Disclaimer: I'm too tired to write a complex disclaimer this week. I own
nothing except the disclaimer, but I suspect someone will claim this as
well and I will have to disclaim the disclaimer along with everything else.
Author's Notes: I am so sorry it's been so long since I last updated. Lately I've been really lazy and depressed and out of ideas entirely. If this next chapter is the worst one yet, you can't blame me, it's the IRS's fault. Even though they have nothing to do with my writing, it's still their fault.
~ ~ ~ ~
Birds chirped pleasantly outside of the pane glass window. Unfortunately, Audrie didn't find them nearly as pleasant as everyone else. Birds meant morning, morning meant breakfast, and breakfast, today, meant Roger.
Audrie rolled over onto her stomach, wishing that a hunter would just happen by and shoot each and every single bird outside of her window. However, due to the fact that she just oh so happened to be two inches away from the edge of her bed, Audrie's brief thoughts of birds were disturbed by her face meeting the floor, of which Audrie confirmed to be more than solid enough.
"M'lady, are you alright?" Sarri rushed in to Audrie's aid.
"You still assume I need your help." Audrie righted herself and ignored Sarri's attempts to assist her in fixing her hair. "I'm fine on my own, thank you very much."
Sarri merely tsked and pulled back Audrie's black hair into a tight bun, much to Audrie's displeasure. "What's got you in such a twist? From what I've heard around the servants' quarters, you have a breakfast with the Duke. He must be related to the god's or something, because his looks are divine, I tell you. I would be ecstatic if I had the offer to spend a meal with him."
"He has the looks of a painting and the personality of it's canvas." Audrie snapped. "Dry and boring. I have no reason to want to go to breakfast with him beyond the hope it will save me from worse possible seating arrangements in the dining hall, though I can imagine few worse than this."
A flash of light and Audrie's hair was it's false sandy blond once more, her eyes now a dancing blue instead of trickster green. She stood, attempted to put her dress over her head, only succeeding at forcing Sarri to fret over her hair once more and force her into an unusually tight corset.
"If I die from lack of air, you won't be receiving anything in my will; you know that, right?" Audrie glared but added finishing touches with a ring of pearls. Then, after cramming her feet into abnormally tiny shoes, she attempted to glide out of the room, attempted being the key word.
~ ~ ~ ~
She entered the hall to find people streaming past to get to the dining hall, and found herself grateful for at least not having to put up with the usual clamor of a hundred other people.
This thought instantly vanished as she saw Roger gliding down the hall beaming brighter than the sun that still gave her a minor headache. The pit in her stomach grew larger as he stopped in front of her and gracefully swept a deep bow. Courtesy required an equally deep curtsey from Audrie and she nearly tipped over in her attempt, the only thing stopping her from falling flat of her face was that Roger supported her elbow on the way up. The concept she had depended on him for a second made her sick.
"You slept well, my lord?" A sickly sweet smile took its place on Audrie's face.
"Quite well, thank you. But really, perhaps conversation would be more pleasant in a place...quieter than the hall, don't you think?"
"Of course. It's much too loud to have polite conversation in the hall. But where would you propose to converse then?"
"I do believe there's a small room set up with the proper dining necessities. Would that please you?" He lifted his arm for Audrie to rest her own upon.
'He went so far as to set up an extra room? I'm touched. Not.' The fact he had gone so far out of his way to have peace and quiet disturbed Audrie, but she placed her hand upon his and walked with him to an out of the way, spacious room ('small?' Audrie wondered what he defined large as).
The two sat and Audrie's torture began as conversation led to controversial subjects such as the weather and the latest dances, none of which Audrie actually knew but she somehow convinced Roger she was very talented at.
She somehow got the impression he wasn't really listening to her when she started to talk about the quality of the floor tiles (all marble, mind you, very important) and all he said in reply was, "Of course, I agree entirely." At this point she noticed where his eyes were focused and turned bright red. She waved a hand in front of her chest and he suddenly looked up.
