Zaria knocked on the broad double doors in front of her, gently at first, and then harder when she noticed that the doors seemed to be very thick. The new maid's uniform fit poorly. Even the youngest of the other maids at fourteen years old was still taller than her, and the uniforms were designed off of a different body build. The torso was proportionally longer than her own even if the length HAD been correct. The material hung like a sack after the curve of her breasts and pooled where the flare of the hips stopped the extra fabric from sliding downward. Matron Teague said that she would show Zaria how to cut and sew the waistline up higher to make it look nicer, but Zaria was not sure she liked the idea of changing a uniform so that nobody else would be able to wear it in the future. She did not want any more debts to be added to her service, a length of time that was not being shared with her. How much would ruining a uniform cost her? It didn't really matter to her. She had a place to stay and meals even if they were small and bland. When the pendant was ready to go again, she would just hop along to the next world, debt repaid or not. First, she wanted to get her bracelet back, so she played along with being a maid.

At first, she was worried about dealing with jealousy from the other maids like she did with other women when Gu Cheng first started paying attention to her. The Duke, from the one time she saw him while recovering in her room, was not an unattractive man. A bit too lean with her newfound appreciation for well trained muscles, maybe, but the features of his face were in a pleasing arrangement, and many women liked tall men. Surely, some of the pretty young maids had snuck a look now and then when they thought they wouldn't be caught. Oddly, though, they showed no jealousy that she had been assigned as his personal maid.

"He could be quite attractive, Miss," they all addressed her as such since she was older than they, "And he is very kind as an employer, but those curse scars..."

And then they would delicately shudder and move on to talk about the cute young boy from the village, or the stables, or wherever their young romantic hearts were steering them. It seemed odd, but Zaria was just happy nobody would be trying to slap her for being too close to the man At least not yet.

There was no answer when she knocked on the door, so Zaria did as Matron Teague told her and opened it up. If there was no answer, then he was probably still asleep and would need to be woken up. The handle turned silently, and she used her free hand to push the heavy door inward.

The room was dark, thick drapes blocking out the meager light that shone through the windows in the hallway. Lightning flashed through the sky almost constantly, but not a flicker showed through a crack in the fabric. Zaria carefully walked across the floor to a table she could see in the light that leaked in from the hall and set her tray down on it. She found an oil lamp, but rather than waste the oil, she made her way to one of the windows and pulled back the fabric, ignoring the curtain tie-backs, and let it hang to the side of the window.

A pained groan came from the massive bed that sat against the wall to the left of the windows. Zaria hurried over, her eyes running along the sumptuous fabrics until she found a lump against one side of the bed. Her new boss was curled up on his side, eyes squeezed shut and breath coming out in labored pants. The dark lines she remembered from that first meeting seemed to glow, a dark ominous light. The curtain of previously silky hair lay in matted strands across his forehead. She gently moved one aside and laid her hand against the skin to check for a fever. A long, finely boned hand flashed out and grabbed her wrist, pulling it away with a jerk.

"What are you doing," the raspy voice she remembered hissed at her, and golden eyes seared into her own from below.

"I was just checking to see if you had a fever, your grace," Zaria replied, remembering to drop her eyes and use her polite manager's voice.

"Lies, what did you do to me?" Despite the weakness in his voice, his hand wrapped around her wrist was like steel, pressing painfully into the joint.

"I didn't do anything, sir, I saw you were in pain, and I was worried, so I was checking to see if you were ill -" Her voice cut off abruptly in surprise. In one movement, the duke sat up and yanked her down onto the bed, grasping her jaw with his other hand. He pinched her jaw until she looked into his eyes.

"You have no magic," he murmured, twisting her head to look at the neck. He let go of her jaw and pulled her collar out of the way, tugging at the string holding her pendant. "That is magically made, but it is nothing. How did you take away my pain?"

"I didn't know that I had," she gasped, the pain in her jaw stinging from where his fingers held her tightly. "I brought your medicine, sir. Please let me go get it."

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The hand holding her wrist let go, and she scurried backward, her eyes on the ground so that she would not be drawn into those eerie eyes again. She picked up the mug from the tray and brought it over to him, holding it out in front of him. With one hand, he took the mug, while the other hand wrapped around her wrist once more. Several minutes passed while he stared at her hand hand thoughtfully. Zaria counted silently in her head to hold her temper.

