Chapter 2 – Circumstance

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

– Aurelius the ‘Philosopher King’, Imperator Augustus of the Inner Sea Imperium

 

Luna huffed with exertion as she descended with care to the servant’s entrance. The wooden door was half a floor beneath ground level, and the stone steps leading to it were still slippery with dew on this cold, autumn morning. The heeled shoes of her maid uniform never had much traction to begin with. Now, with her arms burdened by a wooden box, she couldn’t even see her own feet and had to rely purely on her familiarity with the steps.

The maid exhaled her relief as she landed both feet on the rough stone floor. Placing the heavy parcel in her hands on the now-elevated ground, she took a moment to rest before knocking twice on the door.

Only a handful of seconds passed before the thick, wooden door creaked open. The cook, a broad-shouldered man of modest height in his early thirties, emerged into view. Raimund had a pale, round face made more apparent by the loss of hair on his prematurely balding head. His emerald gaze filled with a kind, warm camaraderie as he stepped out, and his large, calloused hands picked up the boxful of cleaning supplies with ease.

“Thank you,” Luna huffed out, still winded by her journey back.

She couldn’t help but eye the parcel with a hint of envy. Raimund had picked up the box as though it weighed nothing. Yet for her meager strength, merely an half hour’s walk back from the village had left her arms exhausted and sore.

“Afraid you missed breakfast,” the cooked admitted in his thick, foreign accent as he led the way inside while Luna closed the door behind them.

“I knew that was Vitomir’s intention as soon as he gave me this task.” The maid sighed in resignation.

The Steward Vitomir controlled all aspects surrounding the household staff with an iron fist, and the food cooked for them was no exception. The quantity was never enough to fill everyone’s stomachs. Those who ate slow, ate little, while those who arrived late would be lucky to have more than scraps for their meal.

“Send the maid to haul because the footman has to polish silver, brilliant division of labor that was,” sarcasm dripped from Raimund’s tone as he laid the box on the kitchen’s island table. “Here, you can have a bowl of the chicken broth I’ve stewing for His Lordship’s lunch. I’m sure he won’t notice a bit missing.”

The cook took a large clay bowl and filled it to the brim. He was even kind enough to add a generous piece of chicken. It was the first time Luna had seen meat in her food this week, and a smile formed across her lips as she watched him carry the steaming hot soup to a corner table. There, she could eat without being seen by those outside the kitchen.

As Raimund lowered the bowl, the maid couldn’t help but gaze upon the tattoo behind his right hand. It was black and featured two links of chain crossed diagonally with the outline of a ladle. It marked Raimund as a skilled slave, one specialized in cooking. The permanent, magical tattoo was intentionally placed in a publicly visible location, openly reminding anyone who looked that its bearer was not a free man, but the property of another.

“Raimund, I’m really grateful for this… but aren’t you afraid your master might punish you if you help me?”

“What’s he gonna do?” Raimund replied with a defiant grin. “Cut my nonexistent wages? Take food away from me?” He snorted at the ridiculous notion, before raising his hand and openly displaying his mark. “Beat me? Activate this to shock me? The last time he did that, my hand was too injured to cook for three days, and he was the one who had to make up excuses why the only meal available was cold soup.”

The maid couldn’t help but smile back as she sat down. She began to eat as Raimund returned to his stove and started pumping fresh air in to nurture its flames.

The Imperium of the Inner Sea to the southwest was not only Polisia’s ally and largest trading partner, but also the number one exporter of slaves on the Hyperion continent — a supply fueled by their incessant wars of conquest. Luna knew that Raimund had been the victim of such a conflict, taken from his village off the North Sea Coast when he was just twelve. But he had learned some valuable skills along the way, including fluency in two new languages. And while slaves in Polisia might not have the legal protections those in the Imperium had, those who made themselves essential often found it possible to act with a degree of… autonomy, without fear of punishment.

The soup proved to be rather bland, a sign that the chicken carcass had yet to be stewed for long enough. Nevertheless, its greasy, heartwarming broth was a treat compared to the vegetable soups and oat porridges that lower servants usually ate.

“How many times has he deliberated forced you to skip a meal already? It feels like he does this at least once a week.” Raimund asked in an annoyed tone while Luna emptied the bowl in as large gulps as she could manage.

