HECATE

I

“Move that more to the left. No, your left. Where are you even- oh my goddess, not that way…” Hecate sighed at the servants moving the decorations inside the throne room.

She was extremely busy these days since she needed to organise everything for her sister’s coming-of-age ceremony and the servants in the main palace were too incompetent to do anything without her constantly giving them orders and short of doing everything herself there was not much she could do to change that. The servants in her palace wing were all personally trained by her, so they worked like her hands and feet and knew exactly what she wanted from them without her explaining everything.

She wished they could help her instead of these incompetent beings, whom Rina had mostly neglected since she was too busy to care about the maids’ and male servants’ work. The only time Rina said anything was when she noticed something too noticeable to miss and then she just asked her husband or Hecate to educate the maids properly, knowing full well that Hecate and Eric were both very busy themselves teaching at the academy and running it.

Eric being the headmaster of the Royal Institute of Sorcery and Hecate his substitute burdened them with so much work that they had almost no time for anything else and given that they were both workaholics wasn’t helping their case, either. Rina just added to that burden by giving them loads of work like educating the maids of her own palace instead of asking Delphine to take care of that.

Delphine only ever had to attend her private classes inside the castle and the few classes she had at the Institute and those were only taught by Hecate or Eric. Rina simply sheltered her too much since she had a weak body since birth, though she had long since mostly recovered. She didn’t even want to teach her the curriculum meant to educate the next Grand Sorceress because she insisted that Hecate was to be her heir, much to Delphine’s dismay.

Delphine would always pester her, telling Hecate to teach her everything she learned as the successor to their mother until Hecate gave in and taught her a thing or two or until she shut down all attempts because of her busy schedule.

“I’m surrounded by imbeciles,” Hecate muttered while massaging her temples as the maids suddenly started putting the wrong flowers into the already-finished arrangements.

“Everyone, listen up. If I see a single person doing something without being ordered to, I am immediately firing them. I know the Grand Sorceress has not been paying attention to you so you could all do whatever you wanted until now but count those days over. As long as I am the one giving the instructions no one is permitted to even breathe without my explicit consent. I hope I have made myself clear.” She caught the attention of everyone as soon as she started talking without having to raise her voice and everyone present knew to heed her warning from her cold tone.

Everyone at the castle was aware of Hecate’s usually aloof personality so most avoided her or making a mistake but there were a few in the main palace who rarely saw her. Some rumours painted her as a cruel woman who stole her sister’s position.

Thanks to that, a lot of sorcerers kept on criticising everything she did and badmouthed her behind her back, not at all appreciating everything she did for her people. Those were the ones in need of a lesson since they seemed to lack respect for the crown princess of their own race.

If Hecate’s servants were not busy moving her belongings into her new home, a separate tower of the castle, she would have had them finish the preparations but finishing the move was more important, especially since she needed to start on her research again and that wouldn’t be possible until all her devices were brought to her laboratory inside her tower.

“I see the servants are giving you a tough time again, Your Highness. Do you want me to teach them a lesson? Or I could take over from you since most things have already been prepared and only minute details need to be fixed for tomorrow.” Hecate’s friend and assistant, Audrey, asks as she enters the throne room through the two large entrance doors.

“It’s alright, I will have to start training them after this week since I don’t have the time for anything else other than preparations, teaching and doing paperwork, apart from the dozens of awakenings I need to perform from now on. I have everything handled.” Even though she said that Hecate looked like she would faint from exhaustion and that was of course also evident to Audrey.

“Arcene, I will not take ‘no’ as an answer, just look at you! I knew you were a workaholic but this is simply taking it too far. You’re just harming your body by overworking it. When was the last time you even slept properly?” Audrey was having none of that since she had already been struggling with Hecate’s work ethic, but this was just taking it too far.

“The last time I slept was probably around five days ago- oh…” Eyes wide and mouth agape, Audrey was staring at Hecate in complete and utter shock.

“Woman, how are you still standing and how do you have enough energy to shoot frosty looks at the servants?! You need to go to bed and sleep immediately! I will take over for you and talk to Rina about cancelling the awakenings you have today so you can rest until the guests arrive. I will make sure to wake you up on time so don’t fret and just relax for the next five hours.”

“Alright then. Just call me if any trouble arises or if it’s too much for you to handle.” Hecate said reluctantly but Audrey didn’t even bother listening to her since she would never disturb her while she enjoyed her much-deserved rest and just shooed Hecate out of the throne room.

Once she was in her room, Hecate lay down on her bed without getting under the covers since that would have taken too much energy and before she knew it, she fell asleep. Even while drifting off to sleep, the thought that she still had tasks she needed to get done, occupied her mind.