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‘Training with Lady Ze is something else,’ Serena thought. She’d had vaguely known of the captain of the royal guard and had seen publicity photos. Still, none of that would prepare her for meeting the woman in person. Ze wore a black and emerald metal armor straight out of a fantasy novel, covering her head to toe. The woman’s figure was so obscured and her voice so muffled behind the armor one would struggle to determine anything about her physical appearance. Except for maybe one thing, she must be in the best physical shape humanly possible as her strength was unreal.
Their first lesson was firmly etched into Serena’s mind. She joined her new peer Orion out in the fort’s courtyard, where Lady Ze awaited. Ze laid down the law immediately, promising to break them both down and rebuild them better than ever. It began with a demonstration of the guard captain lifting one of the base’s hovercrafts half a meter off the ground, like a couch.
“By the end of this month, you two will perform a similar feat of strength,” Ze barked. “If not, you will train every day, from sunrise to sunset until you can. Do I make myself clear?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” the two servants in training replied in unison.
“Good, then let’s get started,” Lady Ze’s tone became much warmer. Alas, it was a deceptive tonal shift, as the training that followed would have made most grown men cry. The multi-kilometer runs, numerous obstacle courses, and absurd weight training would certainly be substantial and intense workouts under any conditions. However, in Ze’s regiment, that was just the first two hours of the morning, nothing more than a morning jog in her eyes. Although it had accomplished one thing, it had undoubtedly broken down the two servants in training.
Serena and Orion limped back to their quarters. The day’s training had run a little late, but by the grace of some higher power Lady Ze gave the next day off to recover. Which was welcome, as Serena had almost dislocated her shoulder during halberd training. The duo split as they approached their doors and dragged themselves into their individual adjacent rooms. Serena collapsed on her bed, a real one this time, not a cot. Her new quarters were certainly better than the closet she was stuck in for almost a month. It was a touch spartan, but that was expected for a bedroom in a military base. At least there was room for a small dresser, desk, and chair.
“I don’t know how much longer I can take this,” Serena moaned into her pillow. The past month had been way worse than anything she encountered in her brief stint in basic training. Lady Ze was certainly nicer than any drill instructor, but she made up for that by working you ten times as hard. From dawn till dinnertime, with only a brief break for lunch, the captain of the guard had worked Serena and Orion to the bone. It was so bad Serena spent half the first week paralyzed from exhaustion. If it weren’t for the miraculous medicine of her time period, she could have been crippled for life.
“Now I understand why Orion was so tired all the time,” Serena commented as she laid limp on her bed. “I guess Lady Aphros was too hard on the poor guy.” Aphros hadn’t given the two breaks either. On weekends or the rare day Lady Ze gave them off, Aphros trained the two in “etiquette, grace, and manner.” It started off simply as a crash course on their duties as servants to the royal family. Although, that part was mostly review for Orion. Then it moved onto their expected manner and actions. Their posture, their speech, and even the slightest gesture were important. Although the truth of the matter was, Aphros skimmed over those parts and went straight into parlor tricks. The blonde insisted that pouring tea from a kettle into a cup over half a meter apart or cleaning a hallway in a single swift motion were far more important.
“My life is growing crazier by the minute. I haven’t even had time to contact to mother,” Serena scolded herself for neglecting her simplest task. She could count the number of times she’s spoken to her mother since she started training on one hand. The young woman hadn’t so much as called her in the past three weeks. “I’ll do it…In the morning,” Serena closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
Despite her exhaustion and complete absence of energy, Serena struggled to fall asleep. The young woman still hadn’t grown used to having sore muscles all the time, and that bizarre sensation still bubbled beneath the surface of the aches and pains. Unable to sleep and unable to focus on much else, Serena rolled out of bed and knocked on the wall dividing her and Orion’s rooms. The young man replied with two knocks, meaning he was still up. Serena gathered up what little energy she had and dragged herself out the door and into Orion’s room.
“Can’t sleep. What about you?” Serena asked as she waddled into the room sluggishly. Orion’s quarters were a mirror of her own, equally spartan and differentiated only by a few personal possessions.
