Luna sat silently as the maids glanced around at each other. Their looks carried meaning, but many of the more composed ones were completely silent, and not a single one got up from their knees. Luna was pretty sure that they probably had a telepath. It was a rare sort of magic, incredibly so, but to serve Lukas, one likely needed special prowess or skills.
Of course, that may not be the case, but from watching the less composed maids, their reactions suggested that it very well may be.
Luna herself didn't give anything away. She maintained a soft, good-natured smile, and allowed them their time and silence. It was polite, and indicated that she didn't want to be demanding. Eventually, once they believed it, she could be as demanding as she wanted, and then every small gift or leisure would seem much better because of their perception of her, even if they were really working their asses off. Luna wasn't sure it would get to that point,but anyway, it was better to just be nice to the maids. Just because she saw them as people didn't mean she wasn't willing to manipulate them, if necessary. She would prefer to tell them the truth and be kind, but if needed, she could be a viper disguised as a mouse. She appreciated the moral and logical standpoint of manipulating nobles much more, because they could get her most of what she needed, and they were practically all rats anyway.
The maids straightened as one, then bowed again, remaining bent forward as one of them addressed her. "Mistress, we must ask you not to inform any soul about this occurrence, not even your own."
It was an ancient form of address, used to intone the need for absolute secrecy, where the price for failing would be severe, to the point of intense and permanent physical harm or death for a certain person. Oftentimes of old that person would be the one who was being asked to keep it a secret. It was an oath that peasants, especially guards, maids, manservants, master servants, and practically anyone who worked directly for a noble would take when they had seen something that they shouldn't have, or if their duties involved something of which no one should ever be informed.
Then the oath had been made into a spell by a clever Elvish queen, who would use it on her subjects to remove the memories of the indicated occasion, event, action, or object from their minds, and cause them never to be able to remember it, ostensibly "not informing even their own souls", although what it really did was more akin to wiping the board a few times every second to prevent any memory from being able to stick.
Of course, that wasn't without its issues. The queen had been ousted as a liar, a viper, and a ruler who took advantage of their own people as soon as the other elves had realized what she was doing thanks to the help of a particular Gnomish artifact.
Gnomes, despite not being fully conscious, often manifested powerful and technology-intensive relics or artifacts, especially upon death. They were unique for their ability to manifest artifacts even after death, based on the thing that had caused them to die.
The artifact in question prevented the loss of memory by making a temporary backup, and after the spy that used it was sent in and her enemies realized that they may be able to destroy her with the truth, they began working together to smuggle out any and all information that they could, passing the relic between spies and killing some others to draw her and her secrets out of hiding.
While their methods were terrible, the Elves were more outraged with the queen's behavior than her enemies, and they were able to successfully remove her and set their own figurehead in charge, who established a council that now headed the Elves, guided by the interests of the queen's enemies.
All this told her was that this was one of the more traditional groups, which Luna had gathered from the clothing and attitudes anyhow, and the fact that they traveled in a group. Good maids used to go around together, because then they would always have immediate access to the right person for any job that needed to be done, and there was little to no chance of a sexual scandal with a noble.
Luna was relieved to know that some of Lukas's maids were like this, but the thought brought darker things to mind, things she had been hoping to avoid considering.
Like what if Lukas really did fuck his maids? What would she do? What would she say?
And really, what could she do or say?