Moonlight Ball

Chapter 23

Iris was wiggling in the bathtub to get comfortable and secretly kept an eye on the maids. She felt deep empathy for the maid who had poor eyesight as she seemed to stand out, like a white dress that had a massive gray stain on it. The maid’s left eye bothered Iris so much that she couldn’t think of anything else. What was the situation among them anyway? The maid seemed to have been isolated by her colleagues because of her eye, but Iris couldn’t confirm this for sure.

“Hey, I need your help.” Iris deliberately called the maid who’d been serving her in the bath. The maids turned around and looked at Iris, and she heard numerous sighs of irritation. But no one dared disobey her wishes, so the blind maid approached her to tend to her needs.

“I thought she was patient,” one maid whispered to another.

“I’m sure she’ll get mad any second now. Just wait and see,” boasted a third maid to the fourth maid. “Let’s not be noisy. Let’s just keep quiet. What if she hears us and punishes us?” She continued, and the sixth and seventh maid nodded in agreement. They were almost mourning for their colleague, thinking that the Queen would be irritable, but there was a situation going on inside the bathroom that they could never have imagined.

“What’s your name?” Iris asked as she sat naked in the large white bathtub.

“I’m Anna, Your Highness,” Anna answered politely, foaming at her mouth with her back turned. She was very nervous that she’d make a mistake because of her eyes and upset the fierce Queen. So she spoke in an especially soft voice.

Had the maid listened to Iris a little closer, she’d have heard her speak an ancient word that the original queen would never have spoken.

“Anna, go to sleep,” Iris’s voice was barely audible and Anna’s body fell forward. She reacted with lightning speed, reaching out and catching her in the nick of time. Sighing with relief, she pulled Anna’s body carefully towards her.  She then placed a towel on the floor to prevent her from getting cold and quickly checked Anna’s eyes.

My teacher has told me many times not to do this, but… I know it’s against the ethics of magic, but I can’t stand the way that Anna keeps making mistakes. And I don’t want to keep explaining why I help her, so it can’t be helped. But it was still against the magic rules. Forgive me, Ruthna, Iris muttered to herself as she checked Anna’s left eye, and then dipped her finger in her bathtub. If someone hadn’t touched her workshop, this would certainly work. Her pot in the workshop should be full of water.

“Come on out, Leiden.”

After Iris spoke, the house fairy, Leiden, flew out of the water. “Iris! If you’re going to stay out all night, you should tell us. Do you know how worried we were… Who are you? Who is this person with the energy of Iris?” He asked, looking perplexed. Leiden flapped his wings and went from angry to looking visibly scared.

“It’s me. Come on.”

“What are you talking about? Even though I’m a nail-sized house fairy, my eyes work perfectly. You and Iris have completely different faces.”

“Our souls have switched. It’s a long story, but I can assure you that I’m Iris.”

Leiden tilted his head as he listened to Iris and then flew around the room before stopping in front of her. Flapping his wings slowly he asked, “What’s my impression then, Iris?”

According to the teacher’s description of his impression, he would be the last person to lose in any situation because he was so smart. Leiden used to hate this impression story but when Iris answered correctly, he was visibly shocked, “You are Iris! How did you end up with this face? Your impression looks so bad!” Leiden babbled on, “It’s the worst face of all the unpleasant guests I’ve met!” When Iris threatened, Leiden flew back a few inches, but he couldn’t help himself and added, “It’s true!”

Iris rolled her eyes, “Go and get the things I’m asking for please.”

Leiden obeyed and disappeared back into the water.

Leiden wasn’t alone when he returned with the items Iris had requested. Eight house fairies popped out of the water and they all immediately cried to each other when they saw Iris’s face.

“Whose face is that?” One of them asked.

“Oh my, you look so unlucky,” another fairy commented.

“Ruthna won’t like this face,” said a third fairy. “Out of all the faces in the world, why this one?”

All of them were complaining and a strange sound emanated from the back of Iris’s throat, as they were distracting her while she was fixing Anna’s eyes. Quickly, the house fairies huddled together, clicking their tongues and then shutting their mouths.

“What’s wrong with this lady?” One of the fairies asked. She had to jump over the edge of the bathtub to see because she had no wings to fly.