Young Writers Society

Elena Galanthiel stood in front of the palace, clutching two pieces of paper. She admired the palace made of beautiful marble and intricate gold-colored designs. It was grander and more beautiful than anything she had seen before.

The first paper Elena held was a letter from her sister that she had received about a week after arriving in the capital of the country, Avadain. It read:

My dearest sister, Elena,

I wish you luck with your new job in the castle. You may be starting off as a kitchen maid, but I know you will reach great heights. Do not lose sight of your goal.

All the best,

Amaya G Lockhart

The “G” Amaya had included as her middle initial was a silent nod to her true last name, Galanthiel, that she could not reveal to anyone. She didn’t want to risk being found out as one of the last surviving members of the true royal family. Elena decided to keep the letter from her sister close to herself. She folded it and placed it in her dress, a new one she had bought a few days prior in preparation for her job in the palace.

Ever since their mother had died ten years ago, Amaya and Elena had grown closer than ever. They had to work as hard as they could to not only sustain themselves, but to also make a plan to get their kingdom back. They did whatever they could to earn enough money for transportation to the capitol.

After that, getting an interview to be a maid at the palace wasn’t too hard, considering the pay wasn’t actually that good, and there was a lot of work. Most of the people who worked there did so for the free lodging, or because they thought it would give them a better social status.

The other piece of paper in Elena’s hand was a set of instructions sent to her by the man who would oversee her work in the palace, Timothy Smitt. It read: Take the door in the Southwest corner of the palace. Show the guards this paper. Find Timothy. Simple enough.

She folded the note from Timothy as well but kept it in her hand. She smoothed down her cream-colored dress and started her walk towards the palace, flinging her single light brown braid over her shoulder.

--

After about 20 minutes of walking and searching for the door, Elena finally found it. She approached the two guards guarding the entrance. The guard on the left looked her up and down, a hungry look in his eyes. He leaned on the wall behind him. The other simply stared at Elena as she approached him.

“What is your business here?” asked the more serious guard as the other subtly licked his lips. Elena put a sweet smile on her face and approached the serious one. She handed him the folded note in her hand.

The guard skimmed the note over multiple times. “Go through this door and take a right. Timothy should be in the kitchen with the rest of the maids,” he said while handing her back the note. She took it and walked through the door, an enthusiastic expression plastered on her face. The guard on the left followed her in with his eyes, but Elena ignored him.

She followed the guard’s directions and took a right after passing through the door. She came across a large kitchen and peeked inside. It was bustling, many maids walking around, cleaning dishes and glasses and whatnot. She set her eyes on the one man in the room, assuming he was Timothy Smitt, the man she was looking for.

She rushed over to him, nearly bumping into at least two maids on her way over. She stopped right behind him and waited for him to finish talking to a short, sweet-looking maid and turn around to see her. After seemingly an eternity, he turned to face her.

“Mr. Smitt?” asked Elena sweetly with a smile that reached her eyes. Timothy Smitt looked her up and down, a slightly confused look on his face. After a moment of realization, his face hardened to a sterner expression.

“You’re the new maid, aren’t you? Elena?” he inquired. Elena nodded enthusiastically. He gestured at the woman he was talking to. “She will help you get situated. You start right away. There’s a lot to get done,” he explained curtly, before promptly walking away to tend to other matters, not even giving Elena enough time to respond.

Elena turned her attention towards the maid, who smiled at her. “I’m Reeve! And you’re Elena, right?” Elena nodded, and Reeve started swiftly leading her out the kitchen through a hallway. She kept talking through the walk. Elena thought her speech was almost too fast to understand.

“I’ve been working at the palace for almost two years now. Most maids that come through don’t even last six months, but you look tough.” She looked back at Elena briefly, who was trying her best to look like she was listening. “I bet you’ll be able to last even longer than me.” She continued to talk until they reached their destination: a worn-down door leading to a small room. Elena and Reeve stepped inside.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” asked Reeve, walking away from her. She got on her knees and started rummaging through a large box toward the back of the tiny room.

“I suppose not, I prefer to keep quiet most of the time. Keeps me out of trouble,” chuckled Elena. Reeve stood up and smiled, handing her a barely-stained apron from the box.

“This was the cleanest one I could find. Keep it, it’s yours now. I’ll show you to where you’ll be sleeping when we’re done with work. Let’s head back now, those dishes won’t clean themselves!” exclaimed Reeve, speed walking back to the kitchen with Elena in tow.

--

The day passed excruciatingly slowly, and Elena was exhausted by the end of it. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with a relatively dry cloth before throwing it in the sink she’d been cleaning at. The kitchen was nearly empty since most of the maids and cooks had finished their work and left, but Reeve had stayed behind to help her.

Elena sighed and turned around to see Reeve smiling up at her. “You’re all done, then?” she asked sweetly. Elena nodded, too tired and annoyed to say anything more. Reeve saw her exhaustion and smiled sadly. “Well then, let me show you to where you’ll be staying.” She turned on her heels and walked out the door, Elena following just a few steps behind.

The walk was quite a bit further than their last one, but Elena had her thoughts to occupy her. She started to have her doubts about her plan.

Elena and Amaya had initially planned for her to befriend someone of high enough social status to get close to the royal family. After doing so, she’d take any chance she had to kill them, by whatever means necessary. However, at this rate, her best bet was to somehow poison food that was served to the royal family. Maybe it was time to get some information.

“Hey, Reeve? The food the chefs make in our kitchen, where does it go?” Elena asked innocently, interrupting whatever Reeve was going on about.

Reeve made a funny face. “You mean, who does it get served to?” Elena nodded.”Well, the kitchen we work in makes food for the guards, mostly. There’s one other kitchen that prepares food for the royal family and their inner circle, but it’s very exclusive to only the best chefs.”

Elena tried her best to hide her disappointment. It seemed poisoning wasn’t in the cards if she couldn’t physically access the food she needed to contaminate. Honestly, Elena should have expected this; of course the king and queen would have their food well guarded, especially considering their rule was pretty controversial. Elena was back to square one and felt that she might have to use the original plan she had made with Amaya.

After a while of walking, Reeve finally stopped at a set of doors. “We all sleep in these rooms.” Reeve led Elena into a rather large room filled with beds lined up in a row with chests at their ends. “This is the room I stay in. There’s plenty of vacant beds; you can pick whichever one looks empty. There are showers down the hall, and you can get some food near there too.”

Elena nodded and walked further, thinking that she was too tired to get any food. She decided on a bed near the edge of the room. After reaching the bed, she sat down and looked around. It was such a relief to rest her legs after a long day of standing. There were five, maybe six other women in the room, a few of them conversing with each other. She tried not to look at Reeve, who had sulked over to what looked like her bed.

Elena almost felt guilty. Reeve had shown her kindness throughout the day, and Elena had basically ignored her, except for when she wanted information. She shrugged it off and got ready for bed, opening the chest at the end of her bed and finding a robe to sleep in. She placed the letter from her sister in the bottom of the crate, beneath her dress and apron.

Maybe she’d be kinder to Reeve tomorrow, or even try to be her friend.

Maybe.