A Royal Mess (MxM)

1 - First Day

Due to the crushing debt his family was in and lack of good paying jobs in his small town, he knew he had to find work. This is how Rahis found himself on the road approaching the biggest city in Tana, the one surrounding the castle. One of the elders from his town had a connection to the head of the servants in said castle and had secured him a job. As what, he didn't entirely know or care. He wouldn't be happy with any of them, but he needed the money. Hopefully he'd be able to head back home in a few years, when he had sent them enough to be free of their obligation.

As he got closer and closer, he got more and more amazed at what he was seeing. The grandness of the castle combined with the brightness and busyness of the surrounding city was unlike anything he'd ever seen. He had come from a village near the edge of the Big Forest where people spoke of the place he was in now in awe and wonder. Seeing it was like a dream come true.

When he was directly in front of the castle, he had to try to reel in his excitement. It was so big. He then realized he had no idea where to go. He turned to see several guards standing by the door and approached.

He walked right up next to the one he thought looked nicest. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find the Head Servant?"

The guard turned his steady gaze down to him suspiciously, but still answered. Thanking him, Rahis followed his instruction, leading himself to a decent sized room where a messy-haired older man sat, focused entirely on the papers in front of him. His hand came up and brushed through his hair, messing it up even more.

"Excuse me?" The man didn't move. Rahis tried again. "Excuse me."

He sat up straight at that then turned around before his tight face relaxed a bit. "Ah, you must be Rahis." He nodded. "I'm Trevid. Thank goodness you're here, one of the other servants just quit and you'll be taking his place." Rahis nodded, happy he'd be able to work so soon. "There really isn't much training that you won't learn from Camayla, but you should know that you will be working for Prince Joelin. All you really need to know is keep your head down, don't draw attention to yourself, and only speak when spoken to. Camayla will tell you the rest." Rahis just nodded again, not knowing what he should say, the nerves that had been pushed to the side on his journey catching up to him.

He was directed down another long hallway before a woman with curly brown hair nearly ran into him. "Are you Camayla?" Rahis asked after checking to make sure she was okay.

The lady shook her head. "Kelsya." Her voice was warm and strong, and what she said sent a warm feeling down Rahis' bones. Her name was very similar to his older sister's. "Are you the replacement for Trenin?" Rahis nodded, as Trevid had told him that minutes before. "Too bad he had to leave, but if you need anything just ask. I'm a servant of Prince Bradlan."

"Prince Joelin." Rahis said, gesturing to himself.

Kelsya gave a small smile. "We'll then you have good luck, Prince Joelin is known to be kinder to his servants that the other members of the royal family."

"That's good to hear."

They stood in silence for a second before Kelsya looked up at him again. "You were asking for Camayla?" Rahis nodded. "We'll I saw her a little while ago. Just continue down this hallway and you'll be sure to spot her. She has dark skin and light eyes, you'll know her when you see her."

Rahis gave his thanks and continued on.

He soon saw a woman matching Kelsya's description. Her hair was a dark brown and skin was quite tan, but her eyes were a cloudy blue, bringing attention to them. "Camayla?" He asked, making her turn her head.

She nodded slowly. "And who would you be?"

"Rahis. Trevid said to find you."

"You're Trenin's replacement?" Rahis nodded. She smiled brightly. "Oh, good. I was worried that I'd have to draw his bath by myself."

"You couldn't get anyone else to help you?"

A look of confusion came upon her face before her eyes widened in realization. "You've never worked in the castle before, have you?"

He shook his head. "I've never even been to the city."

"Oh, well then you really need some lessons in the workings of here." He nodded. "Walk with me, I'll show you where Prince Joelin's room is." She started walking off and Rahis quickly caught up to her. "Normally, Tatir would train you for a week, but since he's been taking care of his sick wife for the past few months, we decided to just skip that. Every member of the royal family has four servants. One of them will follow them around and takes care of their every need, sometimes even writing speeches or giving advice, which is the greatest honor a servant can have. That was Trenin's job. Alland filled that role when he left. Another role is what we call a runner or messenger." She paused to open a door, revealing a room with what looked like a stream of water running through it. She grabbed a bucket and filled it, gesturing for Rahis to do the same. Then they set off again, at a slower pace this time. "The runner servant has to basically run around the village and castle all day doing various errands for the Prince such as getting the mail and delivering messages. Usually they don't have too much to do so they spend a lot of time off. Nathiana has that job for us. And the other two, us, have a set list of tasks we are to do every day. Make the bath, get the food, do the laundry, clean the room and sometimes other parts of the castle, catch the rats, feed the dogs, things like that." Rahis relaxed at her words. He could do cleaning. He loved cleaning. At home, even though it was usually the women's job to clean, he always did it, it calmed him down.  "You'll pick it up pretty quick, but then again, we don't usually have new people so I wouldn't know."

Rahis took a second, processing what was said before Camayla pushed open a big set of doors.  Rahis was amazed as he walked in. The room was larger than his whole house. It was lavishly decorated too, with fancy sheets and curtains, various shiny trinkets places around, large windows with colorful glass, a large table with a bowl of fruit on it, just so much. Rahis could do nothing but look around. He heard a small chuckle to his side. "Like what you see?"

He turned to Camayla. "It's amazing, I've never seen anything like it! And he's only the second in line."

"Do you not know your royalty?" She asked, making Rahis raise an eyebrow. "He's the third, Prince Rodier is the crown prince and Prince Bradlan is the second." He opened his mouth is realization. He should have definitely paid more attention to his father's half-distracted blurbs or information about the kingdom. She smiled warmly. "Well, the tub is over here." She walked to a small closet and pulled it open, revealing a tub. With Rahis' help, they managed to pull it out. He wasn't that strong, but with her help they were able to get it out easily. She then showed him how to boil the water before pouring. Before he knew it, they were on their way back to collect more water.

"You said that you don't often have new people, why is that?"

She looked at him, surprised. "Well there are hardly any people who leave."

"Why? You said Trenin quit."

"There are four ways for a servant to leave the service of the castle. They can die, get injured or sick enough to not be able to perform their duties, get forced out by a member of the royal family, or get a letter from a member of the royal family saying that they're resigning. Trenin's mother got sick and Prince Joelin was kind enough to sign a letter. Servants do get old, but three years ago was when they either died off or couldn't perform, so they brought in a ton, including me, and since then haven't really brought more in." Rahis just nodded. He hadn't thought much about when he'd leave. He hoped Prince Joelin might be kind enough to maybe let him take some time off to go see his family. Even if he just left them, he missed them already. "Oh, I forgot! Look at me." She stopped to pull down his neck so they were eye level. "This is very important. When in the same room as royalty, keep your head down. Do not speak unless they speak to you. Keep your eyes down unless they tell you otherwise. If you don't it could end in your death."

Rahis swallowed thickly. Life in the castle was going to take some getting used to.

Any bold is an authors note. I'm trying something new, hopefully y'all like. I promise it gets better.