"That flag... does it mean that the rider comes from the Emperor?" Talia demanded.
She stood at the window, wrapped in a thick dressing gown as she dried her hair, and watched as the messenger rode slowly down the long drive. Fioria came to stand beside her and took the towel from the Princess's hands to finish the job.
"Yes, my princess," she agreed in a low voice, setting the towel aside and leading the princess to a chair.
Fioria began applying oil to the ends of the Princess's hair, and then, using her fingers, worked it through the glossy brown and red strands, massaging it into her scalp. The tension in her lady's neck and shoulders did not lessen at her ministrations. The Princess continued to stare out the window, a deep line forming between her brows.
"You returned quickly," Talia remarked, and left the unasked question to hang in the air.
"The Prince summoned me to ask if there was anything that my Princess might require that she did not have," Fioria answered.
Talia scoffed, and finally turned her attention to the mirror. She reached for the jar of face cream on the table. Opening the lid, she sniffed it lightly, grimaced and set it back without using it.
"The scents they use are so very strong here," the Princess complained. "Smells of alcohol and dead flowers."
"Are there Vezdan products my Princess would prefer? We could ask the Prince whether-"
"I want nothing from that cursed man!" Talia snapped, crossing her arms.
Fioria nodded slowly and continued to massage the Princess's scalp. When she finished, she selected a different bottle of oil from the table and knelt beside Talia, adjusting a footstool for the Princess to prop her leg on. The Princess complied and Fioria began to massage the oil into first one leg and then the other.
"What nonsense did you tell him?" Talia asked, returning her attention to the window, as though the answer did not interest her very much.
"I said that my Princess had made no mention of any specific item, but that she would appreciate the opportunity to visit the grave of her sister Queen Ora," Fioria replied.
Talia nodded quickly.
"That was well done of you. And what did he say to it?" she asked.
"He refused. But then I mentioned that the Princess would treasure news of Vezda and what had transpired there since she had left," Fioria continued.
"Yes, I certainly would, and what was Prince Mikhail's answer to this?" Talia demanded.
"He made no reply, only said that I should ask for something else," the servant mumbled.
"How I despise that man!" Talia seethed. "That he would deny me even the small comfort of knowledge of home. He truly is a demon."
Fioria nodded slowly and lifted the princess's foot to massage oil into her heel.
"And the Prince made no mention of travel... or of taking me somewhere?" Talia asked lightly.
"No, my princess," Fioria murmured.
Talia frowned. She could no longer see the messenger. The rider must have reached the stables. Perhaps the Emperor was finally sending for her. She had been expecting it for some time. The servant girl wasn't likely to tell her the truth anyhow. Far more likely that they would drag her out of bed in the dead of night and spirit her away to the Emperor's dungeons while everyone slept.
"Do the people of Unaria tell the same stories of Prince Mikhail behind his back as we tell in Vezda?" Talia wondered aloud.
"I do not remember hearing stories of Prince Mikhail in Vezda," Fioria admitted, "but there are rumors and whispers that mention the dark deeds he has committed. They call the Emperor their sun, the light of the Empire, but they call Prince Mikhail the Moon. They say it is because he reflects the glory of his brother, but when there is no nobility around to hear, they also say it is because he belongs to the darkness."
Talia smirked at her words and leaned forward, interested now.
"What else do they say?" she prodded.
"That he killed his mother, the 13th wife of Emperor Aleksi, because he discovered that she had been unfaithful to the Emperor," Fioria continued, dropping her voice to an almost whisper. "And they say that he himself is not the son of the last Emperor, but of a palace servant, and that is why he has taken no wives. Should a wife of his become pregnant, it would be proof that he is not of the Emperor's line, for he does not bear their curse."
"Do you know what they say of him in Vezda?" Talia asked.
Fioria stopped, still clasping the Princess's foot and stared up at her with wide eyes. She shook her head no.
"They say that his mother, the young 13th Queen, was so desperate to bear his father a child that she found an ancient demon in the mountains and sold her soul for the secret of how the first queen was able to give birth, but the demon tricked her. He convinced her that the 1st queen had gotten her child through a demon, so she lay with him and conceived Prince Mikhail. The Prince killed his mother when he discovered it, so that no one would suspect his true paternity," Talia gossiped.
The servant smiled wryly and began to massage the Princess's foot once again.
"He is cruel and unfeeling, just like a demon," Fioria admitted with a shrug. "Perhaps it is true."
"Indeed," Talia smirked settling back against her chair and closing her eyes.
"I wish..." Fioria began in a low voice and stopped. Talia opened one eye. "I-I wish that I knew more of the stories that were told in Vezda. I wish I knew what hair styles the women favored and what jokes they tell in the marketplace. I remember so little..."
"You must remember some things," Talia frowned, certain that the girl meant to once again disarm her by arousing her pity. "I believe you said you were six years old when you were captured.
Fioria nodded and slid the Princess's slippers over her feet.
"I remember the Starving TImes," she explained. "It is all I remember because it was so terrible then. It was bad the first year and worse the year after when the crops failed a second time. I remember always being hungry, and I remember hearing children crying no matter where you went. We lost my youngest brother. There were many losses in our village that second year."
Talia frowned and nodded slowly.
"The House of Eosin was not immune to the Starving Times. We suffered loss as well," Talia murmured."Those were bad times indeed."
The two women lapsed into a companionable silence, as Fioria stood and began to turn down the bed.
There is something about shared suffering that can bond even the most bitter of enemies and the Starving Times were, to all Vezdans, a horror that had united them all. They rarely spoke of it to one another after it was over. There was no need. Their experiences of those times were all similar - from the royal house to the smallest hovel.
Though if Talia were honest with herself, Fioria had it far worse because she had lost not only her family and home, but her identity as a Vezdan as well.
"Women of Vezda have long favored the scent of the Tartala flower. It comes from a vine that grows along the shoreline in the far south. It is a light scent, sort of fruity and sweet and woody. You can always smell it on market days. They use it in so many of the cosmetics," Talia announced to the ceiling.
Fioria stopped and turned to look at the Princess, the faintest smile on her face.
"And women wear their hair up mostly, and favor very complicated styles. A favorite is to make one thick braid and set it atop your head like a crown and then they bring the rest of the hair through the braid crown and muss it up so that it looks full and big and arrange it in curls. People joke that our female warriors don't need helmets because they make their own with hair," Talia chuckled.
Fioria laughed and clasped her hands together, her eyes shining.
"My mother had beautiful hair. I remember that," she murmured. "It was her pride."
"And there are so many stories... it's hard to pick one. In the time before I was born, before the war, we had theater and music and festivals all the time, but after the war, we just had stories. People would gather in marketplaces and in homes to listen. Have you heard the tale of Queen Tasha of..." Talia's voice trailed off as her eyes were drawn to the window.
Pulling her dressing gown tightly around herself, she stood and went to the window, looking down on the long drive. Fioria came to stand beside her.
Outside, Prince Mikhail, dressed in full armor, was riding out, followed by a few dozen of his guardsmen. The rider who carried the Emperor's flag rode at the end of the procession.
"What do you suppose..." Talia muttered.
"I don't know my princess, but I assure you, I shall endeavor to find out," Fioria nodded to her and then slipped through the door.
Talia turned back to the window and watched as the procession left the manor.