Touching the cloth on the door’s knob, she swiftly opened it before putting her arms inside as though it was nothing. Stopping in the middle of the doorway, he watched as the steaming loaf of bread was carried in her hands before she put it on the table, near the basket full of fresh fruit.
“Please, take a seat while I prepare the eggs,” she proposed, pointing to the chairs around the table.
Complying, he watched in silence as Raeyine took the cast iron and put it on the already fired up stove beside the oven.
Moments later, a hiss could be heard coming out of the pan as a spoonful of butter went inside while the maid went to the other side of the kitchen, searching through the larder filled with shelves full of ingredients.
In no time, she could be seen walking back to the hot stove while holding up a handful of large eggs against her uniform.
Without muttering a word, she put the four eggs she brought over on the cooler side of the stove, cracking them one by one into the pan.
Looking at and hearing the sizzling of the abnormally large eggs, Lutiel kept to himself in peace, letting the sun visiting beyond the windows on their left slowly brush his face.
Moving her arm constantly, stirring with the wooden spoon, the maid used her free hand to salt and pepper the eggs. At the same time, as steam began amply moving up the ceiling from the kettle, she grabbed the handle barehanded, promptly putting it on the side before taking off the eggs as well.
“Are you thirsty? Would you like some tea?”
Under his soft nod, she walked close to the windows, from where she opened the cupboards and prepared the necessary porcelain, two plates and tea cups along with a teapot.
Placing them upon the table, she filled the plates with the scrambled eggs before filling out the pot with dried up leaves and scalding water. Covering it, she then garnered her attention around the golden brown, tall loaf that was trying to escape from the side, bringing a serrated knife to cut it.
Crackling, the butt of the loaf exposed its puffy and airy insides as it fell to the table, steam coming out immediately.
Cutting up two slices for each of them, she quickly went back to the stove, for the butter dish she left, as well as two table knives and forks.
“Here you go. Pesne,” she said while giving him his pair of cutlery before taking some of the butter and spreading it on her piece of bread.
However, before Lutiel or Raeyine could begin their meal, he kept staring at her.
“What does that mean?” He asked, making her stop the incoming slice of warm bread near her lips and look at him.
“Oh, that? Don’t mind it, it doesn''t spell anything important,” she said, dipping some of the bread inside the eggs before eating.
Glancing at her one last time before taking the fork, he also proceeded to start his meal, hesitantly bringing the vivid eggs towards his lips.
Yet, as he forced the bite, he stopped chewing for a second, quickly looking at the maid in front of him. Shooting him a smile as she finished eating the piece of bread, the girl quickly opened her mouth, not to take another bite.
“What? Is it better than the spiders and bugs back in the caves?” She asked, her gentle giggle slowly scanting out into silence.
Nodding while stuffing his mouth with both the eggs and the bread, she raised an eyebrow as she saw him practically swallowing it whole.
Before she knew it, Raeyine was already standing up to help him as he started coughing up slightly from the speed at which he was eating.
“Here, drink slowly,” she told him after pouring the tea into the cup near his plate.
She saw as he drank the tea without hesitation, gradually clearing the cup’s content. As he finished, the coughing eased up, only for him to already go back to the plate. However, before any of the metal could touch the eggs, his arms had been enclosed by the maid’s tight grip.
“Slow down, it’s not going anywhere. I know you haven’t eaten for a while, but you will only harm yourself,” she said, lessening the grip as the fork touched the porcelain.
“Sorry. I just couldn’t remember when was the last time I had a decent meal,” Lutiel said with somewhat of a wrinkled forehead, making the girl smile while sitting down.
“Let’s chat while we eat. Maybe that will help. It’s also a good time to tell you about your duties, which start today since you healed up somewhat,” she said, her eyes traversing towards the middle of his face. “Your nose looks fine already, all of the swelling and redness has gone away, at least.”
“Ah, but don’t touch it yet. Just let it be,” she added briskly, seeing as his hand already started moving there.
Nodding his head while getting the scrambled eggs on his bread with a fork, Lutiel put it in his mouth while staring closely at her.
“Has lady Zyponia already told you about the main stuff?”The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“The assistant?”
“Yes, you don’t need any information about that since she will explain. The second job, however, is to go out into the town and get things done there,” she said, nibbling on the eggs with her bread.
“Yes?”
“The lady will also tell you what needs to be done in her stead and you’re bound to do it. Also, you’re responsible for restocking the kitchen. As for what needs to be bought, I will tell you before you go today, but you have to ask the cook a night before the next time,” Raeyine explained while he continued eating.
…
Lutiel leaned on the seats of the carriage, listening as the wheels turned on the dirt. Turning his head, he watched the landscape pass by calmly.
Waving him goodbyes and greetings at the same time as he went ahead, the grass changed the direction all of a sudden. High above yet under the veil of the gray clouds, the birds flew by, a shade away from mingling with them.
Breaking the line of horizon, the mountains his gaze followed stood still, unmoving. The wheels turned a couple of times before his eyes went back inside, his left arm searching through the left pocket of his trousers.
