Doing my best to keep myself on track with this unexpected diversion, I rearranged what I would need to do while walking through the soaking rain. My guide, the [Guard], didn’t seem to care, the metal plate taping as the rain came down in sheets just to roll off his armour.
It was early, still overwhelmingly dark and dreary, as the sky, now thankfully sans lightning, continued to weep openly, but there was a kind of light barely present that told me it was closing in on dawn. It also told me, if I was right, that it was going to remain dark and dreary all day.
Hopefully the rain would start to slow, even if it was probably going to rain all day, and perhaps into tomorrow.
It was late for storms like this, by my reckoning, though with how much water is in the valley, I could see this being more common in summer, then in spring.
A bit of rain got in my eye as I looked up and I turned my head back down with a his, the rain mixing with the sweat still clinging to my skin, bringing my eyes to watering as they stung.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a portent of my meeting.
I followed along with my ears as the man clanked, scrubbing at my eyes as he let me sedately around to a side door, instead of the main hall, where there was a mat to let his armour drip, and for my soaking wet form to not ruin the wood finishing and make the house damp and dank with mildew.
He stopped, which led to me bumping into him like a comedy skit, him turning as I looked up at him in the lamp light.
In a play this was where the knight in shining armour reached down and gently helped the damsel to her feet, apologizing to show off how gallant and kind hearted the man was.
“Are you daft?” He asked instead.
“I’ve got sweat in my eye,” I told him, “didn’t expect you to stop cold like that.”
I stood, and gallant as a knight in shining armour truly was, he stepped back to let me stand.
He tisked as he watched me get up, but not in disapproval but in a way that said, ‘yeah, fair enough.’ After all, just because he was probably a level 80 [Super Swordsman Supreme] didn’t mean he didn’t get a bit of salt in his eye when he trained; it just meant he would grit through it.
He reached over to a rack and pulled out a length of cloth for me to wipe down with, and I did, gleefully getting the water out of my hair and wicking the wet from as much of me as I could.
I was still soaked through, but at least I wasn’t dripping, and that was enough for the guard.
“Leave the towel here,” he said, “and follow me.”
I obliged the guard, tucking the towel on the rack next to some cloaks, a pan there to catch the wet. I gave my feet one final scuff to get any grit off before I followed along through the hallways and into the home proper, up. First to second, we scaled up a floor and then over to a doorway.
Passing us came servants, each dressed in their best, though not finery, scuttling around indoors to get the house ready for the day. One obviously swept, another behind them moped, while others dusted. They worked their morning away to make sure the house would always be in top shape, and they did so with none of the confusion and scrabble of last night.
They were dressed better than I was, given my clothes were a mess. Good on them.
A tiny part in the back of my head seemed to balk at the realization that I was going to have a meeting with a noble half-dressed. The greater half, the one that just didn’t care, figured it would be fine. Last night, I had his blood on me, and that wasn’t the kind of situation that let you look at someone and judge them by the cut of their clothes.
And if he could, he was an asshole anyway, even if he was an important one.
We came to a door, and the guard stopped before knocking lightly.
“Speak of the man, and he shall appear,” I thought, “Though I suppose it's not much of a coincidence.”
“Come in,” Clause’s voice called from inside, quiet and tired.
He opened the door and then, unconcerned, gestured me inside.
The room was, as far as rooms went, rather normal. It was an office and clearly one that had seen better days.
It was disorderly, covered in sheaves of documents, maps, and books, both mundane and reference, and generally looked like a mortar shell and gone off in a library. It was very obviously controlled chaos.
Further, I had always heard you can tell a lot about a person based on the state of their desk. I had never had one, but Annas was mostly clean, a bit of stuff left out and around that she would probably get to using. Skipseo’s back when I had seen it regularly had almost always been clean, neatly organized, and thought out, with a rhyme and reason of his own as to where he placed it, halfway between ease and practicality.