She saved the best for last this time: her rare piece of chicken.

“Something like that,” she replied before biting into the meat, and simple joy flooded her countenance as she savored its flavor.

Unfortunately, instances like this where Raimund could quietly offer her food were few and far between. Most of the time, she had to return straight to work after finishing whatever special assignment she had.

“Why don’t you ever complain to the Lordship about it?” The cook asked next. “Unlike most of the staff, who are held accountable by my Master and thus must obey his orders first, you answer directly to His Lordship.”

Maids were generally considered ‘lower servants’ and thus avoided direct contact with a manor’s nobles. However, there was nothing usual about Luna’s placement in the household.

“His Lordship wouldn’t bother to intervene in an affair as minor as this,” Luna answered, though not before she swallowed her food first. She at least maintained that much etiquette from her middle-class upbringing.

“True, our lordling probably wouldn’t care at all. He’d just see your complaints as a nuisance.”

That’s… not really fair, She thought.

No, Konstantin would care if Vitomir was purposefully trying to starve her. But unless it became a serious problem, she doubted he would break his ‘wastrel’ character to intervene. The potential cost was simply too high.

She didn’t want to undermine Konstantin by dropping kernels of the truth, but she didn’t want to lie either. So the maid merely shrugged it off, as she often did with everything else in life.

“Thanks again.” Luna washed her bowl before giving Raimund a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek in gratitude.

The middle-aged cook flushed scarlet in response. Clearly, despite years spent in Polisia, he had never grown used to this local custom.

“I’d better get back to my work,” She gave him a beaming smile before departing.

From the corner of her eyes, Luna saw the cook’s fingers feeling the spot where her lips touched him.

Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, she pondered in hindsight.

Raimund was a kind man. But there was no way she could reciprocate his unexpressed yet clear feelings. It wasn’t even a matter of sentimentality. The two of them might work in the same house, but in actuality they served two different masters. Furthermore, the conditions of their service simply made it impossible for them to have any future together.

 

—— * * * ——

 

“Mother wrote that they’ve started recruiting from my village,” Luna heard the junior maid, Alisa, speak of her letter from home. “The pay is decent, so my older brother has already signed up.”

The two housemaids were chatting as they often did while working, this time as they replaced the linen in one of the third floor guest rooms. It was a waste in Luna’s opinion, as the room hadn’t seen even a night of use since its last cleaning in Spring. Nevertheless the Steward had insisted on replacing it all with fresh bedsheets, as it was part of their Autumn cleaning.

“Is it too late to ask him to reconsider?” Luna frowned as she bundled the old bedcovers into a ball and threw it into a large wicker basket. “I hear that the war hasn’t gone well so far in the east.”

She still remembered Lord Aleksandr Tuchkov’s claims three days ago about Polisia’s chances of victory in the upcoming campaign.

“That’s not what the Count’s son said, at least according to Mother,” Alisa replied as she unfolded the new comforter and threw one side of it across the bed to Luna. “The young lord came to our village to recruit in person. Apparently he challenged our Master Hunter to a shooting contest: three arrows each, and he used it to down three sparrows in a row!”

It was clear from her starry-eyed gaze that the tales from home had left the junior maid in awe.

“I once thought all aristocrats were the same, silver spoon in one hand and pointed finger in the other. But there really are differences aren’t there?” Alisa continued. “Just compare him to our ‘lord’ — who probably doesn’t even know how to shoot.”

Luna tilted her head and returned a light shrug. Alisa was probably right though. She had never seen Konstantin practice the bow, and she was by far the closest of all the servants to him.

“But where did you hear that the war has been going poorly?” The mousy brunette asked next.

“Heard it from someone in the tavern when I went to Boh the other day,” Luna shrugged. Her trip to the city with Baron Konstantin was public knowledge after all, and they had indeed met the young Tuchkov ‘in a tavern’. “It makes sense though, doesn’t it? Why else would they start recruiting across the Principalities? The Eastern Khanates should have been able to take care of it.”

The junior maid paused for a moment. Her brows furrowed for a brief few seconds before giving up with a shrug.

