Night found her atop a too soft bed. Wrapped in a shift she’d found in a closet and staring at the ceiling. She’d been like that for over an hour.

There was an itching fuzz in her thoughts. Tomorrow would be a new day, one laden with the governor’s expectations and hints of the rewards to come if she met them. She’d balance atop a razor’s end to a destination she couldn’t quite imagine. What a wonderful situation she found herself in, she snorted and sighed as the sound rang hollow.

Yet that wasn’t what kept her up. She might die, she might meet a worse fate, but it wasn’t that either. Instead, it was a distant thing that refused to let her eyes shut, a question that would find no answer for years in even the best of cases. What would happen if she succeeded, if she slipped the noose would she just find herself in another?

“Is it just my fate?” she asked in a whisper.

The room didn’t bother answering.

With a sigh, she closed and continued waiting for lethargy to wear away her thoughts. The soft bed enveloped her with a million silken threads, but she couldn’t help but miss the nights spent sleeping in her patchy cloak.

The morning was a rushed descent. Two didn’t know what Lancet had told Evadney but the woman was a storm of activity and excitement. Little of it showed on their face but to Two it was a sweet sticking scent. That soaked every heaping bag they thrust onto Two’s shoulder. Until she was certain she would not survive the stairs, and the air tasted peppy.

Then she was down into one of the garden entrances on legs that wobbled dangerously. Into the noble district flanked by a pair of silent guards, who did not offer to take her bags. Soon she stood before the gates of her new dwelling. The governor had decided that if two was not a servant she would not live under their roof.

Two retrieved a key from one of the many bags and let herself onto the premises. The gates groaned open and two entered the courtyard and saw her dwelling to be through the tree’s heavy eaves. It was a humble thing compared to the governor’s manor, but all things were compared to the imperial’s pomp. The gate swung shut behind under the power of springs, and the lock clicked into place, shutting out the already departing guards.

Two spared an ill thought before the pair before turning back to the path and the cool air that flowed along it.

Two waked down the weed-strewn cobbled path. Short grasses brushed her ankles and the faint sound of trickling water alerted her to a nearby stream. She took in the house. It was wooden and it was a work of love. Neither was new to Two but their mix was odd. All buildings of worth were wrought of stone, for even the best wood only lasted centuries. Yet the house stood in defiance of that fact.

She breathed in and tasted the place’s spirit, it was a quiet thing. The peace of sleep, disturbed by rippling melancholy and dissatisfaction. It was waking, but for now, it didn’t even notice when she stepped on its veranda.

The second floor hung above her supported by pillars carved with scenes of serpents of all kinds. Webs and patches of moss littered the masterwork carvings. Adding life even as they showed neglect. She sighed and continued and tried not to consider the likelihood Lancet picked this place because she thought it was funny.

Either way, she had to clean it. She wouldn’t disrespect the place that would shelter her with lack of care.

She stepped into the dark building. Wan light filtered through paper screens from the floor above to light the atrium that doubled as an entrance. Twin staircases twisted about each other to join the floors. Constellations of dust glittered in the space between and their air was ladened with must and home’s slow march to wakefulness. Two changed her estimate of the building’s size.

There were only two floors, but each was tall enough to feel her leaving small. The place might be a tad bigger on the inside, it wasn’t uncommon for the more mystically active buildings to have strange effects. Something to think on latter.

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Two went to shrug off her bags but a rustle in the dark caught her ear soon followed by an unfamiliar scent. Two reached for her knife only to find herself without it or her cloak. Her thoughts fell into a familiar whirr as she considered her options.

The guards had left after dropping her off. While she could retreat to the mansion, she did not think cowardice would impress the woman.

She bit back a curse and unslung a bag and tested its weight with a few slow swings. It would do. She quickly and softly removed the others. Letting the silk, or some more expensive material, of the bags, rest on the dusty floor. She glided through the house. She swung her bag in growing arcs as if were a flay. It wasn’t much but she’d once seen an old twig man break a mugger’s jaw with a sock and a rock, it would do.

Her target was a small shape with large bouncing eras on the top of his head trying and failing to shift a crate. Two took another step, and their large ears twitched. Two committed to her swing. They glimsped her from the corner of their as they spun and screamed as if they were being gutted. They recoiled and fell on their ass. It wasn’t enough to stop Two, but it was enough to show her the terrified face of a child.

She stepped forward and the bag slammed to the floor by their head with a heavy thud. They whined and covered their eyes, whimpering and kicking ineffectually at the air. Hope joined fear land joined what Two could only describe as pure animal terror. They muttered between their whimpers and Two realized they were praying her away.

