As a child, Addie had often heard bedtime stories filled with tales of spooky basements and creepy attics. However, when she finally ventured into the basement herself, it was nothing like the eerie places depicted in those stories.
Addie walked down a circular stairwell. The stairs in question were crafted from polished wood, and adorned with delicate carvings that traced the railing. The entire path was bathed in the warm glow of candlelight, ensuring a well-lit and inviting atmosphere. The basement, frequented by various servants, was meticulously maintained and organized, mirroring the pristine order of the rest of the house.
Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, Addie stepped off onto a meticulously well-swept stone floor. Although the basement lacked distinct rooms, a quick survey of the space revealed its various functional areas. Positioned in the far-right corner was a wash basin accompanied by a washboard still resting within the tub. It showed some dings and scratches, which indicated how it was well used, but it wasn’t broken or degraded by any means. Just to the left of it sat a laundry rack, currently unused since clothes would hang outside on a clothesline during these summer months. Closer to the middle of the wall, a few maid uniforms hung on hooks. Most of the hooks were empty. The few uniforms that did hang were reserved for new or returning servants. Traditionally, servants kept possession of their own uniforms.
In the left corner of the room sat a small table with four chairs gathered around it. A few knitting needles and strands of yarn still sat out. ‘Perhaps the servants knit and sew down here in their free time.’ Addie thought to herself. Built into the middle of the right wall a furnace started to gather dust, unused this time of year.
Mostly, the basement was a fair bit of empty space, to the point where Addie couldn’t find anything unusual about it in the slightest. Addie looked around the room just to confirm, but she truly could detect nothing amiss about the space. Not even a stray puddle of water was pooled near the wash basin.
Going further into the room, she approached the maid uniforms. Then, she double-checked nothing hid behind them. When that turned out to be pointless, Addie circled around the room. She picked up pieces of yarn, some needles, and she even lifted up the wash basin and looked under it. All searching ended up being totally pointless.
Disheartened, Addie began ascending the stairs once again. About halfway up the stairs, Addie heard footsteps approaching the top of the stairwell. Before the door could be opened, Addie half ran half tip-toed back down the stairs.
‘That must be Christena coming down! Maybe I can hide here somewhere...’ Addie thought.
Hiding behind the maid uniforms wouldn’t work, since her legs would be showing. Under the table and in the wash basin also gave little hope due to her size.
With a quick touch to the front door of the furnace to confirm it held no heat, Addie opened it. Ducking her head to peer inside, she realized it must have been cleaned up after winter ended. Of course, it wasn't like Addie could see much inside the dark abyss of a metal box. Those things had a knack for swallowing light whole, leaving no room for sightseeing, much to Addie's disappointment.
At least confident that the furnace felt cool, Addie crouched down and hopped in. She snugly fit inside, contorting her body into an egg shape by wrapping her arms around her knees. She reached out and closed the door behind her. It was just in time, too, since Addie could hear someone reaching the end of the stairwell. Peeking through the four tiny metal slits in the door of the furnace, Addie could barely make out that the mystery person was Christena after all.
"...," Christena's voice whispered faintly, barely audible due to the hard steel walls around Addie, muffling the sound. The grate at the front of the furnace also didn’t provide a fantastic way for Addie to see. Even when she strained her eyes, Addie could hardly make out Christena’s figure. The main clue that made Addie certain was Christena’s uniform. Only she had the unique affectations on her maid uniform’s sleeves and chest that marked her as the boss. The ornate sleeves adorned with embroidered roses that curled around onto her chest area normally commanded respect for her position, though, from Addie's current vantage point, it almost seemed as if Christena’s arms possessed an exaggerated poofiness.
The whimsy of the moment quickly evaporated. Soon enough, Addie could see Fluffy engaged in a peculiar and precise pattern of movement. With uncanny dexterity, Fluffy leaped from wall to wall. She watched as Fluffy unerringly landed in the center of the wall face, then pushed off and ran to the next wall. Again, she jumped unerringly into the center of the wall. Once Fluffy’s path started towards the far side of the wall Addie was in, she could no longer see Fluffy’s path, due to her limited field of view from the furnace. Despite this, Addie could still hear Fluffy’s skittering nails along the floor as she ran unerringly closer.
