"Selice." The senior servant of the castle, Erenzo, called out to the young aid.
"Take this tray up to the prince's room." Erenzo handed over the metal tray with the finest-crafted vials of potions. The colors ranged from bright pinks to dull blues and were forged for one specific purpose, one the prince seemed in constant need of.
Selice accepted it reluctantly.
"He's back?"
Erenzo laughed upon witnessing the young servant's face twist into a grimace of sharp irritation. "You don't speak much Selice, but you make the most expressive faces."
Selice couldn't help the pout. It formed after a lifetime of dealing with Loy's absurd behaviors as the prince was profoundly annoying whenever he was unfortunately in. For the last seven years he was away traveling, but when he did sporadically stop by, his presence wasn't something anyone could ignore. Especially Selice, who happened to be his favorite servant to bother.
"Be a good boy and deliver them to Loy quickly." Erenzo snapped. "He's bound to be finished soon, and these potions are most effective immediately after."
Selice wondered what the potions were for but didn't pry, knowing you don't keep a position working in the castle for 15 years by asking questions. Especially when you yourself have quite a big secret you didn't want anyone else inquiring into, as she did.
Selice sighed and started teetering through the hallways of the palace knowingly. When she first arrived, it seemed impossible to learn the layout of such an extensive place, but it had become more familiar to her than her own face. She wasn't much used to seeing her own face, however, because any time she looked into a mirror it showed a reflection of the male version of herself, and thank the gods it did, or she would be a beggar on the streets instead of working and living in the castle on the crimson coast.
It was often shortened to the crimson castle when it wasn't red at all. Instead, it should have been called a castle made of sand because the stone used to build it was pure white and taken from the crystal-clear sea it overlooked. Even the many swirling accents and fountains spewing ocean water were bleached white, with the only color being from the flowering bushes scattered around the landscaping. The petals were a distinct dark purple that came to represent the royalty of the country, and walking through the castle was either a sea of white or an abundance of purple depending on where the bushes bloomed.
Selice's favorite time of year was when all the petals fell before winter and turned a dark red. The petals would then drift into the ponds where the fish, with their elegant, feathered tails, would eat the petals and turn bright red to become living art in the water.
Selice passed a part of the castle, overlooking the inlet. The same trees lined the castle's wall bordering the ocean, and when the red petals would fall, it looked like the castle was bleeding into the ocean where the water would be red for days. It was why they started calling the ocean on Etilia's borders the crimson coast.
She stared out to sea. It was six months away from any winter, but she looked forward to the time. She quickly stopped her gazing when two male servants rounded the corner and caught her lollygagging. She politely nodded to them before carrying on. It was the extent to the relationships she had with all of the servants in the castle, out of necessity to keep her secret.
Selice decided on taking the back corridor to the prince's room to avoid any more run-ins. She had been there many times in her years of service, and because she and the prince were of similar age, he took an interest in her that made her life considerably more difficult. She was four when she met Loy and twenty-one now, but Loy still acted like he did when they first met when he was six. But he didn't really meet her. Loy met the young boy servant that would be starting at the castle, not the girl hiding underneath loose-fitting clothes and a magic necklace that concealed the feminine features of her face. Selice wasn't found of deception but was forced to keep up this lie because no female servants were allowed in the castle after one of Loy's ancestors had too many bastards with the staff and some of them tried to take the thrones for themselves, evoking the bloodiest civil war in the kingdom's history.
Selice assumed it must have made Loy's mother happy to know that her husband wouldn't be making any more heirs other than the one and only she gave him.
She just wished she had given him a more level-headed one.
Selice passed a fountain and looked at her reflection in the water. That familiar feeling of unsettlement worked its way into her mind as her charmed necklace made all of her feminine features a bit more angular and filled out, but she still kept her hair long enough to act as curtains to cover as much as they could without being too long to attract attention. She was also thankful to have colorless dull white hair that was common in every land across the world. It only helped her to blend in more. If it was a rarer color, she might have had to conceal that too, like her mother's dark red hair had been before she'd died. Her memories were foggy of her times as a child, but she remembered her mother as a very pretty woman with narrow cheekbones and long upturned slanted eyes. Selice took after her in that aspect, with smooth skin and soft brown eyes. Even with her charm, men at the castle still teased her for having girly features and jokingly asked her if she would ever go through puberty. They would soon leave her alone after she gave them a dead expressionless stare back that made them feel so uncomfortable, they stopped talking. But other than that, mostly everyone left her to herself. Except for Loy. Loy lived to irritate her. He notoriously prodded and heckled her whenever he was in. Be it she had to follow him around all day fulfilling his every order, or cling to her making her duties of the day all the more difficult. The worst was when he would follow her into town to make her errands next to impossible to fulfill as his big presence would garner all the attention of the citizens. She hated attention most of all. With the attention on her, she could get exposed, and if exposed, she would have nowhere to go, with no one to go to. That was if they didn't kill her for her deception. That thought always terrified her, and no matter how troublesome Loy could be, life as a servant in Etilia's castle was much preferable to abandonment on the streets.
When Selice got to the secret staff entrance of the prince's room and prepared herself to come face-to-face with the prince. She worried he might be in one of his physically affectionate moods and hook his heavy arm around her shoulder or force her onto his knee like she was some kind of lap dog as he often did to mess with her.
Selice sighed and silently opened the back door, which on the other side appeared as a panel of wainscoting on a dark purple wall.
She entered by the prince's bedside. The bedroom overlooked the foyer where a fireplace faced her as did the back of a purple velvet couch, and the naked back of a woman. A woman who was clinging onto the prince, as he was clinging onto her with their bodies pressed bare and tightly together.
