8.4

Breakfast was annoying.

Although Jewel was now technically countess it was still the same cooks and staff who worked the kitchens of Kaeketeh. Dariusz, Hożanka and their children had stayed with his mother instead of continuing with Jewel immediately.

He was a freeman and thus not hers to command and even if he was a servile Jewel had agreed he should spend time with his mother. but it did mean that no one had remembered to tell the kitchen not to prepare their usual over indulgent offering of berries and sweet cake levels of opulence for breakfast.

Minor blessings that Jewel’s appetite was so ravenous she could mostly ignore how rich and over flavorful all of it was. The sensation of eating until her belly was full and yet still not feeling recovered in her flame was disquieting though.

Gem’s tongue enjoyed the candied meats in a way that surprised Jewel. The flavors that were overwhelming to her wyrm senses were simply pure joy to her spawn’s.

But with the fast broken and everyone present Jewel felt the matter needed to be addressed.

“Now since apparently this is something that must be seen to be understood, can someone bring one of the afflicted footmen before me?”

Which created its own confusion as no one among her or the original Kaeketeh staff seemed certain of who exactly should make that command a reality.

The confusion and awkwardness continued growing until Jewel had enough.

“Murial, can you please see to it?”

And with that her captain was up and ordering the keep’s staff and at last everyone could jump to the proper order of things. Still the delay grated on Jewel’s tired and still slow mind. If this is what the price was every time Jewel performed a major working she was inclined to swear off ever doing it again!

It was not a terribly long wait, but eventually the woman that Muriel had ordered off returned, guiding what for all appearances was a younger girl. Only a little bit taller than Gem, wrapped up in a footman’s undershirt with the sleeves bunched up around too short arms.

Jewel stared at the obviously small child then looked over at Muriel. Her head still felt foggy and before the thought even entered her head the words were loose in the air.

“I thought I asked for one of the afflicted footmen, not some child Muriel.”

Everyone else just stared at Jewel, Muriel actually startled.

The moment dragged on for several breaths before Adelyne burst into laughter. Drawing everyone’s attention to her, which eventually stilled her outburst with a nervous pettering off.

“What!? She’s obviously joking! Right?”

Jewel squinted at Adelyne then back to the child in an oversized shirt who was glaring rather intensely at her. There was even a trembling of rage in the small frame. It was the barely restrained wroth on that face that finally connected her staggered thoughts. Realization at last dawning on her.

“My Working turned the Countess Bathory’s footmen into children?”

But instead of anyone nodding or confirming her question Jewel got even more confused stares. Muriel was actually a little slack jawed in shock!

Adelyne proved her fearlessness and total lack of decorum by actually speaking.

“Wait? She’s serious?!”

Muriel gave herself a shake and then spoke gently, in the tone she once used as a governess.

“Jewel... That is not what children look like.”

The Wyrm boggled, then looked back at the child. But everything was right as far as she was concerned.

It was a small person with a slightly outsized head for their body, wide if currently incredulous eyes. The nose and mouth were smaller than an adult’s, the face was clean of any prominent hair. Maybe it was a bit on the side of a babe but hardly out of the ordinary.

The scowling short figure was the spitting image of a young girl. With a careful sniff just to be sure she confirmed that the smell was exactly correct for one too.

Jewel after staring at the figure before her finally turned to Muriel.

“What do you mean? this is exactly what a child looks-”

The room was full of faces and more importantly beating hearts and sweating skin that proved there was not a person in the room who agreed with Jewel. The urge to raise her wings back and crane her neck in shame grew terribly but showing how suddenly shocked she was felt even worse. Gem’s face was blazing hot in a way she knew meant she was shame faced.

Adelyne, as she was, could not fully contain her laughter now and was only left in the room by the mortified confusion of the rest of the Kaeketeh Staff.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

But finally that had apparently been enough for the figure that no one (but Jewel) thought looked like a child and she strutted forward, voice rising, straining to be menacing, angry, anything but light and delicate.

“Y-you, you wretched, star accursed worm!”