Clauses desk looked like a bomb went off on it, not once, but regularly. A pounding of shells raining continuously down into the earthen works of a fortress besieged. You could practically see the beleaguered defenders holding on for dear life while the onslaught of work cut off its supply lines and watched them starve.
Clause was not at the desk, nor even near it, nor by the nook where I supposed he might read. He was pacing, wearing a hole through the floor. Stranger still, he was dressed not in finery but in a robe that looked like it belonged next to a bath, not in an office.
I shut the door behind me, watching him pace. It broke what little tension the meeting should have had. Normally, one would place themselves carefully, making it look like you were to be talked down to.
Hearing the door close, he turned, robe spinning around as he did, before stopping to look at me.
Taken off guard by the look of everything, my mind ran face first into a pothole, fumbling through it, but not fast enough for me to get a word in, not that a word would necessarily be any better, in this case.
He had a look that was very obviously fake, considering his prior disposition.
“Ah. I was expecting you,” he said cryptically.
“You did call for me, yes,” I told him, confused as to what the hell was going on in his head.
That seemed to not be what he was expecting me to say because now it was his turn to mentally hit a pothole.
“You… You did call for me… Correct?” I asked him before finishing, “Lord Mynes.”
My finishing of the sentence seeming to spur him back into reality, bringing him back to action he nodded.
“Indeed. I’ve asked you here today to discuss a few matters. Namely, recompense for your actions last night.” He said.
Oh.
Oh!
That made more sense. This was an official meeting, but I had automatically assumed the worst.
“I see,” I said, breathing a sign of relief. “You had me thinking this was going to be worse.”
“Well,” he hedged, “let's get things started before we decide if it’s a net positive or negative. Would you like the good news or the bad news first?”
That… Was not something I was ready for.
“Generally its customary to start with the bad news,” I said, “Though if this is about be being compensated, I don’t need it. Quite frankly, if you settled on something, or you won’t be able to do so soon, that’s ok. I did it to help Anna and because it’s what anyone who could, should do.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“That’s not the bad news.” He said frankly, “The bad news is about your conduct last night… Ultimately, you not only shouted at my mother but also publicly wronged me. Mother has made her point clear to me that she doesn’t care about satisfaction over a private matter, though I do recommend you find some way to settle that privately, woman to woman, as it were.” He said, though his tone sounded more like he was recommending I sacrifice myself to a bloodthirsty daemon rather than a noblewoman.
“And you?” I asked him, aware that there were two parts to this and that he had mitigated the issue before he hit home.
“And while I’m grateful you help me in my… Time of need, let us say, and most of your refusals can be chalked up to you being my sister's apprentice, which would place any issue on her; your disregard for me in a public setting is an issue. Much of what gives nobles their status is that they are afforded respect. You are a mage, legally anyway, and you are apprenticed to my sister, and thus, much of what you did can be chalked up to her looking out for me, even if it’s a hard sell… But your disregard for that respect, and thus, the tarnishing of my status to the common folk, could cause issue… Especially considering we are going to have a rough time after last night's attack. I need to somehow right that.”
That… That was more in line with what I expected.
When it rained, it poured.
It was however, frustrating. Immensely so. I went and said something in the moment, while saving his life, and he had to check over his shoulder for the optics of it.
“I see,” I said, “And you’re going to make an example of me to make sure you’re secure. I can’t say I didn’t see that coming. So. Why are you even telling me this? Are you intending to tell me so I understand while you drag me out of here?” I asked him.
“Calm yourself,” he said, making a warding gesture at me. “Nothing of the sort. It would be quite tone-deaf to do so. Such would only make the situation worse, your treatment could be pivotal both personally and politically.” He said before letting out a deep wearying sigh.
He looked at me, and there was a weight in his eyes, a bone deep exhaustion that hung around them that made the shadows beneath his eyes all the deeper. His shoulders slouched slightly in a way that only a man at his wits end could pull off.
