𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝕿𝖜𝖔
𝔖𝔲𝔪𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶: From trolls to dragons to foreign princesses, Astraea Aphelion grows stronger as she
continues to navigate medieval Britain using her wit and heart, standing unshaken beside Merlin and Arthur as they face every threa...
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📍 Camelot
⏳August, 505 AD
"Hey! What the heck happened?!" I asked Gwen as I entered her home, eyeing her up and down as I tried to figure out what was wrong. I had hurried to check on her after hearing from Morgana that she had suffered a mild accident earlier in the day. The nature of said accident had not been revealed to me – the Lady claimed that her maidservant was too embarrassed and wanted to keep it a secret – but I still wanted to make sure that she was okay.
And find out what happened because I was just too curious. Knowing that it was embarrassing only made it more so.
"Oh, Astra! You did not have to," the girl grinned as I set down the basket I'd packed with food and water, figuring that she'd probably appreciate some help in fulfilling her basic needs. "Basic human decency," I noted with a shrug. What happened?" I asked again as I sat down in front of her at the kitchen bench, unpacking the sandwich that I had sloppily put together and handing it to her.
"It was a rather ridiculous slip-up," she mumbled shyly as she averted her gaze. "Gwennie, have you met me? I'm the Queen of ridiculous slip-ups," I noted with a smirk as I motioned towards my bandaged hand. I'd somehow cut my palm while trying to build horse jumps. The girl giggled and finally met my eyes. "I was filling up Morgana's tub and slipped while carrying a bucket, hurting my leg. Gaius said I should recover in less than a week," she finally explained. I hummed. "There's nothing ridiculous about that! In fact, I'm shocked it doesn't happen more often."
As we chatted for about an hour, a plan started to form in my head.
It occurred to me that Gwen's accident could've easily been prevented by something relatively simple. A mechanism that is so standard in the modern world that we don't even stop to think about it anymore. Now, I'm not gonna claim that one such system can be built in Camelot to modern standards, especially because I'm, by no means, and engineer or an architect. I've just played enough 'Where's My Water?' to have a basic idea of how to assemble one. And I was determined to make life in my beloved kingdom easier for the misfortunate servants who had to do all the heavy lifting. And for myself, since I still refuse to let anyone fill my bathtub for me.
I was going to come up with a blueprint for a simple indoor plumbing system in the castle.
So, after saying goodbye to Gwen with a focused mind and an excited smirk, I set out towards the royal library, figuring that if there were any Roman documents on plumbing systems in the kingdom, they'd have to be housed there. I was not disappointed.
Of course, I soon dragged Merlin into my plans and explained everything that I wanted to do. He seemed slightly dazed at first, but once his brain had enough time to process my ideas, he was fully on board. So we spent about two weeks going through documents and analysing the castle's blueprints until we managed to sketch out a realistic approach to the system. Then we polished it to get the final plan.
