Chapter XII: A Bit of Interrogation

 

The next few days were an absolute hell. Lady Halflance had been entirely serious; the next morning I was jerked out of bed at dawn and dragged off to the gymnasium. I had scarcely a minute to change before being dragged back out to face Miss Rook, who was already waiting for me. From there it was exertion until I nearly passed out, running and jumping and lifting and shoving until my clothes stuck to my skin and I could barely stand. After an all-too-short lunch break, it was on to swordplay itself, Rook going after me relentlessly with her blunt saber. I knew enough of the basic footwork by that point that I managed to deflect a couple of her strikes, but I still took a beating. By the end of the day, I was a complete mess of tired muscles and awkward joints, and Miss Rook’s lectures on the twelve basic maneuvers were continuously echoing in my memory.

Things started getting better on the second day, as I began to adjust. I was given enough time for breakfast, time which I used to fill up on as many delicious, delicious calories as I could. I felt remarkably good for what I had gone through the day before, no sore muscles or anything like that. I was even getting to the point where I was running alongside Rook during the morning exercises, instead of having to chase after her. I was still getting tired, of course, but it was almost like I was getting used to the exhaustion. That didn’t mean I sucked any less at swordplay, of course. I was less of a mess at the end of the second day, and the third was almost even better. Don’t get me wrong, it was still awful and draining, but I needed to keep facing the challenge head-on if I was going to survive this duel.

I was just finishing up breakfast on the fourth day of my training when the shouting started. For a few seconds, I tried ignoring it. It was probably just Aisha getting mad at one of the lower-ranking servants. But it kept going; whoever was shouting had a lot of anger to get out. I put down my utensils and crept to my feet. I wasn’t totally sure if I wanted to intervene in this. On the one hand, given the volume of the shouting, someone was probably about to burst a gasket and needed a clinical-strength chill pill. On the other hand, she would probably end up redirecting some of that anger onto me for interrupting her. Then I remembered what I was going to have to do after breakfast anyway, and went for it.

It’s not exactly hard to find the shouting person in a mansion. To my surprise and no small amount of horror, it was Lady Halflance. I had never heard her raising her voice before.

“You put my life in danger! More than once! I could have died because of you!” she screamed. The target of her rage was a youngish servant girl, who looked to be a couple of years younger than I was, with waxy skin and platinum hair kept in a tight bun.

“I didn’t know, she just asked for the information, nothing more. How was I to know that…”

“Perhaps by using your brain for once in your life? People don’t pay money for other people’s business for no reason.” Lady Halflance straightened her posture and crossed her arms over her chest. The rage was still visible, simmering and occasionally showing through her face.

“Um, what’s going on here?” I had been standing around for a couple of seconds, trying to speak but too scared to actually open my mouth until then. As it was, the words came out less as a spoken sentence and more as a squeak.

Lady Halflance turned to me. “Well, if it isn’t you; how perfect,” she said, pronouncing “you” as if it were profanity. “This servant was selling household secrets to Nemesis. She’s the reason Nemesis knew that I would be at the ball, so that she could send her damned Archopolid.”

“Oh, I see. What’s your name?” I said to the servant.

“Petra,” said Petra.

“Okay, Petra, could you tell me what happened?”

“I just told you what happened,” said Lady Halflance, crossing her arms. “Or do you need to hear it again in order to remember?”

I flicked a hateful look in Halflance’s direction. “I just want to hear what she has to say. Or is listening to other people too much for you?”

“Well, there was this woman who came to my home, asked if I knew of any parties the Lady would be going to. She was Jaleran, I think, kind of stout, short hair, a few scars. She was offering a lot of money too, fifty dinars. That could feed my whole family for a month, I had to take the offer. I didn’t think that she’d want to do the Lady any harm, why would I?” Petra was quiet as she spoke, and looked like she was about to fold in on herself at any moment.

“You see, Halflance, there’s no need for all the shouting. She just needed the money. Maybe if you paid your employees more, this wouldn’t be a problem.”