“I don’t know anything about politics. However, the Count is sending his own son on the campaign. Surely that’s a sign of confidence?”

Depends on how much Count Nikola actually knows. Luna thought as she remembered one of quotes that she had been so fond of in her past life as Alexei:

‘In war, truth is the first casualty.’

She rather doubted that her information was wrong; not when Lord Aleksandr Tuchkov had come from the capital and his family had connections all over the Polisian military.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t push the topic further. If she insisted upon it, she would likely arouse Alisa’s curiosity towards the source of her information. That was neither something she, nor her liege Konstantin, could afford.

Sorry, Luna made a silent apology as she stared at her junior. She didn’t want the petite maid to suffer a potential family tragedy, but her loyalty was to His Lordship first. That meant she could only help Alisa’s brother through prayer now.

“Then is Count Nikola placing his heir in charge of Boh’s troops during the campaign?” The older maid soon shifted the topic as they covered the smoothed comforter with fresh bedcovers.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Alisa shrugged. “The Count might have been a hero during the last war. But rumor has it that he has since grown enough blubber to mate with a walrus. Ride a horse to battle? He’s more likely to crush the poor animal beneath him!”

The diminutive brunette laughed in her girlish voice, but Luna allowed herself only a sympathetic smile. Making fun of others for humor was… not exactly behavior that she approved of, not even if everyone else seemed to do it.

It was a matter of principle — and in this case, one instilled by her late Samaran mother.

“It’s hard to believe how a man like him gave birth to such a handsome princeling,” Alisa added. “Kind too, from what I’ve heard… is it true he grew up without a mother?”

“That’s what I’ve heard too, that his mother died from Eclampsia.”

“What’s that?” The younger maid puzzled.

“A rare medical condition during pregnancy, where high blood pressure can cause abnormalities that severely damage the brain, possibly even resulting in death.”

One look at Alisa’s unfocused gaze made it clear to Luna: the junior maid hadn’t understood even a third of that sentence.

“It means his mother died from complications during childbirth,” Luna sent back a reassuring smile.

“Can’t the healers use their magic to prevent it?” Alisa asked simply. “You rarely ever hear that a Lady died during childbirth.”

“I’m not a mage, so I can’t say for sure…” Luna gave a half shrug as the two girls leaned down to tuck the new bedsheets in. “But Mother once told me that Eclampsia has a tendency to sneak up on people if the signs aren’t recognized early. If nothing is done before the most obvious symptom –the seizures– hit, then it might already be too late, even with surgical spells.”

A nostalgic smile came to her lips as she remembered how her late mother would always complain: that modern healers, with their fancy magic, often relied too much on assessment spells and enchanted tools. They might pay lip service to careful observation and good old wisdom, but many of them failed to practice it.

Meanwhile, Alisa was staring at her with a half-impressed, half-puzzled look.

“Luna, what’s a girl like you doing in service anyway? I mean… you understand politics, medicine… you can even read and write–!”

“When will you two finish with that room?”

A deep, disapproving voice interrupted from just outside the door. As Luna turned about, she found herself meeting the piercing gaze of the steward Vitomir, whose potbellied form stood tall and imposing in the doorway.

“W-we’re…”

The petite Alisa paled as though she’d been caught slacking off, despite the fact they’ve been working the whole time they talked. Meanwhile Luna kept her composure without guilt as she pulled up the heavy basket of old linen off the floor.

“We just finished, Sir. We were making sure everything was in order before moving onto the next room.”

“Stop wasting time,” Vitomir looked unconvinced. “You have the entire third floor to clean up today.”

He stepped back into the hall to depart, before looking around and then asking again:

“And where’s Kalyna?”

Luna blinked. She hadn’t seen the senior maid — albeit older than her by only two years — for nearly an hour.

“I thought she was just down the hall?”

Stepping out from the door, she scanned down the third floor corridor. Several of the doors were left open, but there wasn’t a sign of movement in any of them.

Luna exchanged a glance with Alisa. However the junior maid merely gave a slight shake of her head before hurrying ahead to the next room.

Then, just as Alisa was about to enter, Luna caught sight of a black string tied to the door handle. It was a discrete marker from Konstantin, a signal to not be disturbed. Yet before Luna could call out to the petite brunette, the still-new maid turned the handle and pushed open the door.