Her excitement turned to dread though, when Addie heard muffled cries of distress emanating from the stairway entrance. The cries seemed to grow in sequence with each rhythmic jump Fluffy performed, until finally, the sound of the screaming blended with the sound of Fluffy's approach towards the furnace, conveniently located right in the heart of the wall where Addie remained concealed.
Now realizing something felt wrong about this situation, Addie had a moment of apprehension as she saw Fluffy homing in on her hiding place. ‘What if she finds me?’ This game of snooping on Christena’s activities no longer felt exciting. Instead, Addie’s heart dropped.
Addie closed her eyes and braced. She jolted when she felt more than heard the loud bang of Fluffy’s paws jumping off the metal door of the furnace. Addie experienced a brief surge of relief when Fluffy kept running along, not seeming to notice Addie at all.
‘Maybe this strong charcoal smell hid my scent,’ Addie wondered. That didn’t stop her heart from slowing down though. At least she seemed to be in the clear, for now. Unfortunately, the exact opposite became true for the poor soul being dragged each agonizing step down the stairway.
As the source of the screams came into view, it became apparent that Christena had pulled some random peasant from out of the manor’s farms. Addie could tell the woman was older due to the hoarseness of her wails. Addie decided that hearing terror-filled screams was the worst way to discover someone’s age. Behind the old woman stood another of the manor’s servants. A stablehand tightly wound the old woman’s hands behind her back with his own. Despite her screams, the stablehand’s face betrayed nothing. His serious expression didn’t match the horror of the situation at all. This was just business, his face said.
Stolen novel; please report.
What made it all the worse, Addie knew the stablehand. His name was Jeff, and he came across as slightly awkward with his large body, as though he didn’t quite know how to be dexterous with his strength. Jeff always treated Addie kindly when she visited the fillow in the stable, large moose-like creatures. He stayed quiet most of the time, but he seemed kind enough in their limited interactions. His supposedly quiet-kind demeanor made his presence here shocking. Especially in the way he seemed so clinical about holding his captive.
As Jeff and the old woman approached the center of the basement, Addie was able to make out the old woman’s face. She recognized her since the surrounding village was so small, but she didn’t know her name.
After she saw Jeff and the old woman, Addie took notice of Fluffy’s movements across the room. Everywhere Fluffy ran she began to radiate a bright pink trail behind her. Streaks of light followed in her wake as she jumped across the room. She unerringly jumped onto each wall once, causing a bright focal point in the middle of each wall to glow. The glowing point on Addie’s wall brightened just above the furnace slits. It shined into the furnace, blinding Addie as her eyes adjusted.
The stablehand stopped walking forward abruptly. His sudden movement caused his cargo to stumble for a moment before the old woman caught herself. Now directly facing Christena, the old woman replaced her piercing wails with a softer sob. At that moment, Addie realized what it looked like for someone to give up.
After a brief moment accompanied by sobs, Addie thought she saw Christena nod her head to Jeff in an unspoken command. However, it was hard to tell for sure from Addie’s position in the furnace. Her guess was confirmed when the stablehand shoved the older peasant woman forward at a harsh angle designed to make her fall on her face. Just as she should have hit the ground face first, instead of colliding, the woman seemed to vanish into the ground, falling through the earth as if it were liquid.
Addie rubbed her eyes, but the patterned stone floor of the basement looked no different than a moment ago. She looked at Christena in a new light. Christena’s twisted smile and apparent glee clashed with Addie’s image of the friendly, if sometimes teasing, woman. ‘We were supposed to play games today.’ This was her maid smiling to herself after seemingly murdering a defenseless woman. She had to tell her dad. But, Addie couldn’t move, too horrified to so much as wiggle. Any movement she made could reveal her presence to Christena. Addie didn’t want that.
