By the time the sorcerer people left, I had managed to read half a book. It was not a particularly long book but the fact I was able to read anything at all while shooting uncertain looks at the boy was still an achievement. I heard the door open and several footsteps followed by silence. I closed the book and looked up. My father and I were alone. He looked tired.

“I hate the Sorcerer Council.” He muttered under his breath. He probably had not expected me to hear.

He walked over to me.

“You should have burnt off a few of their stupid hats yesterday. Could have probably gotten away with it if the fire you built was as big as I was told.” He chuckled. That had to have been a joke.

I set the book back on the shelf before getting up. I was not sure if I could leave yet but I figured I was done with the book for the time being. I could barely remember much from the book so I guess I hadn’t been able to focus as well as I thought.

When I turned back to my father, I found him by his desk looking through the mess of papers. I figured it only looked like a mess but he would know where everything was but judging from the low curse words I heard him mutter under his breath that might not have been the case at all. I watched him mutter to himself. He picked up papers and made what looked like a half hearted attempt to organize his papers before just setting them down almost in the exact same spot. I took a slow breath. I wanted to ask if I could leave yet but I didn’t want to interrupt his “desk organizing”.

“There it is!” He picked up what looked like a booklet. He got back to me and held out the paper. It had the words. “New student orientation” and had an image of what looked like a generic castle but painted a ridiculous shade of gold. The Golden Cauldron school can’t seriously actually just be a castle painted gold, right?

I took the paper and followed my father as he led me to the door. I also realized the orientation paper had a date on it, it was the second month of the season of Dalyt. The season of new beginnings and plant growth. Something about that felt off to me but judging by the way my head was hurting, it had something to do with the bad thoughts that I wasn’t supposed to have.

“Uh… What day is it?” I asked looking up. Looking around I realized I had walked quite far from my father’s office. He of course must still  be in his office after opening the door for me. What am I even supposed to do with the rest of the day? What day  is it?

“It’s about five days from the second month.”

I recognized that voice.

“Larie?”

I took a closer look around. I was back to the plain hallway which I assumed was where the maids lived. Sure enough, I found Larissa Landgeage getting up.

“What are you doing on the floor?”

Larissa let out a shaky laugh.

“Long dress”

She made a half-hearted attempt at dusting off  her dress. It was no good. The fine layer of dust remained. I tried to point out the dust but she did not seem to get it.

Five days, an entire week. Would I have classes for the remainder of the week? Why was every moment in this novel world so uncertain? If only there was a way to know without having to rely on the maid. I could picture her stupid smug face if I were to ask. Or even worse, it could make me look suspicious. These are things that I should definitely know. No, I would rather struggle.

I heard what sounded like a mildly loud thump. Larissa was back on the floor.

“Stepped on the dress.”

She looked so tired.

Should I tell her that I was making plans to take her with me to the Magic Academy place? Maybe not if there was a chance it won’t work. No point giving her false hope. I wonder how I would have felt if I had woken up as Larissa instead of Anastasia. Even though I barely know what is going on, I got a decent amount of freedom and aside from getting in trouble for setting a maze on fire I had to deal with very little consequences. Yeah, I was massively lucky to be the daughter of a noble and not the sad fallen noble.

“Do you need help with…” What does a maid even do?

“I don’t think I’m allowed to accept help.” Larissa gave her dress a rough shake.

“So… I just have to not get caught? Easy.”

Larissa sighed. I guess if I was  caught helping she would be the only one that would get into trouble. My dress would definitely stand out too much if I were to walk around the way I looked… If only there was illusion magic. After all, I had seen it at the maze and hadn’t the magic tutor said that there was illusion magic that is considered a simple spell. I’m sure I could create an illusion that would make me look like a maid. Larissa can’t be the only child maid around here. I looked around for any window or mirror. Finding a window, I walked up to it. Not that I knew how illusion magic worked but still. I closed my eyes, picturing my appearance changing. I heard a small gasp but ignored it. I should give myself black hair and maybe brown eyes and of course I need to have a maid dress.