A feminine squeak emerged from the room ahead, and for a brief second the junior maid seem to have been frozen in shock. A shade of scarlet burned across her face before she spun away in an almost shrill voice:

“I’m sorry, Your Lordship!”

Luna immediately connected the dots and understood why Kalyna had been missing. She also realized that it was now too late to prevent the damage as Vitomir strode forth to observe the spectacle for himself.

By the time she arrived at the doorway, Konstantin was already out of the bed with his pajama pants and an unbuttoned shirt on. The young baron’s state of undress revealed his broad-shouldered, firm chest, and Luna barely caught sight of the faint abdominal muscles before he covered them.

It wasn’t the first time she saw him under-dressed, however it still surprised her to see how fit Konstantin was despite his reputation for laziness and hedonism. A corner of her thoughts couldn’t help but wonder if he secretly did late night calisthenics in his room to train himself.

Meanwhile Kalyna, the twenty year old ‘senior’ maid, still sat in bed. Her long hair in their golden-brown waves were a mess, and her slim fingers clutched the bedcovers that covered her impressive bosom. Her bright-turquoise gaze shook with trepidation as the Steward’s glare bore down upon her. Clearly, she already knew that her career as a maid in this household was over.

To cross the boundary between master and servant was one of greatest sins of etiquette for those who worked in service. It didn’t help that Vitomir held a particular spot of venom in his heart for it, having had his heart broken in the past because of it.

Luna sighed as she reached up with one hand and pressed two fingers into her left temple.

Not again…

“V-vitomir,” a flustered, half-dressed Konstantin stuttered as he tried to defend his position. “I-I know what this looks like… b-but I like her and I’m serious…”

The Steward, however, was in no mood to listen. His face was even longer than it had been the last time this happened, and neither compared to the stories Luna heard of the first time. Ignoring the lord he served, Vitomir looked straight at the maid caught with her skirt off and declared in a voice cold enough to freeze air:

“I expect your resignation on my desk before nightfall.”

He then turned his heels to depart without a second of waiting, caring neither for the young lord’s bumbling demands nor the maid’s tearful cries.

 

—— * * * ——

 

“Kalyna is packing up her belongings right now.” Luna reported to Konstantin in the privacy of his office just after lunch.

The Master’s Office looked more like an underused personal library, with shelves lining the walls and a mahogany writing table that barely had anything on it. The neat rows of books included decades of accounting records left by previous Lord Apraksin, as well as several hundred collected volumes on geography, economics, military, and cultural studies.

It was a positive treasure trove of knowledge, yet the room was usually ignored by Konstantin in daytime. His public persona would have nothing to do with topics as unexciting — and dangerous to higher authority — as ‘learning’. The only reason they were in here now was because Alisa was still in the midst of cleaning the Master’s Bedroom.

“She’s leaving then,” Konstantin sighed as he leaned back into his cushioned chair.

His deep-emerald eyes lifted from the newly-polished table and met Luna’s gaze. She stood at attention before his desk, staring back with a neutral expression plastered across her face.

“Will Vitomir be writing her a reference, at least?”

“No.” The Samaran maid answered simply.

The young lord scowled.

“She’s been in faithful service here for five dedicated years. How is she going to explain to her next employer without even a reference?” His annoyance rose with the pitch of his voice. “No. I will not see her booted out with nothing to show for it!”

“Maybe you should have considered that before taking off your pants,” Luna replied plainly.

Konstantin glared back. “It’s not like I forced her into it,” He growled. “Our feelings were mutual.”

“Perhaps. But she’s an illiterate girl from the village and you’re a Lord. I’d say the responsibility falls on you to think through the possible consequences,” Luna added.

Konstantin shot her another glare of annoyance, which soon turned inwards with a frown. Still scowling, he stood up from his chair and began striding towards the door.

“I’m going to force Vitomir to keep her on. I’m the master of the house here. Is it so unreasonable for the me to insist on something like this!?”

