"Yes, sir," Ameline said, and bowed. She looked at the prince for a moment more, then hurried to the adjacent room to fill the tub. The castle had a clever system that allowed for a pump directly in the prince's bathroom, so the maid could easily fill it. She started a fire in the pit under the tub and pumped water it, and only extinguished it when the tub was full. The water was steaming, and likely close to boiling, at that point.

Ameline returned to the prince's room of bed. "Master, your bath is ready. The water is quite warm," she warned, and the went to his closet. Ameline was different now: no feeling, all seriousness. She was a woman with a task to do, and set out to do it, inspecting the garments in Prince Zack's closet as he bathed. It was tough to select his finest clothing, but eventually she settled on an outfit laced with gold, of red and violet silks, and bearing the family's crest on a brooch that attached a rather regal looking cape around his neck.

Zack slowly climbed out of bed and headed for the tub. He tried to keep his mind off the fact that in just a couple of hours he would be meeting his future wife. He had no desire to wed this stranger. He wondered if the girl felt the same way. Zack quickly washed and got dressed. He was please with the clothed that Ameline had picked out.

Later Zack sat in the throne room bored out of his mind as his future inlaws and bride were introduced. His bride was a stick figure. She had no curves that he could see. He could barely tell she was a girl. Shy was quiet and unappealing. Zack wondered how many royals had looked at their future mate and shuttered.

Quietly, Ameline went about the rest of her day. She tended to Prince Zack's rooms; she made sure his lunch meal, to be shared with his bride- oh, how she shuddered at the thought of the word- would duly impress her and her family; she tended to his clothes; she set maid about to work on the rest of the palace, but they always did, and they all stayed out of sight. And now, Ameline was at a loss for what to do.

Normally, she would trail the prince about his day, doing as he bid, until he sent her off. But it would have been inappropriate for her to do that on the day that Prince Zack was meeting his betrothed. The maid went and checked the guest rooms- but of course, they were already prepared perfectly for the... Other family.

Ameline tried not to think of them as intruders.

Without anything to attend to, Ameline went to the kitchens and took some food for herself from the scraps of lunch. Many of the servants fed themselves like that; attended their work, and the kitchens when it ran out. Typically, by the time you finished eating, there was more to do, but not today. Nothing was being disturbed, or even looked at in a disruptive manner.

Finally, Ameline approached the throne room, through the hidden servants' halls. There was a thin hall leading out of the throne room, in the corners of the room by the thrones themselves. These halls didn't lead to anywhere but some closets for storage, but standing in them gave one a good earful of what was going on in the throne room. The opening to the secret servants' passages was hidden in both of these halls, far enough back to be virtually impossible to spot from the throne room- in fact, the only way someone in the room would see it would be if they were looking down the hall and the door was open.

Ameline cracked the door open and waited to hear how things were going. She was curious as to what the prince's bride was like.

Zack entered the throne room. The cape of his outfit flared dramatically behind him. He quickly made his way to the throne. It was weird sitting on his father's chair. Zack knew that someday it would be his, but for now it was his father's. It would probably be his fathers for years after his father passed. Once he was seated Zack waited for the princess to appear. He thought about all the different personalities that she could help. He didn't want to met her. He didn't want to like her. He wanted to choose his own bride. But that was impossible. He sat up when the guards announced that she was on her way to the throne room. Zack assumed his most royal pose and prepared himself to met his bride.