The princess's existence was, without a doubt, SO boring.
I mean, I'm sure some people would argue that my life at home was boring: scrolling, snacking and avoiding responsibilities. This was on another level of brain numbing boring,
But I shouldn't complain. There were worse things than boredom.
The princess's day began with getting dressed. Muime and the two younger maids moved around the princess, carefully draped various layers on her body, layers adjusted, secured her hair, and applied makeup. Meanwhile, I sat on the dog mat and watched everything that was happening. I didn't have much else to do.
Next came breakfast. The princess went to the dining hall. I did not.
One of the young maids led me to the kitchen, keeping three feet between us and avoiding my gaze. She seated me at a small table where the kitchen staff ate their meals. The food consisted of remaining items from the princess's breakfast: fruit, a slice of honeyed bread, and some leftovers. I ate everything quickly.
Iona was there. She was across the kitchen, sorting linens into a basket. She cast a glance in my direction upon my entrance, before returning to her task.
"Hey," I said.
She remained silent.
Fair enough. I get it. Whatever we'd had in that room was meant to stay in that room. Out here, she was a maid and I was a princess's hound, and those two things did not mix in public. I could respect that.
The other maids weren't much better. They weren't mean, especially after days with Olc and his guards. Being around them felt like being on a different planet. Nobody hit me. Nobody spit on me, but no one was interested in striking up a conversation with me or getting to know me, leaving me feeling quite lonely.
After breakfast, the princess had a lesson. I’m not sure what, whether it be math, reading, or the myriad of rules that seemed to govern her every action. I sat in the hallway, listening to the faint mumbling of some old dudes voice as he expounded on some esoteric topic. I learned that word during her language lesson. Afterwards, she read. She read a sea of literature, with books stacked on every available surface and ribbons marking her progress.
There were also matters of politics. The princess sat in on the king's council about taxes and borders and the price of grain or whatever. I was not allowed in this room either, which was fine, because from what I could catch through the door, it sounded like the most boring conversation in the history of language.
I stayed with Muime.
Muime did not like me. This was quickly communicated through every interaction we'd had.
"Fold these," she told me, placing a pile of linens in front of me.
I folded them.
"Again. They are folded in thirds, not halves. Has no one taught you this?"
"Shockingly, napkin folding was not part of my education."
Her eyes bore into mine. I folded them into thirds. After the council session, the princess emerged and announced that she wanted to take a stroll in the gardens. The guards maneuvered into position around her. She held up her hand.
"I will walk with my hound. Alone."
The head guard hesitated. "Your Highness, the Commander has instructed that —"
"The Commander's instructions are not my concern. I wish to walk. My hound will accompany me. You will remain at the garden entrance."
She continued walking while I followed her, maintaining a distance of ten steps, having learned my lesson the hard way.
I was a certified hater, but even I had to admit that the garden was beautiful. It contained stone pathways winding between hedges and rose bushes. A fountain stood in the center with angel figures. Trees were trained into all sorts of shapes. Everything was a perfect shade of green.
The princess walked at a leisurely pace, her hands behind her back, her eyes fixed on a statue. She eventually stopped and turned.
"Walk beside me," she ordered.
I blinked. "I thought I wasn't supposed to —"
"The guards are not here. Walk beside me."
I matched her stride. It felt strange, almost wrong. Like breaking a rule written into my body through bruises.
"Your brother tells stories," she said after a stretch of silence, and then glanced at me sideways. "Do you share this gift?"
"Not really."
She stopped beside a bed of pale blue flowers and frowned. “If you cannot tell tales, then speak. Tell me something I do not know."
"About what?"
"Anything. I have sat through an afternoon of my father's council and if I hear one more word about tariffs I will walk into the sea."
I thought about it. What was it that I knew that she didn't? I mean, I guess I knew about a world with the beautiful garbage of the twenty-first century.
"Okay," I replied slowly. "So where I come from, everyone carries a phone. You can talk to anyone in the world through it. And there's this thing called the internet, which is like every piece of information that exists, all in one place, and you can access it through your phone."
"You are describing sorcery."
"No, it's—okay, let me try this differently." I paused for a second. "Imagine a magic mirror. Small enough to fit in your palm. You look into it and you can see anyone. Your friend across the sea, a stranger in a kingdom you've never visited. You speak into it and your voice comes out of their mirror, wherever they are."
The princess furrowed her brow. "A scrying glass of some kind."
"Sure. Yeah. And it also shows you moving pictures. Of anything. People, places, and animals. There are these... shows. Like a... bard. Performing, except you watch it through the mirror whenever you want."
"What manner of shows?"
"All kinds. Some people just sit in front of their mirrors and eat. That's the whole show. They just eat and people watch them. Sometimes while the person eating talks about murders. They get paid for it."
