The Golem was huge. Not a giant, but massive in the enclosed space of the Lesser Banquet Hall.

The O'Tells Estate guard were arriving, and turning back. The ones who stayed were either battered away or thrown across the room.

The Golem was still focused on the plain nosed girl, but that was alright temporarily.

Daniel sprinted forward, his own muscles propelling him when before the power would be giving him just a touch more.

If this had been the beginning of the day, he would have felt uncertain and unprepared. His fall from power would have caused him to feel slow and unable. He still felt slower than before, but he could compensate. Because during this day, he had experienced too much; the geese attacking him, the many flights of stairs delivering tea, running around the Stable, escaping the Dungeon, even his first pretend attack with the pretend assassins.

He could do this.

However, as he sprinted, expecting to recapture the golem's attention, there was an unexpected problem.

The golem was still fixated on the servant. It was completely aggravated by her.

That was beyond his calculations....

That it had focused on her before had been fine, but it was after him. Wasn't it? It had been before.

Daniel needed to steal that attention now. Before the big guards came and stole his prize. He would destroy this creature, and do a great service for the O'Tells estate.

But that won't work if he couldn't get its attention.

So Daniel found himself racing forward, over tables, around settees, and underneath the tall chairs for large visitors. The hapless guards came back in with a net. Daniel accidentally slipped and...well, they did appear to get tangled in the knotty rope themselves. It was terrible what accidents could occur during a conflict.

The Law of Fae was not entirely happy with his accidental actions. If they were hurt, it would blame him in some part.

That would be fine.

Daniel planned that no one would get hurt.

The room shuttered as the golem tore into the elegant marble floor and hurled a chunk at the servant girl. She cackled madly and danced away, jumping behind a massive table at the last minute.

The guards tried to swarm the golem again, sans net, and this allowed Daniel a brief moment to get to the redhead.

She was still hiding behind the table, looking a little too accustomed to the total chaos than Daniel had been expecting. "Tag," she said. "You're it!"

The former Heirling felt uneasy at her words. The golem was not acting as it normally did. "Why does it hate you so?"

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Her face twisted into a nearly human expression of complete and total satisfaction and twisted self amusement. "Oh...I have my ways."

She and Orville would get along.

Esra must never meet this person, or else the consequences to the realms may be disastrous.

"Stay out of sight. No more...attention stealing."

She shuffled closer as the sound of the guards attacking the golem in vain became loud. "You want the aggro?"

"It needs to follow me."

"I don't know. I insulted its mother, its creator, and the very stones that created it. I also called it a bugger, and a rat face diaper baby. It seems really mad at me."

Was she actually mad? In the midst of all the chaos, Daniel became worried he had somehow entangled himself with someone worse than the myriad of enemies. "Why are you still here?"

"This is interesting." she said, point blank.

"Do you care nothing about your life or safety? Do you have some magic assisting you?"

"Nah. Those who love their lives lose them. Besides, I need to make some more friends."

Friends.

That was another Esra word. Completely crazy woman.

"Where do you want it to go?" she asked.

"Are you serious?" was she offering to help him?

The Game...

shrugged.

Could the Game shrug? She did not feel like an ally. She did not feel like an enemy.

Was she just truly along for the ride?

"Follow me." he said.

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In the O'Tells estate, in the quiet section of the Servant's corrdior where no party was occurring, where no secret society was meeting, where in fact prior to the Servant Branch's arrival, the most exciting thing was Jasper Dunlap polishing his shoes with another Hall Attendants shoe polish without that person's permission.

That quiet was first disturbed by the Servant Branch arriving dirty. Then the Servant Branch returned, dressed in his uniform once again. Jasper watched, waiting for words of anger or even a glare.

But the Servant Branch...

Did not even look at the Glasbin Fae.

Jasper made an ugly face, and muttered to himself that the lordling probably thought he was too good for the likes of the little servants. With anger, he brushed extra hard on his boot, but marred the mirrored finish. He looked up, trying to decide if he should put off this for tomorrow or not, when the Surmount Butler came scurrying out from his office.

Another person who should have had some interaction with Jasper, but did not. Jasper had done everything the Surmount Butler told him to do, but the great Midling had not been there to back him up when the other Servants were angry that he had ruined the leftover food. The important Midling paused briefly near that one sagging wall, and Jasper thought that his next instructions would come.

But the older fae made a terrible expression, clearly lost in his own thoughts, and scuttled away toward the lesser banquet hall.

Quiet returned to the servant's corridor.

He spent several minutes trying to return the mirrored surface to his boot. His thoughts kept interrupting, and he realized the work was only clearing his mind to focus on today, and not distract himself from his troubles.

After an insufferable amount of time passed, where Jasper rationalized all the misfortunes of the day as somehow his fault, he sighed, and decided to finish his work tomorrow. He knew tonight would be a night for mischief, and he wanted no part of it.

His stomach rumbled, and he felt sorrow that he hadn't secured his own food before releasing the second hex the Surmount Butler had given him and ruining the food. He had assume there would be more food later, but everywhere a Servant could normally find food had been vacant. Even the little mice food traders were hiding today. He hadn't eaten since breakfast, and the tasks of today had made him too nervous to eat well.

He closed the little vial of polish, and stretched his arms above his head, feeling the bones pop along his back.

That was a big pop.

Then he realized, stupidly and belatedly, that it hadn't been his back.

Someone had broken something at the same time he had cracked his back.

He looked up and saw his Hall Attendant Partner rushing him with a firepoker.

And for the first time, he realized that he perhaps should have been more afraid of the consequences of messing with a former Lordling than saying no to the no good Surmount Butler.

"Um...Branch....Let's talk about this!"