No, it’s not unreasonable… Luna thought. Stewards usually had a degree of autonomy in how they managed the household staff, but the Lord always held the final say. Nevertheless…

“Would that necessarily help her though?” she commented, her words instantly striking a sore spot as Konstantin froze in his tracks. “Remember Yuliya? She lasted only two weeks after you insisted on keeping her. Our steward simply made her life here so unpleasant that she ended up quitting in tears.”

The young lord seemed to lose the wind from his sails in an instant. He returned to his desk and collapsed back into his cushy, velvet chair.

“And I can hardly force Vitomir to write her a good reference. He’ll just find some other way of sending barbs along,” Konstantin muttered to himself as his right hand squeezed into a fist atop the table.

Luna said nothing. She didn’t need to say anything. This wasn’t the first time Konstantin wished he could just dismiss his Steward. But he knew also knew that Vitomir was an agent of Count Nikola, one whom Konstantin had spent years beguiling with all the wrong assumptions about his behavior. If Konstantin removed Vitomir, the Count would surely send another minder, and there was no guarantee that the young lord would be as successful with the next.

Had you avoided casual intimacy, this might have been avoided altogether.

Nevertheless, Luna had faith that her master would make the right choice now. She simply stood back, impassive, and waited for him to finish arguing with himself.

But before that could happen, Konstantin scowled as he looked up and their gazes met again.

“Don’t judge me.”

Luna blinked. “I haven’t said anything.”

“I know that look,” Konstantin cast a knowing glance at her. “This isn’t like the first time, when I seduced Kasandra purely to shatter the trust between Vitomir and his head maid…”

The head maid that he fancied, Luna added in her mind. The infamous drama had happened before her arrival, but she had heard more than enough stories over the past four years to piece the facts together. Had it not been for that incident, Vitomir’s attitude probably wouldn’t be as belligerent as he was now.

“–Nor was it like the second time, when that girl Yuliya had been a flirt and I grew carried away,” Konstantin added. “Yes, I admit that I took more advantage than I should have. However, this time it’s neither a scheme nor a whim! I truly wanted Kalyna this time!”

At least you didn’t try to claim you love her, Luna remained unimpressed.

“I agree that she is quite beautiful,” the maid noted before her voice took on a tone of feigned admiration. “Those rich, golden-brown waves that cascade down her shoulders, that ample bosom which she always held proudly, not to mention the way her rear swayed with every step…”

“Do you have to make me sound so shallow?” Konstantin retorted.

“I know your desire didn’t come from your mutual interests,” Luna shrugged. “You don’t exactly enjoy chitchat, and your real self rarely invest in a conversation without delving into economics or politics. Meanwhile… Kalyna is illiterate and as uneducated as a hamlet girl could be.”

For a moment the young lord looked like he wanted to argue. His lips opened eagerly only to close each time. Then, after his third attempt, he slowly deflated with a heavy sigh.

“I can’t think of a good explanation right now. But it doesn’t change the fact that I was the one who initiated our courtship this time!”

Not sure I’d call it a ‘courtship’ when you took her straight into bed, Luna thought.

Meanwhile, Konstantin leaned forward and swung a pointed finger out in the direction of the servants’ quarters.

“Now she gets in trouble, and I sit on my palms doing nothing? What kind of ‘Lord’… what kind of a man would I be if I can’t even take the most basic of responsibilities!?”

Luna felt a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. Konstantin often failed to act in a gentlemanly manner around members of the fairer sex, especially when it came to undereducated commoners. But if there was one thing he never forgot, it was the fact he still had to take responsibilities for his actions.

“I didn’t say you should do nothing,” the maid responded. “I just don’t think forcing her to stay is the answer, not when she has already made an enemy of her superior. What Kalyna needs now is an opportunity to land on her feet somewhere else, as well as support for the interim…”

She paused briefly as another concern rose in her thoughts:

“You did remember to apply a contraceptive spell, I presume?”

“Of course!” Konstantin replied. “What kind of idiot do you take me to be? I’m not about to father a child when my own future is in doubt.”

Luna raised both hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m just thinking things through. You’re a man after all. I don’t think you understand how much girls worry about a potentially unwanted pregnancy.”

