037 – Morning Chores, Meet The Queen Prepare For Dinner

The next morning, Linell, the page-girl, was in for some practice. Roxanne had acquired an old target dummy from the guards and after going through its straw for broken arrowheads used it for hitting practice. Today she was teaching Linell to properly throw a punch into an object, not just the air. The Sorceress had already had breakfast, and was puttering in her work room prior to attending court when the guard at the doors of the wing announced Her Majesty The Queen.

Rox and Linell both quickly went to the door of Roxanne’s room and stood at attention. A platoon of guards with pikes filed in and took up station along the hallway, and turned to face each other, backs to the wall. One stood beside where Rox and Linell stood. The Queen strode through the double doors that demarked this wing from the adjoining ones. By the time she had reached where Rox and Linell stood The Sorceress had exited her work room and stood at its door.

Rox watched impassively, looking over the woman who was Queen. She stood about the average height of the grown women Rox had hitherto met on this planet, being most of a foot shorter than Rox, coming up just past her shoulders. Roxanne had gathered that this particular set of monarchs did not set much store on ostentatious costuming, or putting on airs. The woman strode along, rather than paraded. She wore a simple local style gown, with a gold sash tied around her waist. Rox had learned that instead of head gear, this kingdom’s trappings were in neckwear; The Queen wore a large necklace of gold squares with precious stones set into centers. A gold and silver linked chain accented the necklace. Her black hair had the front combed back and tied at the back, holding the rest down and behind her shoulders, where it fell in waves to her mid-back. She had some powder applied to her face to even her skin tone; her features were softer than The Sorceress, but with a few more pronounced age and worry lines.

The Queen’s brown eyes looked Rox over as she walked past, taking in her light blue translucent dress and gold chains from her neck to her legs and arms, and briefly took in Linell in her proper page costume. She then put all her attention on The Sorceress. As she stepped past, Rox realized that The Queen’s hair was actually a bit of salt-and-pepper, rather than all black.

She watched as the two old friends greeted, and hugged each other. They went into the work room, and Linell took Rox’s hand and led her back to practice.

“Once she is in a room, those lining the halls are free to return to what they were doing.” Linell lined herself back up to the dummy and began to practice hitting it, making her hands red. Rox continued to teach Linell to throw a punch with either hand, and to toughen her hands. Twice during each practice session, they would pause to pick up and replace the escaped straw, and fluff the rest. Rox was pleased with Linell’s progress, and was starting to teach her to block. Shortly the time for the lesson was done and Linell returned to her Page duties.

Roxanne begun her routine for this time of the day, and went to The Sorceress’s bed chamber and began to tidy it. The Sorceress was an innately neat and orderly woman, so there was little for Rox to do, beyond air it out, sweep the floors, and chase about with a duster. Once a week the curtains on the windows and in the doorways were taken down by a staff and beaten for dust. The suites layout was a mirror for the one Roxanne inhabited.

Next door to The Sorceress’s suite was the dining room for the wing. This single room had a table in the center of the end nearest to the doors with eight chairs around it. This sat lonely in the middle of the room, with serving tables lining the walls on either side. The high ceiling of the bedrooms carried on through this room, here supported by a gothic arch with the clerestory windows above. The outer half of the room was arranged as a sitting area, with a side door into the Sorceress’s suite, and opposite a stairwell with a dumbwaiter down to the floor below.

Rox swept this room, and dusted the decorative furnishings. Various busts, two large paintings of scenes she only identified as a battle and a landscape of somewhere, and other decor. The Sorceress had promised to teach Rox how to dust and sweep by magic; this lesson scheduled for this afternoon.

Once done in here, Roxanne was to proceed into the workroom, and clean it. If it was laundry day, she was to take all the clothing to be washed, and either help or retrieve it when done. Once done with these and whatever other incidental chores, she had the rest of the morning to herself.

The Sorceress had begun putting out prepared bits of spells for Rox to memorize in her work room. During their afternoon lessons these would be explained. Rox had been learning fundamentals, how to recognize what she sensed, and what it meant. She learned how to do some basic spells, like igniting fires, or flaring them. She had also learned about using assorted languages to better control meaning, and thereby to better control the power. Then the Sorceress had introduced the ‘bits of stuff’ and the idea of things having links and resonance. The bits were used in representation of larger amounts of the same, and to help shape the spell. Drawing on her concentration skills from her martial discipline, Rox was learning these fundamentals quickly. What she was not learning was many actual full spells.

The evening would be etiquette with the stewards that brought dinner.

So far Rox had not gone into the room opposite the dinning room and next to her suite. The Sorceress never talked of it specifically. Generally she said it was storage, and not to worry about it. The door into it from her suite was locked from the other side.

Rox left the dining room, having finished her chores there. The guards still lined the hall, and muffled voices still carried from the work room, its doors still open, but the internal curtains drawn across the doorway.

