Enchanted Captivation [InquisitorMaster AU fanfiction]

Chapter 5: Living in a Lie

Alex and Zach walked through the halls of the castle, Alex peered down to the outside. "We're almost there," Zach states, catching Alex's attention again. She smiles softly, "Alright."

The two chat down the hall to the laundry room, Zach opens the door and lets light into the maids cleaning and washing clothes, a maid passed them carrying a basket of clean wet clothes, presumably going to dry them. "Here you are when the sun starts to set, come down to the dining hall, you and your friends can come and have dinner with us," Zach offers politely. Alex smiles widely and nods, "Mmhm! I'll make sure to be there!" She exclaims, "That is if I can find it, hehe..."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine, I'm sure that you're able to find it!" 

"I hope so," Zach waves Alex off, Alex closes the door and puts on an apron and gloves, sitting down at her station. She fills up the large metal washing basin with hot water from the boiler across the room, she grabs a pile of white laundry and dumps them into the basin. Alex covers the washing board with water and then scrubs it down lightly with a bar of soap, covering the surface. Alex picks up some pants, rubbing it with the bar of soap before scrubbing it down on the washing board, starting at one end and slowly scrunching it up in her hands while still rubbing it on the washing board. She turns it over and repeats the steps. She's washed laundry before, but it was rare, once a month or so. She takes the soapy pants and rinses it out in the washing water, wrings it out slightly, and places it into the rinse water, located next to her in a separate bucket. Repeating the steps for the rest of the white clothing, then after putting all in the rinse water she kneels and begins to sink it under, moving it around and agitating it to make sure all the soap gets out. 

Alex gets up and grabs a basket from the shelf, she wrings out all of the clothes and places them into the basket. She gets up and carries the basket outside, stepping out into the garden, walking through to go to the clothesline. Once she reached there, she placed the basket down and began to hang up all the clothes on it, other girls were around her doing the same thing, and some were gardening around them. 

"Hey, Alex!" A voice calls, Alex turns to see Jade and smiles. "Hey, Jade!" Alex finishes hanging up the clothes and grabs the basket, going up to Jade. "How's it going?" 

"Pretty well! I'm just doing laundry, what about you?" Alex replies, stopping in front of Jade who is on the ground planting something. "That's good! I'm just planting tomatoes and strawberries." She goes back and continues to plant, water, and move on. 

"I should probably get going, don't want to get in trouble," Alex awkwardly smiles, "See you, Jade!" "Cya!"

Alex wandered back into the castle, carrying the empty basket and walking through the castle. It wasn't welcome but it was huge. It was better than Alex's old house at least. She arrived back inside the washroom, placing the basket back on the shelves and sitting on the stool in front of her basin. Her water was already emptied and replaced with fresh hot water. The water Alex used was most likely taken to the garden for watering water. 

She gets the colored clothing and puts them at her side and repeats her steps, dumping them underwater, soaping the water, and then she gets to work cleaning them, getting a little wet in the process. After wringing them out and placing them in a basket, she puts them next to the door and rinses off her washboard, dumps out the water, and then she grabs the clothes and goes back to the garden and hangs them up.

After a few more loads, she finally finished. Alex wiped the sweat from her head and smiled to herself, proud of her hard work. It was dusk, she smiled while looking out the window, watching the sunset. She reached inside her cloak about to grab her book before stopping herself. 

Alex had gotten comfortable here. Too comfortable. She got up and began walking down to the dining hall, which was more of her wandering through the castle until she found it. 

She entered and her nose was flooded by the smell of food, her eyes widened and she looked around for her friends. Her mild hunger had been increased to ravenous starvation, spotting Charli and Jade she hastily walked over and sat next to them. "Hey girls!" She cheered.

"Hey, Alex!"

"Hey!"

Jade and Charli greeted, they began to talk but it was obvious they were desperate for the food. A servant came over and placed a plate of cooked chicken, fish, bread, wine, and cabbage. "Woah!" Jade shouts the girls stared at the meal in shock. "This is more than I eat in three weeks!" Charli exclaims.

Alex cut off a few slices of the chicken, some cabbage, a little fish, and half a loaf of bread. "This is as much as my family ate back then!" She states, getting herself the chalice of wine and taking a sip from it. 

Jade and Charli got their sharings and the three began digging into their food. They weren't the most proper, which was understandable, but they certainly weren't pigs. Halfway through their meal Zach and Drake came over to sit next to them. 

"Hey there, Drake!" Jade greets, taking a bite into the chicken. "I see you aren't eating much, we decided to come over here and talk a little." Zach smiles, taking the chicken legs and handing one to Drake. "Back in our little town, we didn't eat much. The food we have now is more than enough!" Alex explained, finishing up her meal.

"Oh, I never knew," Drake replies in an unconcerned tone, "Say, the priest is coming over to give preaching, he'll be staying here a while for political reasons."

The girls stop simultaneously, petrified. If the priest found out, they would be... they shook off the thought. The twins hardly notice the sudden atmosphere change with the others. "Oh hey, it's about to start!"

The five turn their heads towards the stand at the front of the room, out walks a priest, long draping black and white clothes with multiple crosses sewen on, along with a cross around his neck. He had a large black and white hat, it was a mystery on how he was able to keep it on his head. The priest had a wide smile, purple hair, and purple eyes. He wasn't old, roughly the girl's age, maybe younger.

"Hello everyone, I am your priest, Light!"