I stalked through the dark hallway, holding tightly onto the basket filled with dirty clothes. The festival preparations had gotten underway, and with all the chores around the castle, I was beginning to get overwhelmed and frankly, irritated. It wasn’t just the fact that I was badly injured and couldn’t go a whole minute without wincing. It was the fact that I was badly injured and no one seemed to care. In a single day, I was forced to wash the clothes, scrub the floors, dust off ancient statues in dark hallways and soulless rooms, hang up the banners along the castle walls and go down to the market at least fifteen times a day. Sometimes, Maria joined me on these chores, and whenever she noticed me wincing, she would immediately pull me to the side and try to heal me.
"I don't underst
