Locked Legacies

Chapter II: Dancing with his ghost

 He groaned in distress into his pillow; lying restlessly in bed for an hour can do that to a person. His body had been completely engulfed by the mattress when he decided to stop trying; it would be better to do something and clear his head than stay there, trying to turn off his brain, despite being exhausted.

Sitting up, he had a direct view of it; the large door, covered in silver, was an entrance to the next room. And, for a second, he found himself tempted to open it; maybe it would make everything less painful. Yet, the mere thought of breathing that air brought a lump to his throat, and so he decided to entertain himself in some other way and stop thinking about it.

After grabbing two keys from his drawer, Augustus crept through the right wing of the castle and to the kitchen. Thank God for the tile floor and the carpets; they made the silence much easier to achieve. He walked into the hallway that led to the place, expecting darkness and solitude since dinner had finished an hour and a half earlier and no one had a reason to be there after eight. To his surprise, however, a single candle was flickering on the table. "What on—?" he mumbled to himself, peeking through the doorframe. Thankfully, it was just a rather young girl, so he entered carelessly with a bucket in his hand and a source of light in the other.

The woman, probably around his age, didn't even notice his presence because she was putting her whole focus and will into the water pump, even though nothing was coming out of it. He suppressed his laughter as she muttered some profanities to the inanimate object.

"Do you need any help, miss?" A smug smirk crept onto his lips as he laid his weight on the table behind him.

"No. I am going to figure this out."

"Can I borrow it for just a second, then?"

"I arrived here first, just wait for your turn," she panted, still moving the handle up and down relentlessly.

"... You know, if you don't try something new it is definitely not going to wor-"

"For god's sake! Just give me a minute! I told you I—". Her eyes finally traveled to her side, and an expression of shock and regret instantly struck her features at the realization. He was standing just a few feet away, in flesh and bone, with an amused half smile, "Are you...? Yes... You are definitely him."

"Prince Augustus III," he nodded slightly, which was unusual for a prince to do to greet a worker.

"Faylinn Langdon," she bowed in reply, trying to fix her mess. If her father found out that she had been disrespectful to the prince, she was going to be punished every day for the rest of her life; her parent had to constantly remind her what her place was and that manners were important, and he had become very strict about it a few years prior.

"Langdon... Clarice's daughter?"

"Uh... yes," she tilted her head quizzically, wondering why on earth he would know her mother's name. Once again, that was unusual. A positive unusual, however; it showed he probably cared about the workers in the palace.

"I do not know where you got your personality from, then. I cannot picture her snapping at someone like you just did," he smirked, his eyebrows raised. All the 'positive unusualness' faded out of her head at his cockiness. There goes the quintessential prince, she thought to herself, making her eyes roll subconsciously. Of course, the other noticed the gesture but didn't take offense; he actually found it amusing. "Well, I guess you can get your water before I do."

"Why, thank you for that wild guess, Faylinn," he bowed teasingly, speaking as if he was pouring all his heart's gratitude out.

It was only a matter of doing it slower, which she would figure out as soon as he left. During the whole time in which he flawlessly got water, her back was facing him; she wanted to figure out how it worked without any help, so she stared at the other side with crossed arms, huffing at the amount of time it was taking him. "See you around, Faylinn Langdon," he sang, taking two medlars out of a fruit bowl on his way out.