Thief of Souls

Chapter Three

She needed to leave Court One.

Siori paced the inside of her lavish rooms, the plush carpet beneath embracing her bare feet. She sighed, melting into a beautiful armchair, and picked up the book on the table, a romance novel, the kind of which she would read often in the Upper World.

This place was so comfortable. The pork dumplings servants had brought in earlier made her feel warm inside and the dress they had changed her into made her feel clean on the outside.

It was a comforting prison.

She walked up to the keyhole and squatted, narrowing her eyes to just barely view the sentinels standing guard outside.

A very comfortable prison.

It was unfortunate she had something to do. Because she wouldn't trade her burden for this comfortable prison even if it felt nice. She had lived her whole life in the palace and had experienced the luxuries of it all, even as a lowly bastard.

Still, a gods luxury for his guest, even his prisoner, was much more than a mortal kings for his love child.

The sound of feet scuffing the floor hit her ears. She scurried back, skewing the table as she bumped into it painfully to the armchair, opening the book to a random page just as the door opened silently.

"Miss Siori?" A soft, giggly voice announced into the room, as if not to startle her.

Siori turned in her chair and blinked as she saw double and blinked again until she realized the pair that stood before her were in fact, twins.

"Lord Hya'aie has called for you!" The one on the left said, her eyes shifting as they analyzed her with a curious open-mouthed O. Her brown hair shook, the curls gleaming at the bottom of her neck

"Oh yes! We've come to dress you!" The one on the right brandished a pair of brown pants that would flow down to her ankles and a white blouse, which the other one helped stretch out. Her chestnut hair settled handsomely, cropped to show their doeish ears, flicking with either nervousness or excitement. But based on Siori's brief observations of their temperaments, she would pin her bets on the latter.

"Where are the other servants?" Earlier when she had been settling into the rooms, a trio of women older (and one might consider more mature) had bathed and prepped the princess, leaving her with a bow and a platter of tiny fish cakes once they had finished.

Now these twins were declaring that they would dress and bring her to their Court god. Siori knew enough about court decorum to know that something was odd with these girls.

She set the book down and stood up studying with a quirked eye the outfit the twin servants had chosen for her. Through her eyelashes she noticed their average height and build and the almost performative way they held themselves.

"Miss," said the more soft-spoken, long-haired one, though she could hear a note of larky in her tone.

"It seems a bit plain for meeting a god?" she said finally stepping back.

They tipped their heads in eerie synchronization, the bells on their necks tinkling like laughter attached to the small ribbons they wore 'round their necks. It was only now that Siori realized she hadn't heard the sound of those bells before this moment.

"The lord isn't so strict as the other gods Miss. We just thought this might be more comfortable for you than a fancy gown!" Said the doe-eared one.

"But of course whatever the Miss wants, we are readily willing to do!" The longer-haired one said with cheer.

Siori shook her head immediately, not wanting to cause any more disturbance than her presence here already seemed to have. "No this is fine. I'm still not sure of the etiquette and rules here I suppose," they nodded sympathetically.