The room was bathed in the pale light of early morning, the shy rays of the sun protruding through the white curtains that framed Althea's room.
Althea's half-closed eyes barely distinguished who the chocolate haired girl sleeping next to her, believing she was in a dream amongst the whiteness of the sheets, but as soon as the girl revealed her slowly awakening maroon eyes from beneath the blanket, Althea managed to recall the events from last night. Althea did not dare to open her eyes wide and upon being struck by the light—that with every passing second seemed to become more intense—she sealed them again and abandoned herself to the coziness of her fluffy pillow, while her left arm rested on Hana's back.
There was a loud thud resembling much to the banging of an opened door and as soon as both Althea and Hana flinched by the grating sound, footsteps belonging to four people entered the room. They jumped, taken aback by the rude manner of being woken up, and as soon as they could open their eyes and take awareness of their surroundings, both noticed Edith and an old woman standing before them. All of them were suddenly struck by a scarlet shade molding on their cheeks.
"Eep!" Hana gulped, muttering in incoherent Japanese before nuzzling her lover, and as she glanced back at the gaping intruders.
The faces were all clear now—Edith, Professor Tosca, Professor Andrea, and Professor Oakley. Althea was dumbfounded and then as her eyes met hers, she smiled. She then turned her gaze at the older women.
A slow-forming smirk wormed its way on Professor Oakley's lips. "I had an inkling feeling you would be together at the same roof, but not on the same bed."
The Italian and the French professors were merely stunned to silence, occasionally looking at each other, then becoming red in the face.
"My lady, you knew the rules!" Edith said, clucked in disgust. "This is inappropriate for a lady to sleep with her lover on any occasions aside by the sanctity of marriage!"
"Edith," Althea held out her hands. "For heaven's sake, we're fully clothed. You can see our hands. Show her, Hana."
Hana sort of wrapped hers around herself but she followed Althea's lead and now they looked like they are being pointed by some guns.
"Considering it's our fault for intruding," Professor Andrea said, wiping her foggy glasses before returning them to its place. "How about we wait for you girls outside to prepare and we can talk appropriately for morning tea?"
"That would be lovely, Professor." Althea nodded.
"You both do know that it's eight in the morning, don't you?" Professor Tosca finally decided to use her sharp tongue. "Were you busy all night?"
Althea smiled sweetly, sometimes wondering if she overdid it. "Had you all eaten breakfast yet?"
Professor Tosca snorted while Professor Andrea's face went beet red. She had just lately realized the difference in the connotation and denotation of what she had just said and felt as if she's slowly dying. As Althea attempted to find words for a rebuttal, Hana decided to slip out of the mattress when all eyes bulged on her.
Hana was unaware why they all had their jaws dropped as they glanced at her. She asked innocently. "What?"
"Hana," Althea's face burned, debating whether to throw a blanket or pull her back into the sheets.
Hana's bare skin felt a little colder from a gush of air from the open window. It took Hana a long while for her brain to process that that aside from the big shirt that she wore, her lower half was completely in the nude.
"Oh good heavens!" Edith had utterly lost consciousness.
"EDITH!"
* * *
"Goodness, I've never met a girl so flippant of her sexuality before. Are you really a student of Neos Athens?"
On that particular morning after she brandished her naked lower half, Althea gave out orders to the other maids to prepare some breakfast and tea on some open location for a breath of fresh air for the guests.
That was the last glance Hana took from her when Edith stole her attention. Hana was less excited at the idea of the head maid helping her dress for breakfast. Althea had offered to help her lover dress and Hana was more than willing for it but then Edith decided to play the—as Samantha phrased it—'lesbian clam jam'.
Hana steadily dragged along her feet to the dressers as they both search for one of Althea's old clothes to fit for her.
The head maid found a lovely pink casual dress for her to wear. Hana could not believe her eyes, even though the mirror reflected the truth. Apparently, a dress from Althea's younger years would fit her perfectly.
"Just leave me alone if I annoy you so much," Hana grumbled as if she could ever become a bad influence on Althea.
"That is out of the question." Edith's voice became rounder. "The Young Lady has tasked me with this job."
"If that's how you want to call it," Hana murmured, making sure to make her words as slurry as possible. A beam formed on her lips when she caught sight of a brown teddy bear on the desk.
Edith seemed to have followed her line of sight as she spoke conversantly while brushing her hair. "That was a gift from her mother on her 6th birthday. Oh, I remember when she received the bear she asked to donate toys to the children at the hospital. The Young Lady takes after her mother so well."
Hana could without a doubt see a young Althea doing that. Twirling around, carrying her bear in circles.
"Where's Althea's dad by the way?" Hana asked. "I always hear about her mother but not her father."
"Dear guest," she rested her hands on her hips. "You mean to tell me that you do not know about the Young Lady's family?"
