A walk of several hundred metres later, the princess reached the royal jeweller’s workshop. She strode in in anguish and started pulling out rare gemstones from the series of small cabinets. 
The royal jeweller and one of his assistants stood aside and watched the princess lay out a couple of perfectly cut and polished sapphires on the counter. The princess had always been ever so careful while handling her precious gemstones but this time, she seemed to have no interest in being careful. She picked one of the gems up and turned to the very nervous middle-aged jeweller.
“How much carat do you think a sapphire of this size will have?” She asked, holding the gem between her two fingers. 

“I cannot be a hundred percent sure, your highness, but i think that one is about six carats.”

The princess gave a nod and started heading out. She knew someone had to be very wealthy to be able to gift a mere girl a necklace with a high grade sapphire pendant. Did it somehow had anything to do with her brother? She knew of her brother’s infatuation with the maid but gifting something that expensive felt outrageous. It made her insides boil. For some reason she felt she was being challenged, whether the person was her brother or someone else.

_________________________________

The stars were plentiful and the breeze was light. Becky had walked out of the maids’ common dining hall sooner. She walked past the big garden and stood right outside the princess’s tulip garden.
For some reason, this place always called to her. Some of her best and worst memories lay in this place in the forgotten past. 
She remembered this to be the last place she ever saw the princess when they were little. For she was also left unconscious after the earthquake. She could still recall how her life had been saved, how the princess came running to her, embracing her so she would be out of harm’s way. She remembered it so vividly as one would a recurring dream. She survived unscathed but the same was not true for the princess. She never saw the princess again. Her and her mother were deported a couple of days after the incident.
What killed her more on the inside hadn’t anything much to do with the separation but the indifference the princess was showing to her now after she had worked so hard to come back. She knew the princess had all the reasons to be angry with her. She just couldn’t bear knowing the princess hated her. 

All those years, she had only one wish whenever she saw a shooting star. It was always the same line that would come out of . The wish to be reunited with her princess. The wish did come true but she was now blaming herself for not wishing the princess would treat her just the same.
Now, everything she said or did seem to frustrate and infuriate the princess more. 

Becky reached for her necklace and grazed the pendant with her fingertips. She could still see the burning anger in the eyes of the princess earlier. The princess was very angry seeing her necklace. She couldn’t fathom why. Did the necklace belong to the princess somehow before it was gifted to her by the prince Chen of the kingdom of Makati.

“What got you out here this late?”

That jump-scared Becky for a good second and she froze for a moment. She didn’t have to turn back and see to know who the voice belonged to. 

She really had nowhere to run or to hide. She turned slowly towards the princess. 
“I- I don’t know.” Becky muttered. She said it because it was hard to form a longer sentence. But nonetheless, it was the truth. She really didn’t  know what she was doing there. 

“You know you shouldn’t come out here this late without a lantern. You wouldn’t want to step on a frog.” 

Was the princess trying to engage in small talks or was she imagining things?

And the princess’s voice sounded unfairly calm that Becky almost wanted to cry.

“I-I will bring one, n-next time, I guess” Becky replied. She cleared gently afterwords, blaming her brain for making her struggle in voicing a simple line. She would always be this stuttering mess whenever she was around the princess and she hated it. She worried the princess would further perceive her as an incompetent idiot.

Princess Sarocha crossed her arms in a swift yet graceful motion, now paying full attention to the girl in the front.
“Isn’t it dinner time for the maids? I thought you usually ate in the first phase.”

“Yes. I do.” Becky answered, suddenly feeling dry. She could feel it now. She could already feel she was about to be reprimanded again.

“Are you skipping your meal, Miss Patricia?”

“No-Not at all” Becky replied immediately, feeling a bit defensive.

Becky could make out in the dark, the princess’s brow raising a little as if doubting what she had answered. She didn’t know how but the princess looked like she was glowing even in the dark. It was as if there was someone inside of her holding a candle. The glow from within was unreal. Her eyes, those beautiful orbs catching the faintest of light that came from a lamp post from afar.

Becky felt the need to elaborate. But she didn’t want to offend the cooks.

