“Hey, Luke, how are you doing?” I asked the coachmen of the carriage I was slapping against to wake him up. It was still early in the morning though, so I wasn’t that worried he died on an overdose …
“Luke?” I asked and climbed onto the carriage, only to snip against his shoulder. Faster than I could react, there was a dagger against my throat, making me remember that he was deaf. Smiling brightly, I pinched the blade between two of my fingers and pushed it away from me.
“Hey, could you bring me to ‘The red Baron’?” I asked and he nodded shortly afterwards. Happily, I jumped down from the seat, nearly strained my ankle in the process and limped into the carriage.
“Uhh …” I said, holding my foot as the carriage started to rumble. After some time though, the pain started to lessen a bit and allowed me to look out of the window. The endless snowy fields littered the landscape, but in the far distance, I could see smoke going up from the city. And that was certainly not the normal smoke in the winter, but looked more like a few house blocks were burning at the same time.
Tom surely knew how to kindle the flames of rebellion rather well. With interest, I looked back into the carriage and found a few letters under the bench. I opened the first one immediately and began to read.
‘Hey, slu-‘ Needless to say, I ripped the letter to shreds immediately. But the second letter was much more interesting.
‘We can start whenever you are back.’ Was written there, which conjured a bright smile on my lips. Otherwise, there was a little bit of advertisement for some sex toys … probably from the whore and an invitation for a coming of age party from a person who had the exact same handwriting as the whore … grinning a bit, I shredded every letter there was while my right eye twitched uncontrollably.
For the rest of the journey, I looked out of the window and noticed that everyone was getting checked. As Luke steered us towards the express lane for nobles, I had to change clothing really quick and step out of the carriage to introduce myself. Naturally, the saint wasn’t checked for dangerous world-ending artefacts … which enabled me to change back into my black clothing quickly afterwards.
Picking up the strangely heavy black box, I carefully stepped out of the carriage and walked into the brothel, my hood dragged down deeply to hide my identity. I immediately went upstairs and opened every door until I found Tom sitting behind a desk doing some paperwork.
“Salut!” I said and heaved the black box onto the desk. “Here is the key.” I said and placed it right above it. “Don’t open it, or otherwise every mage in the capital will come for you. And it is best if you don’t give it to any human … so hide it where we discussed.”
“Will do.” He said and picked up the heavy box easily, only to put it down behind him again. Afterwards, he placed the key inside a drawer and closed it again … so much for safety features, but whatever. What was the worst case that could happen with a world-destroying artefact anyway?
“Tonight around seven?” I asked as I was already on my way out of the room.
“As you wish.” He said.
“Great, see ya!” I answered and ran downstairs.
“Whore.” I said as I walked past her.
“Slut.” She answered nearly immediately and nonchalantly strode past me. Shrugging, I went onwards and climbed back into the carriage still waiting outside after giving Luke my next destination.
Quite some time later, I slowly stepped out of the carriage while a butler held my hand and then ran up towards Mary. She greeted me with open arms and a smile on her face.
“Lucy!” She exclaimed as I hugged her tightly.
“Mum.” I said and noticed how her hands wandered up and down my back.
“How about we go shopping today?” She asked, making me open my eyes wide. But I knew she would like that, and I would need to visit a few seamstresses anyway.
“We can go shopping tomorrow all you want. You can even pick out a dress for me if you want.” I said and smiled brightly towards her.
“One? I will pick out as many as I wish!” She said while leading me into the mansion. Truly, this place immediately felt much more alive with her around, no matter what others may claim.
“Okay, okay. I will try on whatever you want. But for now, I just want to relax. That journey really tired me out mentally. So how about we enjoy some tea in the garden?” I asked while thinking what I wanted to do.
“Whatever you wish, honey.” Yeah. That was my wish for the day. Just relax with Mary, maybe play a few board games later, make some good meals for both of us and talk completely carefree. Just to be a seemingly normal family with her, before the gods destroyed everything I worked for.
A few minutes later, we were doing exactly that. A chessboard was in front of us, a cup of tea on both sides, and a friendly conversation between us.
“Have you seen Countess Birnensaft´s dress at the king's party?”
“The green one? That looked so horrible. I felt my eyes bleeding whenever I looked at her.”
“I heard similar things about it. It was ranked the worst dress at that party, while yours …”
“Eh?” That shitty dress? I didn´t even know where it was at that moment but I did hope it was somewhere in the trash can.
“…ranked second. Only the second queen held the audience more in awe. But when I read the article, most of it was a description of your dress though, even though you apparently messed up the dance with the king.” The second queen wore something blue which glittered strangely. She looked more like sparkling water than anything else … and I hated water.
“Really? I think I skipped that part of the newspaper then.” I admitted.
“Where is it?” Mary asked with a strange eagerness.
“Uhm … I don’t know?” I muttered, rather unwilling to wear that thing again. Wearing my usual white clothes was bad, but that? Far, far … far … far worse.
“I want to see it!” She exclaimed, making me nearly cough the tea up again I was just drinking.
That day … we did find that wretched piece of clothing again. I would never forget the horror as I needed to wear it a second time unnecessarily, but the happiness in her eyes would also stick with me forever.
