Dawn light filtered in from the kitchen windows.
Meena was standing over a table looking pretty in her maid uniform.
Her brown hair was tied back with a ribbon to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Her hands were covered in flour.
A tray on the table was filled with unbaked breakfast rolls.
Meena slid the tray into the oven, wiped the flour from her hands with a wet cloth, and turned to greet me with a smile.
"Why if it isn’t the Master of the House," she said. "You’re up early."
"I’m not the Master. That’s Arkdam."
She snorted. "He’s the Master only in name. Everyone knows you run things now, Elijah. You think people don’t notice how Beatrice looks at you?"
"That’s a secret."
"Well the secrets out."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." I said, clucking my tongue as I walked up to her. "A maid of the house leaking secrets? We can’t have that."
She batted her eyelashes at me.
"Well what are you going to do about it, Elijah? Or should I call you Lord Elijah?"
I slid around behind her and pulled her close, hip to hip. My hands roamed up to her chest to give her breakfast rolls a squeeze.
Meena sighed happily and leaned back into me.
She put her head on my shoulder. My fingers found the nubs of her nipples through the fabric.
I squeezed, rolling them around in my hands.
Meena twitched.
"Not so hard!"
I buried my face in her neck and inhaled her scent. Today she was wearing mulberry perfume. I nibbled on her earlobe and whispered:
"I love your breasts. So soft and warm. I could do this all day. Bury my face in them. Sniff their scent. Suck on your perky pink nipples."
She laughed and tried to nip my ear back.
"I wish my fiancé would complement me like you do."
Meena’s boyfriend had proposed to her a week earlier. They were scheduled to be married in the spring.
But their sex life was lackluster, and Meena was happy to fuck me on the side—so long as her hubby-to-be didn’t find out.
When she announced her engagement, we’d celebrated in my bedroom with a glass of wine, a cheese platter, and several jumbo servings of direct-inject creampie.
"What?" I said. "Fiancé doesn’t like your breasts?"
"I wouldn’t say ... mhm ... that he doesn’t like them. But he’s been busy with work. With the ... Frostfell Gala coming up in Windmoor Castle I’ve hardly seen him these past few days."
I let go of Meena’s tits. They plopped down, stretched out a few centimeters, and rebounded to their usual position. Gravity-defying.
Then I realized something:
"Your fiancé works in the castle?"
"Yea ..."
"Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!"
Meena looked at me funny.
"Because you didn’t ask!"
She took my hands and placed them back on her chest, guiding them around in circles.
"Besides. Why do you care? Are you interested in ascension or something?"
"Ascension?"
Meena giggled.
"You seriously don’t know what ascension is?"
"Nope."
She laughed louder, breasts heaving against my hands.
"Master of the House! Hah! Don’t you know anything?"
I twisted her nipples for being cheeky. She yelped and jerked away from me.
"Stop that!"
"Answer my question then. What’s ascension?"
Meena sighed.
"Men. Why are you always trying to get to the point?"
"Women. Why are you always using twenty words when two will do?"
Meena stuck her tongue at me. Then she straightened her apron and slid back into my arms, this time chest-first.
I reached down to fondle her ass cheeks.
She slid her hips back and forth against my groin, nurturing my fast-growing erection.
"Let’s not talk about boring stuff," she murmured. "Let’s talk about this monster in your pants instead."
I pushed her hand away.
"Answer the question."
She pouted. She flipped her hair. Hints of mulberry perfume.
"Fine. Ascension is the promotion system for castle employees. That’s how the castle gets its staff. At major castle events the aristocratic houses are permitted to put up certain staff members for candidacy. It’s seen as an honorable gesture. To sacrifice a member of one’s own family for the greater good."
"Makes sense," I said. "But not all the candidates are chosen, right?"
"Right. Only a select few. The best of the best. The event attendees vote on who they wish to be promoted."
"Ah, I see. So the castle gets talented employees. And the house gains currency in the form of prestige. Having an employee chosen is a sign of your house’s power."
"Yup."
I stopped to think.
"And the next opportunity to ascend. It’s during this Frostfell Gala thing?"
"Yea."
"When is it?"
"In three days’ time."
My heart was thumping against my chest: and not entirely because of Meena’s hip grind. Ascension.
It was the perfect two-birds-one-stone opportunity.
If I could get Beatrice to put me up for candidacy, a little wooing and charming would get me hired into castle employment.
That would put me one step closer to seducing the Queen and raise the Crystalion’s prestige.
"You think Beatrice will put me up for candidacy?"
"Well, I suppose. She is the most senior member of the family. But you’ll have to convince her to attend the gala."
"What do you mean? She’s not attending?"
"Did you forget? Beatrice has all but avoided public life since the late Lord Crystalion passed away. If you want to attend the Frostfell Gala you’ll have to convince her you to take her there."
Meena looked at me curiously.
"Why do you want to work in the castle? Aren’t you happy here with us?"
"Because I care about this family, of course!"
Meena snorted.
"You might fool Jeana with that but you can’t fool me. You’re up to something."
I pinched her nose.
"Maybe. But it’s not of your business."
Meena slapped my hand away and pouted.
"You never tell me anything! You could at least tell me what you’re up to, as a way of saying thanks for giving you the information."
"Nah. I have a better way of saying thanks."
I grabbed the hem of her uniform and hoisted up the skirts like a fisherman hoisting a net from the sea.
I blinked. Instead of underwear I was staring at two ass cheeks, round and smooth and firm.
"You’re not wearing panties."
Meena squirmed against me. Her breath was hot and fast against my neck.
Her soft tits pressed into my chest. Her hips were grinding against my thigh, and there was a dark spot on my uniform where she had soaked me with her wetness.
"Well," she murmured. "A maidservant has to be efficient. And I figured since you come to the kitchen to fuck me every morning anyway. I might as well ... you know ..."