The bed in my chamber was stuffed with feathers. It was incredibly soft and comfortable, and it was also huge. Though I was tempted to just fall into bed, I forced myself to take off my boots and the rest of my clothes and drape them over a chair.

I dropped into bed and hauled the heavy warm covers over myself, then leaned over to blow out the candle. The light of the wood fire in the hearth flickered through the darkened room. I looked over at the window. Outside, the night sky was peppered with stars. Far off, over distant mountain ranges, I caught a glimpse of the new moon before dropping into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When I woke the next morning, I had a disconcerting moment of not knowing where I was. Then the events of the previous day flooded back into my mind. I glanced down at myself, at the rucked up blankets around me, and the morning light streaming through the open window.

I was Prince Cassian.

My sleep had left me feeling less rested than I would have liked. My weak muscles and aching bones had forced me awake a few times, and the way the room remained still was unusual; in the treetop villages, my bedroom would sway in the wind, much like a mother rocked while she cradled a child in her arms.

Despite my interrupted sleep and my collection of aches and pains, I felt eager to begin my physical training. I groaned as I got out of bed and walked a few tentative steps to the window. I was pleasantly surprised to feel much stronger than I had yesterday, though still nowhere near what a young man in his prime should feel like.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and began to pull on my clothes, when I heard a clanking sound and singing coming from the next room. Someone was working next door. It sounded like they were cleaning out the hearth.

Once I was dressed, I walked to the door and peered out into the library.

There was a woman crouched beside the hearth, sweeping the hearth and emptying the ash into a bucket. When I cleared my throat, she glanced up, then stood and bowed with a smile on her face.

“Good morning, your highness,” she said. Her brown hair was tied into a simple bun, and she wore the simple, neatly-cut gray robes of a castle attendant. “I’ve brought you your breakfast, Prince Cassian.”

She gestured toward the door to the dining room. Looking through the door, I could see that the table by the window was laden with food. As soon as I saw the steaming hot food, laid out on the table on a half dozen platters and bowls, my stomach growled. The delicious aroma filled my nose, and my mouth started to water at the smell of cooked meat and fresh bread.

“Is that for me?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said, giving me a slightly odd look. “I wasn’t working in the castle before your… mishap, but I was told what you enjoy eating. I’ve been given the job of attending to you, if it please you.”

“It looks like I had a good taste in food as well as books,” I said as I grabbed my staff from where it leaned beside the hearth. I had to lean on it as I went through to the dining room, but I already felt stronger than I had the day before.

I sat at the table, and the brown-haired serving woman followed me through. There was a platter of hot flakey pastries packed with baked apples, and another of crisp bacon layered on thick slices of crusty white bread. One small crock held salted butter, and another held a sweet berry preserve. Perfectly poached eggs sat in a covered dish, and there was another platter with cold slices of roasted beef and roasted chicken.

In a steaming earthenware jug, there was a dark, rich-smelling liquid.

When I inhaled the steam from this drink, something surprising happened. I had a memory, but not a memory of my own. This was Cassian’s memory. I remembered the name of the drink, and the bright, alert feeling that it gave me. It made me think of cosy mornings by a warm fire, and the reassuring feeling of a book in my lap as it rained outside. It was very strange and somewhat disconcerting to ‘remember’ someone else’s memory, and I was struck by how tame Cassian’s memory seemed to be. There was nothing in his memories about being braced for a day’s riding, or some hard martial training. All his memories seemed to be of sitting indoors, of eating and reading. Not that there was anything wrong with that by definition, but it didn’t seem to me the kind of lifestyle that befitted a prince.

“This is… coffee?” I said, holding up the mug and using the strange word that came with Cassian’s memory of the drink.

“Indeed!” The woman beamed. “Coffee imported from our trade contacts in the Summer Isles. I’m glad you still have the taste for it.”

I tasted the hot drink, and found that I did have the taste for it. The rich brew tasted lovely, and I found that it gave me a pleasant mental sharpness which I liked very much.

“You have an appointment with Garro the Strength Master in half an hour, so you should eat and drink your fill,” Val said.