She shoved off the poor woman that had been holding her. Moving with what should have been a far too slight and small frame to overpower an adult and marched up to Jewel.

“We did you a favor! We put you and your beast fucker of a husband on that throne! We put that fiend to the torch! I called up for volunteers on who would take the blade to her heart and pay the price for that! You OWED US!”

The tiny figure was shaking with fury, the face was twisted awfully, brows furrowed as hard as they could, lips bared back to show tiny little teeth. Hands clenching so hard the muscles stood out sharp on them before the sleeves finally came loose to fall over and obscure them.

“All you had to do was just kill some poor bastard saps too stupid over their thieving sisters or some whore they were pining over to know what was good for them! You worthless scaly beast!”

The little voice was going raw as she screamed. Spit was flying.

“We did you a favor and you cursed all of us!”

Jewel’s foggy mind snapped clear under the barrage. Under the recognition, the scent, it was a child, it was a girl. But more importantly it was still familiar.

The urge to arch her neck and wings was suddenly smothered.

Jewel would show no shame to this thing.

“Owed?”

Her flame dampened all morning rose, sparking and sputtering higher, filling out more. Straining to envelope all of her flesh.

“You Think You are Owed!?”

She lowered her head to glare at the thing which apparently despite all appearances to Jewel looked nothing like a child.

Well that was fine actually, she agreed this was not a child. She remembered the scent now.

The Captain of Bathory’s Footmen.

“Is that right Captain? You think you are owed more than this?!”

She could not fault the bravery, even as he once was the captain would not have measured up to Jewel. A mere man in some light maile and getting on in age.

And now diminished to hardly larger than Gem. barely past a toddler in size.

But still he stood as tall as he was and tried to stare her down.

“You should have been giving us a medal for doing away with that fiend!”

Jewel drew close enough to kiss the little face that had once had a sharply cut beard.

And she whispered softly enough only the little ears in front of her would catch despite the utter silence that filled the room.

“If that was your only crimes I would have.”

Which got a sneer from the youthful face before her.

“Crimes?! What crimes!? What possible crime could deserve this sorcery?! This mutilation and castration!?”

Jewel glanced at Adelyne, the clarity that had suddenly come, the pulse of her wyrmflame, only half as strong as it had been yesterday still made clearer just what had been said in her working.

When she saw that the false child (once captain) had looked to Adelyne and recognition finally sparked, the wyrm spoke again too softly to be heard by any other but him.

“How many? While you served the Countess? How many lives did you drag into her pit?”

The former captain tried to strike Jewel, a tiny fist carrying hardly any force at all. It hit Jewel clear on the nose and amounted to nothing. She didn't even need to shift or flex a muscle under the blow.

“We did our duty!”

The shrill voice filled the room, the spittle did land on Jewel’s scales this time. She had to squint in fact to avoid getting it in her eyes.

Jewel drew back from the figure while peering more carefully, feeling the eddies of her own Wyrmflame and how they had settled into the room.

Drained, empty, barely more than the faux fire. But there was a shape and meaning.

An intent and an echo of what she had declared would be so.

This time Jewel spoke fully and loudly for all in the room.

“You betrayed any right to your duty and dishonored any defense in loyalty when you conspired to murder your liege and countess. If you had done this with righteousness you would have stood before me proudly instead of those you abandoned to suffer the full weight of your dishonor.”

Jewel glared down at him.

“As I was indisposed after the enacting of your penance let me state what I could not when balancing the weight of your crimes. Your cowardice and dishonor has no place in my guard or footmen, no place in service to Kaeketeh or Viznove.”

She drew her head back to a height so it settled just below the chandelier.

“You have received precisely what you are owed for your crimes. You and all who have felt the touch of my justice are now free.”

Jewel released even more of the usual careful effort in her throat.

“Now Begone.”

Only after the thing that looked like a child (to Jewel) had fled from the room did Paul’s voice rise up from his chair, making Jewel cringe and curl her neck in having forgotten he was there.

“Well. Onto other matters then my dear wife?”