“I ate a little and decided t-to come out and get some fresh air.”

“And may I know the reason?”

Becky swallowed hard. “It was, uh, its just today though, the rice noodles were just too spicy for me.”

The mention of rice noodles caught the princess completely off guard for she shifted uncomfortably where she stood, breaking eye contact with the younger girl.

She nodded in acknowledgement. “You could have eaten something else then. Surely there are other things on the menu.” The princess said, now she was doubting herself as she said those words. She did remember cutting the food variety to the minimum for the workers for most days to cut the cost. She was starting to realise maybe there wasn’t a second dish that day. 

“It’s alright. It is really not a big deal.” Becky managed a faint smile. 

There was silence after. Becky wouldn’t be lying when she said that every passing second of silence felt like an hour.

“I’ll head on inside first.” The princess said as she turned around to leave “And you should find something you can eat before going to sleep.”

Becky bowed a little and stood silently as the princess walked off and watched as the dark swallowed the silhouette of the princess.

She did not know what possessed the princess to be so down to earth and non-threatening. She was not normally that calm with her. She always had something bad to say to her. Becky felt lucky. It was like an achievement for her engaging in the most civil conversation so far with the princess.

She stayed out for quite some time before heading back to the maids’ chamber.

In the grand bed inside the huge room, Princess Sarocha was chasing sleep. Her eyes fluttered open as she realised she could not sleep even when she closed her eyes. The mention of rice noodles a while ago had brought back a ton of memories she wished she could forget. She knew the girl loathed rice noodles. She would always complain about the palace serving rice noodles when she was little. The princess still recalled how she would order extra food for little Becky so she didn’t have to eat those horrible rice noodles she didn’t like. It was something she was wishing she could permanently delete from her mind. 
All those thoughts were becoming too bothersome.
These kind of things were not worth losing sleep over, she reasoned. She decided she would ban rice noodles altogether in the palace starting the next day. 
With that, she closed her eyes but again, she suddenly recalled when the girl said it was no big deal. The princess wondered what the girl meant when she said not eating was not a big deal. Her eyes getting wider by the passing second. The girl really had said that it was not a big deal skipping one meal. Panic set in when she realised the possibility of the younger girl having skipped many meals throughout the years while they were separated. It was painful to even think about it. And the guilt that crept up inside of her was something she couldn’t simply shake off. 

The princess shut her eyes tight, pulling her eiderdown duvet all the way up to cover her face as if the darkness it afforded would help silence her mind. 

__________________________________

Morning came around fast. Becky and Irin were out for a morning stroll. Becky seemed cheerful and happy, greeting everyone they passed by with a good morning and a smile.

“What happened to you? You seem to be in a very good mood all of a sudden” Irin pointed out as they walked. 

“Why, yes. My mood is good today, like every other day.” Becky replied laughing. 
That earned a suspicious stare from Irin. “Did you get paid before the rest of us or something?”

“What? No way, why would you think they’d pay me first?”

“Becky, you have been getting a lot of special treatment here if you haven’t noticed yet.” Irin said, her pointer finger raised as if to make a point.

“Yeah, sure, if getting shouted at and being constantly reprimanded count as special treatment, then yes, I sure do get a lot of it.” Becky facepalmed. 

Wagons after wagons were drawn in and the two friends had to stand away for a while. When they went near to investigate, they came to know those were fresh vegetables delivery. 
They watched men offload the sacks of vegetables to a warehouse.

“We pick out the deformed potatoes and other vegetables and stuff in there and wash the them before they are taken to the royal kitchen in case you’re wondering” a woman with glasses spoke, answering the question Becky had in mind.

“Oh, okay.” Becky nodded. “Can I help?” 

The woman with glasses looked questioningly at Becky.

“I am free the whole morning. I just wanted to keep busy” Becky replied. 

“Not again” Irin sighed.

__________________________________________

Meanwhile, the princess was out walking around the nook and corner of the palace. She was becoming more irritable by the passing minute.

“Can we stop walking now? My legs are hurting.” Lady Nam complained, holding her leg with her hand to make a point. 

