7 Ladies in Waiting

1-Royal Pet

The Royal Pet is a lady in waiting of the Queen, who has caught the eye of the roving King. The King never had much love for his wife anyway, as she was a political match chosen by his father rather then a true love match, and has fallen in love with the Royal Pet and treats her like she is a Queen. And the Royal Pet has big ambitions and is not content to be just a royal mistress, she wants to become the Queen in reality. She is close to fulfilling her goal, but if she is not careful, and is unable to provide the King with a legitimate son, her flirty ways might end up leading her to the executioner's block.

2-Enchanted Princess

When the King found his daughter verbally abusing her lady in waiting, he was so annoyed that he used his magic to body-swap the two and placed a geas on his daughter so she could not tell anyone who she really was that would last for a week, or until he swapped them back, whatever came first. He only meant to have them swapped for three days, to teach his wayward daughter some much needed humility-but he died of a heart attack two days later, leaving the real Princess immensely frustrated. The geas still has five days to run, but the faux Princess in her body will be crowned in three days-and unless she can break the geas before then and convince the Royal Court of who she is, the new Queen will very likely throw her into an oubliette or just have her executed.

3-Spy

On the surface a faithful lady in waiting, who never acts above her station or speaks out of turn, the Spy has been leaking whatever secrets she can get her hands on. Nobody suspects her of doing this, which is just as well, as if caught she will be executed for certain. She is so trusted by her royal master and mistress that they are open even about highly classified military matters in front of her, unaware that their most trusted lady in waiting has been a deep cover sleeper agent, the daughter of sleeper agents whose sole mission was to have her and then to get her placed in this position. Should war break out with the kingdom she works for, a lot of lives will be lost because of her spying.

4-Princess's Lover

At the age of only seventeen, for reasons of state a beautiful seventeen year old princess was forced to marry an ugly old fifty-three year old king who had his last queen beheaded for alleged adultery. Once he was a young, fit and sporty king, but not anymore. Hating her husband, the unhappy princess confided in her lady in waiting, and the two have become secret lovers. If the queen was to cheat or even be suspected of cheating with a male toungs would soon start wagging at the royal court and she would lose her head, but noone beleaves that two women could be secret lovers or questions why the two are seen together so often.

5-Wormtongue

The Wormtongue constantly spreads rumours to weaken and bring people down, both below and above her in the social scale, encourages people to commit crime and nobles to say things that will get them into trouble, and is a social climber, constantly scheming to better herself at the expense of everybody else. Sooner or later she is very likely to get her comeuppance, either legally or otherwise. 

6-Songstress

This lady in waiting doubles up as the royal bard and regularly sings at the royal court to amuse the royal family and the courtiers alike, and at Sunreturn she sings for the common people who traditionally have a chance to feast with the monarchy on this topsy turvy day. She is one of the most popular courtiers in the country and many people including nobles wish that they could marry her, and gets money and gifts and food from her fans, both commoners and nobles, on a regular basis.

7-Typhoid Mary

Since the on the surface Typhoid Mary showed up at the Royal Court, so has the dreaded Cracked Plague, killing five courtiers and three servants so far and panicking people. Poisoning was suspected at first, but even after a full investigation and greatly increased kitchen security, people continue to fall sick and die horribly. Unknown so far to everyone including herself, the Typhoid Mary is a carrier of the plague, that does her no harm at all but poisons everybody who comes anywhere near her. Should she be found out she is likely to be executed by burning at the stake.