“Same,” Orion nodded. “I think I sprained something this time.” He clutched his ankle.
“Oh, you’ll be fine, you big baby,” Serena joked as she collapsed into a chair. “I want a bath or at least a shower. Heck, I’d even settle for skinny dipping in a shallow lake.”
“Stop with that,” Orion muttered back. The blonde put on a smile, but he was so exhausted he struggled to keep it up.
“I don’t think I can keep this up. If this goes on another week, I feel like I’m going to keel over,” Serena admitted. ‘Then there’s that weird feeling, but just thinking about that makes me queasy.’
“Don’t be like that. We’ve got another month or two tops,” Orion tried to comfort her.
“Then we’ll be onto the palace, with real responsibilities,” Serena pointed out. “If the training doesn’t kill me, the stress will.”
“Hey, you lasted this long. Lady Ze said most people would have died by now,” Orion tried to look on the bright side.
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Serena sighed. “I just don’t-.”
“What’s going on in here?” Lady Aphros burst into the room, startling the duo. “Oh, you’re just talking?”
“W-what did you think we were doing?” Orion asked genuinely.
“I just thought…Sorry, that was my mistake,” Aphros apologized.
“Do you honestly think we have the energy to do something like that?” Serena muttered, earning her a surprised glance from Aphros. “Did I say that out loud?”
“What are you two going on about?” Orion asked, earning a pair of surprised glances.
“Ah, poor, sweet, innocent Orion,” Lady Aphros said under her breath, just loud enough for Serena to hear. “Anyway, I came to give you two some good news.”
‘Dear lord,’ Serena bit her lip.
“I managed to work out a deal with the folks in the palace. You’ll start working there a little earlier than expected.” Aphros beamed.
“Let me guess, in a week’s time?” Serena inquired.
“Correct, you’re getting sharp Serena,” there was a bit of pride in Lady Aphros’s eyes. “Oh, I can’t wait for you to meet the princess.”
“What about our training?” Orion asked. “I’m almost done, but Serena still needs to catch up ten years’ worth.”
‘Don’t remind me,’ Serena sighed.
“Oh, we’ll sprinkle that out through the next year or years in Serena’s case,” Lady Aphros dismissed their concerns. “Think of it as on-the-job training. Do people still say that?”
‘Must I keep asking? Why me?’ Serena complained internally.
~--~
The following week came far too quickly for Serena’s taste. Before she knew it, she and Orion were shuttled to the palace. It was a grand building of pure crystal, towering over all others in their fair city. It was so massive Serena guessed the structure amounted to 10-15% of the entire city. The young woman wondered what they could possibly need all that space for. Even factoring in luxurious living spaces for all the highest nobles and quarters for guards and servants. Reasonably speaking, they would only need a structure half that size. Wisely, Serena decided not to question it.
Upon landing, Lady Aphros led Serena and Orion through a series of grand halls before passing through what appeared to be the servant’s quarters. They stopped in a modest wardrobe filled with sets of identical uniforms. Aphros smiled as she picked out an outfit for the duo and handed them out. The blonde quickly shuffled Serena and Orion into a pair of dressing rooms to change.
“Is this really the royal servant uniform?” Serena inquired as she exited the dressing room. “It seems a little…”
“Retro?” Aphros smirked as she observed Serena’s new look. The young woman was garbed in a long black dress with long sleeves, adorned with a white apron, cuffs, and bonnet. The dress was so long one could barely tell she also wore long white socks and pitch-black shoes. She almost appeared as though she walked out of a Victorian-era period piece, albeit one with some creative liberties taken. Notably, the royal seal, a yellow gibbous moon backed by a sword, was etched into the collar, adding a splash of color.
“That’s…an accurate way to describe it,” Serena admitted.
“Well, the Queen is into some…old-fashioned things,” Lady Aphros explained. “Of course, if I had it my way, I’d hem the dress to be a touch shorter, right-” Aphros ran her finger up Serena’s dress, stopping just below knee height, “-here.”
“Right,” Serena swallowed her next comment. ‘I’m starting to formulate an opinion on Lady Aphros, and it is not an altogether positive one.’
