Moriah arrived at her courtyard not long after.
She came in calling her name before she was even through the gate, her voice warm and soft.
”Sister Elyndra!” She crossed the courtyard quickly and stepped inside the chamber.
There, Elyndra was sitting in front of her desk, Moriah walked and sat opposite her.
She took both of Elyndra’s hands before she could think about moving them.
“I can’t help but be worried about you.”
Elyndra looked at her.
”They keep saying things,” Moriah continued, lowering her voice slightly, leaning in.
“That you use clever words to charm the crown prince. That you’re not what you appear.” She squeezed Elyndra’s fingers.
“Ignore them. They’re jealous. Anyone with eyes can see it.”
Something in Elyndra loosened slightly.
Just slightly.
”I’m glad you don’t think so,” she said honestly.
Moriah smiled wider.
“Of course not. We protect each other, sister. That’s what we do.”
She said it so simply.
So warmly.
For just a moment Elyndra let herself believe it.
—
Senna hurried forward from inside the chamber.
”Your Highness,” she said carefully, bowing low.
“Items have arrived from the Crown Prince.”
Moriah gasped immediately.
“Oh?”
Several servants entered carrying folded dress and carved wooden boxes lined in silver.
Even Elyndra paused slightly.
The dress alone looked impossibly expensive.
Deep midnight blue, simply cut, with gold at the cuffs and hem.
Beside it, a small sealed letter.
Elyndra looked at the dress.
Then at the letter.
She broke the seal.
The crown prince’s handwriting was clean and direct.
He would be riding out past the palace walls this evening and was extending the invitation if she wished to join him.
Nothing more than that.
She set the letter down.
She looked at the dress again.
Before she could say anything, another maidservant entered carrying trays of.
food.
”Your Highness,” she said softly, “all princesses are required to take their midday meals.”
Elyndra’s appetite vanished almost instantly.
”I am not hungry.”
The maid hesitated nervously.
“But…”
”You should eat,” Moriah interrupted gently.
“Do not let bitter people ruin your appetite.”
Elyndra looked away.
”It is not that.”
”Then prove it,” Moriah challenged lightly.
After a moment, Elyndra sighed softly.
Moriah smiled before finally taking her leave.
Too quiet.
Sunlight rested warmly across the table as Senna carefully arranged the dishes and poured tea into cups.
The tea still steaming gently, a small bowl of rice, braised vegetables and preserved fruits.
She pulled the chair out and sat down.
The tea was pale gold.
Jasmine.
Light and clean, no bitterness to it.
Ordinary looking.
She lifted the cup and drank.
She turned to ask Senna something and stopped.
The girl was standing near the wall with her head lowered, hands folded, waiting to be dismissed.
She looked pale.
Thin in a way Elyndra hadn’t noticed properly before.
The kind of thin that came from not eating enough over a long time.
Her eyes had shadows under them.
Elyndra looked at the tray in front of her.
Then at Senna.
”When did you last eat?” she asked.
Senna’s head came up quickly.
“Your Highness…”
”That wasn’t an answer.”
The girl was quiet for a moment.
“I eat regularly, Your Highness. Please don’t concern yourself…”
”Senna.”
Something in her voice made the girl stop.
Finally, Senna lowered her head further.
”…Yesterday morning.”
Elyndra’s expression darkened slightly.
She pushed the tray slightly toward the other side of the table.
“Sit down.”
”Your Highness, I couldn’t possibly…”
”I’m not going to finish it,” Elyndra said.
“I don’t eat much. It would go to waste. Sit.”
Senna sat.
Slowly, carefully.
Elyndra gestured at the food and turned back to her own portion and ate without drawing attention to it.
After a moment she heard the quiet sound of Senna beginning to eat.
She didn’t look over.
She let her eat in peace.
”How long have you been here?” Elyndra asked, after a while.
”Three years, Your Highness.”
”And before that?”
A pause.
“My mother was a court lady. She served the queen’s household.”
”Was?”
The word sat between them.
”She died,” Senna said quietly.
“In the palace. Two years ago.”
Elyndra set down her spoon.
”I’m sorry,” Elyndra said.
Senna nodded.
She didn’t say anything for a moment.
Then the words came slowly at first, then more.
About the maidservants, how they were treated, how little they were permitted to say about anything.
Some of them were there for debts their families owed the kingdom, and they worked it off in service, sometimes for years.
The food was not always enough.
The hours were long.
When something went wrong it was always the maidservants who bore the weight of it.
”And the crown prince?” Elyndra asked carefully.
“Does he not…”
”His Highness is never here,” Senna said.
There was no bitterness in it.
Just fact.
“My mother used to say, before she passed, that he was sent to wars when he was fourteen. After his mother died. He’s been away more than he’s been home ever since.”
Elyndra went still.
”His mother,” she said slowly.
“You mean…Queen Desdemona is not…”
Senna looked up, surprised.
“You don’t know??? Everyone knows, Your Highness. Queen Desdemona is his stepmother. His real mother. Queen Estella. She died when he was fourteen.” She paused.
“They said she was ill. But my mother…” She stopped.
”What did your mother say?” Elyndra asked quietly.
Senna looked at her bowl.
“She said it wasn’t illness. But she never said more than that.” Her voice had dropped to barely above a whisper.
“And then she died too.”
The room was very quiet.
Elyndra sat with it for a long moment.
Something was moving in her chest, not surprise exactly.
Something colder than that.
Something that had been waiting to be confirmed.
A memory arrived without asking.
Her mother’s voice.
Her mother’s hands.
Warm, hurried, Her mother turning back once to look at her before she disappeared.
She had been so small.
She had cried for days.
Elyndra pushed the memory away quickly before it could settle too deeply.
”You’ve been very helpful, Senna,” she said carefully.
“What you’ve told me stays in this room. Do you understand?”
Senna nodded quickly.
”Good.” Elyndra looked at the empty bowl in front of the girl.
“From now on, when I take my meals here, you eat with me whenever you are hungry.”
Senna stared at her.
”Your Highness…”
”That’s settled,” Elyndra said simply.
“You can go return the dishes.”
Senna stood.
She bowed, deeper than usual, and held it longer.
When she straightened her eyes were bright.
”Thank you, Your Highness,” she said softly.
Then she was gone.