Hana's shoulders shivered at the intense gaze. She was sure that she posed no threat to Althea's innocence or virtue but the way the protective maid stare at her, she might have at least sprouted a beard, wear death metal references clothes, and got piercings.
"Althea doesn't like talking much about them." Hana carefully said. "So I never asked. I don't want things to suddenly become awkward between us, you know."
Edith nodded.
"Althea's the family head, right? And I think her relationship with her aunt and cousins isn't... I guess the word I'm looking for is okay."
"My goodness, youth these days, they just sleep with each other before getting to know each other." When Edith said that, Hana was sure that every stroke of the brush in her hair became harder and harder, she feared for her small head.
However, Edith was right. Hana's knowledge about Althea or her past or her family was minimal. She should try to make the gaps between them closer.
"Can you tell me about Althea's family?" she asked.
Edith huffed, considering where to start with her concern. "You are right for assuming milady's relationship with her aunt and cousins are strained. It is not my place to say about milady's business, yet given the fact I took care of her since her youth, I tend to observe circumstances that I would more than love to offer my assistance. The Young Lady is the kind of girl that keeps only to herself and never admits she's in deep pain. I do not blame her, given what she's been through. She did lose her parents at a tender age, grew up with little friends, and studied her eyebrows off in her hobbies and duties."
Hana imagined what studying her eyebrows off mean but then again it could be a figure of speech.
"You see, the Young lady might not say it upfront, but I do know she wanted to fulfill the promise she made to her mother all those years ago."
"What promise is that?"
"To become exactly like her mother," Edith said.
It was quiet for a while. Hana didn't know how their conversation died out like that. To think that she thought a noisy reprimanding head maid was the most awkward situation she placed herself into, she proved herself wrong when the said head maid had unexpectedly turned silent.
Hana quickly weighed the silence around her. It was profound and heavy. Althea's personal life could never become a topic that will never bring about awful memories and triggers. Even for other people. She thought of a new topic to talk about, but was interrupted when Edith spoke a stunning and heartfelt revelation.
And Hana finally knew half the horrors of what kept Althea awake at night.
Althea sensed that the atmosphere between Hana and her maid had finally dissipated; whatever the two talked about at the dressing room while Althea clothed herself in the art room proved to be helpful as Edith has currently become familiar with Hana's true character.
Although it seemed Edith was not done scolding Althea herself.
"Holy Lancaster Beast! What would your late dear mother say as she watched you from the heavens?"
Althea, Hana, and the guests settled into the balcony of the Lancaster Manor for breakfast and tea. The maids did a splendid job at preparing the whole lot on the outdoors as she had specifically requested.
After the hot steamy night, she shared with Hana, even though it had not gone all the way still had let Althea out of breath at the mere memory. She sat there with the other women, enjoying the view of the balcony which was overlooking a massive county yard with manicured gardens and overgrown oak trees. The smell of flowers and petrichor seeped throughout the air.
Despite the liberating feeling of nature, Althea blushed. She still had not gathered the courage to face her maid; though, she smiled at Hana, who could hardly make up a coherent sentence in her head to summarize their brief encounter with the guests and her little scandal. They stared at each other for a while without making any sound, but Edith wasn't done with her reprimands.
"You are fortunate, milady that I am the one who caught you and not the others. Oh, I could imagine the gossip throughout this household. Oh, even I couldn't contain and hush them." She then stared at the Japanese girl. "And you, our dear guest! Seducing the family head—"
"Now, now, Dear matron," Professor Oakley interjected, raising her cup and saucer with a smile that said she would love to address the topic at hand yet she was here for official business. "You can hardly blame the girl's hormones."
The head maid blushed from losing her cool, retreating behind. "Er... you're right Madam Oakley, my apologies... good lady."
Professor Oakley sipped her tea before returning in on the saucer on her other hand. "Congratulations on the win, Miss Lancaster. Those were splendid masterpieces."
Althea prided herself with that praise; however, unable to concentrate when she watched Hana add an insurmountable amount of sugar and milk to her tea.
"Miss Lancaster?"
"Ah, thank you, Professor Oakley." Althea's face flushed when she was cut out of her reverie. She then found the spaces of her fingers filled with Hana's own fingers.
Hana has been cuddly lately. Althea prayed for it to never stop.
"But too great a talent will turn against itself in the end. I hope you will be able to maintain a good relationship with your talent."
"I shall take that warning to the heart," Althea said, watching as the old professor purse her lips, then noticing Hana's frown. "But I'm certain that wasn't what you wanted to discuss with us."
"Ah yes, forgive me. It is still a school day and you do not want to miss the rest of your classes. This shall be brief, I promise you." She took a long sip of her tea, finishing it.
