Damara sat by the window for most of the day, working on the same awful batch of laundry in the already stifling heat, or maybe that was because she'd taken to sitting in the window and as the sun's rays near blinded her, she sat and baked as the glass amplified the heat. In fact, she'd never really liked the summer, all the heat and sun was unnecessary and it didn't make it any better that all of the laundry was so bright and beautiful, as if to try and make her feel better as it glistened in the sunlight. However, Damara much preferred the weird sticky winters, where everything was dark and dreary; she got less work, as she silently slid around the castle, dodging the mistress' attempts to find her.
Damara took out a packet of cigarettes and lit one, bringing it to her mouth and letting out a huge, smoky sigh. What did alcohols say? Drink your problems away? She could do that too, and with every drag of smoke she felt slightly better about herself. As much as the princess had told her about the ban on smoking in the castle, she still managed to get her hands on the next pack to start; it was the only way she could get through the days, trapped inside, cursing under her breath at the constant pile of laundry. As she continued to smoke, forgetting to tap the burnt ash away, it fell, hitting the floor but also all over the dress she was currently washing. She sighed although not really bothered, the royals had many more dresses and countless seamstresses that could easily mend it or make a brand new one. At least this was going to get her out of doing more chores for a while.
Opening the window, Damara leaned out and looked at the streets some way below her. The laundry room was much closer to the ground than the rest of the castle however there was still a good four of five feet between them. She continued to smoke, cigarette after cigarette until the quarter empty packet was fully empty. Disgusted and annoyed, she closed the window back up and hastily folded the stupid burnt laundry before dashing to the royals' rooms and shoving the clothes into each of their drawers, hanging the severely burnt dress at the back of the princess' closet, hoping she wouldn't notice.
...
Scarves, capes and other clothes littered the floor as Calliope started to sew up the ripped and tattered clothing of the royals. After doing little fighting, they had been forced to retreat as the Derse general had ordered a large group to attack them all at once. The princes protected the royal ladies as they fled, coming back with speared and slashed clothes and skins. Jake was the worst, he would constantly stand in front of the soldiers to protect them, resulting in huge gashes to his chest and arms, slicing his shirts like butter. It was now Calliopes job to repair these as best she could before they set back off onto the battlefield. John was rather good at keeping his clothes intact, although, Calliope reminded herself, he was a devil to the maids who had to clean his shirts. The prankster was more liable to cause more troublesome stains than rips or tears; one of his most recent pranks was a whole bucket of black ink, the whole thing backfired and he ended up dropping the whole bucket on himself. That suit overworked a few maids until the whole outfit was declared unsalvageable. He'd also managed to land Jane with the same fate; one of her cooking dresses had become unsalvageable after one of the kitchen cupboards was staged with a squirting flower, a fashion disaster really.
Calliope continued her chores, recalling that she would have to escort Jane for the fitting of her new dress in the early hours of the afternoon, but not before she had folded the clothes, helped serve the breakfast and cleaned the hall after that morning's meeting, sometimes the diplomats could be extremely messy! She loved having a full schedule though, it kept her busier than ever and her feet moving. Calliope honestly loved the work, the people, the atmosphere in the castle; she couldn't imagine what it would be like if she had been assigned farm work, just the very thought of it made her shudder. However, there wasn't much time to be engrossed in thought; she had to get on with the chores!