The next morning Janessa woke slowly, the bright sunlight coming in from her windows causing her to stir slowly. She let out a soft groan as she sat up. Her head ached, and the room around her seemed like it was spinning. Slowly rising from her bed, Janessa walked over to the nearby desk, where a cold cup of water sat.
An excited smile crossed Janessa’s face as she took a sip, trying not to think about how badly her head hurt. She was getting married! And to a nobleman! She never could have dreamed she would get to marry someone so important. As a concubine, the most she could have hoped for was to be the mother of one of the men of the royal family’s children. She liked Anya and her harem sisters, but Janessa had never really wanted to be a concubine.
The prince…she paused for a moment. For some strange reason she couldn’t seem to picture his face. She knew she had met him—she had to have—but it was as if a fogbank drifted in front of his image every time she tried to remember what he looked like.
Anya said she looked eerily similar to him, and many nights had been spent wondering with the other women if she was somehow distantly related to the royal family. They had ruled Karagot for long enough that red hair was present in small amounts even amongst the peasants, and Janessa wished her parents had lived long enough to tell her more about their past….
The redhead pauses for a moment, wandering over to her room’s mirror. A beautiful, busty redhead with grey eyes stared back at her. It was the same reflection she’d seen every day for years, but something seemed strange, almost unfamiliar about it.
Janessa dressed and did her hair, pausing briefly to strike a pose in her mirror before she left the room. The thought of Sven’s reaction to her in the beautiful silver dress she was wearing caused her to smile happily, her headache briefly diminishing as she did.
Janessa made her way through the hallways towards the palace’s dining rooms, passing palace staff nodding respectfully as she passed. One guard was bringing a sword with an elaborately decorated hilt to an armory for cleaning, and Janessa felt a pang of sadness. She’d had a sword like that, even if she hadn’t used it much…..
The redheaded woman stopped, frowning. That was even more strange. She hadn’t touched a sword in her life…had she? The most she’d used was a small dagger for protection on her way to Karagot’s capitol. Shaking her head slightly, she continued towards the dining rooms.
Greta was waiting there for her, a slightly glassy look in her eyes. Janessa had met the pretty maid when she’d first arrived in the capitol, and the two had become good friends. Greta’s father had been a guard, and had trained his daughter as much as he could to follow in his footsteps.
Greta was too short and slender to wield a blade or mace, but she knew how to use her beauty to entrance and distract men perfectly. She had been the one who’d gotten them the warning that the rebels were coming, and had snuck back into the harem to help Janessa later on.
Greta barely reacted as Janessa sat down next to her, staring into what seemed like thin air. “My head has been hurting all morning.” She complained. She turned her head slightly when Janessa admitted the same, and sighed. “Janessa, I love that you are going to be married, and you will make Sven a wonderful wife, but we must not drink so much anymore.” She said.
Janessa frowned, puzzled. She had no memories of drinking last night with Greta. She opened her mouth to ask, but the maid seemed lost in her own thoughts again. Greta loved to flirt with men, but today she seemed distant, and Janessa hoped her friend would be back to normal soon.
As the day went on, Janessa’s headache diminished, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something strange was going on.
Next….