"I'm sorry? I missed that last comment." He smiled warmly enough to melt any court lady's heart but not Audrie's. Inside she grimaced but kept it to just that: inside.
"Nothing important, I'm sure. Perhaps you didn't get as much sleep as you thought." Audrie felt slightly sick to her stomach.
"Yes, perhaps." That annoying smile again.
Audrie looked away, afraid she would give him the wrong idea. Instead she caught the eyes of the servant that was serving her eggs. The pit in her stomach turned into a full-fledged black hole.
"Would you please excuse me for a moment?" Audrie forced a queasy smile at the Duke. She rose before he could answer and spoke to the servant, "Could I ask a favor of you please? Come outside for a second. I won't keep you for long." A bat of the eyes and he was perfectly eager to come along.
Outside Audrie grabbed the servant by the ear and began dragging him down the hall. "What the hell are you doing here?!" She slammed him against the wall of a hallway far away from the room she had just been in. Surprisingly, no one else was around. "Well?!" She hissed. "Explain, Ballin!"
"I thought I recognized you from somewhere!" He grinned, but then instantly switched to a frown that seemed to be his least natural expression, for it etched unnatural wrinkles into his face. "You've changed. For the worse. I liked you better before."
"Don't talk about what you don't know."
"I know that you weren't a lady before. That's a change."
"Than you spent five years with me and still didn't learn anything about my abilities as a con-artist. I'm no lady, I never could have been."
"That's not true. If you had gone back to your mother, she would have crammed your past into a box and made you into a lady again. You know I'm right."
"No, because I never went back to my parents. I hated them more than anyone."
"You left us when you were fifteen. We never knew what happened to you after that. How were we to know you didn't go sniveling back to your family without us to stop you?"
An expression of outrage and disgust found itself on Audrie's face. "How dare you! I never once thought of going back and you know. Not from when I was seven until I left, and I never thought of going back even after I left the rest of the band. It makes me sick that you would think I would do that. Some friends."
"You know we never thought that!" A grin once more covered Ballin's face. "I just wanted to make sure you hadn't changed that much. Remember when you first joined us and we suggested you go back home since you were so young? You nearly tore our camp apart!" His infectious laugh forced Audrie to grin as well.
"Those times were fun. I haven't changed so much in these last three years though. This is simply an infiltration."
"That explains your breakfast with the Duke, now doesn't it?"
"My presence makes more sense than yours does. My speciality was always disguise and then letting you in. And slight of hand, always that. Explain your reasons, hm?"
"Same, more or less. We've moved out of Tusaine recently, partly because of the rumors of war. We don't want to be in the middle. Lucky for us we got out in time, but since then nearly everything's gone to the ground in Tusaine which leaves us with nothing to steal. So we moved here. Lot richer people to loot 'round here, don't you think?"
"Of course, but better people to protect them. You know that. It's not nearly as safe for a band of thieves to just loot towns around here. Have you lost anyone? Or gained?"
"Gerrald died. Old age, mostly. Too hard for him to keep running, you know? He was a good old man though. Since he's not around to order us around, Marcus took up the job. Five years younger but just as good at it. A few deaths here and there. The drought in Tusaine hit us pretty hard the year after you left. We have gained some younger kids though." He nodded sagely.
"Twenty-three now, huh?" Audrie smiled. "You were like a big brother to me when I was there." A nostalgic smile passed onto her face, only to be quickly replaced by a hardened look. "But it doesn't matter whether it's only you here or the entire group, this is my quarry. Besides, the entire group can't loot this castle, you'd get killed by the guards before you made it to the main hall."
"Or so you think. There are halls below the main floor. Everyone's hiding there for now, until the last night of the Midwinter festival."
"My day. I've already claimed from now until then as mine to steal. You have to change plans. I don't care."
"You don't understand. When I said the drought hit us hard, I meant it. We've lost enough that it's gotten harder to loot each time. We need this."