I opened my eyes. Oh yeah, it works.

My hair was long, and black, oh and I was wearing the stupid dress. I raised my hand to touch my end of my hair but felt nothing. It really was an illusion. I knew it was possible!

“No problem,” I said, facing Larissa again. “What do maids even do?”

“I’m sure,” Larissa began slowly, “that that will still be bad for me. It will look wrong since the other maids avoid both me and my mom.”

Was it because of their former status? Maybe the other maids found them intimidating? Yeah, the whole idea must be bad. I considered letting go of my illusion when I heard rapid footsteps and the slam of a door. It was an older maid and she was clearly angry.

“Did you think I would not notice you walking off? The laundry won’t fold itself! Who are you? Are all the children shirking their duties!”

I blinked. Oh yeah, I looked like a maid. Name, I needed a name.

“Amaya.” I said with as much fake confidence as I could muster.

She shook her head with visible disgust. I don’t know but I think I heard her mutter something about new maids being insubordinate before she gestured us to follow. After sharing a quick look with Larissa, we followed. After going through a door, we found ourselves in what looked like a laundromat. Right, the story has some technology. I still half expected to find lines of people scrubbing cloth by hand with giant tubs of water and scrubby things. I gave my head a little shake. Apparently, laundromats were an innocuous enough part of my past life that my head did not feel the need to hurt.

The old maid pointed out what looked like a pile of sheets and explained how the machines worked and it was essentially just a washing machine. I was just not sure why she was bothering to explain so much. Was it because Larissa and I looked like maids in training? I half glanced at Larissa who was giving the sheets a look that bordered on hatred. I still remembered seeing her getting tangled up in a sheet when I first met her so  I just assumed she did not have many positive memories with her current job. It’s okay, if my half plan worked, she would not have to do it anymore.

After a long explanation, the old maid left the room.

“Looks like I’m a maid for the rest of the day.” I declared in a low voice that I hoped only Larissa would hear.

“Why would you even want…” Larissa’s voice trailed off as she took a quick glance around the room. There were two other maids working but they were on the other end of the room and hopefully too far to hear.

“I think that I.” I stopped. Would saying that I wanted to help her because I felt bad about getting swapped for a better character than her sound condescending? It certainly sounded that way in my head. “I want to help. You’re technically the only person I know around here.”

She made a small scoff as she began to grab a random piece of cloth. I rushed in to help her with it. It was a really big cloth and surprisingly heavy. Who expected a single kid to be able to lift it, no wonder she had so much trouble when I first found her. No matter how I looked at it, Larissa was getting the short end of the stick. Both of us lifting the heavy sheet made it easy but it was still a struggle to push it into the machine and maybe I imagined the other maids chuckling. Not only were they not going to help Larissa but they were going to mock her? Did my own maid receive a similar treatment? I discarded that though. I didn’t want to feel bad about her.

I did not expect to enjoy mindless maid work but the repetitive task felt almost soothing after all the uncertainty in the past four days. Really, the only downside was the two other maids making snide comments from the other side of the room. I had also half expected someone to notice Anastasia was missing but as the hours passed it really dawned on me how little attention the kid really gets. I had been missing for hours, surely someone would care? I listened to the progressively louder laughs from the other maids as I somehow managed to roll myself up in a sheet.

That was it. I crossed the room while Larissa frantically gestured, probably signaling me to come back. I ignored her.

“Something funny?” I asked with a small smile.

“Just two useless maids.” One of the women said with what was quite the impetuous smile. She looked young, maybe in her twenties, while the other woman looked at least middle aged. I felt Larissa grab my hand and start to pull me back to the other side of the room.

“It’s ok. They are always like that. I’m getting used to it.” She whispered into my ear.

Wrong thing to say. Why should anyone have to get used to that? Just because her family fell from grace?

“And who are you to call me,” I dropped my illusion and watched the blood drain from their faces. “Useless.”

