Enmity of Atlas

To call this place a house was a grand understatement. The Boulreguard manor was much more akin to a mansion than a house, what with its brilliant red carpets, hard oak floor, and lavish decorations lining the walls all throughout. It would almost be an insult, even, to call this a house, to both its residents and the poorer denizens of Aria, struggling for their every meal.

Mave picked her way across the opulent interior of the Boulreguard manor, leading Trenton back to his private chambers on the top floor. As they moved, Hurried servants, hands full with tasks, gave slight nods to them–a sign of respect. Even though the ball didn't start for another six hours, everyone was pressed to finish preparations early so as to leave time to tidy up any loose corners. It was a big deal hosting formal events for noblemen, especially when the turnout was as big as this one. Every noble family in Aria was attending, including the duke of the city, so it was imperative that they were not left with even the slightest impression of imperfection.

When they made it to Trenton's room, Mave sat him at his desk, taking care not to let his back into the chair, and spent the next 20 minutes carefully tending to any remaining injuries she didn’t see to immediately fix. While waiting for the healing magic to run its course, Trenton set the stone hunk down on his desk, a temporary measure to get it out of his hands. He had a particular place for it, of course, but as long as it was in plain view, then it would be fine. He could always put it away when he had more time. When Mave finished, she backed into the doorway, bowing low.

“Your father wanted to see you when you finished with training. If you intend to leave, be certain to see him first, and of course, be back by six. Oh, and do remember to bathe before the event as well. You’re absolutely filthy,” Mave said in her most polite tone.

“I will, thank you!” Trenton called out after her as she shut the door.

Trenton looked around the room, making sure there was nothing that needed attending to before he left. It was a bit messy, the servants too busy to clean, but that was hardly an issue. Trenton noticed the shades on his window were still thrown open, likely from when he woke up this morning, a slight breeze filtering in past them carrying the lovely sound of bird calls and footsteps from citizens making their way along the thoroughfare across the way. It seemed like it was quite busy today. In fact, It kind of made one wonder who they were to wallow in such sorrow while everyone else was so happy. A damn fool, that was who.

Just then, a small little girl with bright eyes burst into the room, scampering over to Trenton and climbing over him to stand on top of his desk.

“TRENTON TRENTON TRENTON TRENTON TRENTON TRENTON GUESS WHAT!” the girl yelled, rocking violently back and forth as she talked, nearly falling off of the desk.

“Careful, Lilly! If you get hurt, you know Mave’ll talk your ear off,” for a moment, Lilly slowed and contemplated this, before deciding to disregard this comment entirely, and resume rocking.

“GUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS guess guess guess guess guess guess YOU HAVE TO GUEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS,” Lilly continued, blaring out like a siren.

Leaning over discreetly, Trenton noticed Lilly was holding something tightly in her right hand. There were not many things small enough to fit so cleanly in her hand, so it couldn’t be too hard to guess, but with how fast she was swinging her arms, it was impossible to catch a glance of what it was.

“Hmmmmmm, I don’t know…is it a new toy?”Trenton guessed. Lilly was pretty hyperactive usually, but even more so when she'd been given something to play with, making this a solid go to guess.

Whipping her arm around in front of her, Lilly opened her clenched hand, revealing her secret to Trenton. In her palm sat a little worm, wriggling about as if trying to find something. Poor fella was probably trying to find the ground, hopelessly confused, now, having been swung wildly around by a little giant girl. Most people would probably be revolted having a worm suddenly thrust in their face, but Trenton didn’t even flinch. Lilly did this every now and then, finding bugs in the garden to show him, so he was not extremely surprised. That, and he happend to be of quite a durable mind.

Lilly giggled, “I found him outside in the garden because I was there with mom and she said ‘entertain yourself’ so I did! I found a friend!” Lilly started twirling around, once again whipping the worm around in her hand. This must have been the worst day of its life. Slowly, Lilly came to a stop, Trenton silently watching with a hint of mirth, until she was gazing out the window at something. With the hand not currently holding a worm, Lilly pointed out the window, a look of plain confusion blatantly plastered across her face. “Who's that?”

