Bri woke with a start and threw her legs over the side of her bed as some of her podling room mates were waking up as well. Whilst the podlings were running around trying to quickly get ready for the day of servitude towards the lords, she had to make sure she didn't step on any of them. She towered over these people with her being 5ft 5 and the podlings she guessed being 3ft something, very small indeed.
She was dressed in her normal everyday clothes, though her clothes were a little more fashionable thanks to skekekt at the behest of skekso. She was a servant yes but she was slightly less worthless than the podlings, though was still tasked with whatever the lords wanted. She had gained some favor from the emperor as he saw her as free entertainment when the musicians weren't around, and somewhat of a pet. He often had her either sing some of her strange music or entertain him in some other way.
Bri was quite odd when compared to the other creatures that existed on thra. She looked like a gelfling, but instead of having large ears, her ears were small and rounded. And there was also the strange clothing she was found wearing when skekting found her and thought to bring her to the castle under the pretense of giving her food and a place to stay. Nobody could figure out what she was, until she told them herself that she was a human, a being from another world. This enthralled the skeksis and interested them, especially the scroll keeper, another skeksis, whom she had made a connection with through her love of books and intellectual conversations often conversing over their favorite writing genres. Though she could never get him to let her into his library to see some of the books he often talked about. The Chamberlain was another one she found a connection, nearly the same reason as she did with the scroll keeper, intellectual conversation often talking about herself, her home life, how a human got into the world of thra, etc. She pretty much had a connection to most of them, she didn't call them her friends by anymeans, but she did find a connection with them.
Except for the ritual master and skekung, the new general. She often found those two to be too stiff for her liking. Skekung was loud and brash and short tempered and always ready for a fight, whereas the ritual master was just… creepy… she often caught him eyeing her like a piece of meat. She would try to act like he didn't bother her but in truth, it did. She figured it was an intimidation technique, and so she retaliated in fake bravado, to which she was sure he knew.
During these past few months she's seen a lot of weird things go on in the castle. She's seen many rituals through the doorway which she did not dare take part of solely because of the fact she was not a skeksis, to do such a thing she feared would be sacrilegious. However she did seem to find herself drawn to the crystal every now and again, as if it was attempting to tell her something. But she usually shrugged it off thinking it all must be in her head.
She was never allowed to wander too far alone from the safety of the castle grounds, even though she had stated that she was a 30 year old woman completely capable of caring for herself. But skekso denied her that much freedom. Unless a skeksis was with her she was not to leave the castle grounds. However usually skekting, the enchantress, had a hut that she would frequently come to and from, so bri would sometimes follow her just to explore a little more of thra. Bri would also sometimes tag along if any of the skeksis had a meeting with some of the other life forms, however they wouldn't allow her to go to any with something called a gelfling. Being told that the gelfling were evil and had ways to mind control her and would lie to her that the skeksis were the cause of the war that was currently going on.
And of course bri believed them, after all, they took her in. They can't be evil… can they?
Bri made it to the emperors throne room. "Good morning my emperor! How can I please you today?" She asked ever so sweetly.
Skekso sighed. "Morning." He said in a not so happy tone having about a billion things on his mind.
"Something troubles you?" Bri asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.
"What doesn't trouble me these days?" He asked sarcastically.
"Sorry I asked." She said. She knew he had an awful lot on his mind, with being the emperor and all. There was a silence between the two for a few seconds before the emperor spoke once more.
"Go about your normal duties until I call for you." He said finally, though it was most likely to get her out of his sight for now so he can think without being stared at.
"As you wish." She said bowing and backing out of the throne room.
Her normal duties weren't much, and didn't differ from what she did in her home world. Home, she hadn't given it much thought till now. She hadn't thought of how people must miss her, her friends, her family, especially her husband. Nor did she realize how much she missed them, their voices, their hugs, their love, their everything. She quickly wiped her eyes and put on a brave face. She knew from first hand experience that the skeksis weren't the kindest when weakness was shown. After which, she set to getting started on her tasks. The first of which was the most disgusting and quite frankly degrading, cleaning what she assumed was the bathrooms, judging by the smell.