Two small voices of her conscience wondered if she should even bother threatening him. She did, because it was best to stay in practice. She hoisted the bag up and pressed her boot onto his chest. “Why are you here.” She said coldy

“My grandma sent me here!” they screamed, “They said I was supposed to clean up and get things ready or the house’s new mistress.”

Two’s thoughts ground to a halt and she noticed their big, wide mouseish ears. “What’s your grandmother’s name.”

“Evadney! Evadney Rupert, she works for the governess and would be mad if anything happened to me. So please don’t hurt me!” he said the last part very quietly.

How such a quivering boy was related to that self sure woman Two couldn’t fathom. His continued pleas assured her they talked the same amount.

“Quiet,” Two hissed with more venom than was necessary as she struggled to think of what mask to wear. She decided to try something new she removed her foot. “ I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. You see, I’m to be this house’s mistress.” She said begrudgingly and embarrassedly, she couldn’t force a blush as Daisy could. Between her dark skin and the dark room, it hardly mattered.

The boy stared up at her, and though his features were indistinct in the dark she saw the moment his features screwed up. Two closed her eyes and sighed.

The boy began to cry.

She sighed harder. Well, that hadn’t worked as well as she hoped.

Two bathed in the light streaming from the second’s floors windows and resisted the urge to rub her temples. The source of her irritation kneeled before her. The boy looked somewhere between thirteen and fifteen with tan skin a few shades lighter than Evadney’s. The small stature of mice made it hard to tell.

He looked much like his grandmother, with large brown ears and wide eyes. He even shared her gray hairs though his weren’t borne of age. “You feeling better,” she asked for the umpteenth time and for the umpteenth time received an unconvincing sniffle and nod.

She bit back a sigh. She tried everything to calm him town, every tool and face and voice in her social repertoire had been expended and still he sniffled with red puffy eyes. Why was this so hard, she’d calmed Deandra and they had been much worse situation. She hadn’t even hit him yet she worried he’d have a heart attack if she pat him on the shoulder.

She kneeled and put on a smile. He froze like he expected her to bite. Two checked her pendant, it was still there. “Again I’m sorry for spooking you, I wasn’t informed anyone would be here and expected the worst.”

For some reason that didn’t comfort the boy. “She always does this!”

Two held a sigh as finally, finally, the boy talked. “Who always does what?”

“The lady!’” he cried with great offence, Two nodded along. “She’s always playing pranks on me and making me do scary things. It’s cruel.”

The full extent of Lancet’s poor humour should not have suprised her. Two sighed in commiseration and filed the information away. She smelled an opportunity. “That’s horrible! You know she played a trick on me.”

His eyes lit up and he finally met her eyes. “ You too.”

“Yes, I did some work for her and then I went to give a report, as she asked.” The boy nodded. “Not only did she give me more work but she told me I’d be in debt.”

He gasped. “No.”

“Yes.” She said gravely.

“I’m sorry to hear that miss.”

“It’s fine,” Two said and glanced to the side with a forlorn look. When she turned back to him it was with a weak yet stubborn smile. “We just have to do our best.”

He rubbed the tears from his eyes and smiled back. She had him. “You’re right.” He nodded and stood before offering a bow. “I’m Abery ma’am sorry for being such a handful.”

“None of that Abery. If anything I should be the one apologising.” Two smiled kindly and regretted it instantly as he was moved to tears.

Thankfully held the waterworks and settled for bowing deeper. “Thank you miss.’ He said in a trembling voice.

“Let’s put this behind us.” She swept her gave across the second floor. Generations of dust sat atop the wood plank floor. The walls were things of fogged glass pressed between a grid of wooden slats. The open door to the atrium stood behind her, and a few unopened boxes sat to the side. That was the entirety of the second floor. “I believe we have some work getting this place into something livable.”

“We?” the mouse’s ears perked.

“Yes. We.” Two stated plainly.

“It’s not appropriate miss.” He began and kept going. Spouting a dozen reasons a ‘lady’ shouldn’t be doing servant work. Two was impressed by his sudden display and spine, and running low on patience.

“Abery.” She said and he went stock still. “I a going to help you. Do you understand?”

“`Yes miss.” He replied and that was the end of that. “But uh, is there anything else you want me to do.” The ‘ to pay you back’ was silent. Two took a deep breath and reminded herself to lash at people doing something for you.

A thought came to her. “There is actually.”