In a room with sufficient light streaming in from the widely open windows was a round table covered with an endless array of food. Seated around the table was Botch and Mileka.
"Oh, love, have yah ever tasted anything so delicious?!" Botch asked his wife as they both dug into a freshly grilled beast that was placed at the center of the table.
"Indeed Botch, and I have no idea what animal this is supposed to be." Mileka said, "It tastes so divine."
"Are yah not tired of eating?" Rug who sat by the window clicked his tongue while watching them. "Yah’ve been stuffing yah faces everyday since we got here!"
For the three days they’d been in the palace, they’d been served only the most delicious food and the finest wine, or beer, or whatever it is they requested for. And Botch and Mileka made it their duty to try them all.
"I thought I was supposed to be the embarrassment of us three, now yah both embarrassing me."
"Oh, Rug ol’ man, when ever shall we get a chance to dress in the finest of robes?" Botch rose to his feet and did a little spin around for Rug to see the fine robe he was adorned in. "Or try out all these delicacies!" he tore into the meat in his hand, his lips now shimmering with oil.
"Aye, Rug, yah know we were really lucky this time. We have to enjoy it while it lasts," Mileka added and Rug merely shook his head.
"I say, from now on, we go around saving every wounded man on the street! We don’t know who we might save next!" Botch said with a boisterous laugh.
"Says the man who did not want to help in the first place." Rug retorted.
"But I did. And see where it landed us... In the royal palace of Trago! Who would have guessed!" He laughed even harder as he looked around him.
"Ah, Rug, yah still haven’t told us how yah know the queen. What’s she got to do with yah?" Mileka asked.
"Aye, how does she know yah name?" Botch added.
Rug took in a long breath and let it out loudly, then he turned his face from the two and stared out the window. "Tis a long, old, and uninteresting story," he said and Botch and Mileka simply returned to the feast before them.
Looking out the window, from a distance, he caught a glimpse of Rakavi, walking hand-in-hand with her husband and he muttered to himself...
"One I hope we will never have to visit."
***
After coming to a mutual decision, on how to capture Lyle and what to do with him after his capture, they had discussed other things like how to put Neriah into society again once all this was over.
The entire kingdom was thinking she had killed her husband, so even though he came out later safe and sound, they would still be skeptical. After all, where there is smoke, there’s fire.
Their talks ran for over two hours straight and when it was over, King Gerald had asked Barak to have a drink with him separately, so the two left the others.
Neriah on the other hand was held by her mother and mother-in-law, their talks ran long even though they were both basically telling her the same thing repeatedly.
That she needed to get more exercise during this stage of her pregnancy. Since she was already seven months gone, she needed as much exercise as possible.
Physical, mental, emotional and the most important of all, sexual exercise.
Neriah had prayed for the ground to swallow her whole when both women began to tell her about the importance of consistent sexual exercise before childbirth and how it helped loosen the female muscles.
It was a long, teasing, and exhausting discussion that drained Neriah but left her with lewd thoughts for the next time she was in the arms of her husband... her lover.
***
As Aria helped her mistress with her bath, she was also deeply lost in her thoughts.
"Ouch! Aria," Neriah cried as Aria’s nails scratched her shoulder while she washed her.
"Oh, goodness. F—forgive me, princess. I must have lost my mind!" Aria immediately apologized in panic as she patted the slightly bruised surface with a soft cloth. "I am so sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking."
"Indeed, what exactly have you been thinking about over these past days that has got you acting out of character?"
"My, wh—whatever do you mean, princess?" She questioned with a look of confusion on her face.
"Yesterday morning, while pouring tea for Barak and I, you spilled some. You never spill tea. At noon when the sun was high in the sky, you tripped and hit your head on walls more times than I can count. At night, I asked that you bring me some apples, you brought me a new set of blankets!" Neriah turned her entire body in the tub so she could stare directly at the woman she was talking to.
"If that’s not you acting out of character, what is?"
"I—" She hadn’t realized it. She hadn’t realized that she’d been making a mess of herself to the point that Neriah had noticed.
"Something is on your mind Aria, tell me, what is it?"
Indeed, something was on her mind.
Someone.
But how could she ever... A lowly maid like herself, how could she even dream of dwelling on the words of that person? It could all have been a joke. There was no way a man like him would actually—
"Wait for me a little while, when all this is over, I’ll court you officially. You will not turn me down then, will you?"
"Oh, my lady! I think I have indeed lost my mind! I keep thinking of him and his words and I cannot help myself." She covered her flushed cheeks with her hands as she stared at Neriah. Memories of her brief yet unbelievable conversation with him replaying in her head.
"Who? Who are you talking about?" Neriah asked confused, for it was the first time she would see Aria in such a state.
Aria looked up at her mistress and confessed. "His Highness, Prince Raknar—"