A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 39-40

Anor 30th,3330 A.G

When she woke, so many worries of the past were already forgotten. So many colors seemed brighter, so many textures softer- but what stood out the most were how clearly she thought.

  Just yesterday she would have needed a moment to search her brain for the information a devotee sought, but as she asked herself these questions now- she found that the answers came to her immediately.

  Is there someone in the world right now who could benefit from the laws of their territory changing? Yes of course. There's a woman in Kaeles who lives with her lover and is about to be walked in on. They'll be killed by their village near dwellers before the day is over with.

  Millie Amalone is sitting at her vanity, allowing a servant to brush her hair. Tobin and Barat Amalone are both busy having their separate tantrums, and Roisa can't decide what to wear to the crowning ceremony- though it is understandable. The girl has one hundred and eleven dresses. One hundred and eleven- yet she'd still growing and most of them won't fit by the same time next year. Only seven will, to be exact.

  Auriol turned over in bed, her face expressionless as she thought of all these small things. At the end of the day none of it mattered. There were much bigger issues to be discussed, wars that would go on for decades and quite literally kill so many that people would stop counting- yet it weren't the will of the gods for her to worry of that in this moment.

  It were their will that she attend the crowning ceremony clean, so she finally rose and moved to open her door. Out on the staircase, many devotees were waiting to see what her first words as high priestess would be- likely expecting something profound.

  Auriol shook her head.

  Her successors first words as high priest had been 'I should like to visit the high lord. We have much to discuss.' His first word ever had been 'Cloth'.

  "I should like to bathe." She said calmly, and that calm were instantly felt. "It's been too long."

  It would still take time to get used to this new authority, she realized- as it weren't the responsibility of every person here to attend to these things.

  She looked around and picked the first person her eyes landed on- a young trainee who had not taken her oaths yet but looked old enough and strong enough to carry buckets a few paces. While they did have the water pipes, there were no baths with running water yet- so those still had to be filled manually. An image flashed across  Auriol's mind of a devotee (when these were first installed) trying to plug up the pipe on a bathing room's floor that the wall one fed into so she could put the bath there-

  But all she succeeded in were making a mess. Because of how the tubs were shaped they didn't allow for such shortcuts, and Auriol briefly noted that she would make sure that changed. There was no reason for people to waste their time on the buckets when a simple redesign would prevent that.

"You will fill my bath." She finally said, and the trainee did just that. She had to commend her for how little time she wasted- once they were in a bathing room she had the tub filled in five minutes, disappeared and returned eight the clean black robes Auriol requested.

  She was efficient in her bathing too, as she did not intend to start off a priesthood with being late to her first official duty.

She took a carriage to the castle/main home with a few devotees to witness, and noted along the way how many people bowed to her. Most stayed that way until she were out of sight, and that were one thing she still found confusing.