adonis, what a pleasure it is to see you,” Aphros replied. Serena had been given a crash course in noble etiquette and manner, so she could sense a subtext to their conversation. Alas, she couldn’t tell if Aphros was being genuine or not. “Since when do you come here for lunch?”
“Ever since I heard you spirited off the third princess and her new maid,” Adonis stepped closer. “I’d thought that you’d want to have a spirited discussion about the current state of affairs.”
“I’d love to, but I must take these two back. Princess Irene has an etiquette lesson,” Lady Aphros quickly stood up and shepherded the two younger girls away.
“Very well, I’ll make conversation with you later, my lady,” Adonis bowed. “Do be careful. I think there’s a loose panel on the landing platform.”
“Certainly,” Lady Aphros waved as she left. Once out of earshot, Aphros sighed, “the nerve of that man.”
“Is there a problem, Lady Aphros?” Serena inquired.
“Nothing you need to worry yourself with, for now, Serena,” Aphros assured. “Let’s just say Adonis, and I met over sharing a few political views. He took that to mean a little more than I intended.”
“I understand,” Serena wisely stopped her line of questioning and returned her focus to keeping the princess at her side.
“It’s really nothing grand,” Aphros continued and leaned up to Serena’s ear. “The two of us just favor the second princess as the heir rather than the first.” Serena paused, wondering why Aphros would tell her such information. However, before she could ponder that further, a shiver went right up her spine. Something was wrong, but what?
The maid’s eyes glanced across the landing platform. Nothing seemed off except for the single loose panel Adonis warned them about. However, it was off to the side and would only be a danger if one chose to walk closely to the edge. An edge that went right out to a several stories long drop to street level.
Upon second glance, Serena noted she could see right through the platform in the place where the panel was loose. Immediately below, a balcony to their right jutted out further than the landing platform. It was mostly full of plants, a few crystal benches, and a single person. Serena’s focused on the person, the one thing out of place. They looked vaguely like the waiter from earlier in that they wore a somewhat similar outfit. Yet, something about the person gave Serena pause and flared up all her mental alarm bells.
“Is there a problem, Serena?” Lady Aphros inquired.
“N-,” Serena almost said no, but knew better than to dismiss a suspicious figure. “Lady Aphros, the figure below us…”
“Aw him, I thought he might be one of the waitstaff at first too, but I doubt that’s the case,” Aphros put her hand on Serena’s shoulder. “Move the princess between us. I’ll handle this.” Serena obeyed and moved the princess to her left, between herself and Aphros.
“Wha’s the matter?” Irene asked, looking up at Serena with her puppy dog eyes.
“Nothing, princess, it’s nothi-” Serena tried to assure until a surge of instinct kicked in. Every fiber of her being went from warning her something terrible was about to happen soon to something terrible was happening right now. Without thinking, she pushed the princess to the ground as a gunshot rang out through the area. Serena only heard the bullet whizz by, thankfully she and the princess were unharmed, yet Aphros was nowhere to be seen. “Lady Aphros?” Serena called out.
“I’m fine, just taking care of business,” Serena hazarded a glance and saw Aphros had at some point moved from their position to the balcony below. The figure from before, or rather the would-be assassin, had been subdued by the blonde. “Serena, be a dear and move the princess to the hovercraft, in case there are more. Then could you call up the palace and ask for someone to come pick up our little assassin?”
“Yes, my lady,” Serena exclaimed, picked up the princess, and raced to the hovercraft.
To Be Continued…
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Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
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