"You try it and you'll all get killed. I don't want that. I've planned this out with the King of Thieves. My way is different. No one notices but I've still profited. You can't risk the entire group for the sake of a bit of money. It just doesn't work that way."
"Audrie, three years ago we lost someone from our group, and while all of us hate to admit it, we needed her, despite her gender and young age. And I think... She needed us as much as we needed her."
"Ballin, don't go sentimental of me. Just don't. I have to get back to breakfast. Really." Audrie glanced to the side and briskly walked off, leaving Ballin alone.
"They need you, you need us, and I..." He trailed of and shook his head, a half moon of a smile crept onto his face.
~ ~ ~ ~
"So sorry to have kept you so long. I had to ask him to request to the servant that cleans my room to not touch my desk, but he simply didn't understand what to do." Another false smile plastered itself on Audrie's face as she apologized to Roger.
"Of course, I have the same trouble with a few things in my room involving complex magic that simply cannot be disturbed." A smile on Roger's face told Audrie that he hadn't heard a word of her conversation, and she lapsed back into polite conversation.
~ ~ ~ ~
By the end of the meal Audrie's head hurt from boring conversation. She thought she had heard the worst in the dining room hall next to old knights, but apparently she was wrong. Things hit an all time low when Roger started talking about his grandmother. Yet somehow he managed to keep himself perfectly entertained while Audrie simply turned to a puddle of mush from being pounded with useless facts about an old lady who did nothing, probably literally.
But at last she was able to excuse herself with the excuse that she needed to primp herself for- surprise!- lunch. She dragged her feet as she returned to her room, though grateful because she had no repeat invitation of breakfast. Perhaps Roger had been more bored than he cared to admit.
Drudging her feet, Audrie briefly closed her eyes but continued on. Unfortunately she found herself then walking straight into a large mass.
"Raoul!"
"Ah, Audrie. Uh, how are you?" His shifty eyes told her something was up.
"Well, I was perfectly fine until Roger decided to exist, rather than simply keeling over and dying for my convenience last night. Besides that, I am now very curious as to why you seem so nervous."
"It's not you, it's that well..."
"Well?"
"Delia's been cozying up to Jonathan again. It's just annoying that's all."
"And that explains your nervousness so much. Not. Why would you be afraid about something annoying?"
"She cozied up to some other men between now and her previous detachment from him."
"Ah, and you happened to be one of those men?"
"For a day or so. The dinner you were gone to she took an extreme liking to me, right in front of Jonathan."
"Ouch." Audrie winced in sympathy. "Avoid him for a while."
"I could have figured that out on my own."
"Doesn't mean I won't tell you still." Audrie grinned. "Relax, I doubt he can hold a grudge as well as I can, and you survived me, right?"
"He's worse, he's the prince. And I only barely survived you."
"How very true." 'In more ways than one.' Audrie finished silently. 'Then again, I may never have forgiven him if I hadn't gotten into that fight.'
Audrie smiled up to him and just shook her head. "It'll all turn out right. You have that annoying tendency for that, don't you?"
~ ~ ~ ~
Entering her room, Audrie saw Sarri smiling brightly at her. Suspicion creeped up on her as Sarri laughed slightly and shook her head.
"M'lady, you certainly make your way around the men don't you? Despite defending yourself with the fact you have no interest in searching around for a man." Sarri laughed as Audrie looked on with incredulity.
"What do you mean? I haven't been doing anything." Audrie snorted and sat down to fix her hair once more.
"First Roger offers breakfast, then you flirt with Raoul? And I've heard a few rumors around the Dancing Dove. Few move that fast, and with such skill. Now Delia does, but she's something else."
"I am doing no such thing! When did I flirt with Raoul? I simply don't sink so low as to flirt with friends."
"When? Just a minute ago. I passed you in the hall."
"I have no interest in Roger. He took a liking to me, that's all. Not my fault. And with Raoul, you must have mistaken my joking with him as flirting."
"Oh no m'lady, I think he took it as flirting as well."
