Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Blinding

"Bless her little heart." Lydia murmured as Frida turned to me.

"Alright, your highness." Frida said sternly. "we have approximately four hours to prepare you for the ceremony. I shan't waste a minute."

Fen hopped out of the chair and looked at me with a big grin as Lydia ushered me into the chair. I sat down, and Frida immediately began to run a comb through my hair.

"Lydia, dear," Frida called as she ran the comb along the side of my head. "Can you please look over the flowers delivered today and pick out the best looking ones?"

"Of course," I could see in the mirror that a dozen red roses, as well as a dozen pink roses, had been delivered along with some green foliage.

"How did you sleep last night, your highness?" I met Frida's eyes in the mirror and shrugged.

"Not well, Selene was fussy."

"We would have been perfectly happy to take her for the night, your highness," Frida replied with a kind smile. I laughed and shook my head slightly.

"As much as I like the idea, I can't imagine sleeping without her in the room with me."

"Tis a sign of a good mother," Frida replied before putting the brush down and gathering my hair in her nimble fingers. "so may young noblewoman pass their babes off to the nearest nursemaid. Tis a travesty."

"What's a travesty?" Fen asked as she peered up at us.

"Something I hope you never experience, little princess." Frida cooed down to Fen.

"Yeah, but what does it mean." Fen prodded.

"It is a false representation of something." I explained. "a nursemaid might provide better sleep, but she cannot replace the woman that birthed the child."

"Oh, so those ladies are just lazy," Fen replied as understanding crossed her face. A laugh burst out of Lydia as Frida pressed her lips together and turned slightly red.

"Little princess, you are absolutely precious!" Lydia chortled as she walked over with a couple of each of the roses and a bunch of green leaves.

"I'm not precious, I'm Fen," Fen said in confusion. This time a chuckle escaped Frida's lips. Frida placed several pins in my hair to hold the low bun in place before turning to Lydia. Frida picked out blooming pink roses before selecting yet to unfold red roses.

Frida began to delicately pin the flowers to my hair, adding a few bunches of the green leaves and tucking a few white flowers I didn't realize that had been brought along. The two maids picked at my hair for at least twenty minutes until they deemed it ready.

"Lydia, your turn," Frida said as she passed the reins to the younger maid. Lydia rolled out her selection of brushes and jars before getting to work.

"How is it that you have such beautiful skin?" Lydia grumbled as she started outlining my eyes.

"Have a child, dear," Frida spoke up from where she was helping Fen into her dress. "the afterglow takes years to fade."

"Really?" Lydia questioned. "the scullery maids say that having a child increases your age tenfold, which doesn't really seem plausible but they swear by it."

"Those scullery maids rely on magical potions to keep their womb barren."

"It is permeant?" I spoke up as Lydia swapped brushes for a stiffer, fine one which she dipped into the kohl jar.