The two other guests, Professors Tosca, and Andrea sat together, but clearly, there was an uncomfortable distance. They had been giving each other the cold shoulder, yet staring with longing when they thought no one was looking. They barely touch their plates too, often playing with them.
Meanwhile, Hana busied herself by eating her scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. Professor Oakley was also taking her sweet time. With a bite came the gulp and inhaled.
"Legends tell us that the Nine Muses are said to be the physical embodiment of the nine different types of arts. Some say that they are the hosts of a vast natural power to inspire people to do art. But whatever its true nature, artists—are those trained in the methods of expressing human creative skill and imagination in the search for beauty—artists such as we, seek for them."
"Yes, we look for inspiration," Hana said. Her straightforwardness somehow indicated she was a little impatient; she did keep jerking her leg under the table. Althea blamed the sugar.
"Anyone can become an artist with basic knowledge and practice," the old woman continued. "Moreover, those with a family history in the art such as the Lancasters have greater innate power and skill. To perform greater feats of expression, artists have the power to bind themselves to a muse to channel their skill. You both are aware of that as you serve as muses to one another."
"Is this going to be a long boring lecture?" Hana interrupted, raising a hand as if she were in class.
Professor Oakley was unfazed with Hana's brashness while her mentor nearly had an anxiety attack when her student had rudely interrupted a solemn discussion. Althea's mentor merely huffed.
"What she's trying to say is that..." Professor Andrea cleared her throat. "Some very lucky people can draw the spirit of one of the Nine Muses into themselves."
"Newsflash, the Nine Muses hosts great artists, prompting them to do wonders!" Professor Tosca sarcastically moved her hands in circles.
"So in reminiscent of a..." Althea hesitated, gulping air. "... metaphorical sense, we host muses in our bodies?"
"It is one interpretation, Miss Lancaster!" Professor Oakley said as Edith filled her empty cup with more tea. "But artists like I, and most of my students, would like to believe that the inspirational goddesses do inhabit our bodies. Or rather, nymphs of the wild."
Althea shot an eyebrow at her hairline. "Those are all superstitions!"
She knew she blurted out the wrong thing to say when Professor Tosca gave her a look, prompting her to clear her throat and constructing a new sentence.
"You mean you definitely want the both of us to believe that we are truly hosting an inspirational goddess within us?"
"Oh Miss Lancaster, whether it's a fancy artistic way of explaining the muse phenomenon or the truth, there is nothing wrong in a little belief." Her Italian mentor paved a path to make her understand. "Either way, if Professor Oakley here chose you today to host one of the Nine Muses, you will be able to wield the power of the Seven Stars. But then again, it's a myth; people merely love it and want to believe it in. It's like how people are freaking out about the little girls on social media who people now dub as Arthur and Merlin because of the circumstances that matched the myth."
Althea and Hana turned to each other. They had given some pensive thoughts to the old woman's words, to the way she had looked, to the way she had stared at the both of them, and the way their respective mentors carefully watched their reactions.
Before Althea could properly find her words, Hana clung to her. Althea's heat was rising when she felt Hana's lovely mounds squished on her arm.
"I think it's pretty cool!" Hana said. Althea could have sworn she saw stars twinkle from Hana's eyes. "It's an awesome way to look at it. If artists could host an inspirational goddess within them and harness their powers, it could explain the artist's unknown ferocity as they create their art!"
"What are you saying, Hana?" Althea blinked.
"You are my muse, Althea. You inhabited my mind and body so that's why I was full of energy that day!" Hana jumped from her seat, Althea mourned at the loss of her lover's touch.
"I'm not a goddess, Hana. Or a woodland nymph. Your skill is yours alone. Not because some goddess inhabited you and lent you her powers. If we follow that logic; that could sourly mean the skill was not yours. You borrowed it. The art is not yours, but the goddess who used your body as a vessel to the mortal material world."
"You might be right, Althea. But you are my muse. Would you say you inhabited my mind and controlled me?"
"What?"
"Did you make me do those things, the location, the camera angle, the props, and the editing?"
"No, it was all you."
"Then I'm right!"
Althea's jaw was unhinged. Somehow she was not fond of the idea that Hana had the last say in their difference. She caught her mentor's cold eyes in their direction. It was unknown to her why Professor Tosca shook her head disappointedly. Somehow, Althea was uncomfortably aware of the cold sweat running down her nape.
"I think... my decision's finally made." Professor Oakley said, placing her hands on her lap. "I shall name the student I want to teach."
A/N
I have the habit of making an obvious answer thrilling. Sorry not sorry xD Also for those who haven't figured it out yet, the Nine Muses are the mythical creatures in this story. Professor Oakley is one of them.
Also, sorry it took so long for me to upload this. Wi-fi's really been cranky these days. I'll upload another chapter tomorrow to compensate. Peace guys!