“Half an hour? I’m likely to have a belly ache if I start training with a full stomach.”

The woman giggled. “Then you should be careful not to eat too much. Difficult, I know; the head cook personally prepared each dish. He does wonders, so he does.”

“What’s your name?” I asked through a mouthful of bread and bacon. I scooped poached eggs onto another slice of the bacon toast, and plopped preserves on too, enjoying the contrast between the sweet and savory flavors.

“I’m Valerie,” she said. “But you can call me Val, if you like.” She reached over and poured some more of the coffee into my mug. The smell was tantalizing, and the taste was rich and earthy as I drank it down.

“Nice to meet you, Val. I’m Bright… uh…” I paused, almost giving her my old name by mistake. “Bright in the mornings,” I finished hurriedly. I was Cassian now - I had to remember that.

“I can see that,” Val said, giving me a slightly odd look but smiling as she did so. “I was a little nervous about this position,” she continued after a slight hesitation, “but I see you are much nicer than they said you would be.” Her mouth dropped open, and she slapped a hand over it, her eyes wide with embarrassment and chagrin. “I’m sorry! I spoke out of place. What I meant to say was that you are even nicer than the others suggested you would be.”

I laughed as I waved her off, a slice of apple cake in my hand. “It’s not a problem,” I said with my mouth full. “You see, I had a lot of time to think while I was in my coma. I realized that I’ve maybe not always been the best version of myself I could have been. I’ve decided I’m going to be different. I’m going to do better.”

I swallowed and turned in my chair so I was looking directly at her. “So,” I said, “if you see me acting in ways that seem different to what you might expect, then that’s the reason. I’d appreciate it if you could let any of the other staff you speak with know that as well. I’m the prince, but I may not always act like everyone expects. The sooner people understand that, the better.”

“I understand, your highness,” she said with a curtsy, “and I’ll tell the others, too, as you request. It will be… better, I think.” She looked at me thoughtfully, and I suspected that Cassian, as he had been, was maybe a bit of a bad fellow when it came to the way he behaved and treated his staff.

I turned back to my meal as I spoke on. “As much as I like you waiting on me hand and foot,” I said, “you won’t have to do it for long. As soon as I remember where everything is located in the castle, I can do it myself. I want to be independent, you know?”

“Truly, Prince Cassian, it would be better for me to do it for you. I would be punished if it were suspected that I wasn’t attending to your needs. It’s expected.”

“Very well,” I said. “You can fetch me food and clean my chambers, and set the fires in the library hearth, but I hope I won’t be needing anything else. I’ll serve myself at mealtimes if you’ll see that the food is brought here. If you’ll remain on hand to help me find my way about for the first few weeks, it will be enough.”

“And… your bath, my lord?” she asked hesitantly.

I caught something strange in her tone. “What do you mean?” I asked, glancing up at her.

She dropped her eyes. “Only, will you still require my… services… when you bathe?”

I thought I caught her drift. I didn’t like it one bit. “I’ll require for you to arrange that hot water be brought to my chambers, and to see that fresh towels and clothing are available for me. My needs won’t go beyond that.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Val let out a very relieved sigh. She straightened up and smiled at me. “I’m very glad to hear that. And so will the other women be.”

I eyed Valerie, my suspicions about the old prince Cassian’s behavior almost confirmed. “The previous attendants,” I said carefully, “the ones who were assigned to me before my coma, they serviced all my needs, didn’t they?”

Val nodded, not meeting my eyes. “They did.”

I felt at that point an extreme dislike for the old Cassian settling in me. So, this was the reputation I was going to have to overcome? I wondered what more unpleasant surprises I would have to find out about the man I had been.

“Well,” I said, “I won’t be needing any of that, Valarie. Not from you, or from any of the other staff either. That’s not my way. Not anymore.”

“Understood, your highness,” Val said.

I turned my attention to my food, but found that my appetite was not as strong as it had been. The thought that I was going to have to work off an established reputation as a lazy, lecherous, entitled princeling was not encouraging. I ate a last bite of toast and drained the last of my coffee from my cup.

Time was passing.