Lady Halflance smirked. “Oh, and now you’re qualified to tell me how to run my own household? I have enemies, a whole menagerie of them, and many are more subtle and effective than Nemesis is. I cannot abide servants with loose lips.”

“How was she supposed to know? It’s not like party dates are a big secret, are they? You’re being unreasonable.”

“Says the woman who accused someone she had never even met of being a murderous madwoman.” Lady Halflance turned to Petra. “Pack your things, you will not set foot in my manor again.”

“Are you really going to sentence her to starve because of an innocent mistake? If someone asked me what parties I was going to, I wouldn’t even need to get paid. It’s basic human decency, and you’re punishing her for it. Did she have orders not to reveal anything? Knowing you, you probably didn’t tell her anything.” My face started heating up from rage. Something about Lady Halflance was starting to strike a nerve.

“This is an innocent mistake that could have gotten me killed.” Lady Halflance took a step forwards, thrusting her finger at my face. “Don’t pretend to more intelligence than me, Emma Farrier! Now leave me be, please.”

I sighed. Staring up at her for a few seconds. When I spoke, I did it quietly, hopefully so that nobody else could hear but Halflance. “No wonder Parker left, if this is how you treated her. But hey, at least you chose to adopt me.”

Lady Halflance’s eyes went wide. After a second where it seemed like she was ready to shoot me, she stepped back. “Petra, before you go, speak to Aisha. You may collect the next month’s wages ahead of time before you go. I apologize for how I treated you.”

“Thank you, Lady Halflance,” said Petra. The two of us then watched as she walked off. I wasn’t sure, but I think I caught her mouthing thanks at me as well. Once she was well out of sight, Lady Halflance motioned for me to follow. 

She led me to one of the several sitting rooms tucked away in various corners of the manor. I tried to get a look at her face to guess at her emotional state, but she was facing away from me.

Once inside the sitting room, Lady Halflance shut the door, found a chair, and crashed down into it. There was a glass bottle of amber liquor on a table nearby, which Halflance proceeded to fill a glass with. She then downed the glass in a single gulp.

“So who told you that Parker was a bastard?” said Lady Halflance.

“Joyce, I mean Lady Alonhall. At the exposition,” I replied.

Lady Halflance paused. Then, a moment later, a deep weary sigh escaped her lungs. “Did you suck her cock too, while you were at it?”

“What? No, I didn’t get involved with her at all, at least not that way.”

“Impressive,” said Lady Halflance.

I frowned at her as hard as I could. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that given all that I know of your personality, it must have been an act of incredible willpower to not tear her pants off the moment you saw her.” Then her demeanor changed, putting on a sarcastic grin. “You know that there’s no soundproofing in the walls, don’t you? You keep waking up half the servants every night, all by yourself. That’s quite the achievement!”

She was completely correct, on both counts. To be fair, you would probably do it too, in my situation. I need to relieve stress somehow. I didn’t really know how to react to Lady Halflance, in either case. I went silent, stepping back. Her eyes were locked on me, scanning me for any weakness. I ended up leaning against the wall, thinking. Lady Halflance was trying to get a rise out of me, I knew that. If I was smart, I would have just walked out, maybe after apologizing. But at the same time, she confused me, begging for me to probe just a bit more.

“Why did you have her?”

“Because I was young and stupid. I would assume that that would be something you could relate to,” Lady Halflance said. So still pissed off then. Good to know.

“And here I thought you were so clever and knowledgeable.” I rolled my eyes.

“That was learned, not inborn. Perhaps if you listened to me, you could do the same,” said Lady Halflance, slumping over onto one arm of the chair, resting her chin in her hand. She almost looked bored.

I stood up, getting ready to leave. “Why are you such a bitch?”

“I don’t know. If I’m such a bitch, why don’t you leave this place?  Then I would have nobody to be a bitch towards.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go!” I said, throwing up my hands. “I have no memories, no money, and no friends, so it’s either here or the streets.”

“Technically it’s either here or prison, but carry on.”

“Maybe if you were less of a complete terror, I wouldn’t be seriously considering choosing the street,” I said. I began to walk out of the room. At least training until I threw up with Lady Rook wouldn’t involve as much nagging.

