Chapter VI: The Broken Blade

In the morning, I woke up to the knight and the queen talking quietly. After a moment, Meryl sliced her hand down the air and a long line followed behind it. After a moment that line expanded into some kind of doorway. On the other side was the castle. Specifically the hallway outside of the room I had been given to stay in last night, with the deep red carpet and the huge bed. "Come on, Johann. We know you're awake."

I stood slowly and looked at them. "I-I really shouldn't."

Carmella rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand and pulled me through. "We've been over this. You're stuck with us."

Meryl followed behind us and the doorway closed as soon as she passed through it. There was the same servant who had prepared my bath yesterday waiting impassively. When she saw the queen and the lady she smiled brightly at them. She kept the smile for me as well and I shifted uncomfortably. "Ah, Emilia. Good. I have a task for you."

"Yes, my queen?" She asked, keeping the smile. Meryl motioned her closer and the girl immediately acquiesced. She nodded, understanding. Her eyes widened at one of the statements and she blushed, but still her smile only widened. She glanced at me appraisingly. "You're sure that's what you want?"

Meryl just nodded absently. "Go, now."

The serving girl nodded. She had big pink eyes and long red hair that was braided in a tight, intricate bun, with soft, brown skin. She took me by the arm and pulled me down to the room that was apparently mine. After a moment, I managed to ask "What did she tell you to do with me?"

She looked up at me and smiled brightly, taking a step forward. It was only now that I noticed that she didn't have regular pupils. A part of her eye was just a darker pink than the soft color of her iris. "I'm to do what needs to be done with you."

"What does that mean?" I asked, irritation edging its way into my voice. She just smiled at me. She closed the door behind her and we were alone in my room.

"You need a bath." She walked to a connected room and started preparing the tub.

"Okay. Well, get the water and I can do that." She nodded and waved a hand. Water appeared in the tub. I gaped. "You're a witch!? Why are you a servant?"

"Servant? I'm a maid." She said that as though it explained everything. All three of them spoke like that, I realized. They just said things and expected them to be done. I glanced at the door. "Get undressed."

"Well, you need to leave. I can't bathe with you here." I said, my voice tight.

"Last time we left you alone," She began as she walked up to me and poked me in the chest, her other hand on her hip. For someone that was a head shorter than me, her glare was just as intimidating as Carmella's. "You ran from my queen and my lady. I'm not going anywhere. Besides.I'm told you need some healing."

"Y-you're a healer, too?" I stammered as she pulled up my shirt. I was so flabbergasted that I went with her and my shirt was gone. She tossed it on the ground and examined the stitches, tsking.

"Lady Carmella really should have let me deal with it. Stitches are such an inefficient means of taking care of wounds." She pulled down my pants in one quick motion. I jumped and tried to move back, tripping and falling. My head hit something hard and the world went dark. The first thing I saw when I woke up was the maid's face, hovering a few inches in front of me. I groaned and looked around.

"Good, you're awake." She said brightly, as I sat up. I was in the huge bed. It was comfortable and the bedding was soft and warm. I must've been here for a while, I thought, my brain fog not quite clear yet. There was a strange twinge in my side. It did not hurt. But it felt weird. I fingered the area. There was a fresh patch of skin there. No stitches and no wound. It tingled and felt like it might tear open if I did too much stretching. No pain at all? That's... terrifying. There was also no bloodstain. No blood anywhere. No sweat or dirt.

"What did you do?"

"What maids do. I cleaned up." She said, sitting on the bed and looking at me. I blinked for a moment before it clicked in my head. My eyes widened and I pulled the bedding more tightly over my bare chest and tried to hide behind it. She giggled.

"Y-you bathed me." I managed. Her smile was like that of a satisfied cat. Her eyes grazed down on me and then she met my eyes.

"I did as my queen commanded me to." She patted me on the knee, which I just now realized was bare. She could still see far too much of me. "Let's get you dressed, m'lord. Our queen demands your presence."

"Um, could you look away? Like turn your back?" I asked pretty meekly.

"No," she said with that same cat-ate-the-canary grin and ripped the sheet from my body and tossed some clothes she had on her other side into my lap. She watched me get dressed. I did it quickly, fully aware that my face was red. I could feel it. Then I confirmed it in the biggest mirror that I had ever seen. The redheaded maid came up behind me and pressed into me, adjusting my clothes. I stiffened. I could feel her chest against my back. She fussed over the coat some more and then pushed me down onto a stool and started brushing my hair out, running her hand through it. At first, I was as stiff as I could possibly be with my back perfectly straight and my eyes wide. But when she ran her hands over my scalp I deflated. Before I could realize what was happening, I was leaning against her chest and she was stroking my head still, her other arm around me.

I jolted up and she tightened her arm around me and kept me from leaving her chest entirely. "M'lord, calm down. Relax with me for a while."

"I'm not a lord," I muffled into her chest. "I'm just a blacksmith."