A beat of silence. The princess's lips parted slightly, then closed. She began to walk again, but quickened her step. I followed suit. I kept going.
"There are also these places. Imagine like a road, and along the road there's a kitchen, except you don't go inside. You ride up in your... cart and you talk into... think of it as a speaking box thing. You tell it what food you want. And then you ride forward to a window and a person you've never met hands you the food. And you eat it in your cart and ride away."
"Without dismounting?”
"That's the whole appeal."
"And this food. It is good? It has not been poisoned?”
"It'll probably kill you slowly, but it's delicious."
"What else?”
“Okay, so there are these... constructs. Not people. Imagine a mind without a body. Someone built a mind and put it inside one of the mirrors and it can think. It can talk to you. It can write, it can answer questions, it can —"
"A mind without a body. You speak of a golem.” She scoffed. She raised a hand. "Enough." The amusement, whatever thread of it was still there, disappeared. "You think me a fool."
"What? No —"
"You stand in my garden and you feed me nonsense about magic mirrors and sorcery. I asked you to entertain me. Not to mock me."
"I'm not mocking you, this is real —"
"Nothing you have said is real. It is the ravings of a madman or the inventions of a liar.”
"I'm telling you the truth! Where I come from —"
"You are a farmer's son. You have never left this kingdom. You have no magic mirrors." She moved closer. "If you wish to play the fool, play it well. Do not insult my intelligence by pretending your foolishness is truth."
My mouth was already moving before I had even fully lost control of it.
“You would know the truth if it knelt before you and bled,” I heard myself saying. "But you are so accustomed to being lied to that honesty offends you. Every man in your court flatters and bows and tells you what you wish to hear, and you have grown so fat on it that when someone speaks plain you call it mockery."
The princess became perfectly still. "I have housed you. I have removed your chains. I have kept you from the Commander's hand. Am I such a plague that even my kindness is met with contempt? I am trying.”
"Trying! Ha! What have you tried, princess? To ease your conscience? To sleep better knowing you've softened the pillow of the prisoner beneath your bed?"
"That is not —"
"Tell me, then. What do you think of yourself? When the court is empty and the crown sits heavy and you are alone with whatever passes for your reflection, what do you see?"
"I see a woman doing what she must," the princess retorted. "I see a woman who was never given a choice and has made the best of the choices forced upon her."
"You mean woman so sheltered that she mistakes her cage for the world. You hold court and play at justice and believe yourself merciful because you occasionally loosen the leash on your dog."
"Do not speak to me—”
“Did you hope I would lie as sweetly as your courtiers?"
The princess's hands were trembling. She pressed them tightly to her sides, the tremor contained but still present.
"Say it, then," she murmured. "Whatever poison sits in your mouth, have done with it."
"You punish the poor for being poor and reward the obedient for their silence and when someone dares to speak the truth you call them cruel because cruelty is easier to dismiss than honesty." A pause. "They call you a monster, princess. The kingdom whispers it. And you hide behind your walls and tell yourself they are wrong."
"They are wrong!” The princess met my gaze, her eyes filled with tears.
“I think you are proud and so profoundly alone that you cannot tell the difference between keeping someone close and keeping them captive."
She acted before I had a chance to react. She pushed me with both hands against my chest, hard enough to make me stumble back. I caught her wrist reflexively and we were grappling in an instant, pulling at each other. Neither of us let go; our feet were tangled on the stone path until she fell backward into the fountain.
Water splashed everywhere: over the stones, over my shoes, over the princess, who was sitting in two feet of fountain water with her gown billowing around her and her hair plastered to her face. Her expression was one of such absolute, incandescent fury that I thought, for one second, she might kill me with her bare hands.
Footsteps. The guards were already running, their boots pounding the garden path. Two of them rounded the hedge, their swords in hand.
"Your Highness!" The first guard reached the fountain's edge. "Your Highness, what —"
The princess looked up at me with wide eyes before focusing on the guard again. I was certain of what was coming next: the stable, the chains, Olc, and the same harrowing ordeal I had just barely escaped. It was all about to repeat itself because I couldn't control my own mouth, nor could Cassian control hers.
"I lost my footing," the princess said. "The stones are wet.”
The guard was surprised. "Your Highness?"
"My hound attempted to catch me and was not quick enough." Her gaze locked with mine. “That is all.”
"Shall we summon the Commander —"
"I said that is all." She stood. Water cascaded from her gown. She emerged from the fountain with as much dignity as a wet princess could. “Fetch Muime. I require a change of clothes. And one for my hound as well.”
The guards left, and the fountain's water dripped onto the stone path.
I was there trembling and soaking wet. I did not understand why the princess had lied and protected me. She wrung water from her sleeve without looking at me. Then she walked back toward the palace, with a trail of water following her.
I followed.
Ten paces back.