“Lady Anastasia! I didn’t know it was you.” Watching them go from sneering to falling over themselves with pointless apologies was sickening. For a second, I thought about how it would feel to use the fireball spell on a person but discarded the thought immediately. That was in no way doing better. I took a deep breath. So I get instant respect and status and Larissa gets to hear people badmouth her without being able to say anything. I tightened my grip on Larissa’s hand. Without looking at her I began to pull her to the door.

“Where are you going? She still has duties.” It must be the middle aged maid. It didn’t sound like the other one. My only response was to speed up while Larissa forcefully followed me. Now that I knew where I was it was easy to retrace my steps back to my father’s office. I think I felt Larissa trip on her dress but she managed to avoid falling and miraculously was able to keep walking. It was really only when I was in front of my father’s office that Larissa pulled her hand free.

“What are we doing here?” Was it just my imagination or did she sound scared? My father did have a really intimidating face.

“We are going to talk to my father about what kind of maids he hires.” I said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. It’s not like I marched all the way there on a whim!

“That’s not necessary!” Larissa raised her voice, panic evident. “Really, it’s fine! They are always like that. I don’t mind too much.”

“I mind.”

Taking a closer look at Larissa’s maid uniform, it was clearly too big. No wonder she kept tripping…

“I just find it really unfair that-” The door to the study opened. My maid walked out. Her eyes narrowed when she saw me standing next to her daughter. She made a grab for her arm but I pushed Larissa behind me.

“Do the other maids openly laugh at you?” I asked. Her eyes narrowed even further, the scowl deepening. “Is my father still in his office study room?”

Could her eyes narrow further without closing? I guess it was possible because narrow they did.

“Your father has retired to his room for the night. He merely requested for me to tidy up his papers before he returns to the office tomorrow.”

I missed him. Shame.

“Oh, I had hoped I could speak to my dad.”

“About”

“You’re not my father.”

“I am sure I am perfectly able to relay whatever it is you have to-”

I waved my hand impatiently. She broke off looking offended.

“You see, I… err, noticed a few maids being quite rude to Larie,” I gestured vaguely behind me. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to mention the illusion magic. “I just wanted to ask my father if that is a regular occurrence or if no one bothered to inform him how rude his staff is.”

I shrugged but all the fight had gone out of the maids face. She just looked tired. My mother had mentioned getting her a job as a maid to help her but if the treatment I witnessed from the staff has always been a thing, then maybe she had a reason to act all bitter or whatever. Whatever “doing better” meant, I believed it had something to do with helping Larissa. Helping the mother might also be necessary, even if I didn’t like her. I mentally groaned. “Doing Better” and making long term goals still felt impossible.

“I guess talking to my father will have to wait until tomorrow.” I said after a really long silence.

“Why would you?” The maid… Gabriela, motioned for me to follow her and not knowing what else to do I obeyed.

“Why would I talk to my dad? He’s my dad. I would like to believe that I am allowed to see him once in a while.” I might have been keeping my eyes on the scarce portraits on the wall but judging by my sketchy mental map, we were heading to my bedroom. I guess it was time for me to go to sleep? It was kind of hard to keep track of time when I spent all my time indoors.

“Speak up on the behalf of me and my daughter, I want to know why you would do that.” Maybe I imagined the reluctance or maybe those words were costing Gabriela a lot of effort to get out.

Oh, if it were up to me, I would not really bother. I bit back a few snide remarks before settling on something that almost sounded nice or at least less rude. “Frankly, I find it quite embarrassing for my personal maid to be treated like this.” We were nearing my room so I hoped the conversation would die there because I was having a hard time coming up with anything else. Stealing a look at Gabriela’s face did not tell me much, it was a look that was so neutral that it had to be intentional. We reached the door and she opened it for me. I finally let go of Larissa’s hand and made to walk in but something stopped me. I barely registered the vague shadow in my room when Gabriela pulled me away from the door.

There was someone in my room.