“Elisi from today will be the king’s servant,” said Jeremy to Mirna.

“Is that so?..”

Jeremy got silent for a moment, then told her that the king is feeling better, therefore Elisi will show herself in the kitchen the next day.

Mirna did not look pleased, yet there was nothing she could do about the matter, at least not at that very occasion.

****

Jeremy kindly prepared a bath for Elisi once she finished eating her soup.

Now her body didn’t feel like it was carrying a log. The king had told her a healer came because her fever was very high and she was hallucinating.

Red circles appeared on her cheeks when she heard about that.

She sank her head into the water.

The only place to hide is underwater where everything sounds peaceful. But she could not hold her breath any longer and pulled herself up.

The soak had some kind of milky color with a flowery scent; it made her skin feel soft.

The smell of the soap sweetened her senses as if flowers touched the tip of her nose. Yet it was not the king’s smell, his was always fresh, like clean snow.

If he knew her thoughts, he surely would kick her out. A maid in love must be the most annoying thing to him.

She needs to think about sea otters again. How could such shameful sentiment fill her mind? That was beyond her, especially after he showed her so much kindness, more than she ever offered to him.

When she got out of the shower room, he spoke to her.

“Tomorrow you’ll be able to go back to your room,” the king could not keep his eyes out of his desk “you will serve me fully from now.”

He didn’t use to have that desk before, at least not in his suite.

Elisi’s hair was still wet from having taken a bath and was battling to dry her hair with the towel.

The King did some motion with his hand, and her hair became dry.

Elisi, of course, looked shocked but made no sound.

She stood suddenly and bowed to him.

“Thank you, my king, for drying this hair of mine and having taken care of me all this time,” Elisi was still struggling to speak formally with him. Speaking properly didn’t come easily to her. 

She tried to improve her speech over and over again, but it wasn't easy to change the old casual speaking habits. Even inside her head she tried to use proper language, yet upon seeing him, all her thoughts jumbled together.

She felt indebted to the king, who stayed by her side all this time. He undoubtedly had more important things to do. She thought he was wasting his time on her. Then Elisi realized she wanted to keep helping him even more. 

"what does his majesty would like me to do as his maid?”

The King looked at her with a stoic face.

“Elisi, do not force yourself to speak in such a manner,” said while drinking his tea “you can talk as you normally do... At least do so when there are no strangers around.”

“I will, your majesty,”

It was Elisi’s last night in his room. Somehow she was feeling nervous to see the other maids again.

Since she first took over the job to be under the king’s service, they seemed to have become cold towards her, but maybe it was all in her imagination. Perhaps she needed to let go of the fears from her past.

Elisi read some books the butler brought to her to pass the time and put her mind off the awkward situation in the room. No guests could enter the king’s suite while he was sick, well, except for his daughter.

“When you come into this room, just rest on the divan. There’s no need for your work tomorrow,” he said while writing his papers.

The King did not move from his desk all day, there was a pile of paperwork that accumulated from the days before, as well letters he needed to replay.

The room appeared quiet and warm. Elisi has never known so much comfort. If she were to be allowed, she could stay like this forever, reading books by his majesty’s soothing company.

Everything became blurry when her eyelids closed because of her tiredness. She jumped to wake herself up and noticed it was already night. She left the books over the table, then buried herself under the covers to go to sleep. She wanted to take advantage of this moment.

“Don’t sleep on that rest, go to bed please,” he was still writing his letters without taking his eyes off it “I cannot afford to lose my healer”

Obediently she drew away from the covers, walked to the bed while admiring how the light of the candle warmly kissed him, and got inside the bed, barring herself inside once again, then peaked outside a bit and spoke to the king.

“Sebastian also said you should rest. The people cannot afford to lose their king. You too should rest said Sebastian” Those remarks took all the courage in her heart, then she buried herself entirely inside the blankets.

The King stopped his task and looked up, perplexed at her words.

It astonished her that such words just came from her mouth. She clinched into the blankets, strongly wishing they will protect her from her wrongdoing.

How could she speak like that and to the king nonetheless?

Once she took the covers away to peak out, it was already morning. Apparently, she fell asleep right after her head touched the pillow.

The worries she had last night didn’t last so long, for she could sleep so well.