Chapter 9: A Minor Incident
ON the day of the tea party, I went in the afternoon to style Patricia’s hair. I had already braided it once that very morning, of course, but I wanted to start fresh.
“So, how many guests are coming to this party?” I asked as I brushed out her hair.
“Oh, not that many. Just the Queen, her three attendants, and me.”
I nodded. “Let’s see, then... Your hair will have a bit too much volume if we let it all down at once, so let’s go with a half-up style.”
In accordance with Vaxwald style, I left the upper half in a simple ponytail...but Patricia looked into the mirror and frowned.
“We can’t leave it at this! Why, it looks as though I just rolled out of bed! Besides, the tea party is going to take place out in the garden, or so I’m told. It’ll get all messy at the slightest breeze!”
“Don’t worry. I’m going to curl it next.”
As I spoke, I took out one of my metal hair irons. I had three different kinds in my possession: straightening irons to straighten the hair, crimping irons to create deep waves, and curling irons for curls and ringlets. On this occasion I was going to need the curling iron, and for that purpose I had already loaded up the fireplace with three logs’ worth of kindling. It was by no means a roaring fire, but in the summertime, even the smallest flame was sweltering.
This technique involved placing the metal iron directly into the fire—but only for a very specific amount of time. Let it overheat and the iron would burn the hair, causing serious damage. Thus, in the event the iron was left in for too long, I would need to apply a damp cloth to the metal in order to cool it down.
These curling irons went cold rather quickly, and they needed to be reheated multiple times in order to finish a full head of hair. As luck would have it, I had two at my disposal, which meant I could have Kirion at the fireplace heating one while I was curling Patricia’s hair with the other. However, because these tools were somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred degrees when fully heated, I needed to take extra precaution not to touch her ears, neck, or other bare skin, lest I give her a contact burn.
Fortunately, because Rebecca and the other servants were there to fan her, Patricia herself wasn’t suffering too badly from the heat, but I was a different story. Sweating mildly, I worked to curl the lower half of the hair, as well as the ponytail itself, into large, prominent ringlets. At the end, I applied a small amount of mousse for hold, then imbued the hair with my mana to give it extra shine. With this, her style would have staying power without any unnatural stiffness—and the result was quite classy.
Not that Patricia’s natural loose curls weren’t adorable in their own right, but for this look, I needed to wind the hair tightly so it wouldn’t lose its shape. Thankfully, one benefit to naturally curly hair was that, obviously, it was already good at holding curls.
Admittedly, perhaps it would’ve been more in line with Vaxwald style to straighten her hair instead, but with her natural hair texture, it simply wasn’t going to look as sleek and flat as a Dragonkin’s, and the end result would no doubt be disappointing. All told, our Princess simply looked better with curls.
“Oh, it’s beautiful, Mayna! It’s ever so fanciful and grand... Why, believe it or not, I actually feel like a princess!” Patricia exclaimed, turning her head every which way to admire her hair in the mirror, her ringlets bouncing with every movement. Personally, I was glad she liked it.
“She really does look the part,” Rebecca mused.
“I just love this style of curls! I want to try it someday!” Mona gushed. Meanwhile, Sari eyed Patricia enviously.
“Now for the finishing touch, we’ll just add a hair accessory, and then we’re all done,” I explained, but when I looked over at the table, my accessory boxes were nowhere to be found. I turned to Kirion. “Where did you put the accessories?”
Yesterday he had offered to polish them for me as part of his trainee duties, and I was hardly going to say no. But I only handed them over on the condition he brought them back before the tea party.
“Kirion?”
I looked over to find him staring at the floor, shifting around slightly. Come to think of it, he’d been acting a little strange all morning.
“What’s wrong? Was there a problem? You know you can come to me with—”
“I’m so sorry, Miss Mayna!” Kirion cut in loudly, squeezing his eyes shut.
Patricia and I stared at him in wide-eyed surprise.
“The truth is, when I woke up this morning...the boxes weren’t on the table where I left them!”
“Well, they didn’t just evaporate into thin air,” Rebecca snapped. “Surely you must know where they went.”
“If I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation!”
“Are you trying to suggest someone else moved them?”
“...Last night, after I came back from my bath, I realized I’d accidentally left my chamber door unlocked. Someone must have gone in there and taken them while I was away, I’m sure of it! Although...I went straight to bed that night, so I didn’t notice the boxes were gone until this morning...”
Kirion shrank back under pressure from Rebecca. I put a hand on his shoulder.
“I wish you would’ve told me this as soon as you noticed it... Honestly, who could have possibly taken them...?”
“Good grief, Kirion! My things are in there, you know!” Patricia pouted. Indeed, while two of the boxes contained my own personal collection, the third was reserved for Her Highness.
Personally, I was less than enthused at the prospect that someone had stolen them. I was very fond of those accessories, some of which were one of a kind—but more importantly, if I had inadvertently cost the Princess her entire highly valuable hair ornament collection, I was in deep trouble.
“I’m so terribly sorry, Your Highness,” I apologized, bowing my head.
“Just find whoever did this and get them back, all right? We can’t have a thief milling about the castle. Go and get in touch with Prince Dario, the palace attendant, and whoever else you need to.”
“Right away, Your Highness. I promise I’ll find them.” I bowed my head once more.
The Princess was generally forgiving of these sorts of mistakes—she’d pout for a bit, but she wouldn’t get angry. On the contrary, she would often keep a level head and come up with a solution to the issue, just as she was doing now. It was for this reason that I held a deep respect for her.
“Now what are we going to do? I can’t very well attend the Queen’s royal tea party without wearing an accessory,” Patricia continued with a frown. “At first I assumed the thief was only looking to take my valuables, but now that I think of it, is it possible they were looking to embarrass me in some way?”
“...I can’t say for sure what their motive could have been, but rest assured, you’ll be just fine. We have plenty of things we can substitute in place of a proper hair ornament.” As I spoke, I gestured for the servants to open Patricia’s jewelry box. “For example, we could use this pearl necklace, or this piece with evenly spaced gems... All we’d have to do is place it along the hair, like so.”
“Oh my, how lovely,” Patricia exclaimed.
“You look like an angel! Or a fairy!” Mona squealed.
This look, however, was not my proposed solution for today. I removed the necklace from her hair. “We can use brooches, too...but with this style, I’m thinking we should use fresh flowers.”
“But it’s already late summer. The selection will be limited,” Rebecca pointed out. She, of course, didn’t realize who I was or what I was capable of.
Grinning, I magically produced a series of tiny flowers, trimmed away the leaves, stalks, and pollen, and placed them in the Princess’s hair—shades of pastel pink, yellow, aqua blue, and white. If this was an evening affair I might’ve gone with one large bloom instead for a more subtle look, but since this was a garden party, I wanted to go with something bright and festive.
“Are you a mage?!”
“No, I’m just a Flowerfolk. Making flowers is our one specialty.”
“You’re a Flowerfolk? I had no idea!”
The three servants stared at me in surprise. Patricia, of course, wasn’t surprised in the least; she was enjoying the floral fragrance with her eyes closed.
“The best thing about fresh flowers is the scent, wouldn’t you say?”
And with that pressing concern dealt with, it was time to solve the mystery of the missing ornaments.