The young lord pursed his lips and released his annoyance in an exhale. His eyes filled with sympathy as he looked upon his most trusted servant. Luna, however, didn’t dwell upon the past as she pushed ahead on the topic:

“I know it’s abnormal for a lord to personally write a reference for a lowly housemaid. It would certainly raise an eyebrow from whomever she seeks employment from. However, since Kalyna is the ‘senior maid’, I think you might be able to get away with writing her a personal reference, citing her years of diligent and faithful service as she was rapidly promoted to head maid due to vacancies.”

It’s barely even a lie, Luna consoled her own objections. Kalyna might be a bit thoughtless, but nobody could accuse the girl of being a lazy worker or a disloyal friend. She had helped Luna so many times during the past four years, despite Vitomir’s best attempts to alienate them. And it was certainly true that they’ve had numerous ‘vacancies’.

“She’ll also need some money. At least enough to support her until she finds a new job,” Konstantin added, his hands already opening a cabinet in the desk to pull out fresh parchment and a small, leather bag. “How much do you think? Twenty silver rubles?”

Luna’s eyes swelled. Was Konstantin being generous, or did he not realize that twenty rubles was more money than what a typical housemaid could make in an entire year? Any more, and it would feel like he was paying her off for ‘services rendered’.

“I think that’ll be sufficient,” she answered. “And if you can write up the reference within the hour, I’ll make sure she receives it, discreetly, after she departs Vitomir’s gaze.”

“You’d have to intercept her after she leaves the house then…”

The young lord then looked up with his enchanted ink quill in hand.

“Aren’t you already running late on your cleaning duties today?”

And whose fault do you think that is? Luna’s gaze fell. But there was no point complaining to Konstantin over how he had left one of the guest bedrooms in total disarray, not to mention the sheets that now needed to be boiled.

“Guess I’ll be late for dinner then,” the maid shrugged, already knowing that it meant she would be going to sleep hungry tonight.

…Not that it was a problem he would be able to help with.

 

—— * * * ——

 

“Kalyna!”

Luna rushed after the older girl, just after the latter had turned around a bend in the forested road leading away from the mansion. The former senior maid wore a simple set of brown traveling clothes, while her red, puffy eyes revealed that she’d been in tears all afternoon.

“Luna…”

Kalyna wiped her glistening eyes again. The older girl squinted at the white-haired maid, who stood between the tall birch trees against the backdrop of the sky’s reddish glow. Dusk was drawing close and the sun was already dipping into the distant tree line.

“I’m sorry about what happened today,” Luna spoke next. “If I had stopped Alisa in time…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Kalyna replied with a sincere but meek smile. “We… I should have been more careful. I was here when Kasandra and Yuliya left after all. I knew how Vitomir would react if he ever discovered us, yet…”

Luna returned a sympathetic nod. She never did know what to say at moments like these. It felt like any words she could offer would be either be too superficial or too late.

“H-how long has it been going on?” She asked instead. “I had noticed hints, but I didn’t realize…”

“That was our third time together. His Lordship said it would be quick, and I… didn’t want to deny him.”

It had always been hard for girls in Polisian culture to reject their man, doubly so when there was such a massive gap of difference between their social statures.

“His Lordship… wanted you to have this,” the younger girl noted as she gave Kalyna a leather messenger bag. There were two parchment scrolls within, one bearing Konstantin’s reference while another was a personal message. Also inside were twenty silver rubles and several vatrushka pastries wrapped in cloth — the same dessert Konstantin often kept in his room as late night snacks.

Kalyna looked through the contents before pulling out the parchment addressed to herself and holding onto it with trembling fingers.

“He knows I can’t read,” her voice cracked as though she couldn’t decide on whether this was tragic or funny.

“I believe he enchanted it,” Luna answered in a caring tone. “Open it in private and it’ll read aloud to you.”

Kalyna’s lips trembled as she nodded. Then, as she stuffed the scroll back inside and closed the bag, she finally voiced her frustrations out loud:

“Oh Luna, I don’t understand. Why doesn’t he stand up for me, or even for himself? Why couldn’t he just dismiss that wretched Steward? Instead I’m the one who has to go!?”

It was the pain in her voice that made Luna finally realize: Kalyna had clearly thought this afternoon that her lover had abandoned her to fate. Even jealousy and bitterness had entered the older girl’s tone as she remarked:

“You’re closer to His Lordship than any of us. Can’t you please explain it to me?”