“I’m sorry,” said Lady Halflance. I stopped in my tracks. Then I turned back around.

“Alright, sure, let’s go with that…” I said. All of the arguing had left me drained, almost. “I just have one last question before I go. Why did you kill that girl?”

“What girl?”

“The Mechanodrone, the one you killed in cold blood. She was pinned down, and I had already told you how to disable them.”

“She was an enemy, she was armed, and I had an opportunity to get rid of her. Several of my guards had already been killed, and I could risk no more lives,” said Lady Halflance, sipping from the liquor glass.

“You know that you could have saved her. She had already been taken by Nemesis, mutilated, made to fight against her will. And instead of helping her, you killed her.”

Lady Halflance finally stood up. “You don’t know that. Had I tried to turn her over, she may have been able to overpower me.”

She had a point. Maybe, I wasn’t sure. I rubbed at my forehead, trying and failing to relax the tension that the whole argument had built up in me. “It just doesn’t seem right. You do something horrible, ending a life… on paranoia and uncertainty. It makes no sense.”

“Nulla Captivis,” said Lady Halflance.

“What?”

“It means ‘take no prisoners’. It’s the Halflance family motto, has been for at least two centuries,” said Lady Halflance, shrugging. “It means that we do not hold back, especially not when our homes or our loved ones are on the line. I have lived by that motto my entire life and it has always served me well.”

I glanced back at the door. I was going to be late for lessons with Rook. “I guess I’m not going to change your mind much, am I?”

“I think not.”

With that I walked out of the room, hurrying to get to the field. Immediately after passing through the door, I ran into a wall of muscle. Apparently Miss Rook had come to find me first. 

“Oh hey, I was just trying to find you. I was having a discussion with Lady Halflance, it went a bit long. I’m sorry.”

“Indeed,” said Miss Rook, looking over my shoulder, “I heard the screaming. Follow me then.” We started heading towards the field. I noticed Miss Rook starting to look almost relaxed in her posture, which was normally in a state of absolute military strictness.

“What was your ‘discussion’ about?” she asked.

“A lot of things, actually. Some of it was about Parker, and how she was… born,” I said, haltingly. I wasn’t sure if Rook was already aware of it, and it felt a bit private.

Rook nodded. “Yes, that will do it. A sore point for the Lady, as you might imagine. You learn fairly quickly not to bring it up, if you live here long enough. As far as I understand the only one allowed to ask about it is Sir Margaret.”

“And you don’t care that the family you work for is in so much disgrace?” I said, narrowly avoiding running into one of the servants.

“I’m unsure what to think. However, I owe Sir Margaret a favor, and so will do whatever she and her family ask of me.”

I nodded back. I was just about done with asking questions for the day, and was much more in the mood for being told what to do and berated when I messed up. Which is essentially what happened for the rest of the day, as Rook made sure that my footwork was absolutely on point.

The next two days passed similarly, more exercise to test the limits of my strength and endurance, and more relentless tutelage from Rook. I wasn’t sure if I was getting any better, though she assured me that I was, somehow. The last day was a bit calmer, as Rook didn’t want me to hurt myself or get worn out the day before the all-important duel. That’s not to say that it was easy, of course. Going through the same drills dozens of times over, with Rook exactingly explaining every single error you make, was draining on the soul, if not the flesh. 

That night, I stayed up late, thoughts racing and nerves running high. I was going to die tomorrow. I wasn’t going to die tomorrow, I had an expert soldier training me so that I wouldn’t. I was far too inept to have learned anything, and I was going to get my head cut off. You get the idea. The thoughts ran back and forth, a shroud of exhaustion steadily creeping over me, until my head was full of indecipherable miasma. Only then did I fall asleep.

Author's Note: Sorry for the late upload! University has been hitting me hard, and I completely forgot to upload the chapter yesterday, when I was scheduled to do so. After this I'll be returning to the usual upload schedule on Thursdays. If you liked this chapter, why not leave a comment, give a rating on the book, maybe even write a review. It's things like that that give me my motivation to keep writing. Thank you all so much for enjoying my novel so far!