12
"I have a lot of new recommendations for the kitchens," some other Elven woman said. "I would like to speak to Lady Froya one of these days."
"Your ladyship will have to wait until she arrives," Orla said. "She is always on the road these days."
The food was served at this point. The formerly quiet atmosphere was now punctuated with light conversation from the Elves. Even the other workers were a bit at ease.
Except me, that is. For some reason I could still feel the emperor's gaze on me. My skin pricked with the realization. I couldn't tell whether the emperor had his gaze still on me because I had turned my gaze down and refused to lift it up. I didn't see him after that.
But I did hear his voice.
Lady Orla, having coordinated us towards serving the food, spoke then.
"Your Imperial Highness, Volkov," she said. "Is the spread to your liking? Is there anything else you and your distinguished guests would need?"
"Nothing else. Out."
It was rude and dismissive like a noble's speech to a lesser would be and I awoke to who the emperor was- was said to be.
And once again, I realized: it wasn't enough to just be Elf. You had to be noble.
I didn't stand a chance in this empire.
I stayed awake on my bed late that night as I relived the events at the Grand dining hall.
When we had gone back to the kitchens, Orla did not comment on my little accident, but she laced me with a steely gaze as she told me to join in the preparation of meals. Apparently, she wouldn't have me disgrace her at the dining hall again.
Once bitten, twice shy.
I settled into cooking. I wouldn't be visiting the Grand dining hall for a long time. But it was probably better that way.
I pushed all thoughts of the emperor from my mind, because they came insistently, thoughts of him. I would only be deluding myself if I engaged in such thoughts further and so I avoided all thoughts of him with vehemence.
It was easy after my first week at the royal kitchens. I was consumed by more and more work daily and since Orla did not let me do serving duty at all again, I had all my time spent on strenuous cooking.
After two weeks, I had gotten used to my new job. Danica had gotten used to avoiding me and I was happy, a bit. The previous incident was still fresh on her mind even after a week. Although I denied the phantom, I suspected that she must have thought me responsible for summoning it, else it would have been a very lucky coincidence. And what a close call for whoever was responsible, then.
She had been too shaken to even make a report- and I was glad for that- but if she had, it would have been a serious issue. Malign magic was strictly prohibited as we well knew.
At least Danica was distracted with other things these days.She was spending more and more time with some Elf guard that usually sneaked into the clearing behind the workers' quarters building to see her at night. I did not really care. I supposed a secret relationship should be therapeutic after the experience she had had the other day.
I talked with the Fae girls more and more each day and Pepper and Blossom were only too responsive, naturally chatty as they were. I learned more about the empire and the capital.
Did I know that the Imperial complex had a little over two hundred rooms, noble and servants' quarters inclusive? These rooms were spread across tens of private apartments and megastructures made with limestone and marble. In addition, the Imperial Complex had four game rooms, three gardens and three Kitchens, a large throne room of crystal and about three other smaller courtrooms and also, stables of horses and Pegasi on each end of the grounds.
Did I know this? No. But I did not particularly care.
I found out that the emperor was planning towards marrying an Elven Princess named Ostara Faust- the princess of a neighboring Elven Kingdom. According to Pepper and Blossom, she had pure red hair and dark eyes and she was very beautiful. She would marry the emperor, they said.
The emperor did not have siblings- as they assumed I knew- and presently, his cousin, Ronan Bathory was named First Successor and would ascend as Emperor if anything were to happen to him. Ronan Bathory was already married with a child- a little girl- hence the imperativeness and pressure on the part of the emperor to marry and produce a son as successor if he should for any reason be unable to rule. I personally did not see anything happening to the emperor anytime soon with all his famed evil- so Ronan Bathory could hold on.
I haven't a clue how they find out all of this information but it seemed these girls knew everything from what the name of the guard Danica was seeing is, to how old everyone who was anyone was. They even knew the names of the emperor's rouées.
There were six women in total that were the royal courtesans of the emperor and Pepper and Blossom knew all the names of all six of them.
I didn't pay much attention to them the day of the discussion because the discussion had unsettled me for some reason and so I could only remember one: Scarlett, the rouée with fiery red hair who was said to be their leader because she was said to be the most pretty.
And yes, the girls mentioned how pretty the rouée women were. The prettiest Fae women in the capital, they said. I didn't argue; I couldn't argue about people I had never seen before even if I wanted to.
There were a lot of things I heard them say today: many things I'm sure they must have talked about as we prepared to report to the kitchens, but I took only a few with me. Tieran Volkov would be twenty-eight this year, almost a decade older than I was. He was also a skilled swordsman and he sparred at the grounds below in the Imperial Complex's Gladiators Arena.
The arena was very accessible from the Royal kitchens and Pepper and Blossom said they used to go there and watch the emperor every once in a while. And they weren't alone. Other Fae and Elf that worked in the Imperial complex as well as other noble women and men that resided in the premises usually watched the emperor take on a brave challenger.
Tieran Volkov never lost a battle. But if you held your own against him favorably, you stood to get gifts- money, horses, ranks, positions, carriages- depending on how generous he was feeling.