The Princess's Hidden Power

The cloaked figure slowly approached the city at the base of the castle. There was no hurry evident in its stride nor did the small creature on its shoulder seem agitated in any way. The moonlight shone through a break in the clouds illuminating the road as it led to the city gates. The guards on duty roused themselves as they became aware of the stranger's approach.

"Halt!" The most senior man among them shouted when the cloaked stranger was twenty paces distant. The figure stopped. "What business do you have at this hour?"

"I seek entrance," came the melodic voice from within the dark hood, "To rest after my long journey. I seek to cause no trouble." A lie.

"Approach and submit yourself to a search," The man barked. The stranger complied and slowly made her way towards the group of young men anxious to strike before being attacked.

As she got within a few feet of them she reached up and removed her hood, disturbing the small creature on her shoulder. It let out an irritated screech and took to the air. It circled twice and belched a small puff of fire before settling once again on the young woman's shoulders.

"Be at ease, Nazel," she cooed to the small silver dragon.

Turning her gaze back to the assembled men who were giving Nazel suspicious glances, she let a disarming smile flit across her features. The men hesitated at her sylvan appearance and tightened their grips on their weapons. Under their glares the officer stepped forward.

"I know, Nazel, I know." The tiny dragon chirped irritably in response. "But it was simply child's play, as they say." The corners of her mouth turned upwards.

"Besides, I can not let such simple fools stand in my way. Mustn't let myself get rusty. This world saps my magic each day. The fallen shall rise once again."

The empty streets didn't impede her in the slightest on the trip to the palace. Once within the grounds it was once again a simple task to find a female servant and remove her. Donning the young woman's clothes and casting an invisibility charm on Nazel, Elriithe made her way inside the castle proper and began her spy game.

 

Yhir remained enigmatic, and refused to say any more – he did however cock his ear to the west, as though sensing something far beyond the ken of those assembled. He clambered from branch to branch, looking out over the garden as though savouring it. “So pretty... so sweet...”

 

Wait...what? All I can do is stare blankly as Yhir pretty much ignores everything we said and starts...looking at the garden, I guess. It's hard to tell if he's doing this on purpose or if he really is that scatterbrained.
"Yeah, it's a nice garden and all. So is there anything else you wanna share with us, maybe?"

Halvdan let out a small sigh and muttered to Turin, a look of dismay written on his face.
"I believe we already have our answer to that."

Lucius, still looking somewhat indignant, waved his hand dismissively.
"I see no reason to take his inane ramblings so seriously. Although...I suppose it would be wise to tighten up our defenses just in case. Excuse me, I must go inform the guards."
Despite his formal and composed demeanor, he still wondered in the back of his mind just what Yhir was talking about. Even so, all he could do was perform his duties to the best of his ability.

With a heavy sigh, I gaze up to the sky absentmindedly. That's when I realize...it's getting pretty late, isn't it? My eyes widen at the realization.
"Our duel!"
Hmm...I don't think this guy's gonna give us anything else to work with tonight. Yhir...what's his angle in all of this? I'll be keeping an eye on him for sure, but for now, I can't let anything else distract me. I've gotta get to Celest's place! I turn back to the others for a quick goodbye.
"I guess we'll have to solve this mystery some other time. I'll be back later, I've gotta take care of something."
Lucius gives me a suspicious glance on his way out, but I just ignore it and give them a quick wave before heading back to my room to change.

Now left alone with Cereza and the strange creature known as Yhir, Halvdan turned to Cereza with a curious expression.
"Well, this has been quite a day. I was hoping my new home wouldn't be boring but this is a little more than I expected. Is this castle always so...busy?"

 

"You! Where do you think you're going?" Called an old crone of a woman.

Elriithe turned as the rest of the castle servants fixed their gazes upon her. The old woman moved quickly towards her, an angry scowl on her face.

"Well," the woman said loudly, her nose inches from Elriithe's own. It was a struggle to keep her expression just the right amount of confused and scared.

"I... I... Uh..."

"Your name?"

"K-Kylie," she managed to stammer.

"You must be the new girl," the old woman turned away with a scowl and started walking. "When she realized that "Kylie" wasn't following her, she turned back and shouted, "Hurry up, I don't have all night, girl!"

"Y-Yes!" Elriithe said and rushed to catch up.

She was led into the kitchen, then showed to the large washroom, and finally to the bathing hall. She was assigned to laundry duty, when she wasn't scrubbing the hundreds of thousands of dishes. As she was told by the old hag, who was simply called Matron.

The tour was ended with her being dropped into a large room with twenty other women of various ages. Her small cot was pressed into the corner farthest from the small washroom. A few of the women nearest to her introduced themselves. Likewise "Kylie" did the same, fabricating a past for herself on the spot. The others then began chatting amongst themselves in the way that humans do while "Kylie" simply observed them. They had plenty of interestingly dull things to say. Like which guard was the cutest, who they'd love to marry, how they hated working in the castle and despised Matron. Something "Kylie" could at least empathize with.

Whenever any of them would look at the new girl the group would exchange knowing grins and then giggle together. Thankfully they all went to sleep soon after her arrival.