Prelude of Rot pt.2
Morrigan was kneeling before her lord once again, having announced she was here to clean. It was a new day and she had to clean the throne room as was her job. She was his personal servant after all and that meant attending to him and where he stays.
With no response coming from her lord as usual, Morrigan says to him “I will get to work now my lord.” Standing, she moved over to a wooden bucket kept hidden in the corner of the room behind his throne. With it in her hand she left the old king alone to fetch clean water. Once the bucket was full, she returned and began to clean the cold stone floors.
These old black stone floors always took her several days to clean, more so due to her own nature rather than the floors themselves. She took her time to clean out every crack, groove and dip in the old stone floors, until the stone was a near reflection of herself. She wanted this stone floor to shine in the light of the room and to reflect the likeness of any person who walked across this floor back to them.
A mirror reflection on stone was difficult enough but these old floors made it much worse, for these floors bore the scars of many millennia. Untold thousands have moved across these floors in uniformed ceremonies, to visitors to see the king, those forcibly brought forth to the king and the many, many servants and their families who have roamed these halls over the vast time this castle has been standing. All of this had caused the stone used in the floor to warp, erode and crack apart over the vast time they have existed.
It had seen so much that the colored and patterned tiles that used to cover massive portions of the floor had all been destroyed, leaving only traces of their existence upon the stone itself. All that was left of these tiles was the outline of many, a few broken pieces still in place and a handful of intact ones in less traveled places of the floor.
As she carefully and thoroughly worked, Morrigan kept looking up to her lord hoping to find him watching her. This habit of hers was one that she knew caused her some hurt and that she should stop but she just could not bring herself to do that. All she wanted was for him to return to her, to them.
Morrigan was on her hands and knees cleaning the floor between the throne and the servants’ entrance when she was startled by the large doors opening from across the room. Looking over her shoulder Morrigan finds a young man in heavy armor pushing the doors open before walking through. The young man seemed just as surprised as Morrigan was. He had not thought he would find people here, working, given the state of the city he walked through. And even though she was surprised to see this strange young man, Morrigan could easily guess what his purpose here was.
Bewildered, this young warrior asks “Is this the creature? This can’t be the infamous tyrant from the legends.” Morrigan stands and drops the rag into the bucket as she looks over to the warrior saying, “This is the lord of this land, yes.” Looking over at an unbothered Lucien, the warrior asks Morrigan “Why are you here?”
“My family has loyally served my lord here for over two millennia.” Morrigan was answering with a tone that was full of annoyance for what she saw as an idiotic question.
“Though I fear I will be the last after my father passes.” Melancholy seemed to pour from her as she finished speaking.
Shocked by her answer the warrior asks, “Why stay then?” Angered, Morrigan steps in-between the warrior and her lord as she answers “Because it is my duty and I will gladly die here, serving my lord until the end. This land is as much mine as it is his.”
Unable to believe what he was hearing the warrior draws his sword as he tells Morrigan “Then I shall free you from your servitude by ending this miserable creature.”
With that the warrior walks forward pushing Morrigan out of the way but fails to notice her quickly drawing a hidden dagger from beneath her dress. As he raises his sword high above his head ready to strike, Morrigan lunges for his unprotected neck. But in that brief moment before her dagger pierced the back of his neck something makes the both of them freeze in place. With just a hair’s width separating life from death both the warrior and Morrigan stare into the dark eyes of Lucien, who looks up at the young warrior from his throne.
“Go home boy. I would rather not see a promising youth killed here because he thought he could prove something.”
These words from Lucien send Morrigan to her knees with her dagger slipping from her grip and falling to the floor. The sound of the dagger bouncing off the stone floor rang out loudly in the silence of the room as Morrigan lowers her head. There with her face hidden from everyone she smiles happily.
Her mind flashes back to nearly two decades prior when she heard him speak for the first time. She was just a small child who had returned with her parents to the home of her father. Wanting to introduce his family to his lord, Morrigan’s father brought them before the old king. There she heared a voice, that remains even to this day the most handsome she had ever heard, say “Your daughter is quite adorable Allistar. You both did very well.” With his head lowered, her father thanked his lord. The little Morrigan was smiling broadly upon hearing his amazing voice and let go of her father’s hand to run up to her lord with her arms held up towards him.
Reaching down Lucien picks up the little girl and sets her in his armored lap. Allistar was surprised and told his lord “My lord you don’t have to indulge her,” before scolding his young daughter “Morrigan get down and don’t bother our lord like that.” Through a quiet chuckle and a nearly hidden grin Lucien tells his servant “It is fine Allistar. Consider it a reward for your family’s loyalty.” Once more Allistar lowers his head politely and thanks his lord as Morrigan happily sat there in her lord’s lap.
The little Morrigan was as happy as one could be when she turned her head to look up at her lord. His smile was gentle as he looked down at the little girl sitting in his lap. As she looks back up at him, little Morrigan surprises everyone in the room when she tells Lucien “I love you.”
Taken aback by the little girl Lucien hesitates to respond for a moment before audibly chuckling and telling her “Well then when you are grown you will be my assistant and personal servant. So, grow well and learn all you can from your parents so you will serve me better than they do.” The little girl did not understand what was meant or said and only continued to smile broadly as she turned to give him the biggest hug she could. Once more he is taken aback and hesitates as his face softens before very gently returning the hug.
When Allistar was finally able to separate his daughter from their lord, the family quicky returned to their home in the ruined city. There her mother began working on their dinner, which they would enjoy as a family; a tradition that Lucien had greatly encouraged in the past and one that his servants kept alive despite the centuries of ruin.