“May I be frank, Saphine?” he asked rhetorically, “There are quite a few factors here. My sister seems to care about you and could make my life a living hell if I decide to punish you, and punishing her would be all the worse. You’ve probably been seen protecting or saving the lives of well over a hundred people and the temples seem to be wary of you while also seeing you as one of theirs. The Hunters saw you fighting a monster with a shovel, which has impressed and bewildered them, and your status as the agent of a noble would have the lords of the valley in a tizzy if I decided to make a ruling against you, and for some reason the people I trust speak well of you! That’s not even including how I would even do so. You're not one of my people, but you're not sworn to another lord either; you’re a mage, but only an apprentice, and yet you're also a [Saint] of all things. Quite frankly, I don’t want to touch this situation with a ten-foot pole, but I must. And so I need to demand something of you, and you need to accept it, and it can't be too heavy-handed nor too light.”
By the end of his speech, he was red in the face from lack of breath, waving slightly, his movements muted. He was near apoplectic, his words frustrated, and it took me a second to connect his words with why they mattered.
Back… Way back, Anna had explained the situation with the valleys rulership. There were five groups that held sway in the valley. The Temple, the Hunters guild, The Guild or the one for the [Craftsmen], the land lords, and the Mynes. And I had managed to get on probably all of their maps, and the common folks, all in one night.
I was a lit fuse that could seriously screw up Clause's life.
“I see…” I said as I felt the sudden weight of the attention fall on me.
“I somehow doubt you do,” Clause, likely unintentionally, insulted. “But to say less, I can’t exactly tar and feather you if I don’t want to have the remaining wall of the valley causing me a great deal of headaches. Hells, I can’t even leave much of the law's greater punishments against you. What am I going to do? Sentence you to death? You had your head smashed into your ribcage before being catapulted into the wall with bone-breaking force; I doubt beheading you would do anything at all, and it would get me politically crucified!” he said, frustration boiling up before it extinguished itself.
“Yeah…” I said, a bit lost, “I don’t think anything you could do would put me down. God granted immortality hits different.”
“Oh, don’t go rubbing salt in my wound.” He huffed, all pretense of lordliness gone, “So, I need you to do something publicly as a punishment, and there’s only one thing I can think of at the moment… Well, two, but I’m trying to get something else’s for that.”
“What do you intend for my undeserved punishment, oh lord of lords whom I swear no fealty to,” I asked him.
“I intend for you to help bury the dead,” he said, “We have no classes that tend to the dead, and we need to get rid of them. Normally, the dead are burned… But there isn’t enough dry wood, nor could we cut more in this rain, so we need to deal with them before they rise. That is your punishment. I’ll need you to help bury them safely.”
That was…
It was morbid. I would have to bury those I could not save, though that wasn’t the intended punishment. It was the labour that was punishment, and yet it was also the labour that would give me experience.
“That’s a bit rich. It’s one of my classes, actually. I’m a [Grave Digger],” I told him.
He looked at me, his face going deadpan before he walked over to a cabinet and retrieved a dark glass bottle, biting the cork open and pouring himself a glass of wine. Before scooting over to his desk, daintily placing the glass and bottle down and drooping into his hands.
“Of fucking course you are,” he choked, “of course. Well then, do you have anything else I need? Perhaps you’re the long-lost daughter of a king, sitting on the small fortune he left behind?”
He asked it sarcastically.
I felt a spontaneous urge to poke him. To extract from the man with everything what little common satisfaction I could, but I held my tongue. Strause had told me last night, that Clause was rather stressed, continuously. If what I was looking at was anything to go by, that was probably an understatement.
It was, seemingly, the collective burden of the Mynes siblings. Anna often thought about the future and prosperity. Clause on the here and now, how to chart a course and deal with the day-to-day. Strause was… Well, who fucking knew, honestly, but I didn’t think he was the kind that shirked responsibility; no matter how he presented himself, he seemed to care too much about others, even if he played it off.
I could kick him while he was down… or, I could instead, help and console the future lord, and perhaps brother in law while he was down. Anna had been very ix-nay on showing others, but I could bet helping him out would give a future relationship with Anna some more acceptance.