Val had gone through to the library and was setting a new fire ready in the freshly-cleaned hearth.

“Val,” I asked, from the doorway, “do you think you could show me where my training attire is?”

“Of course, sir,” she said, standing up and wiping her hands on her apron.

Val took me to an anteroom that connected my sleeping chambers to my private bathhouse. The walls of the room were lined with shelves and hangers, filled with more clothing than I’d ever seen in my life.

There were shelves for boots, trousers, and robes, and hangers for tunics, cloaks, and other pieces of clothing whose purposes I couldn’t discern.

How could anyone need so many pieces of fabric to clothe themselves? I thought, as I lifted a hat with brightly-colored plumes of fabric cascading down behind it like a tail.

I’d only ever owned two outfits at any one time, and the only time I’d exchange them for new ones was when they were either beyond repair or I’d outgrown them.

After a few minutes of searching through the shelves for something that didn’t resemble a peacock’s feathers, I selected a simple cloth tunic and matching grey trousers and slipped on the least remarkable pair of leather boots I could find.

I started to remove my shirt, and Val gasped and quickly turned around. I laughed but couldn’t help feeling a little sad at her innocence. What would have happened to this sweet woman if she’d become an attendant to the real prince? Her innocence would have quickly been stolen by the man whose body was now my own. I figured that the prince had made a similar impression on many others in the castle. I was determined that I would correct that impression through my own actions, no matter how difficult that might prove to be.

I was beginning to feel a pretty extreme dislike for the man who Prince Cassian had been. It felt as if my reputation had been somehow sabotaged before I’d even arrived here. Well, no matter what it took, I would do better.

Once I was naked, I stared at my reflection in a full-length mirror that sat in a corner of the wardrobe antechamber

My glance fell on the prince’s manhood and I quickly averted my eyes. No matter how long I remained in this body, I guessed I would never grow used to having another man’s member between my legs. That was a weird feeling, but I hoped I could get used to it, unlikely as that seemed now. Perhaps, like the rest of this man’s life, I could make better use of it than he had.

I looked over the smooth skin of this body I now inhabited. His flesh seemed weak, the skin hanging loose from his almost skeletal frame. From the way his skin hung, I suspected that he’d once had an impressive chest and shoulders, but perhaps his belly had been showing the effects of his appetite.

There were no scars on his body, and his hands were smooth, free of the calluses that come either from hard word or hard practice with the sword. This lack of scars on his body and calluses on his hands suggested he had never much real fighting - if any - nor had he hunted anything as lethal as a direboar or a saber toothed tiger. Despite his broad shoulders and athletic frame, I was beginning to suspect that Prince Cassian had never hunted anything more dangerous than his breakfast.

I began to dress myself. Valerie, understanding that I didn’t want her help with this, had gone into the bedchamber and was singing quietly to herself as she set the bed to rights, straightening the ruffled sheets and smoothing out the covers.

Changing into the trousers and tunic took quite some time because of my weakness, and I stumbled once or twice, but I persevered. It would take some time before this weak body could perform the same feats I had done as a man of the Hunter Clan, but I was determined that I would get this body back to a place of health and strength.

In the Hunter Clans, it was considered one of the worst sins for a young man to waste the strength of his youth by neglecting his body. This was not always a good thing, because it stopped young men from pursuing the intellectual studies which might be the place where their talents lay. However, if the Clans erred too far on the side of the physical, I suspected that the Outlanders were unbalanced in the other direction. For health, I believed that a person should try to find a balance between a healthy body and a well-fed mind.

Perhaps as the prince, I would be able to move the personal philosophy of the Kingdom in that direction.

“Do you need any help, my lord?” Valerie asked somewhat timidly from the doorway. It had been a while.

“Thanks, but I’m finished,” I said. I was just finishing lacing up my boots. I looked myself up and down in the mirror, feeling pleased with the effect that the well-cut gray tunic and trousers, and the well-fitted boots had on me. I looked older, I thought, and less of a dandy than I’d looked in my robes and crown of yesterday.

I turned to Val and spread my arms so she could see the full effect.

Val turned to look at me. “You look dashing, your highness,” she said smiling.