Having nothing better to do, Rox went back to her suite to wait for further instructions. She left her own doors open and closed the inner curtains, and then began to pummel the dummy. She had quite literally knocked half the stuffing out of it when the curtain at her door was drawn back. She wondered after why she had not heard any movement, as opposed to most other times when the halls echoed everything.

Roxanne drew herself to attention, turning to face The Queen and The Sorceress. For the first time she actually felt the chains constrict her movement, and correct her posture to slightly more erect. She had been warned that the gold slave chains she wore, starting at a choker and going down to each of her limbs were magic, and that this sort of thing would happen in royal company, and only briefly resisted it.

The Sorceress spoke. “This, Your Majesty, is my current assistant. Her name is Roxanne. She is here until she buys herself free or her husband show up to retrieve her.”

Roxanne felt the chains move her to kneel and did so as the two women approached. Two guards from the hall moved to stand in the doorway, facing the room. The Queen was slightly shorter than The Sorceress, but both looked the same general type, full dark hair, slim figure, and a glance that missed nothing. The room was spotless except for the spilled straw.

The Queen took it all in. “Why is the dummy here?”

The Sorceress almost smirked. “Roxanne is a master hand fighter. She is using it to maintain her skills, and to teach the Page who was here earlier.”

The Queen looked impassively on Rox. “The square of the long side of a right triangle?”

Rox felt the choker at her neck stop tingling, and realized that it had started when she had first stood to attention. She answered almost immediately. “Is equal to the sum of the squares of the other sides, Your Majesty.”

“Where do you come from?”

Roxanne had to think briefly how to answer this. “Ah. . . Another world.”

The Queen waited.

Roxanne continued. “I was born in the city of San Jose; State of California, on the planet I understand is locally called Terra. Your Majesty.”

The Queen turned to The Sorceress. “Why is she here?”

The Sorceress looked at The Queen. “I do not know, nor does she. She and her children were kidnapped by agents from this world, and brought here. They sold her to a slaver, who paid her as tax to cross our boarders. Beyond this we do not yet have any more meaningful information. I do not dare scan her memory with magic, and there are no talents around to do so. She is certain from a dream she had that her husband is following after her, in company of another.”

The Queen turned back to Roxanne. “You are certain she is not a threat?”

The Sorceress answered this quickly. “I am certain she is not a threat to us. To those who took and separated her from her children, she most definitely will be.”

The Queen looked Roxanne over again, and then turned. “Carry on. I will see you in court.”

The Queen walked out, the guards falling in step with her. They turned and went out of the main doors.

The Sorceress watched her leave. Roxanne felt the magic on the chains release, and stood up and approached The Sorceress.

“My Lady, what am I to understand of this?”

The Sorceress turned briefly to Rox. “Understand that she is still worried about this treaty that is being developed and the reasons for it. Your being here is unexpected, and so she must judge whether you are a threat or innocent interloper. To that end, a tailor is going to be sent for, and you will attend the state dinner this evening.”

Roxanne nodded. “Yes, My Lady.”

The Sorceress started to leave. But Roxanne stopped her.

“My Lady, what do you mean by ‘a talent’?”

“One who has the ability to read a persons mind and memories. Their individual abilities are varied, so no other specific title can be applied. The closest community is several weeks travel to the north east. They keep to themselves, mostly. The previous King had one as a retainer, but the man left when that King died.”

The Sorceress’s tone ended that conversation, and she left to get her necklaces for wearing in court.

The Tailor showed up shortly and Rox spent the rest of the day standing on or by the dressing pedestal as a formal dress was built around her. To her mild surprise, the slave chains were to continue as part of her formal costume.

Roxanne finished with the tailor as two formally uniformed guards came to retrieve her and The Sorceress. The Sorceress had returned to her suite in the late afternoon, and several Pages accompanied her.

Roxanne’s costume for this dinner had a translucent strapless shift under all, with a petticoat around her waist. There was no collar to anything she wore with this costume. The flounce was worked over several times to get it right. Then another petticoat was put on. Due to her comparative height new pieces had to be cut and sewn, instead of adjusting existing pieces. One thing Roxanne noticed was that the sides were slit up just short of her waist. A corset was constructed; this required that several seamstresses be sent for to accomplish the required sewing. Padding was added to the bust to fill out what Rox lacked naturally.

In a spare moment, two stewards washed Roxanne’s now completely platinum hair, and quickly set her mohawk up and tied the sides into two braids that went behind her shoulders. By now Rox’s mohawk stood up, mostly on its own, a hands span tall from her bangs around the back of her head. The sides hung past her shoulders. Roxanne had considered shaving the sides, but had not yet come to a conclusion. Gold squares about an inch to a side were attached into the bottom of the braids on each side. Another steward quickly and expertly applied a layer of light colored powder to her face and left that as all the makeup she got.

The dress was of a deep blue color, and feltto Rox like silk. Roxanne was not much of one for dances or formals, so she lacked the vocabulary to really describe the cut and style of the dress. Its top settled around her chest with close cut sleeves over just her shoulders, and a sash around her waist, and some pleats in the skirt. A translucent vest billowed as she walked.