“Milady.” I cut shortly when Lady Anda is about to leave for her personal matters, initially she would be in her bedchamber - on the double, as I sigh my breath.

“Lord Geoff, good morning! You look so edgy… what is the deal?” she shows her concern.

“My father…”

“Father-in-law? Lord Rayl? What’s with him? Is he here? Oh my god, I forgot - -...” and of course, the news is only spread with the family members and the relatives. I should have seen this coming.

“Lady Anda, please calm down.” I suggest the chieftess stay still for now as to heed to my words.

“Oh, I'm sorry… Well, please go ahead.” she smiles, as Lady Anda is realizing that she is trying to overrun my word coming from my mouth.

“Lady Anda, my father is-...” I stutter, “My father is dead.” where my voice cracks when I state my father's condition.

She gasps the first time, then she asks once more: “What? What did you say?” as she widens her eyes and by the look on her face if I am telling the queen a lie or not.

“My father is dead, your royal highness.” I reiterate my erstwhile statement, as for this time - I give her nomenclature in a respectful fashion.

“Oh, I'm sorry for blabbering trifling stuff before you- -...” as Lady Anda continues to bombard words meant specifically to interrupt me once again.

“Lord Geoff…” Quexajo bows to me, giving salutations, “Lady Anda, please excuse us for just a moment.” then he turns his attention to the queen as he entails a delightful greeting.

“Right away…” Lady Anda permits Quexajo's request. Damn, I keep procrastinating and as of now, time and time again… it manages to trickle away from my grasp.

“Forgive me, Quexajo. I was stalling too much.” I apologize to him when I turn my gaze focusing on him.

“The preparation is all set. Our boat to Haganalopolis is ready.” ignoring my apologies, where he directs his usual reports to me rather than receiving my message.

“Alright, thanks for the beforehand. But, I should give a notch to the queen first before we set sail.” I say, and then dashes to Lady Anda.

“Break a leg, milord!” Quexajo shouts, replying, as I hear his faint response.

I run into a corner, Lady Anda is nowhere to be found. They are three (3) paths to whether she is heading to. Left, center and right. I am circling around this crossroad when suddenly, a male servant comes to me.

“What is it, Lord Geoff? You looked so stressed, what is the problem?” he asks, as the male servant is willing to help me.

“Have you seen Lady Anda?” I ask.

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“I'm sorry, milord,“ he shakes his head and heads forward, “I haven't seen her for quite a while, sire.” the man bows his head as he moves to his destination.

And another one appears before my eyes. It is a female clerk this time. She appears in the same direction with the man whom I conversed with. To the center. She just smiles at me and I return the smile back to her. I don't want to bother her because she has the tendency to reply to the same answer of the prior man of what I've questioned before. She is scanning me while her eyes seem glued on me as she is passing by. I wave my hand at her before her sight one me out of her periphery. I sigh as I wait for another person to spawn before my presence. I am doing this because it saves time since each pathway consists of about two hundred and fifty (250) steps to reach the end.

“Hello, what is the hold up? What are you doing here in the middle of this intersection, Lord Geoff?” a man calls me from the left section, as it startles me because his voice resonates me down to my chest.

“Oh, hello?!” my voice cracks, replying to it with a nervous tone.

“Uhm,... ha! I didn't notice you there.” I add.

“What is happening, milord?” he displays his concern, by looking at his face that he is truly concerned.

“Oh, nothing.” I dismiss it fairly and at the end, try to deny it.

When he is about to leave and to pass me across, I grab his wrist; asking: “Uhm,... actually, I have something to ask. Would you mind borrowing you for just a tiny bit of your precious time?” whereas he is surprised by my action, grabbing his forearm with no heads up.

“Certainly, milord. There is no problem with that. Technically, I’m just your servant.” he raises a jubilant smirk on his face when he gladly accepts my demand, as I make a sigh out of relief.

“Can you tell me where Lady Anda’s whereabouts are? Have you seen her recently? Did she walk on this path that you tread on? If not, do you know where she will be in this hour?” I question him, in a quite tremendous way - four successive askances.

“Milord, will you repeat those once more?” he chuckles in a soft tone, and yes, in this instance… I should have calmed myself down first before inquiring questions. Okay, my bad. I am quite frantically stressed out right now. I’m sorry.

“And Lord Geoff, with all due respect, can you slow it down first?” he follows, as I concur with the man’s request. Definitely, no argument there.

I respond back to his smile with also a smile of my own, I then repeat: “Do you know where Lady Anda should be in this early morning?” rephrasing as it contracts my four questions a while ago into a compressed manner.

“Much better!” exclaiming, he responds.

“Unfortunately, Lord Geoff. I haven’t seen her for two days straight.” continuing, he gives me false hope. This lad is squandering my time.

“Hold on, milord… I know you’re disappointed by the looks of it. However, I have good news for you, Lord Geoff.”

“Yeah, what is it?” as I am annoyed in a fair instance, where he is trying to play games with me.

“There are some places where Lady Anda will be as of now.” he claims.

My focus straightens when he says that he might know where Lady Anda is. And in a very abrupt way or unusual, so to say; I grab him by his neckband, pinning him to the wall quite lightly, as I say: “Out with it.“ in an imperative tone - whispering.

“She might be in the pantry or in the seaming room. If not, she may be inside her personal office.” he blurts out, as I loosen my grip on him then fixing the wrinkles on his cloth and following it with two small taps on his right cheek.

“And where should I head to?” I ask, where he points his fingers in front of him, the way to the right corner.

“Thanks for the leads, lad…” as I rush over to the direction the man has given me to go.