Taking out the folded piece of yellowish paper, Lutiel’s eyes scoured through the contents, which filled the entirety of the palm sized page.
Following the words written down in the human language, he rubbed the paper with his fingers.
‘Black paper from the green-haired vendor in the building with a hanging sign that depicts a frog.’ Skimming the paper, he raised his head, looking at the ceiling of the carriage.
‘I could’ve been treated much worse. They would have given up their limbs for this place.’ As his head tinkered inwardly, he rummaged through his right pocket around the jacket, swiftly taking out a reflective coin.
Tossing the silvery coin Zyponia had gifted him around in his hand, holding it up with his thumb and two fingers, he stopped when flipping it to the obverse. Mirroring in his eyes, the image of two weapons crossing themselves appeared.
A sword and a twisted staff were depicted onto the metal, just under the stain that mellowed out the reflection.
‘U…ma…fy dhoh pyray nu.’ Although there were some letters stamped under the weapons, he could make little sense of them, putting the coin back inside his pocket once the carriage started trembling for a brief moment before calming down.
With the carriage stopping, he went closer to the windows, looking out only to witness the city gates. On the side, a certain, armored guard stood, with a tall spear standing up on his side.
“Kozs li dho reisu dlar vider?” Unmoving, the guard spoke. With a helmet that made little way for the voice to come out, he didn’t repeat himself.
“Geas la chod’yr kiz pokuc reca dlar Panyi Zyponia.”
“Tis tacpunt. Geas tomi ris,” he said, chains rattling at his words while the horse neighed. Soon, Lutiel saw the helmet of the guard, the two horizontal slits right at him. Observing him beyond the window, the knight soon returned to his position, asking once again, to the carriage behind them. “Dho reisu dlar vider?”
While they went through the gates, soon joining the rest of the sparse carriages plummeting around the dirt streets, Lutiel watched out of the window.
Although it disappeared little by little, he could still witness a large portion of it. Walking along, as well as on the sides of the large frame of a building under construction, the humans carried long, wooden beams while the ones on top of the frame either beat in the nails or pulled the ropes with a basin full of building materials.
One of the three that pulled waned, visibly starting to hinder the movements of others. Finally, coming to a halt, instead of pulling, he along with others, was pulled instead, their bodies quickly falling to the ground.
No longer bringing themselves back up, they stayed in the mud, only for a certain man to come to them at the rowdy commotion, clearly angry. With a chain in his right hand that connected itself to a spiky ball at the end, he began swinging it at the inert humans.
Unfortunately or fortunately, Lutiel’s vision of the subject was forced to break apart, the building next to their carriage in the way of his eyes. Blinking as he saw the people staring right at him, ones that didn’t wear fetters, shackles, nor collars, he went back to looking through the paper in his left hand, only to witness its crumbled-up state.
Right in the middle, his thumb went through, ripping it apart. Sighing before smoothing it out, he once again went through its contents while taking glances in between at the city and its residents.
‘It should be around here from what she wrote.’ Taking one last look at the page, he soon heard a clear voice through the cacophony of noises.
“I will wait for you here. Take however long you need,” said the old man, not turning around to face him even once as they stopped near the side of the road, where scarce carriages stood still and horses were roped to metallic poles protruding from the cobble sidewalk.
Opening the doors from the inside without letting out a word, Lutiel simply left, soon walking along the street, next to a multitude of varied buildings. Countless demons flowed out or went inside, surrounding the place.
Unlike the street he observed just a few moments ago, there were no chains to be witnessed nor heard around him. Demons dressed both in formal and casual clothes went about their ways, covered from the neck down to the feet with layers of warm clothes.
However, despite each being focused on their tasks, all took a glance at the human that moved through the dirty pavement.
Looking at all the faces that were directed at him, specifically at his neck, he went forward nonetheless, his eyes kept ahead at the big sign hanging from the side of the building.
Sadly, as he went through the crowd, suddenly, his body opposed himself, from the back of his right arm. Turning behind, he stared at the claws grasping his shoulders.
His eyes traveling all the way to the stranger’s head, in the very middle of his forehead, he witnessed a black horn that curved itself towards the skies while cutting through the brim that sat on his hairs.
“This is no place for a human slave to walk through,” said the man, heads turning as silence spread around them. Then, mutterings filled the space, as well as a loud turmoil because of the halted movement.
“Intimau? Kozs li e intimau bie’yr nuen?”
“Jun li inpiraj’no!”
Shouts and questions followed him all around while the dark arm held him still. Clenching his teeth, Lutiel moved his free hand toward his pocket.
“Do you wish to die? Do not dare to move or I won’t hesitate to rip your arm off,” he barked, glaring at the man with his fully black eyes.
“I don’t. I just wan-”
As he started talking, his sentence cut off in the middle. The world beside him spun suddenly, quickly. Looking at the legs and shoes of the demons all around, he hugged the ground beneath him.
“I told you not to move, didn’t I?” with an increasingly angrier tone, the voice quickly reached his ears, along with a jarring sight.