“So Fanya perished. How unfortunate. Was it painless at least?” Princess Deirdre Formosia asked from her seated position in her parlor. The elegant curved white wooden back was rendered comfortable by a silk cushion bound with scarlet strands. On the table in front of her sat a porcelain cup filled with amber tea. She raised her eyes from her cup, but kept her delicate fingers clasped to the curved handle.
The messenger down on one knee kept his head lowered, he nearly spoke of the gruesome slaughter and the abuse endured by the living and the dead alike, but he was held back. Even without looking at her now, he’d beheld her innocent face, the sweet smile, the vibrant, innocent blue of her eyes… she was no longer a mere child, but even so, the Princess still had such an air of innocence about her that he couldn’t bring himself to taint it.
So his lips parted, closed, and when they opened again, a lie came out. “Their deaths were as quick as could be hoped for, and your former maid is now with the gods.”
“I see.” She reached for her embroidered napkin and brought it up, using the corner to dab her eyes. “Were their bodies recovered? If so, I will make sure there is a space to bury her properly. If not… request some token of her house, so I can have that laid to rest in her body’s stead.”
‘So this is what people mean when they talk of the gentle heart of Princess Deirdre… she weeps even over a simple maid…’ The messenger’s heart was moved to loyalty, and as if he were reporting the death to one of the family members of the maid herself, he removed his metal cap and covered his heart with it. “I am sorry for your loss, my Princess.” He said, “But there were no bodies recovered. However, if it pleases you, I will personally find something ‘appropriate’ to bury in her place.”
“She may have left a maid outfit behind when she was promoted. If she did, then we will use that.” Princess Deirdre said and quickly looked away. “Now please, I want to be alone for a little while. Visit the training grounds and have my Faust sent to me on your way out.”
“My Lady!” The messenger said and rose to his feet. He bowed deeply at the waist and backed out, his message delivered, he departed carrying loyalty, and a story of the Princess’s tears over even the bastard daughter of a backcountry Baronet.
When the door clicked shut and she found herself alone, Princess Deirdre smiled sweetly. Her blue eyes lit up, and the smile only broke when she brought the cup of tea to her lips. The heat of her morning tea was nothing compared to her temper even while it faded with the death of the target of her wrath.
“About time she died.” The Princess muttered under her breath, “For a while I was getting worried I might have to find some other way to be rid of that trash.”
That was the trouble with maids and butlers, the bastard offspring of various noble houses were usually foisted off to the royal family to work in the palace. It kept them away from the inheritance of legitimate heirs, and ‘most’ of those so ‘foisted’ ended up in service to the army of the King, where they would usually die in the annual border wars. But a handful of the more frail would end up as a servant class in the capital.
The end result being that these unwanted spares, privy to the lives of the royal house, were glorified sieves of rumors and news and not uncommonly ‘spies’ for their fathers. ‘And horrible gossips that I can’t just have conveniently killed in some back alley brawl…’ The Princess thought as she considered the trouble this last one gave to her.
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The cause of Fanya’s fall from the Princess’s favor came readily to mind in the wake of her death. ‘She never should have spoken against my precious Faust… anyone who does that… they deserve only death. Death. Death! No one can talk badly of him! Nobody! Nobody!’ She screamed inside her head even as she reveled in thoughts of what was no doubt a gruesome demise.
Despite her rage, that thought brought delight to her mind. The mission she’d been sent on was to act as head of the nurses on the ‘frontier’ which was really just a no man’s land with few villagers and a lot of brigands hiding out since neither the Empire on the border nor her own country could properly go in and clear them out without touching off an unintended conflict.
It was also a breeding ground for monsters. Monsters that sometimes overran fortifications meant to contain them and required adventurers to be dispatched to put them down.
‘Well, she’s dead now, so… one less voice against my Faust…’ The Princess reassured herself, but it did not stop her fingers from squeezing too hard, and the delicate porcelain snapped, the cup skittered away, falling to the floor beside the small table, it shattered and the tea splashed in every direction.
“Princess? Are you alright?” A young male voice came through the door, and Deirdre’s head snapped upright.
She rose from the chair and then crouched down in front of the pieces, she held her eyes open for several seconds until the tears started to form and then she said, “Yes, I’m fine, come in, Faust. I just broke a cup.”
He entered to see her crouched there, her shaking fingers, not dissimilar to the color of the cup itself, struggling to pick up the broken bits, and immediately rushed over.
“Princess…” He said when he saw the pooled tears in her eyes.
“The maid… Fanya, the one I promoted. She was slain by a monster that overran the fort. I sent her there, Faust… I sent her there… it was my fault!” She said, and he instinctively reached out to cup her cheeks with his hands.
He was clad in full plate armor, the most expensive and finest she could acquire for him, enchanted so heavily that any adventurer with a detect enchantment skill would gawk at what it must have cost to make. There was however, one little quirk.
Despite the fact that he wore metal gloves on his hands, she could feel the warmth and touch of his fingers and palms beneath. It was such a trivial enchantment, and so buried beneath all the others, that the chances of it being noticed was all but nill. Even he didn’t know it was there. So despite what he wore, she could savor the warmth of the touch to her skin.
“Princess, you don’t need to feel guilty. It was just bad luck. Monsters break through sometimes, it happens. And you gave her a chance to raise her status, how many would have loved to have that chance… even though she perished, I’m sure her loyalty to you never wavered.”
He then took his hands and placed them over hers, he drew them away from the broken shards of porcelain, and as he stood, she rose with him. She tilted her head back to look up at him. He was the same age as she, and yet he towered over her already, reaching the peak of his youth. He still wasn’t a ‘giant’ like the captain of the guard or some of the champions of the Adventurer’s Guild, but even so, all his strength belonged to her and her alone.
“Let me take care of this, Princess. You’ll cut your hands, please step away.” He said and crouched down again, cupping one hand, he began to pick up the fragments and set them into the open palm. When he was done, he looked up at her and said, “I’ll have a maid come and clean this up, if it please you, Princess, maybe you’d feel better if we took a walk in the garden? To clear your head a little after learning such unfortunate news.” He tried to smile up at her. When she smiled back, he stood.
“That would be lovely, Faust. Thank you.” She said, and his ruddy face blushed just a little.
‘Even after all these years, she can still make me blush.’ He would have laughed about that if it weren’t improper.
Instead he turned and left the room, carrying the fragments of the cup with him, a few drops slipped between his fingers, falling away to splash at his feet until they ran out as he exited. ‘The kindness of my Princess is second to none… I’m the luckiest bodyguard in the world.’
A little while later, he had no other thought in his head but that, and what a beautiful day in the garden it was.
Until his sharp eyes caught the panicked face of a butler racing toward them with panic on his face and wild eyes filled with horror.