"Touching you is taking away some of the pain," he announced, dropping her hand and drinking the mug provided to him. "I thought something was odd about you when I found you on the roadside."

Zaria stood up, straightening her skirt. As she walked away from the bed, she heard her boss order her to sit back down. When she hesitated, inky black chains appeared in the air and wrapped around her waist. She watched as they slid off her before turning back to the duke with a confused expression.

"You have no magic and magic does not work on you," he announced, stepping close and pinching her chin between his thumb and forefinger again. "Interesting."

He dropped her chin and strode to his wardrobe, pulling out clothes and then disrobing to get dressed in them. Zaria whipped her head around to face the window. "You will stay here until I return. Do not leave this room."

With those words he left, closing the door behind him. A loud click sounded out. After counting to ten, Zaria walked to the doors and tried to turn the handles, but they were locked, and she did not have the key. With a sigh, she turned back into the room and began to do the cleaning she was assigned to do. By midday, there was nothing more to do. Even the bizarre looking toilet was clean, and all the glass was sparkling. Having skipped breakfast with the expectation that she would eat while the duke was getting ready after waking him, her stomach was loudly growling, and she wondered if she was going to be allowed to eat. Sure, she could summon someone using the bell system on the wall, but if the door was locked, then they couldn't get in to give any food to her.

For the whole afternoon, Zaria sat in a chair by the window, playing on the phone she kept tucked into a little pocket of her dress hidden by her apron. Dozens of games that did not need internet connection were downloaded onto it so that she would have something to do if she ended up in a world like volcano world. She immersed herself in a role-playing game where she played an elf that had to battle dark forces while collecting magical items. The graphics were pretty, and the game was smooth, and the afternoon went quickly despite her empty stomach rumbling. The sky was dark when a key turned in the lock again. Zaria turned off her phone and slid it in the pocket right as the door opened up.

"Why are you sitting in the dark?" Duke Berber called out, a frown obvious in his words. A little flame flared up as he lit the oil lamps using his magic, and soon, there was a cozy glow filling the room. "Is my bath prepared?"

Zaria stood up slowly, her energy flagging. "No, sir, I will go and do that now."

While she filled the tub and made sure the water was not too hot, Duke Berber stood behind her and stared at her. He scowled when her stomach growled loudly. "What was that?"

"That was my stomach, sir," she responded, hunger and tiredness making her work harder to not snap at him. "I have not eaten since yesterday."

"Why didn't you eat?"

"Because someone locked me in their room all day!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. She gasped and smacked her hands over her mouth. The tub finished filling, and she turned off the water, testing it one more time with her hand before standing up from her spot on the floor next to the tub. She turned to face the man and then smacked her hand over her eyes when she saw he was already stripping.

"Go and order some food brought up. You can eat while I bathe." She could feel him walking closer, so she hurried out of the bathroom, closing the door with an angry snort. His previous maid had mentioned that she was lucky that he didn't like to be cleaned by his servants like so many other nobles did, but she did not mention his penchant for stripping down in front of others.

'Is every world going to have some weird rich person quirk that I have to get used to?' she thought to herself before pulling the bell to summon some food.

The meal of greens, a thin soup, and a roll did not do much to allay her hunger, but at least her stomach was no longer growling. Duke Berber came out of the bathroom wrapped loosely in an evening robe, a long expanse of chest showing through the deep v of the collar.

"Go and wash up, then put your uniform back on. You can sleep in that tonight."

"I'm sorry?" Zaria asked politely, keeping her eyes trained on his feet. "It is late, I should be leaving, sir."

"You are going to sleep here. I want to see if sleeping while holding on to your hand will make the pain stay away for longer. Go wash up, or do you need me to go in with you?" The feet moved closer like he was going to do just that, so she rushed around him and into the bathroom. A quick cloth and towel wipe down, and she was coming back into the bedroom.

"Sir, what do you mean when you say you want to hold my hand?"

"Holding your wrist this morning made it so the pain was gone for a few hours before coming back. I anticipate that holding it for longer will make the effects last longer. I need to test that out. Or would you rather I drag you around all day holding onto your wrist? This way, we are both asleep and don't have to be around each other while awake any longer than necessary." The golden orbs looked over at the anxious young woman before snorting dismissively. "Don't worry, I have no interest in your scrawny little body. Our hands will touch, for now, that is all."