Dinner Guest
Vesslan stabbed a piece of beef, wrenched it off the tines with his teeth and chewed angrily. He glared at the empty chairs at the long dining table. He was eating dinner alone and he was furious about it.
Other than the servants who brought in his food and served it, there was no one else here.
His son? Mysteriously absent. And it was mysterious, because it wasn’t like Darcassan had friends.
Maybe he was looking for more rifts to travel through.
In Vesslan’s estimation it might be better if Darcassan never made his way back at this point.
His daughter? Gone, too! And she was normally annoying underfoot, trying to offer him useless platitudes or weak smiles that reminded him irritatingly of her mother.
And his brother? The Sun King in name at least?
He’d never even set foot in the formal dining room since he’d arrived!
This first week of peace since the end of the war with the Leviathan should have been studded with parties attended by the luminaries of the Aravae Empire.
While Aquilan would have smiled, looked pretty and charmed people, Vesslan would have been slicing through the political waters, making the real deals that had the empire thriving, growing and solidifying even more the Fairlynn name. But no!
Aquilan had been a no show for the most part.
Either hiding in his room, hanging out in a dwarven tavern or who knew where he was that night!
He practically fled from every important meeting and endured it all when he was there.
While Vesslan did not need his brother to do anything–let alone run the Empire–his absence was becoming embarrassing.
Hence, he was eating alone. He couldn’t show again that his whole family had decided to just abandon their duties and him.
Was he the only one that understood the dignity of their House? Their House was small, but powerful, stretching back to the days of Sun King Ailduin, putting more Sun Kings and Queens on the throne than any other House. But Vesslan intended for the throne to never leave Fairlynn hands.
His first attempt to secure such power had not gone as planned.
But, after his initial shock, rage and pain, he realized that it had worked out better than planned.
Because being the power behind the throne gave him much more latitude to act.
Especially when the power on the throne was as malleable as his younger brother.
Well, Aquilan had been malleable, but his irresponsibility was becoming almost truculent!
Ever since he had become best friends with that suspiciously blooded, Lord Rhalyf Neres.
Vesslan had actually attempted to nail down Rhalyf’s heritage, but his long distance information gathering had resulted in strangely fluid and vague answers.
So fluid and so vague as to be no answers at all really.
He’d sent some of his spies physically there to visit House Neres, but that, too, had resulted in frustratingly little information.
Yes, Lord Rhalyf Neres was a member of their family.
No, his parents had died long ago in a far off land and no one remembered them well. Yes, he was skilled with magic.
And that last part was where he felt Rhalyf had made a mistake.
No one as powerful as him with magic would have been so forgettable.
He would have been a high member of a House.
He would have had lands. His family pedigree would have been flaunted.
But whenever his name was mentioned, his family spoke of him in fond, but distant terms with no seeming desire to claim or disclaim him. And that was not normal.
What was also not normal were how his spies seemed to accept what they had found about Rhalyf.
They expressed frustration and abject sympathy that they could not get him more to support his suspicions that Rhalyf was not who he seemed.
But they also seemed intent on convincing him to give up his search.
He half suspected that they were bribed and working against him!
Or spelled to believe what they were saying.
Now that would be something that Rhalyf would be quite capable of.
Despite his best efforts, he had been unable to find any weave affecting them.
But that wasn’t unexpected either and it certainly didn’t mean that Rhalyf hadn’t spelled them.
Again, Rhalyf was too good to be caught out.
Who is he? And what is he encouraging Aquilan to do?
Vesslan’s knife scraped across the plate, making a screech. He’d been stuffing the food into his mouth, not tasting it, and he was done. One of the female servants–one that Aquilan liked–immediately was by his side with the plate of roast beef.
“Would you like another few slices, Emissary?” she asked softly.
He was tempted to tell her to just put the whole damned platter in front of him as there was no one else to eat it, but he gave a sharp nod. “Yes, Selena.”
She froze for half a second.
“What?!” he snapped too harshly for her reaction, but he was annoyed.