Looking down out the window, Trenton saw an extravagant carriage pull up past the gate, passing alongside the neatly shaved lawn and trimmed hedges, parking a little ways away from the front door. Weird, no one was supposed to arrive for some hours yet.

Lilly held her arms out to Trenton, indicating a desire to be released from her self-inflicted prison atop his desk. Oddly enough, she had no qualms scrambling over Trenton to get onto his desk. But, the numerous safety lessons she'd been drilled with throughout her life stopped her from scrabbling over Trenton to get off the desk. What an odd creature she was.

Trenton lightly lifted her off the desk and onto the floor, whereupon she immediately scrabbled out the door as if being chased by a specter. Trenton thought to call out after her, but realized it was not worth the effort, deciding instead to go see to this mysterious guest himself.

Hauling himself out of his desk chair, Trenton noticed most of the pain was gone, replaced instead with a low dull throbbing. It was enough to be annoying, but being slightly sore was certainly better than bleeding all over the place. Just as he started to head out the door, he remembered how torn up his back was, and figured his shirt must be in tatters. Turning around, he saw that there was practically nothing left of the back of the shirt. In fact, it was only staying in one piece by a couple of brave hems, the last bastion on the front lines. He quickly changed his shirt, before starting down to the foyer to greet whoever this mysterious guest is. But just as he was leaving his quarters, he gets stopped by a servant.

“Afternoon, sir,” Jade said with a slight nod of her head. Unlike the rest of the servants, she walked slowly, seeming more to amble about, rather than rush towards some unseeable destination, her eyebrows slightly scrunched and her head tilted at an odd angle.

“Hey, Jade! Have you a moment, actually?” Trenton responded, realizing Jade might know something of this odd occurrence. He stopped to face her in the hallway, a friendly smile on his face. Behind her, sunlight filtered in through the mostly drawn window shades, casting deep shadows over her face.

She looked around for a moment. “Of course, sir. Have you a need?”

“Two things on my mind actually. I just saw a carriage pull up, looked fancy. were we expecting any guests right now?”

She tilted her head the other direction, looking up at the sky as if to think for a moment. “I don’t recall anyone on the ledger for this hour, no,” she said plainly. It was somewhat irksome that all the servants were so formal all the time, but that kind of quality was why Theodore hired most of them in the first place.

“Alright, I’ll go check it out then, thanks!” Trenton responded, smiling wide to show his appreciation, before moving to leave.

“You had something else on your mind, didn’t you, sir?” She called out after him, her face even more pensive than before.

“Huh? Oh, yeah! Could you draw a bath for me in my quarters? Thanks!” She gave a stiff bow as he turned to leave. Something was definitely off with her. Over his shoulder Trenton regarded her for a moment. She was a beautiful young woman with green, crystalline eyes. She was also one of their youngest servants, having only been hired a couple months ago. Despite this, she was probably one of the most trusted workers they had. Maybe it was her incessant professionalism. Maybe it was her efficiency and speed. Maybe it was her ability to somehow never be in the way, but always get her work done. So, seeing her so obviously distressed bothered Trenton a lot. “Something wrong, Jade?”

She stood straight looking Trenton dead in the eyes, “...I’d heard Walibeld is leaving for some days. Is Pallia aware of this?” It was difficult to pick out the exact tone of her voice, but that it was not her usual clean, practiced monotone was worrying. Although, why Pallia, one of the Boulreguards’ other servants, was of any importance was far beyond Trenton.

“Uhhhh…maybe? Probably? I’m not really sure…is that a problem?”

“...no, of course not. I’ll go draw your bath,” without another word, she scurried off down the hallway towards the direction Trenton came from. For a moment, Trenton contemplated checking up on her, but then he remembered the visitor, as well as the small child currently running rampant about the house to get to said visitor.

Rushing down the hallway, he managed to make it to the foyer just in time to see…the door already hanging wide open–Lilly nowhere in sight. Of course she made it first. Trenton stopped to have an entire conversation on the way. Hell, he was practically meandering, while she was sprinting like her life depended on it. Trenton stepped through the door into the broad daylight.