24. This Is Not How Any Of This Works
1577 Words
After what seems like a 10-minute piss, I glance around at the 4 guards with me. "You guys could have waited outside the bathroom.
"That is not necessary, sir."
"Of course it's not."
I walk back up to the queen's room, feeling quite a bit lighter. Clark, Jenny and Victor are standing in the hallway with pizza, soda, plates and cups. One of the guards has a big round folding table from the ballroom and another one has a bunch of chairs. "Hey you all finally made it back! I thought maybe you got lost and why the hell did you get 6 large pizzas for 5 people?"
"There's only 4 of us, and I'm hungry, bro."
"Even you can't eat 2 whole pizzas and there are 5 now. The servant is going to join us."
Clark gives me a funny look "Ok. OH, and it took us forever because we had a meeting with Emberlynna and Mr Aver about going to school. And well, I may have fallen asleep halfway through their meeting, so I don't know if it was about anything else."
The door opens. "I am done with my duty, sir."
"Perfect timing. Let's eat."
The servant tries to sneak off.
"No, come on. You need to eat too."
"I follow no one's ord..."
"I know. It's not an order. It's a request. I told you, we're family now."
"Well, that's a big change from 'YOU ARE PISSING ME OFF WOMAN' but yea, join us. Plus it'll be awesome if Alden starts screaming at the door again." Clark helps the guard put up the table.
"Yea, you can definitely be in the family if you can make him yell at doors. I'm sad I missed it." Victor puts the chairs out, "Stupid poison."
"Speaking of poison, the servant found something interesting with the queen and called for the doctor. He's running some tests, she may have also been poisoned with the same stuff you were, Victor."
Jenny passes out the plates and cups. "It would make sense. I believe they have used that poison for a long time. What made you think it may have been used on the queen?"
"Her skin wounds seemed to be sticky when I was washing her up, Ma'am."
"That is odd. When will the tests be done? And you don't have to call me ma'am. I'm a normal person."
The servant looks up at me surprised, "Is it ok?"
"Yea, that's fine."
"The doctor will be back this afternoon with the results..." She pauses and stares at her plate.
"That's great news. She's making progress!" Jenny pours everyone some soda.
"Yes, any progress is good progress."
"What kind of pizza does everyone want? I got vegetable, meat lovers, pepperoni, cheese, taco, and barbeque chicken. I'll put them in the middle. Dig in!"
Everyone grabs some except the servant.
"What's wrong?"
"I've never seen this before. What is it, sir?"
Victor jumps up. "I got this, food is my superpower. Pizza is an amazing creation. It is a bread based dough topped with tomato sauce then covered with cheese. And they can be topped with a wide variety of toppings. Do you like vegetables, miss?"
She nods.
Victor grabs the plate in front of her and puts a piece of vegetable pizza and a slice of plain cheese on it. "Here is a slice of pizza with vegetables on it and a slice of plain pizza. You should try them both."
She bursts out crying.
"What? It's ok? What?"
Clark nods. "Nice one Victor, you broke her."
I hand her the soda, "Here, take a drink."
She takes a sip and coughs. "What?" She smells it. "It does something to my nose."
"Why are you crying?" I take the soda away and Victor gets her a glass of water.
"I am the servant. He serves a servant. This is not the way it works, sir. I've seen servants beaten for looking at their masters' food. I shouldn't be here." She tries to get up.
"Nope." I hold her chair.
"Alden, she said 'master'. They are slaves." Jenny chokes down a bite of food.
"What did you think they were?" Clark stares at her.
"I thought servant was a job... they go home after a day of cleaning or cooking or whatever they do. These poor people."
"This is my home. Since the princess was a baby. I was sent here to look after her. I have my own room in the servants' quarters. It's small, but it has a mattress and a small wooden box for extra clothes and fabric. The servants section is an area of the basement only for servants. We had a kitchen."
We stare at her for a good 2 minutes.
Victor looks at her plate. "Try your pizza please. It really is good."
She takes a small bite. Her eyes about pop out of her head and she takes another huge bite, "What?" She grabs a glob of cheese and shoves it in her mouth. "This."
Victor smiles. "I told you I know good food."
"Grab a bottle of that blood please, Clark." I grab some more paper cups and pour blood into each of them. Then hand them out.
The servant shakes her head. "This is not how any of this works, sir."
I smirk, "It is now."
She takes a drink, and we can see her entire body relax, "This is so good, I haven't had human blood in so long. Thank you sir."
"What did you eat and drink for the last 500 years?"
"I know a path out of the back garden. I go there and into the big woods. There is a lake there too. I can fish or get animals from the woods. There are also berries and things that grow there in the nicer months of the year. I sneak into a town close to here, but only if I have to. I know if I was found, I would be killed immediately. So I try never to leave. I hide and sneak. But when you show up and find the queen, I couldn't hide anymore. I had to save her before you throw her away, sir."
I can't help but chuckle at that. "Well, I wasn't going to 'throw her away'."
"You did say you were going to bury her. I mean, same thing really." Victor jokes and everyone starts laughing.
"OK OK... So what happened in the meeting with Emberlynna?"
Jenny perks up. "Well, we discussed a lot. The pro's and cons of staying here versus going back to school. How it would work."
"We're staying." Victor cuts her off, and she gives him a dirty look, "What? It was going to take you forever to get there."
"Fine. We're staying." She crosses her arms. "All of us."
"All of you?" I didn't think they would stay. They are giving up a lot. "You can't stay. This place is not near as protected as the school and with everything happening you need to be at the school."
Clark sits back. "The entire 7th year class is staying. Emberlynna has an entire plan that Aver has already signed off on. The floor right below this is going to be converted into dorm rooms. They are offices now. So it'll be updating and adding plumbing and electricity. The desks can be moved out. Each room will get a full-sized bed, shower, toilet, sink, small refrigerator and microwave... and probably some other crap. I wasn't paying attention in that part. Classes are going to be in the ballroom. It's plenty big and the tables and chairs are already there. Meals can be cooked in the kitchen. Emberlynna is staying as well as the 7th year professors. Everything is already planned out."
I stare at him in stunned silence for a minute.
Victor smiles. "Yea, they are going to update this floor, put bathrooms in each of the rooms, and the one next door to this room is going to be yours, so you never have to be too far away from her."
"There's one small issue."
"What is it?"
Jenny takes a deep breath. "Alden, everyone believes you to be the king."
"I'm not."
"It doesn't matter. They believe you to be. So, you will need to sign off on the changes to the palace. As well as spending some of the royal money."
"I can not do that. When she wakes up and tells everyone I'm not the king, I will be killed or put into slavery, or who knows what else these people do."
"ALDEN" Jenny is getting upset. "YOU ARE THE ACTING KING." She takes a deep breath. "You can make some real changes here. You can free hundreds of people from slavery. You are the king right now. And I don't think the queen will care if you spend a small amount of the royal money to update HER castle. YOU saved her. So, even if you don't end up being the king in the long term, you can still change things for the better now. Please help us."
I let out a big sigh. "You're right. I can help these people. Not only the servants, but the people in the mine, and the town of humans being bred for blood. Something has to be done."
"OH OH OH I GOT THIS!!!" Victor runs to a bag I didn't even see him carry in.
- Writer