And if one couldn’t yell at servants, who could one yell at?
But still, he should be careful as this was Aquilan’s special servant.
He should get close to her. He forced himself to give her a smile.
“Forgive me, what is it? Is something wrong?”
“Oh, I… it’s just… not that I mind… not that it matters, but–”
“But what?” Vesslan repeated, still edged, but attempting to sweeten it.
“My name is Cellica, Emissary. Not Selena.” She delicately laid three slices of beef down in a fan.
Another servant took the platter from her and gave her a gravy boat where she expertly drizzled the dark au jus over the beef.
Just enough. The right amount. The amount he liked.
“But if you’d like to call me Selena, of course, that’s fine.
But I know… I know you like to be accurate. ”
He did. He sipped his wine. “Quite right. I am… glad you said something, Cellica. I will remember that.”
She gave him a flash of a smile. She truly didn’t seem offended that he’d gotten her name wrong.
That was good. She understood her place.
He doubted his brother appreciated this aspect of her as he was always effusive with his thanks when she did the most minimal things for him.
Really, Aquilan didn’t have a sense of the highness of his office!
Theirs was the blood of Sun King Ailduin!
But despite Aquilan’s interest in their far off ancestor, he didn’t appreciate the awe that should be theirs.
The gravy boat was removed from Cellica’s delicate hands and the red wine decanter replaced. Though he had already had more wine than was his norm, he decided to indulge. His bad mood deserved some soothing and there was no one here to notice anyways.
“Cellica,” he called to her as she turned to go back to her spot by the wall.
She paused and lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, Emissary? Is there something else you need?”
It was always a delicate dance to win over even a servant. They must be made to know their place, but feel special. He had to start slow.
“We’ve never gotten a chance to really talk,” he said.
Of course, they had not. He had not seen her as important enough to do so until Aquilan favored her.
Cellica momentarily froze again, but then smiled and nodded. “You are so busy and important, Emissary. I wouldn’t expect you to have such time.”
Appropriate response!
He smiled magnanimously. “Indeed, but I do want to know everyone who is close to my family, especially my beloved younger brother.”
Her face immediately was wreathed with smiles at the mention of Aquilan. Really, his brother was like a living sunbeam!
“King Aquilan is wonderful,” she said with evident truth.
“Yes, yes, he is. A man of the people,” he nodded and smiled as if that was a good thing. “How are you… you enjoying Tyrael and Earth?”
She was new to the staff. She had not been brought over from one of the Lieran Plane’s palaces, but was new.
The old, loyal staff was more than willing to come, but with the war on and the uncivilized, polluted nature of Earth, Vesslan determined that they should remain behind.
Vesslan had gained quite a bit of loyalty from that move.
But now that Earth was being retaken–and the benefits of this plane were becoming more evident–it was turning into a sought after post.
“Oh, Tyrael is stunning! As is the Eryas Palace,” she added almost as an afterthought as if maybe she didn’t think that. “You’ve done an incredible job with the design and planning, Emissary.”
“Yes, indeed, it was quite a bit of work.” He smiled genuinely.
Tyrael had been a labor of love and the Eryas Palace was designed to be the greatest of all that had come before. Aquilan didn’t seem to appreciate it either. But he hadn’t built these things for his brother. He’d built them for himself and for the ages!
“And you find your duties here agreeable? You aren’t being overworked in any way, are you?” He pretended to be concerned about this last part. In truth, he didn’t think the servants worked enough! But they were naturally lazy so one had to act as if one was concerned about their work-life balance.
She shook her head almost a little too quickly. “Oh, no, the duties are not at all too onerous! People are so kind and thoughtful about balancing our duties and giving us time for ourselves, which truly allows us to do our duties better.”
He blinked slowly. “Well… that sounds… good? I am all for doing our duties more effectively, but, of course, I am very glad you are given time for yourself. So important to take care of oneself.”
She smiled brightly. “I hope you allow yourself some of that, too, Emissary. You are so tireless about your duties.”