So,do we have a deal?
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Back when I was a child... I can remember the old, old maid that had lived with us would tell me stories during the night. Various tales that had been passed on from her ancestors, from one generation to the next until she was the only one left to tell them.
She spoke of stories that were set off in far off lands, with exotic names decorated in foreign silks and plants, she spoke of her people, faced with ridicule, enslavement, often molded like clay into a mockery of themselves, like foolish gremlins. However, near the end of every story, she would speak of hope. Hope that had been resonating from the character's hearts, specs of courage that they would pick up from the cold ground, they would smile to each other bitter sweetly. And every story would end with a moral crafted only for me.
I adored hearing these tales as a child, once the sun began to fall down, I would wait by her bedroom door for her to come. Until one night,
She didn't come back.
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"Good Morning Your Graciousness" the announcer began, as she started to call off the same speech I've heard on a daily basis for ten years, as my ears were trained to tune her out almost instantly.
Blah blah, something about children, blah blah something about the prices of coal, wool, and wood during this time of year.
All things that I already knew would turn out fine in the end, or didn't even matter to my kingdom in the grand scheme of things.
Glancing aimlessly at the frosty window to my side, my mind began to wonder out of my head and floated around the air above me. Thoughts quickly came and went in my head; first about my bird, then about the breakfast menu, then the court and their own private agendas, the nobles, the counts, the scholar ready with ink and paper in the background, and lastly a voluptuous thought or two about the maid beside me, at least, not until my careless mind had suddenly been interrupted by the loud hollering of my title two, then three times.
"What?" I ask, almost shout, beginning to glare down at the woman before me "I said, you had a guest requesting to meet your acquaintance" they repeated them self in a softer tone, as I did not look one bit happy by the news.
A guest? This early in the morning?
"And who is this guest?" I question, growing more annoyed by this mystery person
"They claim to be a powerful mage from the eastern kingdoms, and seek to bestow upon you a gift" she explained as she began to get more nervous of my dull, tired expression.
I took a moment to swallow the putrid taste of tongue in my mouth before speaking again;
"Fine, bring them in" I ordered as I began to slouch farther into my chair. Once the announcer had left the room to fetch this guest, my eyes had wondered back to my court, whispering about the mystery mage, and what they could have brought with them. Fools they all were.
My eyes then landed on Tobejas, my trusted second hand, anyone could see that he looked to be just as amused as I was over the news this early in the morning. His violet eyes looked drained from last night's work, as his pale sunny hair was shrouding his face as a weak attempt to hide away his utter exhaustion. Looking down at him in mercy; through yawns, I had ordered him to go to the dining table a bit earlier, "not" so he could eat, but instead so he could ensure that Dimitri was placed and ready at the table.
Once he had vanished from my sight with a grateful look on his face, I was left again at my seat, feet beginning to sink into slumber as my eyes grew tempted to do the same. The court had once again grown quiet by my lack of body language, only a few hushed conversations could be heard as my eyelids started to gently sink down lower and lower in every moment of somber silence. Once the powerful sound of the door then struck my nerves to full alertness, someone was stood quietly beside the announcer.
Sitting back up in my chair, my eyes were drawn to the peculiar mage, seemingly shrouded in darkness from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. I felt hesitant to allow him any closer to my throne, yet a greetings to the strange guest had still stumbled out of my mouth as it was frozen shut after I locked eyes with the thing I somehow found in front of my court. They didn't respond to what I said, their eyes were cloudy, murky like the thick water of a half frozen swamp. Every joint in my body instantly grew cold, frozen and stiff as a board by his frigid stare, not a single word came out of the court, the guards, the staff, nor any other layer of the kingdom, as if they all had felt just as I did.
"Anna" he said, calling my name and breaking me from my unmoving state, only with that single word as if it was an ice pick, as if it was some sort of unholy spell. "Who are you?" I quickly asked "Who are you to waltz into my court room today, and not address me by my own title? To not be kneeling at my presence?" I ordered, provoked by his very nerve to do such a thing; dead or not, I wanted his neck on a rope already, as my nervous hands drew closer to the amber hilt of my sword fastened besides my waist.
"Me?" He spoke, already looming above my seat "Why... I'm the rightful owner of that chair you seem to be sitting on" he chuckled before taking a moment to think about the choice of his own words again. Looking back up at the insidious gleam in his eyes, my vision turned to my guards to take him, until my eyes had met with the horrific crime scenes of their bloodied, mute corpses.
My heart stopped, as my eyes frantically flew to the court, the staff, each once a warm, living body in the room was now on the floor, cursed to be forever pale and unmoving, as if the most silent, deathly plague had swooped down to collect their souls, only to run away in a single moment. "So," he began, breaking me of my long stare "How about you move out of that chair, unless of course.... you would care to end up like your loyal court, kneeling eternally before you and I" he smirked
"How..." My voice quietly muttered in awe at the powerful force before me, my hands frozen to my jade encrusted sheath "How does one do such a thing?What-... how would you even gain the nerve to do this? Hate can not even begin to describe the things you've just done, you.... you demon!" He had laughed at my ironic sense of empathy towards him.
