Freyr sleepily opened his eyes and looked at the still familiar ceiling of his bedroom. Yesterday morning had potentially been the last morning he was supposed to be able to see the familiar sight, so he felt a momentarily sense of relief that he still had another few days to wake up to the sight. It was only a few more days though, and on top of that his parents had suggested starting to incorporate his two new servants into his daily routine right away.
Freyr wondered if he should now be regretting his decision to act friendly with the two newcomers. It was what it was though; Freyr probably wouldn’t have actually changed his actions if given the choice. Nothing was better than seeing his mother’s face soften at the sight of him successfully interacting with strangers. It was actually almost worrisome how much relief that single conversation between Freyr and the envoys had brought her. Freyr knew that he wasn’t one to interact with people outside of his family much, but he hadn’t realized how worried it had made his mother.
On the topic of worries, Freyr had an unexpected one floating mindlessly above him. It seemed like Sir Magni’s fire spirit had decided to follow Freyr instead on the way back to his bed chambers after the banquet. Freyr was unsure if he should actually address the piece of Brandr since he wasn’t sure when Íris would be arriving to help Freyr with his morning routine. At the same time, the feminine flame spirit might have followed Freyr for a reason other than just curiosity since they had actually stayed until Freyr had woken up.
“Um, can I help you?” Freyr quietly whispered towards the floating humanoid figure.
Their eyes lit up as soon as Freyr acknowledged them. This particular part of Brandr seemed to actually speak, versus just telepathic images other flame spirits used, since Freyr heard a radiant voice respond to his question. “So it’s really true that you can see and communicate directly with us! My younger sibling flames visited occasionally and it was all they could talk about. I wasn’t sure yesterday since you had no reaction to me waving at you, yet your eyes did seem to look at me at one point.”
Freyr sat up on his bed since it seemed like the deity was going to be one of the more talkative ones, and he still had to get around before Íris arrived. The flame spirit at least seemed like a friendly spirit, so he decided he could at least continue the conversation with them until his new handmaiden got there.
“I apologize for that, but I don’t want anyone to know I can directly interact with any of the deities freely.” Freyr hoped the flame spirit wouldn’t be the ones that would disagree with his choice and try to convince him to share his powers with the other mortals. Many deities wanted to use him as their traveling mouthpiece afterall.
Freyr was a bit relieved when the spirit got a knowing look in their eyes and nodded. “That’s understandable. It’s been a long time since we have had a mortal, other than our specific temples’ priests, that could interact with us so directly. The world now is vastly different from back then, and many things would probably be too overwhelming for mortals to learn now after all these centuries.”
Freyr latched onto the offhanded comment the flame deity just made. There were previous mortals like him? Before Freyr could ask them to elaborate, there was a small knock on the door. Freyr muttered a small curse under his breath as he raced to behind his dressing partition before Íris could enter.
“E-enter!” Freyr called out as he quickly threw on the simple over dress he had laid out for himself the night before.
Watching the mortal servant enter, the flame spirit quickly whispered one more thing to Freyr before disappearing. “You can just refer to me as Brandi since we will be seeing each other a lot more from now on. Also, I’m okay with any pronouns, but I usually prefer female pronouns nowadays.” Brandi winked before she vanished, most likely going back to wherever Sir Magni was currently.
Freyr had no clue what to make of the appearance of the newest enigmatic deity that was “Brandi”. He didn’t have time to dwell on the quickly interrupted conversation with “her” either; Íris had entered his bedchambers and was waiting for Freyr to direct her in what her duties would include.
As Freyr came out from behind the dressing divider, Íris dipped slightly into a curtsy. “I have come to start my duties as your primary handmaiden. Her Majesty, Queen Ivithia, gave me a few of the duties and also boundaries that Your Royal Highness may have for me, but I would like to check with Your Highness before I start just to make sure nothing was forgotten.” Íris rose from her curtsy before she continued. Once she got a small awkward nod of acknowledgement from Freyr, she started the list of do’s and don’ts she had gotten from his mother. “First of all, Your Royal Highness prefers to bathe and dress by yourself and will not need any of my help with either of those duties. Your Highness does occasionally need help caring for your hair; so after I wake you and you finish getting dressed, I should offer my assistance every morning with brushing and doing up your hair in whatever style you should wish for that day. While traveling between towns, I should also keep an eye out anytime we stop to let Your Highness bathe so that no one may accidentally get a view of you bathing. Lastly, your mother would like me to become your reading and socialization companion. My duties as such will include reading the same books as you, and then help you get used to socializing by discussing the contents of said books each evening. If you should have any other duties for me, or if you would like me to change how I carry out the current duties, please just let me know.” Íris curtsied again, reiterating her servant position.
Freyr just nodded, unsure what to say at that moment. When Íris still just stood there, Freyr hesitantly spoke, trying to come up with the words as he went. “For now, what my mother shared with you is fine…” Although Íris stood back up from her curtsy, she still made no attempts to move from her location, so Freyr awkwardly continued; his long hair giving him an idea. “Since you are here, do you want to start with doing my hair for today? It will give me a chance to see your skills with a brush before we start traveling.”
Íris immediately followed Freyr over to the seat in front of one of his mirrors, then picked up his boar bristle hair brush. “What type of style would you like today?”
Freyr shrugged. “I’ll leave it up to you today so I can get a sense of what you can do.” Freyr really didn’t care that much what his hair looked like day to day.
There was an almost calming silence as the young woman softly brushed Freyr’s long silver blue hair. He didn’t often let the maids brush and style his hair, usually only accepting the help if there was an important event happening, so having someone else lightly guiding the ornate wooden handled brush through his hair was a rare occurrence for him.
Íris had a very steady and soft touch to each stroke of the brush. It was so rhythmic that Freyr felt himself relaxing completely and started to really enjoy the experience; he could see himself letting her continue doing his hair every morning after this. It was obvious that she had been well trained growing up to become a fine handmaid for a proper noble lady. It seemed like a waste that Íris was going to be stuck with him instead for the next month and a half, and maybe even after the trip as well. He was still appreciative of her hard work brushing his hair though.
Íris had moved on to the styling part of doing his hair, and Freyr decided to close his eyes and just enjoy the movements that were happening without worrying about what the end result would look like. He somehow felt like he could trust this woman with at least his long luscious locks of hair.
When Freyr felt Íris finish manipulating his hair, he slowly opened his eyes again. Most of his hair had been pulled up into a high ponytail and there were several small braids semi randomly dispersed throughout as well. It was neither masculine, nor overly feminine either. She really had done a decent job coming up with a style that he would like without any input from him.
As Freyr glanced at his new maid in the mirror, he thought he saw a pale green light fading on her collarbone. That would probably explain the comforting feeling he had around her: Íris had started channeling Sláine’s blessing at some point.
Comments (2)
See all