~ ~ ~ ~
Author's notes: Sorry for the shorter chapter, but hey, it's here, right? It felt like the right place to end it.
Author's Notes: I am so sorry it's been so long since I last updated. Lately I've been really lazy and depressed and out of ideas entirely. If this next chapter is the worst one yet, you can't blame me, it's the IRS's fault. Even though they have nothing to do with my writing, it's still their fault.
~ ~ ~ ~
Birds chirped pleasantly outside of the pane glass window. Unfortunately, Audrie didn't find them nearly as pleasant as everyone else. Birds meant morning, morning meant breakfast, and breakfast, today, meant Roger.
Audrie rolled over onto her stomach, wishing that a hunter would just happen by and shoot each and every single bird outside of her window. However, due to the fact that she just oh so happened to be two inches away from the edge of her bed, Audrie's brief thoughts of birds were disturbed by her face meeting the floor, of which Audrie confirmed to be more than solid enough.
"M'lady, are you alright?" Sarri rushed in to Audrie's aid.
"You still assume I need your help." Audrie righted herself and ignored Sarri's attempts to assist her in fixing her hair. "I'm fine on my own, thank you very much."
Sarri merely tsked and pulled back Audrie's black hair into a tight bun, much to Audrie's displeasure. "What's got you in such a twist? From what I've heard around the servants' quarters, you have a breakfast with the Duke. He must be related to the god's or something, because his looks are divine, I tell you. I would be ecstatic if I had the offer to spend a meal with him."
"He has the looks of a painting and the personality of it's canvas." Audrie snapped. "Dry and boring. I have no reason to want to go to breakfast with him beyond the hope it will save me from worse possible seating arrangements in the dining hall, though I can imagine few worse than this."
A flash of light and Audrie's hair was it's false sandy blond once more, her eyes now a dancing blue instead of trickster green. She stood, attempted to put her dress over her head, only succeeding at forcing Sarri to fret over her hair once more and force her into an unusually tight corset.
"If I die from lack of air, you won't be receiving anything in my will; you know that, right?" Audrie glared but added finishing touches with a ring of pearls. Then, after cramming her feet into abnormally tiny shoes, she attempted to glide out of the room, attempted being the key word.
~ ~ ~ ~
She entered the hall to find people streaming past to get to the dining hall, and found herself grateful for at least not having to put up with the usual clamor of a hundred other people.
This thought instantly vanished as she saw Roger gliding down the hall beaming brighter than the sun that still gave her a minor headache. The pit in her stomach grew larger as he stopped in front of her and gracefully swept a deep bow. Courtesy required an equally deep curtsey from Audrie and she nearly tipped over in her attempt, the only thing stopping her from falling flat of her face was that Roger supported her elbow on the way up. The concept she had depended on him for a second made her sick.
"You slept well, my lord?" A sickly sweet smile took its place on Audrie's face.
"Quite well, thank you. But really, perhaps conversation would be more pleasant in a place...quieter than the hall, don't you think?"
"Of course. It's much too loud to have polite conversation in the hall. But where would you propose to converse then?"
"I do believe there's a small room set up with the proper dining necessities. Would that please you?" He lifted his arm for Audrie to rest her own upon.
'He went so far as to set up an extra room? I'm touched. Not.' The fact he had gone so far out of his way to have peace and quiet disturbed Audrie, but she placed her hand upon his and walked with him to an out of the way, spacious room ('small?' Audrie wondered what he defined large as).
The two sat and Audrie's torture began as conversation led to controversial subjects such as the weather and the latest dances, none of which Audrie actually knew but she somehow convinced Roger she was very talented at.
She somehow got the impression he wasn't really listening to her when she started to talk about the quality of the floor tiles (all marble, mind you, very important) and all he said in reply was, "Of course, I agree entirely." At this point she noticed where his eyes were focused and turned bright red. She waved a hand in front of her chest and he suddenly looked up.
"I'm sorry? I missed that last comment." He smiled warmly enough to melt any court lady's heart but not Audrie's. Inside she grimaced but kept it to just that: inside.
