She bent down to examine a particular herb more closely.

Behind the lantern, Maya nearly fell over trying to see what Heena was doing.

Meili had to grab her mistress to keep her from toppling completely.

They made so much noise in this process—rustling, gasping, whispered arguing—that several other servants in the area turned to stare at them in confusion.

Heena straightened up, brushed off her hands, and continued walking without acknowledging the terrible spies in any way.

---

’’[Late Afternoon - The Servant’s Courtyard]’’

Later, Heena went to the servant’s courtyard—the area where she used to live and work.

She wanted to retrieve a few personal items she’d left behind in her tiny former room.

Maya and Meili followed, of course.

This time, they hid behind a water barrel.

A water barrel that was sitting in the middle of an open courtyard with absolutely nothing else around it.

They were literally crouching behind a barrel in plain view of anyone who happened to look in that general direction.

Multiple servants saw them and looked extremely confused, but Maya glared at them so fiercely that they all quickly looked away and pretended not to notice.

Heena went into her old room—which someone had already started cleaning out, preparing it for the next servant who’d be hired—and gathered the few items that mattered to her. A spare set of clothes, a small carved wooden comb, a cloth bundle containing some dried herbs.

As she exited, she looked directly at the water barrel where two people were very obviously hiding.

She stared at it for a long moment.

Maya and Meili froze, holding their breath.

Then Heena just shook her head slowly, as if witnessing something incredibly stupid, and walked away.

Behind the barrel, Meili whispered, "Mistress, I think she saw us."

"She couldn’t have," Maya insisted stubbornly. "We’re being very stealthy."

"Mistress, we’re hiding behind a barrel in an empty courtyard in broad daylight."

"STEALTHY!" Maya repeated, refusing to acknowledge reality.

---

’’[Evening - Encounter with Samuel]’’

As evening approached, Heena was walking back toward her and Samuel’s quarters when she encountered her husband returning from his study.

Samuel looked at her, then his eyes flickered to something behind her, and his expression shifted to complete confusion.

He looked back at Heena with raised eyebrows, his eyes clearly asking: ’What is going on? Why are there two people very obviously following you?’

In response, Heena just shrugged her shoulders in an exaggerated gesture and said out loud, "Ask your young stepmother how she spent her day. How would I know?"

Samuel’s eyes widened slightly as he glanced behind Heena again, clearly spotting Maya and Meili attempting to hide behind—of all things—a decorative potted plant that was barely waist-high.

They were both crouched down, trying to make themselves small, but it was completely ineffective.

Samuel looked back at Heena with an expression that clearly said: ’This has been happening all day?’

Heena nodded slightly in confirmation.

Samuel pressed his lips together, clearly trying very hard not to laugh.

"I see," he said carefully. "And have you... addressed this situation?"

"Why would I?" Heena asked innocently. "If someone wants to spend their entire day crouching behind various objects and following me around, that’s their choice. I’m not going to interfere with their... recreational activities."

Samuel lost his composure and let out a short laugh before quickly covering it with a cough.

"Very diplomatic of you," he managed to say.

Behind the potted plant, Maya was whispering frantically to Meili: "What are they saying? Can you hear them?"

"No, Mistress, they’re too far away and speaking too quietly."

"This is USELESS!" Maya hissed in frustration. "We’ve followed her all day and learned NOTHING except that she walks around, eats food, and looks at plants! There must be something more! Some secret we’re missing!"

Meili, who’d been crouching for hours and whose legs were cramping painfully, said weakly, "Mistress, perhaps we should try a different approach tomorrow? This doesn’t seem to be working..."

"NO!" Maya insisted. "We’ll follow her again tomorrow! And the next day! And the day after that! Eventually she’ll reveal her secrets!"

Heena, who could hear this entire conversation because they still hadn’t learned to whisper properly, turned to Samuel and said, "I’ll see you at dinner, husband. I need to go... do some things."

The way she said "do some things" while looking directly at the potted plant made it absolutely clear that she was mocking the whole situation.

Samuel nodded, still fighting back laughter. "Of course, wife. I’ll see you soon."

As Heena walked away—with Maya and Meili scrambling to follow her, their cover completely blown but still somehow believing they were being sneaky—Samuel stood there shaking his head in amazement.

"My stepmother," he muttered to himself, "is an absolute idiot."

His personal guard appeared beside him and said quietly, "Young master, the Mistress and her servant have been following the young mistress all day. Very... obviously."

"I noticed," Samuel said dryly. "Did they discover anything useful?"

"Only that your wife enjoys roasted chestnuts, is polite to servants, looks at garden plants, and occasionally talks to herself," the guard reported. "Also that she has terrible hair-tying skills and her bun keeps falling apart."

Samuel laughed again. "So nothing actually damaging or scandalous."

"No, young master. Your wife seems to be... exactly what she appears to be. A young woman going about her daily activities."

"Except for the part where she’s clearly far more intelligent and capable than she’s letting on," Samuel added thoughtfully.

He smiled slightly. "This is going to be entertaining. Maya’s going to exhaust herself trying to find secrets that either don’t exist or are too well-hidden for her amateur spying techniques to uncover."

The guard nodded. "Should we do anything about the surveillance, young master?"

"No," Samuel said. "Let Maya waste her time and energy. It keeps her occupied and out of actual trouble. And it’s honestly quite amusing to watch."

As the sun set over the household, somewhere in the gardens, Maya and Meili were still crouched behind bushes, watching Heena do absolutely nothing suspicious whatsoever.

It was going to be a very long campaign of espionage.

And Heena was going to enjoy every ridiculous moment of it.

’’[Three Days Later]’’

Three full days of surveillance had passed, and Maya was on the verge of a complete breakdown.

She sat in her personal chambers, looking absolutely haggard. Dark circles had formed under her eyes from lack of proper sleep. Her hair was disheveled from constantly ducking behind objects. Her expensive robes had dirt stains on the knees from crouching in gardens.

Meili looked even worse—the poor servant girl was practically swaying on her feet from exhaustion.

"This is IMPOSSIBLE!" Maya screamed, throwing a decorative hairpin across the room where it clattered against the wall. "Three days! THREE FULL DAYS of following that girl, and what have we discovered?!"

She began counting on her fingers with increasing frustration:

"She wakes up late—which is normal for a newlywed! She eats food—which EVERYONE does! She walks around the household—which is EXPECTED! She talks to servants politely—which makes her look GOOD, not suspicious! She looks at plants—which means NOTHING! She struggles with her hair—which just makes her look incompetent, not evil!"