"You are a blacksmith. You are also my lord." She said, patting my head. "Besides, I like this. I'm comfortable like this."

About an hour later, I was standing behind and a bit to the left of Queen Meryl who was presiding over her court. When I got there, she acknowledged me with a smile and directed me where to stand. Emilia helped another servant, or perhaps he was a butler, serve drinks to the people in the court. She would meet my eye often and smile as well. There were several people lined up and sitting in the chairs on either side of the room. Some of them looked scared, some bored, and some incredibly irritated. The queen listened to the problems of people petitioning her for help. A lot of the problems seemed really basic. People would ask her to solve disputes between each other. It was usually something petty, like one accusing another of stealing from the other. She listened to both sides and would make a decision. People would have questions about how they should handle their business. There were pleas for aid. She would dispatch soldiers or knights to the area. The last petitioner was a blacksmith. I knew that when he walked up. There was the way he held his arms, the mild hunch he had in his back. The fact that he still had on his heavy blacksmith's apron. Some signs are more obvious than others.

"Good a-afternoon, my liege," he said from forty paces away. He had gotten down on one knee and bowed over it. She shifted slightly in her chair and motioned a hand for him to continue. "M-my queen, I've come to ask you for your help. Recently I-I've noticed a drop in the quality of the ore that we've been getting from the mines. The dwarves are claiming that it's the same as always. But they're trying to pass off mixed ores as pure."

I had not realized that I had taken a few steps forward and was now almost even with the throne. She looked up at me and raised an eyebrow, but there was a soft smile playing across her lips. I had opened my mouth and was going to ask something and then closed it and started to step back when she motioned me to her side. She straightened up and leaned towards me a bit. "How do you know this to be the case, sir blacksmith?"

"The name's G-Greene, my queen."

"Mister Greene, then. Do you have proof?"

"Y-yes, ma'am." He took out a sack and pulled out two ores that were roughly the size of his fist. I looked at her and motioned towards the man. She nodded and I walked forward and took the two pieces from his hand, examining them both.

"How much do they charge you for these?"

"Five silver per pound, my lord."

I shook my head and handed them back to her. "And you say that they said they were pure?"

"Yes, m'lord," The man said nervously. I frowned at the title but didn't correct him. I guess that's just how people are going to see me if I stay here. The thought made me a little queasy. A lord? And a murderer. Gods, who'd have thought?

I walked back to Queen Meryl and leaned over, whispering in her ear. "Dwarves would definitely know the difference between pure metal and what he has in his hands there. If I can tell, there's no way that they don't know."

She nodded and waved me back. I stood to the side and watched her. "I will send out a delegation to the dwarves and see why they are trying to pass impure metals as pure. In the meantime, I will buy that metal from you at twice its asking price. Go, talk to the man at the end of the hall, he'll take care of it."

The man nodded and turned on heel and walked as briskly as possible without it seeming rude. Meryl looked my way and gestured for me to come closer. "Thank you for being here today. I can't imagine it was terribly interesting for you."

"More so than you might think. I... Uh... Well, I never really knew what a queen did before."

"Oh, what did you think we did all day? Just sit around and count our money?" She watched me for a moment, then a mischievous smile spread across her face. "Oh gods! That's exactly what you thought we did!"

"No, I didn't!" I had tried to keep the lie off my face, but I had failed, obviously. "I just never thought about it, is all. Like, did you know what a blacksmith did all day?"

"Yeah. They have a big hammer and they pound the metal and stuff." She managed to say through giggles. The queen was giggling at me.

"There's a lot more to it than that!" I protested.

"I'm sure there is." She patted my arm and smiled indulgently,

A little bit later, I was wandering around the grounds, trying to get used to the size of everything. I had dinner with Queen Meryl, Lady Carmella and surprisingly Emilia. She sat at the table as though everything was completely normal. She sat next to me and even fed me a few times. Every time she did, she would look at the Queen or Carmella and they would all laugh uproariously. I did not understand what was funny about this and when I asked, none of them would tell me. They just laughed more. When dinner was over, the knight excused herself and disappeared.

A little later, I found Lady Carmella slashing away with a sword. After a few moments, she tossed it down in annoyance. She picked up another one and went through one of the basic practices that she had taught me and almost immediately tossed it to the ground. There were half a dozen swords, all different sizes and styles, laying on the ground.

"Damn it!" She roared and kicked at one of the swords, which flew a couple of feet and fell. She had lost her sword because I had tried to run away. She grabbed one of the tables, weighed down by dozens of swords and flipped, crying out, "How can there be a thousand fucking swords in this castle and not one of them are worth a damn!?"

I turned away and headed out immediately. As I was navigating, the maid Emilia fell in tow with me at some point. I started to leave the grounds and Emilia stepped in front of me, hands on her hips. "Where do you think you're going? You're not running away again, are you?"

I shook my head and stepped past her. She grabbed my shoulder. "You can't leave. I was told to watch you. I don't want to get in trouble." Given that she could just sit in on the dinner with the queen, I doubted how much trouble she'd get in.