Being in the sixth caste, Fluffy never should have had as much power as she currently demonstrated. Even earlier, the lightning bolt she teasingly ‘shocked’ Addie with didn’t actually feel like anything. It just looked pretty. All of Christena’s magic was like that. It just looked pretty, it never did something like kill someone. Either Christena held inhuman reserves of power, ungodly discipline, and focus, or, most likely, she had hidden another caste of bonded somewhere on her person. Or worse. Maybe Christena had cascaded destroying her personality for magical power. Addie didn’t see any other way Christena could do something so horrible while also having the needed magic power to do it.
With a beckoning gesture from Christena, Fluffy ran back towards her bonded partner. The three accomplices then started back up the stairs, behaving as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred at all.
Addie had to decide what to do next. Obviously, she needed to tell someone about what she saw. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation for this somehow? Addie wanted to trust Christena, to trust the woman who spent so many days teaching Addie about the world and being a part of her family. The events of the past few minutes left Addie feeling conflicted.
She would have to go to her dad, Addie decided. With that thought, Addie scrunched up her face. She slapped her cheeks to motivate herself. Regardless of how upset he might be, this was an emergency.
Before worrying too much about that, Addie decided, it would be vital to leave the basement without anyone noticing. For now, Addie had a sense of security—no one had seen her enter the basement. That meant no one could report her whereabouts to Christena. Hopefully, the secrecy wouldn’t matter, anyway.
It was a good thing Addie always kept an eye on the servants. Imagine if Christena had found out she walked down into the basement just before the ritual. It was a sobering thought, one that left Addie feeling even more conflicted than a moment ago.
Entering the basement was easier than leaving it, however. When entering somewhere, it’s easy enough to look at your surroundings and find out if anyone else is around. Once on the other side of that door, though, it always proved more difficult. It’s not like Addie could see through the closed door to check if someone was outside watching the door.
Slowly, Addie opened the door to the furnace. Standing up, her skirt stirred up the dust and soot she had been sitting on. Her lungs seized up, wracking her body in a coughing fit. It seemed the furnace wasn’t as clean as she initially suspected.
The adrenaline from the previous situation had started to fade, leaving her limbs tingly and numb. But now that she had just made a lot of noise coughing up that soot, her anxiety started to come back. She stood dead silent in the room, listening for any signs that she had been heard. After a few moments of silence, a wave of relief passed through Addie as she realized no one was coming to investigate. The sting of soot still invaded her airways, especially her nose, making her feel the strong urge to sneeze, but she managed to hold it in. With watering eyes, she wiped her face as best she could with the front of her shirt—the only spot yet untouched by the soot.
Addie’s initial impression of the basement as a pristine and orderly place had been shattered by Christena’s ritual. Addie made no effort to stay near this place any longer than she needed to. She walked back up the stairs, glancing at the candles that illuminated the circular stairwell.
Though she felt no nerves going up the stairs, now that Addie had reached the top, a familiar nervousness tingled in her chest and fingertips again. The moment had come to determine if Addie could keep her part in the basement ritual a secret.
Addie pushed herself onto her tiptoes and leaned her ear against the door, without putting her weight on it. She had to rely on her hearing to figure out if someone was standing or walking around outside the basement entrance. But even that could be unreliable. If someone stood motionless outside the door, it would be almost impossible to hear them. After a few heartbeats of silence, Addie decided to look under the door and see if she could make anything out. A fair amount of light shone through the bottom of the door, allowing Addie to see a foot or so away from the door. However, the angle from the top of the stairs didn't provide a clear view further out.
She retraced her steps carefully down the stairs, deliberately stopping three steps from the top to align her line of sight with the bottom of the doorframe. By adjusting her position, she no longer had to strain her neck against the floor, restricted to a limited view. Instead, her new angle granted her a straight line of sight through the small gap between the floor and the door. While her vantage point remained at ankle height, it provided ample visibility to assess whether anyone stood guard near the door.
Looking out from this new vantage point, Addie confirmed no one stood near the exit from the basement. Still feeling a tinge of apprehension, she twisted the door handle with delicate pressure, ensuring it made no sound as she cracked the door open. Peeking out in this way further confirmed no one stood nearby. With slightly more confidence, she opened the door fully and stepped back out into the hallway. She wasted no time and immediately began walking to her father’s office.