Short, crossed arms and an impatiently tapping foot were awaiting Iris who finally arrived in front of the king's chambers, still quite confused and very much out of breath. She was too late.
As she had expected, it was one of the maids she had met before, when trying on the wedding dress for the first time. It had seemed so far away, so unreal to think that she would marry soon, and suddenly this distant future had turned into tomorrow.
And she was so awfully late.
As the girl came to a halt in front of her, the head of the chambermaids clicked her tongue sharply, swiftly turned around and started walking without any further greeting.
Iris quickly decided to follow in silence. A minute's rest, it seemed, was for the punctual.
The two women followed the hallways and countless steps down to the rooms that Iris already knew from the vision that Aren had shown her. She still remembered everything clearly. The sun-flooded room of light grey stone, glistening copper cookware and flowers dripping with fresh water. The white skirts of the chambermaids flying by and this dream-like dress they had put her in. A lush crimson adorned with the finest embroidery around the chest and the waist, unfolding into a sheer, wide skirt that moved with the slightest whiff, unimpressed by such trivial things as gravity. The soft neckline and this daringly cut out back.
I'm grateful my hair is so long, Iris thought to herself.
Then she noticed they had already passed the familiar door.
Where were they headed instead?
After two more minutes, the tiny hands of the small lady in front of Iris, who walked at quite an impressive pace for her petite size, clapped energetically and waved vehemently.
"Open up already, I don'thave all day!", she commanded.
She sounded rather annoyed.
Heavy doors released underwhelmed creaks.
A sharp stench of ointments, fresh water and alcohol immediately gushed out from between the separating door wings. What was this?
Whatever this air meant, it seemed to be detrimental to life. Just outside this room she was now shown into, there had still been so much light. So many small, shining organisms, insects and plants everywhere whom she now relied on so heavily in order to see. Suddenly, most of them were gone. A vague, dim light surrounded her now, coating this unknown space with but a thin, holey veil, just enough for her not to bump into the furniture. This already promised to become an exhausting experience.
And the chambermaid was obviously determined to make it worse, still.
"This is the infirmary", she plainly stated. "Sit here."
"Ah, yes."
Iris quickly found the chair in question and sat down rather clumsily.
The chinking of metal and strong smell of pure alcohol emerging right next to her got to her nerves. What was going to happen now?
"Usually, I would now begin to examine your body to find out whether you really are a woman, as the protocol requires", the maid began to explain as she graciously took a seat on a chair facing Iris. "I would make sure you are still a virgin and that your body is capable of giving this country the heir it so rightfully deserves, and explain how this heir would come into being in all due detail", she continued monotonically, as if she had already said the same thing quite a few times.
"But", she carried on, brushing something off her skirt casually, "seeing how you spent agood two weeks with him... No man can resist that long."
She eyed the girl whose face had started growing redder and redder around the moment she had used the words "examine" and "body".
YOU ARE READING
Without Words, Without Sight
Fantasy"And in the distance between these eyes that did not see, and this voice that did not resound, he put the flowers and fruit he had picked to describe the scent she had to him. As he put them all into her arms, she understood with a graceful smile. P...
