Rid of Me
It unsettled her to be wrong. It wasn't just being corrected in front of her people, although that, too, was horrific in its own separate way. No, she was off-piste and had made the wrong read, and she was usually never wrong about people. First Ceyla, and now this. It was the wine, the nerves, the tyrant at her dinner table who intended to make her life miserable. Any or all of these things could have thrown her off. Cassilde didn't allow the horror to reach her face, instead nodding and looking down at the enormous butcher's hand now laid atop her own.
"As you say. I'll not presume to read you," she ceded quietly with a polite smile.
That hand could have crushed her own like it was nothing; the thought did not escape her, and yet her own hand stilled beneath it, not bracing like the rest of her. She ought to have wanted it gone, to tense, to move away, but she didn't.
Then Mercy laughed. A terrible sound, and one that Cassilde felt was distinctly aimed at herself. There was something about it that was far worse than any shouted threat could have been. She had already decided, and as she reached, as she always did, for a sense of what the tyrant intended, she found nothing again. She was walking blindly into a horrible fate, with nothing she could do about it but arrange her face properly, in soft amusement, as if this were entertainment.
She would find out soon enough.
"Come, then. I'll take you somewhere quieter," she said, reclaiming a sliver of ground by opting to lead the way. As she stood, her head turned, her posture still high and elegant, and she addressed her people with the appropriate grace. "Stay, all of you. Finish your dinner. We have a private matter to settle." Cassilde imagined she would not stand before them in this room the same way again. If there was any of her that still stood after.
Leading Mercy out of the banquet hall, they went through a grand set of double doors beneath a marble archway, the clamour of voices pretending this was normal at their back, and then gone once the doors had closed.
She exhaled. Not performed, but escaped. Then continued down the corridor, illuminated by the soft light of glow lamps, with only the sound of trickling water from outside the windows punctuating their short walk. Cassilde opted for a small antechamber, usually reserved for formal exits from the antechamber, a place where one could go when they needed to step aside from a gathering.
More importantly, she did not want to take Mercy to a place filled with memories or personal effects, as she had little desire to be destroyed in a room made of who she was.
The antechamber was small and beautiful, cast in the same pale marble as everywhere else in the Alcyne. A couple of low chairs in pale wood and a settee in muted silver upholstery were arranged around a small marble table. In the corner was a console, with a decanter and glasses at the ready. The floor was pale stone, complemented by a rug to soften and provide warmth. A widow looked out onto the lake and the dusk beyond, the Tyranny still reflected in the sky.
And of course, a mirror.
"It's quieter in here," she remarked softly, with nothing on her face. It almost felt like relief, even alone with the weight of Mercy. She did not need to pretend now, and she could get straight to the point. "Whatever it is. Is it quick?"
Mercy
"As you say. I'll not presume to read you," she ceded quietly with a polite smile.
That hand could have crushed her own like it was nothing; the thought did not escape her, and yet her own hand stilled beneath it, not bracing like the rest of her. She ought to have wanted it gone, to tense, to move away, but she didn't.
Then Mercy laughed. A terrible sound, and one that Cassilde felt was distinctly aimed at herself. There was something about it that was far worse than any shouted threat could have been. She had already decided, and as she reached, as she always did, for a sense of what the tyrant intended, she found nothing again. She was walking blindly into a horrible fate, with nothing she could do about it but arrange her face properly, in soft amusement, as if this were entertainment.
She would find out soon enough.
"Come, then. I'll take you somewhere quieter," she said, reclaiming a sliver of ground by opting to lead the way. As she stood, her head turned, her posture still high and elegant, and she addressed her people with the appropriate grace. "Stay, all of you. Finish your dinner. We have a private matter to settle." Cassilde imagined she would not stand before them in this room the same way again. If there was any of her that still stood after.
Leading Mercy out of the banquet hall, they went through a grand set of double doors beneath a marble archway, the clamour of voices pretending this was normal at their back, and then gone once the doors had closed.
She exhaled. Not performed, but escaped. Then continued down the corridor, illuminated by the soft light of glow lamps, with only the sound of trickling water from outside the windows punctuating their short walk. Cassilde opted for a small antechamber, usually reserved for formal exits from the antechamber, a place where one could go when they needed to step aside from a gathering.
More importantly, she did not want to take Mercy to a place filled with memories or personal effects, as she had little desire to be destroyed in a room made of who she was.
The antechamber was small and beautiful, cast in the same pale marble as everywhere else in the Alcyne. A couple of low chairs in pale wood and a settee in muted silver upholstery were arranged around a small marble table. In the corner was a console, with a decanter and glasses at the ready. The floor was pale stone, complemented by a rug to soften and provide warmth. A widow looked out onto the lake and the dusk beyond, the Tyranny still reflected in the sky.
And of course, a mirror.
"It's quieter in here," she remarked softly, with nothing on her face. It almost felt like relief, even alone with the weight of Mercy. She did not need to pretend now, and she could get straight to the point. "Whatever it is. Is it quick?"
Mercy