A Grand Entrance

Why would they make Kyra, of all people, a maid! She was awful at everything she did, and she knew it. She put colors and whites together in the laundry, so now there were piles of pink sheets and towels where there should not have been. She misbrewed tea all too many times to count, to the point that Queen Saraphina outright began requesting that Kyra bring her tea, at least so Kyra assumed. Yet she was a maid nonetheless. It was either maidwork or time spent with Medeia, and the enrapturing witch terrified the young Velkhomme woman.

As such, this was a day to be spent within the confines and the shackles of maidwork, the auburn - haired woman wrapped in the fashion Medeia had her wear, saying it was what all the maids were supposed to wear when they first start. Who was Kyra to say no? She was the worst member of the guild, whether by power or by skill or by rank, Kyra was the absolute dredges of mediocrity or plain incompetence. After brewing a pot of tea, she began marching out to the foyer of the castle, her platter topped with the full pot of warmer than boiling tea and several cups in a ring around the outer edges of the platter. Of course, such a setup was not Kyra's doing, one of the other maids had arranged the platter how it was supposed to be. All Kyra had to do was boil the water and put the tea in. After a few weeks of failure, Kyra could at least somewhat consistently get the tea portion right. Kyra at the very least assumed this was one of those times, but it would not be a surprise if the tea was poorly made.

Keeping her eyes upon the platter, ensuring the clumsy girl would not simply trip over her own feet and bring her to a crashing failure upon the ground, likely for one of the other maids to have to clean up, with some of the more cruel maids ordering her to clean the floors by drinking the tea off of it. At the very least, the floors were often clean enough, Kyra found out. She had unfortunately become used to the taste of the stone flooring mixed with tea, and whether it was a case of improving the taste of the floor or lessening the taste of the tea, it was not her place to decide. Maybe she should just ask Hammermne?

Her inner musings were interrupted by a collision with something. The platter lurched forwards, sending the cover of the pot flying and the scaling liquid spilling out... all over the man standing in the foyer. Kyra was no better than a deer in the headlights at this point. This was a complete stranger, probably someone that wanted to join Errings Rising, and stupid Kyra stupidly poured scalding tea all over him! Queen Saraphina would have her head, or worse. Saraphina could force Kyra to be disciplined by Medeia!

"S-S-S-S-S-S-Sorry..." Kyra mumbled, her voice barely audible. "D-Don't m-mind me...I-I'm just..." She looked around at the shattered chinaware around the man and the soaking state of his clothes. "I'll just go..." she muttered, bonking her head against the door to the guild. "T-Tell Lady Medeia that I've finally jumped off the mountain..."

Kyra was ready, finally placing her hand upon the door until she heard the voice of the new head maid, Addilyn. While this head maid was certainly nicer than the last one, Kyra still feared the leadership nonetheless. The order was for Kyra to stay, and so she did.

"S-sorry, M-Miss Amara..." the heiress quietly mumbled, her head still pointed downwards. "All of this awkwardness is m-my fault, s-sir. D-don't m-mind me, I'd j-just get into your w-way..."

She sighed and made her way away from the door, meekly standing at the head maid's side. Even with Kyra physically standing taller than her supervisor, the demeanor dichotomy between the two was almost comical in its scope. The fairly confident standing of the head of staff, two inches shorter than the meek, quiet Velkhomme. Even in spite of this admittedly small difference, Addilyn's confidence seemed to make her tower over Kyra.

Kyra looked at the man, scanning him over briefly. "I-I'm sure you'll d-do wonderfully in E-Errings R-Rising, i-if that's what you're looking for... E-Especially with that m-magic. It s-seems useful, m-much better t-than m-mine. I-if s-someone as t-terrible at e-everything as me can b-be accepted into the g-guild, s-someone l-like you w-would probably t-thrive..."

Kyra turned to Addilyn, her face still downtrodden. "S-sorry, M-Miss Amara. I-I shouldn't b-be the one that t-tells h-him everything, i-it's not my place... Y-you p-probably d-don't want me here anymore. I-I'll g-go back to my q-quarters and w-wait for the discipline f-for spilling t-the tea... a-and breaking the c-china... and f-for s-setting the s-stove on fire y-yesterday..."

Kyra turned once more, now facing away from the door to the outside, and slowly the crying cannibal began trying to make her way back to her own room, regardless of whether or not Medeia was going to be there. If either of the two others began speaking, Kyra would not have heard them, her mind still barking orders of self hatred at her.

Kyra was being treated like a child, she felt. Though, in fairness, that was reasonable. She certainly acted like one at times. Addilyn praised her for growing, something Kyra had not heard since she was young. Of course, this was not a bad thing. Velkhommes were expected to be perfect immediately, and Kyra was always the disappointment. No one ever told her that she had grown, only that she had done well. It especially helped that Addilyn was, for all intents and purposes, her boss while she was a maid.

"T-Thank you, M-Miss Addilyn." Her voice was weak, Kyra knowing her place in not speaking up too much in front of the much more important people around her. They were no Saraphina, of course, but Addilyn was head maid, and Julius was the brand new entrant to the guild. Within a week or so, he would be fully integrated as someone far more important that her and-

She stopped at Julius's comment on her beauty and power. It was supposed to be a comment, Kyra knew it. The truth rang in the back of her mind and in the pits of her heart that he meant it in a kind, if not flirtatious, way. Yet the only words that screamed in Kyra's mind were those of insults, that he demeaned her power and her beauty. That he just confirmed all she knew, that she was ugly. She gave a pained smile, unaware of how ineffective her attempts to hide her emotions were. "T-Thank you, J-Julius."

The two more important people suggested a return to a place to rest and sit, the standing conversation untowards. Kyra, now instinctively from her work as a maid within the halls of Errings Rising, pulled some chairs away from the nearby table, leaving ones on opposite sides for Addilyn and Julius, directly across from each other. Kyra then grabbed a seat for her own, at Addilyn's left, and began pulling it out for herself. While the first two had gone without issue, pulling the chairs out for Addilyn and Julius to sit, Kyra's own chair gave difficulties, the incompetent heiress pulling the chair out towards herself and scraping it against her toes. She, along with the chair, soon fell, crashing to the ground, completely managing to avoid everything else, luckily enough for her. The chair was perfectly fine, though Kyra already could feel a slight bit of blood begin to trickle from her foot underneath her stockings and her shoes. Kyra laid on the ground in defeat for a moment, taking in her own failure. This was not a good day, she realized. Worse than normal. She got up, pushing her chair back in and realizing she had not done the same for the more important two.

"S-sorry, I-I messed up again," Kyra mumbled in Addilyn's general direction. "I-I'll just go back to my room..."