"Nothing important, I'm sure. Perhaps you didn't get as much sleep as you thought." Audrie felt slightly sick to her stomach.
"Yes, perhaps." That annoying smile again.
Audrie looked away, afraid she would give him the wrong idea. Instead she caught the eyes of the servant that was serving her eggs. The pit in her stomach turned into a full-fledged black hole.
"Would you please excuse me for a moment?" Audrie forced a queasy smile at the Duke. She rose before he could answer and spoke to the servant, "Could I ask a favor of you please? Come outside for a second. I won't keep you for long." A bat of the eyes and he was perfectly eager to come along.
Outside Audrie grabbed the servant by the ear and began dragging him down the hall. "What the hell are you doing here?!" She slammed him against the wall of a hallway far away from the room she had just been in. Surprisingly, no one else was around. "Well?!" She hissed. "Explain, Ballin!"
"I thought I recognized you from somewhere!" He grinned, but then instantly switched to a frown that seemed to be his least natural expression, for it etched unnatural wrinkles into his face. "You've changed. For the worse. I liked you better before."
"Don't talk about what you don't know."
"I know that you weren't a lady before. That's a change."
"Than you spent five years with me and still didn't learn anything about my abilities as a con-artist. I'm no lady, I never could have been."
"That's not true. If you had gone back to your mother, she would have crammed your past into a box and made you into a lady again. You know I'm right."
"No, because I never went back to my parents. I hated them more than anyone."
"You left us when you were fifteen. We never knew what happened to you after that. How were we to know you didn't go sniveling back to your family without us to stop you?"
An expression of outrage and disgust found itself on Audrie's face. "How dare you! I never once thought of going back and you know. Not from when I was seven until I left, and I never thought of going back even after I left the rest of the band. It makes me sick that you would think I would do that. Some friends."
"You know we never thought that!" A grin once more covered Ballin's face. "I just wanted to make sure you hadn't changed that much. Remember when you first joined us and we suggested you go back home since you were so young? You nearly tore our camp apart!" His infectious laugh forced Audrie to grin as well.
"Those times were fun. I haven't changed so much in these last three years though. This is simply an infiltration."
"That explains your breakfast with the Duke, now doesn't it?"
"My presence makes more sense than yours does. My speciality was always disguise and then letting you in. And slight of hand, always that. Explain your reasons, hm?"
"Same, more or less. We've moved out of Tusaine recently, partly because of the rumors of war. We don't want to be in the middle. Lucky for us we got out in time, but since then nearly everything's gone to the ground in Tusaine which leaves us with nothing to steal. So we moved here. Lot richer people to loot 'round here, don't you think?"
"Of course, but better people to protect them. You know that. It's not nearly as safe for a band of thieves to just loot towns around here. Have you lost anyone? Or gained?"
"Gerrald died. Old age, mostly. Too hard for him to keep running, you know? He was a good old man though. Since he's not around to order us around, Marcus took up the job. Five years younger but just as good at it. A few deaths here and there. The drought in Tusaine hit us pretty hard the year after you left. We have gained some younger kids though." He nodded sagely.
"Twenty-three now, huh?" Audrie smiled. "You were like a big brother to me when I was there." A nostalgic smile passed onto her face, only to be quickly replaced by a hardened look. "But it doesn't matter whether it's only you here or the entire group, this is my quarry. Besides, the entire group can't loot this castle, you'd get killed by the guards before you made it to the main hall."
"Or so you think. There are halls below the main floor. Everyone's hiding there for now, until the last night of the Midwinter festival."
"My day. I've already claimed from now until then as mine to steal. You have to change plans. I don't care."
"You don't understand. When I said the drought hit us hard, I meant it. We've lost enough that it's gotten harder to loot each time. We need this."
"You try it and you'll all get killed. I don't want that. I've planned this out with the King of Thieves. My way is different. No one notices but I've still profited. You can't risk the entire group for the sake of a bit of money. It just doesn't work that way."