Luna could only take a deep exhale. What should I say? She asked herself during the long pause.

“All I can really explain is that — it’s politics,” the Samaran maid finally replied. “Vitomir’s true loyalties are to Count Nikola, and His Lordship doesn’t want to attract the Count’s ire by removing the Steward.”

As it often was with Luna’s answers, the statement was a gross oversimplification that made it not entirely true, but not a lie either. However, as Kalyna knew next to nothing about the political struggles within Polisia’s aristocracy, she wouldn’t have understood the details regardless.

All she could return was a half-hearted nod and, after another long pause, a forced smile.

“Well, Luna… please deliver my farewell and best regards to His Lordship.” Kalyna asked as she wiped her glistening eyes. “I’d always known our relationship would be a temporary one. I might be an uneducated village girl, but even I can tell the difference between a young man’s infatuations and his real affection.”

There was another glint of envy in the older girl’s gaze, and Luna couldn’t help but feel a tremble of discomfort deep within. Like everyone else, Kalyna simply assumed that Luna regularly slept with His Lordship. After all, the older maid was the one who prepared and escorted Luna to her ‘maiden night’.

But as the older girl took Luna’s hand and encouraged her to meet eye-to-eye once more, she came to realize that it wasn’t quite what Kalya meant either.

Affection and trust are too often mistaken for one another; even at the end, Konstantin never did trust Kalya enough to divulge his secrets.

“Kalyna…” Luna tried to summon assurances for the other girl, but the older maid simply shook her head as though she had already accepted it.

“Regardless,” Kalyna forced an awkward smile. “I’m thankful for His Lordship’s kindness to me during these past years. Without his help, I would never have been able to send my brother to an apprenticeship in the city.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him in person,” the Samaran maid nodded back before stepping forward to wrap her arms around the other in a tight hug. “Please take care of yourself, Kalyna.”

Luna knew that a storm was brewing on the horizon. The war coming from the east was a far greater danger than most people realize, one that had the potential to shake Polisian society to its very foundations. She didn’t know when the next time the two of them might meet again, and it was almost painful to not be able to speak out to the other about it.

“And thank you,” the younger girl simply added as tears glistened in her eyes, “for being the first friend I had in this house.”

Luna would never forget that moment when Kalyna turned to stand against her liege and employer, all in support of a helpless young slave girl whom she had just met.

A faint laugh emerged from Kalyna as she hugged back.

“I think His Lordship took that as well.”

 

—— * * * ——

 

By the time Luna finished cleaning the third floor that night, the sun had long fallen beyond sight. She had released Alisa from the chores by the time of the servants’ late dinner, preferring to finish the rest herself rather than forcing her junior to miss a meal as well. But now it was almost sleep time, and her stomach was beginning to growl with hunger. She still had to finish cleaning the kitchen as part of her usual after-dinner duties, unless Alisa had somehow managed to accomplish that herself.

With her thoughts distracted, the white-haired maid almost crashed into someone as she turned around a corner in the lit hallway. Her eyes looked up on reflex, and soon found herself meeting face-to-face with the young baron himself.

“Sorry, Your Lordship,” she dipped in a light curtsy.

“There’s nobody else on this floor right now. You don’t need to be so formal,” Konstantin smiled.

Before Luna could reply, it was her stomach that spoke first with a rumble. A shade of scarlet crept up her cheeks as the young lord chuckled:

“You missed dinner again, didn’t you?”

Again? Luna blinked before realizing: so he does know.

“Yes,” she admitted. “I’m used to it though.”

Konstantin sighed.

“I may not be of much help when Vitomir springs it on you, but tonight was my fault. Least I could do would be to make it up to you. Besides, you’ll need a good night’s sleep as we’ll be leaving early tomorrow to meet Sachka’s men, and that means not going to bed on an empty stomach.”

With a forceful grasp on her hand, he spun around on his heels and dragged her after him.

“Come to my room. I sneaked some of my dinner upstairs for you.”

He never left any room for disagreement. It was perhaps the most apparent manner in which Konstantin showed his care.

Though, Luna smiled faintly as she felt her heels scurrying along. It’s not like I’ve ever hated it either.

 

 

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