Selice froze like anyone walking in on the scene would have. She had been quiet enough that neither of them had noticed her entering, but now she was stuck not knowing what to do as she watched the prince's head buried in the white long hair of the woman move in steady rhythmic grinds up and down. Or at least Selice assumed that was what was happening, as this was the closest, she had ever come to experiencing anything like it.
Selice glanced down at the tray, knowing she had to leave it on his bed before she left. It was the nearest spot to put it down, other than the floor, but it was also straight across from the seating area where Loy and the woman were so passionately in the midst of their act. She looked at the pair and hoped they would stay too distracted by each other to notice her as she tiptoed to the bed.
Selice kept her gaze on them as she did, part of it to make sure they hadn't caught her, and partly because she couldn't take her eyes away from the scene. She watched as Loy's thick arm wrapped around the woman to pull her flat against his body. The bulging muscles that ripped in his arms made a strange feeling swell inside herself and she paused. Loy had been trained from a young age to be the one to inherit the artifact of Etilia, and it made his body stout and muscular. She mentally reprimanded herself for staring at it too long and quickly made her way to the bedside.
Selice set the platter down as carefully as she could, but as it landed on the mattress, no matter how delicate her movements were, the faintest sound of the glass vial clinking against the metal tray rang out. She silently cursed and slowly peered back at the couple. The woman's back was still to her, but a pair of eyes were now fully engulfing her. And the blue of Loy's eyes weren't a color anyone could miss and as they trained on Selice as intently as they did now her heart sank.
Thankfully, he didn't look angry as he examined her through ruffled sweaty blond hair. Instead, he looked intrigued, as his token lopsided grin adorned his handsome face. Selice's breath caught at the sight, wondering what was to follow that tell-tale smile.
With an audience to show off for, Loy stood up, bringing the woman with him by hooking her thighs under his arms. The place they connected never broke as he did and his partner, who was a nice daughter of a nobleman of his country named Anaize, locked her arms around his neck.
He made sure the woman's back was still to Selice so she couldn't see their guest, but he was in full view of her as he watched his favorite servant's mouth drop open. Selice's heart raced even more now that she was in full view of what was going on, and Loy smiled. Having her watching only thrilled him more, as his eyes never left her face while keeping up his actions of lifting the woman up and down onto him.
For one second, Selice was able to register what was going on and made to run away, that was until Loy's voice boomed out across the room.
"Don't move." He ordered. Selice stayed perfectly still, as that voice he used was not something just anyone could ignore. It was the orders of someone who would be king, and even though Loy had a lot to learn before claiming his birthright, he mastered the commanding tone of one.
Loy grinned wider when he saw Selice slowly turn back around.
To cover up his words and settle Anaize's questioning face, he laid the woman down on the couch, pulling her thighs to him. Selice could see exactly where he entered her and watch each time he pulled out and pushed back inside. It was the clearest view she had so far of the act, and it lit a warmth within her in a way she couldn't define. Loy's sturdy hands gripped the woman's thighs, and Selice could feel it on her body like he was clutching her own. Somehow, she could even feel the sensation of him thrusting inside of her, even when the closest she ever got to experiencing anything like this was now.
It was mesmerizing to watch, from the sounds of colliding skin to the way the bottoms of Loy's ribs covered in tight muscles clenched with each swing of his hips, to the drops of sweat on his face that fell down the scar running from his neck to right below his collarbone where his artifact glowed a brighter silver sodden by the wetness.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" Loy asked. Selice looked up to met the prince's eyes and knew the question was directed at her, though his partner let out a long moan mingled with a yes as a reply. Selice stayed quiet and open-mouthed, not sure how to respond, not sure if there was any response she could make in words when all she could comprehend was the oddest sensation growing inside herself.
Loy grinned, seeing the answer clear on her pretty face when the charm she wore fell and her true self was shown to him in all its feminine glory. He smiled a cocky smile, one he did anytime he was able to override the effects of her charm. Of course, Selice had no idea of this. It was something Loy had discovered for himself long ago, and was a personal enjoyment of his, to tease her until she couldn't help but feel the ways of a woman attracted to a man and those feelings overrode the effects of her charm's magic. Knowing of Selice's lust for him, gave Loy more pleasure than the sex he was having with the woman underneath him and when the final stages of the act came to ahead, he was looking at Selice's face, specifically her plump lips that were ever so slightly parted as if they were inviting him to come thrust them further apart. The thought sent him over the edge and this time when he finished it was with more force and greater discharge than he had experienced in a very long time, all owed to the presence of his favorite servant.
Selice watched Loy finish when he gripped the woman's legs so hard, she knew he was hurting her, though his partner didn't seem bothered at all as she moaned louder still.
"Next time," Loy said, between deep deliberate pants in and out as he looked at Selice, "I'll show you what it's really like to fuck a prince." His notorious lop-sided grin cracked sideways and Selice shuddered when she saw nothing but certainty behind Loy's crystal blue eyes.
His partner on the couch laughed at what she thought was a joke made to her. Loy winked at Selice to let her know who it was really meant for, and it was enough to finally snap her out of the moment as she scurried out of the room using the same secret door she entered with.
"The rumors of the psychotic prince have not disappointed," Anaize declared, taking a cherry out of the fruit bowl, resting on the ottoman in front of the couch.
"That's unfortunate," Loy replied, bending down to snatch the cherry out of her lips. "I do so love ruining a reputation." He grinned, placing the cherry in his mouth before spitting out the pit in the direction Selice had left.
He recalled her face to mind, a face that wouldn't leave his thoughts for quite a while, and one he decided he must see again, soon.