"Audrie, three years ago we lost someone from our group, and while all of us hate to admit it, we needed her, despite her gender and young age. And I think... She needed us as much as we needed her."
"Ballin, don't go sentimental of me. Just don't. I have to get back to breakfast. Really." Audrie glanced to the side and briskly walked off, leaving Ballin alone.
"They need you, you need us, and I..." He trailed of and shook his head, a half moon of a smile crept onto his face.
~ ~ ~ ~
"So sorry to have kept you so long. I had to ask him to request to the servant that cleans my room to not touch my desk, but he simply didn't understand what to do." Another false smile plastered itself on Audrie's face as she apologized to Roger.
"Of course, I have the same trouble with a few things in my room involving complex magic that simply cannot be disturbed." A smile on Roger's face told Audrie that he hadn't heard a word of her conversation, and she lapsed back into polite conversation.
~ ~ ~ ~
By the end of the meal Audrie's head hurt from boring conversation. She thought she had heard the worst in the dining room hall next to old knights, but apparently she was wrong. Things hit an all time low when Roger started talking about his grandmother. Yet somehow he managed to keep himself perfectly entertained while Audrie simply turned to a puddle of mush from being pounded with useless facts about an old lady who did nothing, probably literally.
But at last she was able to excuse herself with the excuse that she needed to primp herself for- surprise!- lunch. She dragged her feet as she returned to her room, though grateful because she had no repeat invitation of breakfast. Perhaps Roger had been more bored than he cared to admit.
Drudging her feet, Audrie briefly closed her eyes but continued on. Unfortunately she found herself then walking straight into a large mass.
"Raoul!"
"Ah, Audrie. Uh, how are you?" His shifty eyes told her something was up.
"Well, I was perfectly fine until Roger decided to exist, rather than simply keeling over and dying for my convenience last night. Besides that, I am now very curious as to why you seem so nervous."
"It's not you, it's that well..."
"Well?"
"Delia's been cozying up to Jonathan again. It's just annoying that's all."
"And that explains your nervousness so much. Not. Why would you be afraid about something annoying?"
"She cozied up to some other men between now and her previous detachment from him."
"Ah, and you happened to be one of those men?"
"For a day or so. The dinner you were gone to she took an extreme liking to me, right in front of Jonathan."
"Ouch." Audrie winced in sympathy. "Avoid him for a while."
"I could have figured that out on my own."
"Doesn't mean I won't tell you still." Audrie grinned. "Relax, I doubt he can hold a grudge as well as I can, and you survived me, right?"
"He's worse, he's the prince. And I only barely survived you."
"How very true." 'In more ways than one.' Audrie finished silently. 'Then again, I may never have forgiven him if I hadn't gotten into that fight.'
Audrie smiled up to him and just shook her head. "It'll all turn out right. You have that annoying tendency for that, don't you?"
~ ~ ~ ~
Entering her room, Audrie saw Sarri smiling brightly at her. Suspicion creeped up on her as Sarri laughed slightly and shook her head.
"M'lady, you certainly make your way around the men don't you? Despite defending yourself with the fact you have no interest in searching around for a man." Sarri laughed as Audrie looked on with incredulity.
"What do you mean? I haven't been doing anything." Audrie snorted and sat down to fix her hair once more.
"First Roger offers breakfast, then you flirt with Raoul? And I've heard a few rumors around the Dancing Dove. Few move that fast, and with such skill. Now Delia does, but she's something else."
"I am doing no such thing! When did I flirt with Raoul? I simply don't sink so low as to flirt with friends."
"When? Just a minute ago. I passed you in the hall."
"I have no interest in Roger. He took a liking to me, that's all. Not my fault. And with Raoul, you must have mistaken my joking with him as flirting."
"Oh no m'lady, I think he took it as flirting as well."
~ ~ ~ ~
Author's notes: Sorry for the shorter chapter, but hey, it's here, right? It felt like the right place to end it.