“Thank you,” I said. “I much prefer this kind of simple attire.”

“That surprises me,” she said as she glanced over the many shelves. “But I suppose you did say that you have changed since your coma.”

She darted into the wardrobe chamber suddenly, reaching for something on a lower shelf. “You’re missing something, though,” she said as she rummaged. As she straightened, she held something out to me.

I took it from her, and she stepped back, beaming at me. She’d handed me a fine set of black gloves of soft leather.

“Very nice,” I said as I drew them on.

A sudden thought struck me as I looked over the packed shelves and full hangers. “Tell me, Valerie, do you have any siblings?”

She nodded. “I have three younger brothers.”

“And your parents? Are they living?”

“My mother is, though she is elderly and not in very good health these days, since my father died.”

“Your family is poor?” I asked, and immediately could have kicked myself for being so indelicate.

She cast her eyes downward. “We manage. My brothers and I all work now, and my mother does not go without.”

“I understand, Valarie,” I said. “I didn't mean to cause offense. But I wonder, why don’t you take a few of these things for them?” I gestured at the vast collection of clothing in the anteroom. “In fact, perhaps you could make a project of having a bit of a clear out in here. This clothing is no longer to my taste. Go through what’s here and clear some space. I’m sure I’ll need some ceremonial clothing at some point - I’ll leave the decisions on what to keep up to you. Take the clothing you clear out for yourself and your brothers, and sell it on if that’s helpful to you.”

“Truly, your highness? Even the least of the items here must be worth more than I would earn in a month!”

I shrugged. “I doubt I could wear them all even if I lived for a thousand years. Besides, I’m not planning on staying this skinny for long, so a majority of the clothing here won’t be useful to me. This is a big job. If you need to hire a couple of other women to help you with it, do so. I’ll see that they’re paid.”

“Thank you!” she exclaimed as she rushed over to hug me. She squeezed me for a moment, but before I had time to reciprocate, she released me. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell anyone that I touched you without your approval.”

“It’s fine,” I said with a laugh. “I didn’t mind.”

She beamed at me as she began to go through the clothing on the shelves. It really was a big job, and I was glad that I had her here to do it for me.

“One other thing, Val,” I said.

“Name it, your highness,” she replied sincerely.

“There’s a castle tailor, I assume?”

“Old master Raemond,” she replied. “He is in charge of nearly all the castle’s clothing needs.”

I nodded. “See master Raemond for me. I’ll need new clothing, less ostentatious than anything here. Simple, serviceable clothing without ornament, preferably in darker colors. Will you pass on these instructions for me.”

“With pleasure, sir.”

“Also,” I said, catching sight of my long blonde braid of hair which hung down to the center of my back, “do you know of anyone who can cut hair in the castle?”

“Why, I can, sir.”

“Let’s do that when we have a chance. I think I’ve had enough of this,” I said, gesturing at the braid.

“Very good, sir. One thing, if I may…?”

“Yes?”

“If I sell these garments, people might think I’ve stolen them. Prince Cassian is… well, he’s not known for largesse toward serving staff.”

“Separate out what you want to sell, and I’ll write you a letter on my authority,” I promised. “We’ll let it be known that I’m shaking things up in the crown prince’s chambers.”

“Very good,” she grinned. “I’m glad I took this job.”

“As am I.” I smiled. “Now, I should get going; I bet armsmaster Garro doesn’t like to be kept waiting, and I’m already late. I suspect being the prince won't get me much sympathy in the training grounds.”

Valerie nodded her head. “I don’t know too much about how it all works, but I know enough to know that when you enter the training centers, you’re not a prince anymore. You’re just another trainee. My previous position was for a lovely nobleman named Jayson. He was such a sweet man, but he often returned to his chambers with horrific bruises. Some were even inflicted by the Martial Arts Master, Kara.”

“Understood,” I said. “It shouldn’t take me long to get used to being treated as an equal and not a prince.”

“I do hope they treat you kindly; it was awful seeing Jayson beaten like that.”

I smiled at Val. “You don’t need to worry. I’ll give as good as I get.”