Assuming I didn’t use my two left feet to step all over Annas in this dance, that could mean a lot.
“No, I’m a commoner. The only thing left for me is the dirt under my nails,” I told him, walking my way over to the cabinet and fetching myself a glass before returning to his desk. Laying the glass down on the desk in question and lifting the paperwork off before moving an extra chair over, I made way for me to sit down across him, laying the stuff next to his desk.
I gave his wine a sniff and found it edible, so I poured a glass.
He looked over at me, staring in confusion.
“Let's go over where they’re going. Pave that out. I can help keep them down, but the best plan would be to set up a resting place with the correct features. Somewhere, Dark magic would have a hard time gathering.” I said, thinking over where I would place a graveyard and the place’s traits. “A hill would work, somewhere with drainage, assuming it's loose… Not too rocky. Somewhere with tree cover could help keep the pit dry enough to dig and support the soil, too, and stop the dead from being unearthed. Do you have a map in here that can help with that?”
He shook his head.
“I can get that later; I won’t keep you long.” He said before taking out a slate and scribing the points down, “That’s a good call, probably. We’ll need more than one person to dig, and those are the best conditions to dig in… I’ll call for you later if you want to leave.”
I shook my head, taking a sip from the fancy glass and letting myself taste it for the first time in months.
“You’ve forgotten to give me the good. I need an upside to this punishment, that’s going to cut into my time. As is, I have a few full days ahead of me, so whats the good side.”
He looked at me and said, “For your service, by law and with the power invested in me by my father, the [Baron of Moarn], I name you a peer of the land. In so naming you such, Moarn grants a small parcel of land as a freehold or as a manorial estate for the duration of your life without vassalage. You may decide upon an area that is yet unclaimed or one without a legal landlord with an estimated cost at the time of selection equal to a reasonable ransom of those of the [Baron’s] family you saved, in part or in full, the lives of which were Clause, Strause, and Annabeth Mynes. As such, you may select a parcel equating to or less than 800 gold pieces.”
He said it in a way that spoke to a great pain in admitting that.
I, for my part, nearly dropped my fucking glass.
We sat there for longer than we should be, across from one another, silent as death and twice as grim.
“Before you ask, the Mynes family had a rough 600 years, about 200 years after the second founding.” Clause said, taking a sip from his glass.
“That is not what I was going to ask.” I told him, “But also, what the hells.”
“Don’t ask me. The lords of the time wanted less competition, so they offed some of the Mynes family. The Lord of Moarn at the time decided to give those who saved them a parcel of land that would annoy the very lords and put them in jeopardy. It's not my fault they signed it into law without considering that a quasi-immortal, non-elven woman would do it or without accounting for changes in currency. It's not even limited to people attacking us; that’s how half of the Beastkin in the valley first earned land over in the east.” He told me.
“Yeah, I bet that doesn’t come up much. Rather rare population in these parts. I was more confused about, well, the whole damn thing. Can you write that down like I was a particularly stupid child? I’m new to this whole thing, and I didn’t catch it all well enough to parse it.” I told him.
He sighed and, over the next quarter hour, explained the gift of land in detail while we sipped on our drinks. He broke down everything I needed to know, every detail. I knew that Anna had been worth 300, Strause 250 and 2500 for Clause. I was awarded the full amount for saving Anna and parts of the price for aiding in the saving of Clause and Strause. I was told what exactly I was in for; I had to stop Clause from explaining taxes when he started explaining why I might want to get less land. By the time we finished, I was done with my first glass and him his second glass, and with an aside to get him to let me back in, I left for Gunther so I could get some clothes.
Walking down and out, I couldn’t help but feel a kind of validation and accomplishment. I had gotten acknowledgement for something I had done even though that hadn’t been part of it. I had also gotten a slap on the wrist, but I had gotten acknowledgement, and at the end of our conversation, that was what stayed with me.
Besides, I would have helped bury the dead anyway.