“Hmm, Orion’s taking a long time,” Aphros turned towards the other dressing room. “You okay in there?”
“I think it’s too small,” Orion squeaked, clearly struggling with the outfit.
“No, no, it’s supposed to be like that, just suck in your gut it’ll slip right on,” Aphros assured.
‘That poor man,’ Serena sighed and brushed her hands over her new uniform. The young woman didn’t have the easiest time fitting in her outfit either. She noted it felt soft at some points and not so much at others. At those points, it was very thick and inflexible, and what was with all the oddly shaped pockets? “Lady Aphros, why is there a pocket in the-?”
“Oh, don’t worry, Lady Ze will get to that in training soon,” Aphros winked.
“I got it on, but it’s still a little tight,” Orion emerged from the dressing room. To match Serena’s stereotypical maid, Orion was the stereotypical butler. He wore a white shirt, black waistcoat, black tailcoat, long black pants with black shoes, and topped off with white gloves and bowtie. “Lady Aphros, if I may boldly ask, why is the waistcoat made of-?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Aphros deflected the question and stepped in closer to inspect the young man. “One last touch,” Aprhos slicked the blonde’s hair back, only allowing a single strand at the center to dangle forward, “perfect. Now that you both look the part, acting the part should come naturally.”
“Of course, Lady Aphros,” Serena humored the blonde’s logic.
~--~
In their complete garb, Serena and Orion were again guided by Aphros through the palace. Serena began to note that the many grand halls looked eerily similar, and all seemed to blend together. She shuddered at the embarrassing thought that she’d get lost in these halls one day. Before she had a chance to dwell on that idea, they all arrived at a small, at least relatively, sitting room. Waiting there were three individuals, Lady Ze standing in her full armor and two young girls.
The first girl looked Serena’s exact age, maybe a touch younger. Her hair was a silver lilac that turned pink at the tips and fell to her waist. The other girl looked no older than nine and had blonde hair that turned lilac at the tips but only came to just past her shoulders in length. The first girl sat poised and refined, slowly sipping a cup of tea. The second was bouncing in her seat. They both wore the same long and flowing silver dress, but the second girl’s looked fairly wrinkled.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, princess,” Aphros bowed deeply to the older girl, “and you as well, Lady Ze.” The princess did not respond.
“It was…no trouble at all,” even beneath her emerald armor, Ze’s aside glance towards the younger princess couldn’t have been more obvious. “Shall we move onto greetings then?”
“If we must,” the elder princess huffed and stood up. The younger princess followed with a spring in her step.
“Just like we practiced,” Lady Aphros whispered in Serena and Orion’s ears.
‘Okay,’ Serena took a deep breath and curtsied, her head bowed and eyes closed. Orion followed suit with his own bow.
“First Princess Atlanta,” Lady Aphros gestured to the older princess, “this is Orion Diane. He shall serve as your personal attendant from here on out.”
“Whatever, hope he lasts longer than the last one,” Atlanta rolled her eyes. Orion bit his lip to keep a straight face.
“Third Princess Irene,” Aphros turned to the younger princess, who had already grown bored of the exchange and was looking the other way. “Princess Irene!” Aphros snapped, earning the young girl’s attention. “This is Serena Diane. She shall serve as your personal attendant from here on out.”
“Okie dokie,” the princess giggled. “Wha happened to Victoria doh?”
“Victoria had to go back home. Serena will take her place,” Lady Aphros explained, a pained look in her eye.
“Okay den, let’s play!” Irene ran up to Serena, “tag, you’re it!” The princess smacked Serena’s side before darting out of the room at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for a girl her size in such a dress.
“What just happened?” Serena broke character in shock.
“Aphros, you were supposed to warn them about that!” Lady Ze exclaimed.
“Oops, I knew there was something I forgot to do,” Aphros made a ‘silly me’ gesture.
“Serena, with me, we’ve got to catch the princess before she hurts herself!” Ze charged out of the room.
‘So, this is why my cousin quit,’ Serena realized as she raced after.
To Be Continued…
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Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
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