In the present the young warrior is shocked to have heard the creature’s voice and is unable to notice the kneeling Morrigan next to him or anything else around him. Frozen there in place this young man looks deeply into those dark eyes staring back at him from beneath unkempt long black hair.
“There is no prey for you here. Leave and go make your name elsewhere.”
Those words seem to pierce the young warrior deeper than any weapon could as his knees begin to give out beneath him. A pressure and fear unknown to him filled his very soul as he stared into those cold dark eyes.
Clanging sounds of metal impacting stone ring out into the room after the young warrior’s sword falls from his hands. His knees visibly shake beneath him as Morrigan looks up to her lord excitedly. Her lord, King Lucien Salvatal III, looked alert and aware for the first time since she was a child. And this was most exciting for a servant like her.
“Escort this young man out Morrigan. He is free to traverse my lands as he desires but he should make his name elsewhere. Skilled youth are important to the future of Rylocke.”
Lucien had noticed the stare of his servant and so ordered her as he did. He knew she would follow it without question and that she did.
Morrigan lowered her head quietly accepting the task as she slipped her dagger back into its hiding place. Before standing she reaches over to the young the warrior’s sword and picks it up. She then slips it back into its scabbard before forcing him back to his feet.
Once he is back on his feet Morrigan leads the terrified young man back through the doors and into the castle grounds. When she finds his horse, she helps him up and then sends him on his way. The young man atop his horse slowly rode back into the dark wastes, his mind temporarily destroyed but slowly recovering.
She did not see what her lord saw in the young warrior and would have simply disposed of him if it weren’t for her lord’s orders. So, she watched carefully until the young warrior was safely away from the walls of Syrndaras before returning to her lord’s throne room.
Upon her return to the throne room Morrigan found herself disappointed as her lord had returned to his normal state of nothingness. She felt great pain as she looked upon him sitting there upon his throne as if he was nothing more than a propped-up corpse. Before leaving she kneels before him once more and informs him of the warrior’s departure and that she was finished cleaning for the day.
Despite her disappointment, Morrigan happily skipped through the halls towards the kitchen. She had gotten to see something else from her lord besides just rotting away. And since she was the one to have heard him speak it fell to her to inform her fellow servants of this momentous event. In all likelihood they would be just as excited as she was.
When Morrigan enters the kitchen she was excited to see everyone already gathered there and upon seeing her skipping in the old man Carol asks “What has you so happy today Morrigan?” With a smile and a pirouette she answers “Our lord spoke today.” And just like that with that one single sentence Morrigan had the undivided attention of her fellow servants.
Everyone quickly gathered around her as Carol asked “What did he say child?” Not keeping them in suspense Morrigan begins telling them the story “He had a visitor today. Some strange young man who, I guess, came across some old story book and decided to make his name pursuing the evil creature within.”
Carol in his surprise says out loud without thinking “The last time we had a visitor like this I was a child.” Everyone was astonished because that was well over sixty years ago now. And this only made everyone more interested in what had happened as they heard no sounds of fighting.
Continuing with her story Morrigan says to the others “The warrior tried attacking our lord saying something about freeing me from my servitude to this monster.” Interrupting her, August teases her a little by saying “I’m surprised he lived after that knowing you.” A dagger suddenly appears in her hand as she begins twirling it between her fingers while saying back to August “I was about to kill him when our lord looked up at us and spoke. So I stopped and fell to my knees.” August could only grin and suppress a chuckle while the old men seemed relieved that she didn’t have to kill anyone yet.
Annoyed by what was going on Talia snaps “Enough with the story Morrigan. Tell us what our lord said.” The feeling of shock spread through the room as her fellow servants were surprised to find her so annoyed by this. But it only proved that the seemingly least loyal servant in Talia was just as loyal as the others if not second only to Morrigan. With a smile Morrigan tells them all their lord’s words without ever stopping her dagger twirling.
Voicing everyone’s thoughts Carol speaks up saying “He must have seen something in him then. Our lord is not known for letting would be assassins live otherwise.” Nobody could believe their lord let someone who tried to kill him leave as Morrigan nods her head in agreement while further adding “I think so as well, though the warrior froze in fear and dropped his sword.”
The as she set the dagger down upon the table Morrigan added the final words their lord said, “Our lord said the warrior could traverse Arlorne as he wished but that there was no prey here for him to make his name off of.” These words only caused her fellow servants to have more questions than answers over what had happened this day without them even knowing. But it also made them wish they had been there to see and hear all of this.
Despite the reason as to why, everyone was overjoyed to have their lord speak again after such a long time. But jealousy was quick to grow once Morrigan told them that their lord had issued her personal orders. They all wished it was them to have been given the order and to have heard him speak.
At the height of their excitement Morrigan brought it all crashing down as she said, “When I returned to the throne room our lord was back to his usual self.” Hearing this kills the excitement as all of their gazes fall to the table in between them.
Not wanting to let it all go by the wayside Carol speaks up saying “We need to celebrate this momentous occasion anyways. So, everyone needs to get ready.” With a smirk having grown on her face, Talia speaks next “I could use a good drink.” A smiling Nikolas quickly adds “I’ll break out some of the good wine then.” An impressed August whistles joining in the excitement and leaving only one out.
Morrigan was sitting at the table fiddling with her dagger as the excitement began to regrow around her. She was still down about it all but so was everyone else. They were just hiding it by celebrating something that should have been considered minor and insignificant.
Eventually though even she was swept up in the mood as they forcefully dragged her along to their celebration in the throne room. After all, their lord should be included in their festivities as well.
