Once the maids helped the Princess get out of the now sticky red dress. Then they carefully helped her remove the rest of her clothes. While this was happening the Princess looked bored and glum. Then once all of her clothes were removed, revealing her naked body to the world. Then she walked through into the main bathing room itself.
Inside was a massive bath. There was easily enough space inside to seat forty people and yet the Princess had the bath to herself. It was fairly plain, with white tiles covering the whole room. In fact, those tiles had been scrubbed so much that they were now shinning and sparkling.
The Princess didn't seem to care much for this though and made her way into the steaming water. As she settled down, she let out a satisfied moan. The warm water aiding her in relaxing her muscles. Then after a few minutes of sitting there, she called out for the maids to enter.
The maids came in with only some clothes on. Each one was carrying an assortment of liquids and other tools for helping the Princess to clean herself. Then they all got to work, scrubbing the Princess and cleaning her in the various oils and liquids that they had brought through with them.
Then once they had finished the Princess waved them away and laid back into the water allowing herself to relax for a bit. She stayed like that until her skin had begun to wrinkle. Then with a little frown, she got out of the bath, the maids reappearing with towels and drying her down.
Although she didn't say anything, the Princess was clearly annoyed at the fact she wasn't allowed to do this herself in the palace. Her frown caused one of the maids to even shiver a little. Seeing this another more experienced maid, pulled her to the side and gave her a pat on the back, and tried to comfort her a little.
The Princess watched this small exchange, and yet did not say anything to the two. In fact, she smiled a bit at this.
Then once she was clean, she had help putting on another dress. This one was pure white though, much more plain compared to the flame-red dress which the Princess had been wearing not that long ago.
Then she walked back out of the room and found herself instantly surrounded by the guards which had now been assigned to her. She sighed at this, thinking that there was clearly no point to any of this. She hadn't even been hurt after all…
"Hey, you do know I don't need any protection right?"
The guard who seemed to be in charge looked over to her and smiled a bit. Though his smile was sad and in a way I was a lot like the Princesses own smile sometimes. Annoyed and lonely.
"Of course I know your Highness, but orders are orders. I expect you know this better than me."
The Princess nodded a little at the guards' words, sharing the same smile in which had.
Then she walked off back to her quarters once more, as she arrived. She was pleasantly happy to see that there was no one there, alongside that the ash from her would-be assassin, had all been cleared away. In fact, if you had never seen it, you wouldn't even know that it happened. That was how well the servants had cleared the space.
Once in her quarters the Princess finally started to think of her new future.
Looking behind herself lightly so that she could talk to the guards clearly, she ordered.
"I want one of you to go to the administration hall as well as the mages academy and the weakest of the merchant groups. I wish you to inform them all that I will be visiting at some point tomorrow. Oh, and I wish you to arrange a meeting with the third guild leader of the adventures guild. Make sure that you are not seen doing this though and finally I want you to get me a scribe, here as soon as possible. I have work for one."
The closest guard to her gave a quick salute then headed off to do the list of tasks that he had been given. The Princess then sat into a chair, quickly deflating and looking exhausted.
While she was waiting, she glanced around her quarters. In truth, it was nothing compared to her brothers, who had their own mansions while they were staying within the capital. She herself had tried to get one but found out that the concubines had stopped her, saying that as a Princess it was better to stay in the palace, where it was safe.
As she thought of them, her anger grew a bit.
Her father the King, in truth, had no real power in the court. It was all controlled by the five of them. Unfortunately for her as the King had gotten older, he had gotten increasingly more weak. This led to him not really making any appearances in the court. It led to the five concubines stealing all of the power from him. The five of them more often than not, were in a cold war as their factions fought each other to claim the court. This itself caused the kingdom to grow unstable, which is what led to the current rebellion.
It is said that it started with a few peasants rising. Well whatever happened, it spread extremely quickly with soldiers deserting and even some nobles joining it. It had only been raging for seven months and yet over a third of the kingdom was now in rebel hands. Then on top of that, another third was filled with them, it was just that they had been unable to take some of the more fortified positions of the military.
Then there was the bandit…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a guard.
"Your Highness, the scribe that you have requested has arrived."
She looked up happily at the guard and quickly had the scribe ushered in.
The scribe was a woman, which surprised the Princess greatly. There were very few women in any form of important position within the government. In fact, the only women the Princess had seen were the maids and the concubines, although she did know that the military did have quite a few female members, more so after her show of power. Even then, there were very few people which she was able to interact with.
The scribe quickly found herself a seat and took and some paper and a quill, with the intent of doing her task already.
The Princess looked at her for a few minutes, to the Princesses' further surprise as shown by her slightly gaping mouth, the scribe did not flinch at all, unlike most other people. Unknown to the scribe her value had greatly risen in the Princesses eyes.
The Princess then came out of her stupor, focusing again.
"So what is your name?"
Her question surprised the scribe, who looked over confused but she still answered confidently.
"I am called Aarna your highness."
The Princess smiled at her.
"That is a nice name, your parents must be proud of you working the palace."
The scribe at the mention of her parents began to frown. The previously confident air which was around her was instantly shattered at the mention of her parents. In fact, even her previously straight back bent a little.
"My parents are both dead your highness. They were soldiers and were killed in action."
The Princess at her words got up and walked over to the girl.
The girl watched on confused at what the Princess could be doing.
Then to her surprise, the Princess hugged her!
The girl froze, not one muscle in her body moved. She was so shocked, a Princess was hugging her!
The Princess though, had a small smile on her face as she hugged the scribe. Then she began to gently pat the scribe as well. This led the scribe to begin to break down a bit.
"My..my mom used to do that."
Then it was like the dams had broken, and she burst into tears. The Princess while hugging her, allowed her to bury her head into her chest.
"It's alright...You are not alone."
They stayed like that for a good few minutes, until the scribe had finally calmed down. Aarna then pushed her way out of the arms which locked her and tied herself up.
"Anyway your highness, you did not call me here just to talk. What would you like?"
The Princess didn't mind the sudden change in tone and just carried on smiling lightly at her.
"I would like a message put up around the city. It should read. I Princess Pavitra, wish for all of those who are willing to go to the northern military camp in six days. This is so that they can be registered for the claiming of new land. My land."
The scribe Aarna wrote this down quickly, then looked back at the Princess.
"Is there anything else your highness?"
The smile on the Princesses' face widened at this.
"Yes, there is one more thing. I would like you to be my personal scribe."