“Have you no stamina at all?” Princess Sarocha countered. 

“Well, no, your highness, I haven’t any ounce of stamina left because we have walked nearly the circumference of the earth by now.” Nam replied. “What exactly are you looking for? I have never seen you take a morning stroll this long. And usually, you walk in the garden and why all of a sudden are you taking this new route visiting all the areas of the palace? Are you going on a surprise inspection or something?” Nam rambled on.

The princess suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked at her cousin. She was actually looking for a certain someone but she was not about to tell her cousin that.

“Yes. As a matter of fact, I am.” She said nodding at herself as if it had been her plan all along. “I am going on a surprise inspection. I want to know where all my maids and guards are and whether they are slacking at work.” 

“Okay” Lady Nam sighed defeatedly. “But can’t you send someone to do that? I am tired.”

Becky dabbed the water off the potatoes being handed to her by her new friend while listening to her tell her a ton of secrets about many of the people in the palace. She didn’t know why but the woman seemed to know many things. 
“Wait, how long did you say you have you been here?” Becky enquired. The woman stopped speaking briefly  and spoke in a lower voice as if her voice before was not low enough. “It’s almost five or so years.” That reply earned an incredulous look from Becky. “But I heard the princess was cruel and she fires people often for anyone to stay that long.”

“You heard right, Miss Becky.” The woman looked sideways before leaning closer to Becky’s ears. “You see, you just have to be away from the princess. She cannot kick you out if she doesn’t see you, right?” The woman smiled a little. “I am telling you this secret because I think you are a nice kid. I already like you. Now dab the potatoes nicely. They should be clean and dry.”

After a minute of silence, the woman leaned closer to Becky again. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Sure”

“I think Aries kingdom is preparing for some type of war.”

“War?” Becky asked. “What kind of-“

“Can you lower your volume a bit?” 
Becky nodded. 
“So, huge number of soldiers are being trained right now in our kingdom and in neighbouring kingdoms.”

“Where exactly? I have never heard of anything like this”

“Do you realise there has been an inflation going on? That is because our agricultural products are being shipped to the soldier camps. They are preparing for war.”

“And what about the soldiers in neighbouring kingdoms? Are the other kingdoms also preparing?”

“No silly, the soldiers in other kingdoms also belong to Aries. Let me make it easy for you. Aries is taking advantage of the weak neighbouring kingdoms. Aries promises to protect these small kingdoms by sending a ton of soldiers to be stationed at the kingdoms for protection and in turn the kingdom has to provide all the livelihood supplies for the soldiers. That means Aries can use these soldiers anytime. So Aries has a large number of soldiers and can take over any neighbouring kingdom anytime as well as other powerful kingdoms when the chance comes.”

Becky blinked on. She did not understand the woman. It was too many unlikely information at once.

“Are all these allowed by the royals?”

“Are you stupid? The royals are behind all this. Especially the king and the princess. The prince is the only innocent.” The woman said, nodding to herself.

“Uh, speak of the devil” Becky heard the woman say.

“What devil? I am so confused right now.”

“I mean, we talk of the devil and the devil arrives.”

Becky looked up and followed the woman’s trail of view only to see the princess and Lady Nam approaching the warehouse. 
She suddenly felt self conscious and sat straighter, keeping herself busy as if she had not seen the princess coming.

The princess stood several feet away from the large door. She didn’t have to look around the area to find the person she was looking for. 
The place, once filled with laughter and conversations turned absolutely quiet with the unlikely arrival of the princess.

“Just here to see if you are doing a good job.” Nam declared out loud. “Can we leave now?” She turned to the princess and said. 

“What are you doing here with that?” The princess asked. Becky looked up to see the princess was indeed talking to her. She dropped the piece of cloth and a potato she was holding. “I was just trying to help-“ Becky looked to her new friend for support only to find the seat vacant. Becky looked around a bit but couldn’t find the woman she was sitting with. She realised then that it was true she stayed out of the princess’s sight.

“Get out of there this instant. Have you got nothing else to do? I bet you anything you smell like potatoes now.”
 

*********