"I'm not running away again. I need to do something. I'll be back soon, I promise." She looked at me doubtfully and frowned when I pulled my arm away from her. Then she nodded and fell into step with me again.

"Fine. Then I'm coming too. I'll bring you back if I have to."

"You don't have to do that. I won't be gone long."

"Then it won't matter that I'm coming." I thought about that for a moment and shrugged and picked up my pace. It did not take long to get through the town. Most of the people in the city were turning in for the night.

"So, you're a maid, but also a mage. How'd that happen?"

"I'm not a mage. I'm a healer. A cleric."

"Oh? What god do you worship?" I asked, just trying to distract her a bit.

"Thrista." She said, sheepishly. It was the only time that I'd seen her hesitate about anything. She had stripped me with less concern than she said that name. I frowned, thinking. I didn't recognize the name.

"I've never heard of them before," I revealed. She shrugged.

"Not many around here have. She's... It's complicated."

"Oh." I got the sense that she didn't really want to talk about this. So, I changed the subject. "So why are you a maid? With your powers, you could go out and heal people and do a bunch of good in the world."

"Who is to say I don't do good as a maid? I healed you." Her face screwed up, thoughtfully. My shoulder twitched noncommittally and she got a little bit closer. "Healing you was important. But Queen Meryl found me when she was still Princess Meryl. My parents had died and she took me in. I became a playmate of hers. She keeps me on as a maid. I help her with things she can't ask of other people."

"Like babysitting me." I put in, annoyance crawling through my tone.

"Like babysitting you." She responded, wrapping an arm around mine and pulling me closer. For someone so short, she sure was forceful. I tried to ignore the fact that she was pressing my arm into her chest. We reached the outer gates of the city and she stopped and forced me to do so with her. "Whoa. You never said we were leaving the city."

"I never said we were leaving anywhere. I'll be back. Should only take half an hour or so." She looked doubtfully and I added, "Just stay here. I'll be back in a little while."

She shook her head and started off again. "I have to make sure you come back. You're important to Lady Carmella and Queen Meryl. And to me."

I stared at her for a moment. I was confused about that last statement. She looked at me for a moment and blushed. The redness took over her entire face. "Come on. Let's just go."

I took her in for a little longer but continued on as quickly as I could. It took us some time to get to the campsite. The bodies had been cleaned up by someone, but there were still signs of a fight here. Blood and burnt grass. I looked around the fight scene, wondering if whoever had cleaned up had taken everything.

"What are you looking for?"

"This is where I camped when I tried to run away."

"I figured that. Why are we here?"

I picked up a hilt with a broken sword and examined it. It was in rough shape and broke at a rusty part. This was the sword she had taken from one of the men attacking her. I walked around for a couple of steps when Emilia picked up another hilt and held it up in the fading light of dusk. "Oh! This is Lady Carmella's! It really is a shame that it is broken."

Surely enough, she held half a blade with an ornate hilt. It was a good hilt, as far as I understood them, designed to be both attractive to the eye and would not easily slip from one's grip. I looked around the area before I found the other half of the blade. I carefully picked it up and then walked over to Emilia. "Could I have that, please?"

She studied me for some time before handing it over. "We came out here for a broken sword?"

"Yeah," I responded absently. "Kind of."

"Why?"

"Because I am the reason that it's broken."

"Why do you care? Lady Carmella and Queen Meryl are the reason you aren't home right now. What does it matter if her sword is broken?"

"They're not doing it maliciously." I stared straight ahead, avoiding her eyes. I started walking and she followed me, handing over the broken hilt as I continued, "At least I don't think they are. They are meddling in my life, but they aren't bad people. And it's only right to make up for something that happened because you didn't handle a situation correctly."

I stopped off in front of the bookstore, after we got back into the city proper. It was open a little later than most of the other businesses. The shopkeeper, an elderly, thin man grinned at me. "Oh, your back. And with a different girl this time."

"Yeah. Sorry about earlier," I mumbled. He grinned brightly at me.

"Boy, that was the funniest thing I'd seen all week. Just that lady knight picking you up and putting you up on your horse like a toddler. Is that why you're bringing her around? Hoping to turn the tables?"

"Oh, he could lift me on top of the horse," Emilia responded, brightly. "If he gets on his knees and asks first."

The old man laughed heartily. "My boy, I think you're in trouble."

"I know I'm in trouble," I muttered, looking through the books. There were too many to choose from and I wanted to get back to the castle. "I'll be back another time to get a better look. Have a good night."

"I'd tell you the same, but I think you'd have to ask your lady for permission," the old man said with a grin. Emilia grinned up at me.

"Are you going to ask?"

"Shut up," I muttered, feeling my face heat up.

"Don't tell Carmella about this." I whispered to Emilia, gesturing to the broken sword. She linked arms with me again and leaned into me. When I glanced at her, she was beaming at me. I frowned. "What?"

"You're cute."

"What?"

"Shh." She said seriously.