"Mistress, you should try this tea. Keziah said the other day that it tasted like mint and morning dew," Andrea gushed, a teapot grasped in her gloved hands as she leaned forward with an eager smile.

"This servant does not think that it would be best to pour tea in a moving carriage," Seline said with a crossed frown, her grip on the teacup Andrea had forced into her hand seconds ago tightening. "It is not proper."

"If you worry about ruts and potholes then fear not," Mayree said cheerfully while extending her own teacup towards Andrea. "The Emperor just commissioned workers to build this road some months ago. It goes straight from Asharath to the capital city and was just opened. I assure you that the wheels of our carriage will not so much as shiver."

"That does not mean it is less likely for hot tea to pour on our skirts," Seline argued as Mayree sipped from her cup and Andre cackled in delight, not once looking up or raising her voice. "Mistress?"

All three girls turned to Oris.

Great, she thought, her gaze levelling on Keziah who sat quietly beside her, hands clasped and dark eyes fixed on the carriage floor. Why can they not be more like her?

"The tea is quite lovely, and refreshing." She had had some some days ago when the envoy had stopped to picnic by a lake they had come across. "But it wouldn't be nice if any of you got burnt because of an accident. Why don't you reheat the pot later when we come to a stop? That way we can all enjoy it."

Immediately, Mayree and Andrea looked visibly sobered and bowed their heads. "Yes, Mistress," they said together.

"Yes, Mistress," Keziah and Seline chimed along before the other girls' voices had even started to fade away.

Andrea forced another bright smile to form on her rosy lips as she set the teapot on the long panel that jutted out of the carriage from beside her, even going as far as strapping it down.

Mayree patted the girl on the shoulder and offered her a sympathetic smile along with one of the sugar cakes bundled in the cloth that sat on her lap.

Oris smiled at them and leaned back in her seat. After a week and some, she had gotten to know them well. She almost laughed when she thought back to the days when she needed eye color to differentiate them. They all had such distinct looks and personalities, that she found her struggle back then amusing.

Seline was ordered and curt to a fault. She rarely smiled, didn't seem capable of having fun and spent most of her time waiting for commands. She was only fifteen summers old and the fifth daughter of a jeweler who had been up to his neck in debts. She was sent to the palace to reduce the number of mouths her father needed to feed as well as earn enough salary to support her declining family.

Mayree was the oldest at eighteen summers. She had taken up a sort of mothering role for the group and was the glue that kept the girls together. She was knowledgeable about several things but only gave input when an issue directly involved her. She came from a long line of maids on her mother's side and hence was serving five years in the palace as a sort of christening before marriage.

Andrea was the youngest at thirteen summers, the most joyful and quite generous with affection. Her mother had been the companion of a high ranking consort in the Inae royal harem and used her connections to secure her daughter a position in the list of girls to be the personal attendants of the emperor's potential brides but an incident got Andrea relegated to maid status for an uncertain duration.

Keziah was the most elusive of the group of four, silent and soft-spoken. At sixteen summers she was already an orphan. No other detail was known of her past other than the fact that she was sold into palace because her family had committed an unspeakable crime.

"We should enter Heshera today," the girl said. It was more of a whisper under her breath but Oris had heard it regardless.

"Really?" She turned sharply to Keziah. "So soon?"

"With the appearance of this road, the journey has been cut down considerably." Keziah nodded to herself, her eyes flitting up briefly to meet Oris' before her gaze returned to the floor.

"Enough that a three day's journey can be shortened to one?" Oris hadn't meant to sound doubtful but she just found it incredible. Her nerves had long since died away with her acceptance of a new 'let go and let Fate' attitude but it was still surprising.

If there was one thing she hadn't forgotten from her days as Queen of Orse, it was distance. She knew of Asharath and of Inae as well, and there was no road between them that could be traversed in a day.

By now the other girls had clued in to the conversation. Noticing more attention on her, Keziah bowed her head till her chin hit her chest and started picking at the lace at her sleeves.

"Asharath is the emperor's maiden home, so of course he made a road to get him there as fast as possible," Mayree supplied when no one else did. "Without bumps along the way and extra routes to follow, Asharath and Heshera can be connected by a straight line through the forest that lies between them. Maybe at the latest, we will arrive by noon tomorrow."

"That must have taken a lot of manpower." Oris said halfheartedly. She knew of the forest. It nothing but a massive graveyard for the men and women who crossed Hermes.

As her thoughts drifted to the number of bodies laid beneath the road itself, her head suddenly ached.

"At least we don't have to spend more nights on the road," Andrea said dreamily. "I can't wait to lounge in the warm palace baths."

"Then the selection will begin," Seline said, and the carriage quietened.

It had been quiet before but now there was tension simmering above them, tainting the very air they inhaled.

"I'm sure our Mistress will get selected," Andrea said, her words an obvious attempt at bring cheer back into the topic.

It didn't work.

No one said a thing until Keziah started speaking again. "I've seen the others, the brides," she said quietly.

"You have?" Oris turned to her in surprise. It hadn't occurred to her that the maids would have been in contact with her competition.

"We all have," Mayree said and the girls nodded along.

"What," Oris cleared her throat, almost afraid to ask. "What were they like?"

"Prepared." Keziah said, then turned to face the curtain by her right, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

"They had maids that had been with them since they were babes," Andrea nodded furiously while glaring at the teapot. "They will think we are lesser for only knowing you for a week and some."

"They were welcomed in with honor," Mayree said, an irritated look on her face. "The clothes offered to them had been finer than yours. Their convoys more exuberant and detailed. They had more than four personal maids bestowed."

"Really?" Andrea squeaked, her eyes almost glittering as she no doubt imagined it all.

"And that is not the worst of it," the oldest maid continued with a deep frown. "Because our Mistress is the last, she will have almost no time to scout the palace and form alliances. She would be abandoned."

The silence was back, thick, heavy and pregnant with uncertainties. Oris couldn't fight against it and she doubted her maids could either. She had grown particularly fond of them and couldn't bring herself to think of what their fates would be if—when—she failed to make anything of herself in the palace.

"I am sorry," she said under her breath, not knowing whether anyone but Keziah had heard her. The girl did not show any signs if she did.

Oris knew that red hair was not in style and that she had been disadvantaged from the very beginning. But she had not fled the convent with hopes of being Queen. She had done it to save some lives, but now somehow she had the hopes of four girls on her shoulders.

Hopes that Hermes would see something special in her. Hopes that she would become someone of importance. Hopes that she couldn't bare.

But they didn't know that, that was why there was still resolve shining brightly in their eyes.

They still had hope. Hopes that in the end would be shattered by her.

~