"Has Sindra already spoken with you?"
Zinnia sighs in frustration. "Yes, something about us using your wife to break this curse." Sindra, the palace priestess, had come by in the early morning to explain some elaborate plan to get her out of Ensi's body for good. Zinnia barely understood half of it, and it filled her with a whole lot of unnecessary hope. Hope that she might finally be rid of this curse and get to go home. Hope that will one day, walk out of her body and crush her soul along with it.
Zinnia is overly sensitive today, simply for the reason of Delyth having bothered her from morning till now.
She barely understood what Sindra had said before the princess burst into her chambers unannounced, with the sun having been far too low on the sky for any of it. Delyth insisted on doing her paperwork in the empress' office together with her. And every time someone walked into the room, death glares were sent their way from the depths of the intimidating expressions the princess was capable of.
Zinnia didn't have the heart, nor the ability to send her away. Delyth does whatever she wants and Zinnia has no idea how to use her newfound authority in a way that would challenge her.
She spent the entire day tense, under the judgmental and watchful eye of Ensi's wife. She felt as if the princess was carefully analysing her work, while probably wondering why all of it seemed so terrible. On top of that, having been raised in an isolated temple, Zinnia is painfully awkward around strangers. Especially noble strangers who happen to be so very intimidatingly good looking.
She spent the whole day worrying about what to say, or if she should say anything at all. And if, gods forbid, Delyth said something to her- she went through each and every hell and back to figure out a good way to respond. The princess even stayed for dinner, and Zinnia swears her hands were shivering the whole time.
Thankfully, Delyth left once the sun set. Only, of course, for Ensi to appear in Zinnia's real body only moments after, with a smug smile on her face. There is nothing more exhausting than having to tend to the attentions of two high noble women like these two. Nothing can compare to this horror.
Ensi walks up to her bed and takes a seat, deciding to ignore Zinnia's annoyed tone and tired eyes. She sighs in content at the feel of her own bedsheets, before she finally decides to grant Zinnia the honour of a response:
"We need to grow closer to her to get her to fall in love with us. Making her spend time with 'the empress', which could be either one of us, is the perfect way to do it." Ensi smiles before she continues, feeling all too proud of herself. "So, I made my wife believe that she's protecting me, the empress, by making sure that either you, Zinnia, or her are constantly spending time with me, day and night."
Zinnia looks a little startled at the thought. She had heard of the basic idea of their plan from Sindra earlier in the morning, but she couldn't really believe it. In fact she still didn't believe it, until just about a second ago. She's still hoping for all of this to be nothing but a silly nightmare a peasant girl such as herself should be ashamed of even daring to dream.
"But doesn't that mean that I'll have to sleep every night in the same bed as you?"
Zinnia can't help the accusing tone that leaves her mouth along with her words. Ensi doesn't like that one bit. "Watch that tone, Zinnia." She rolls her eyes in the face of Zinnia's obvious frustration. "You should be counting yourself lucky anyway."
Honestly Zinnia shouldn't be feeling so strongly about it. She has slept in small rooms packed with other temple girls for most of her life, and even before that in smaller rooms in the orphanage. Never in her life has she slept alone in her own bedroom like she has now, over the course of these last few weeks. But something about sleeping in the same bed as Delyth or even Ensi just evokes some strange, jittery feeling in her stomach that can be described as nothing less than bubbly nausea.