"Zeke! Oi! Zeke, get that thrice-damned self of yours back in here
right now, or you'll be answering to me before your stablemaster!"
The man paused in the corridor, glancing over his shoulder at the door to the kitchens. Ah, the unmistakable bellow of the angry cook.
'Damn. I knew Thayla would corner me when I got back. I'll be late at this rate... ah, but maybe I'll get one of the nice pastries out of it... and Lord Raiden can be pacified.'He spun on his heel and walked back.
"All right, all right. What wrong's now, Thayla? Not enough flour coating me for your satisfaction?"
The chief cook humphed, arms crossing over her own liberally powdered apron. Strands of greying hair tumbled from their bun as she peered at Zeke closely.
"Can't an old friend just check how you're doin' anymore, Zeke?"
Guilt made him smile, relaxing tense muscles.
"Nah, sorry Thayla. It's morning, I'm grumpy. Have work to do, y'know."
She arched an eyebrow.
"Stables?"
A nod, but no words.
"Ahh... your mother would be happy with you, doing something like that. Not throwing yourself into danger like the rest of those bumbling idiots upstairs. On my life, it'll be the end of us. At least Lord Raiden hasn't started cutting off the resources here yet. Only the outlying towns..."
Zeke blinked, taking in the shadow over the cook's normally sunny smile.
"Bram's out there, isn't he?"
She nodded once, slowly, twisting the rolling pin between her hands.
"Fighting with the army. Got a messenger bird from him nearly a quarter sun ago. Says they pillage, hunt, drink... he doesn't, he says, sits to the side and keeps his head down, but I don't believe him. That there army is going to kill my little boy, one way or the other."
She spoke with such finality that Zeke couldn't do anything else but drop a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I have to go. But if you need to talk more about Bram, I can come down in my break. Sorry for being away so long. I should've been here."
Thayla waved him off, brandishing her rolling pin with renewed vigour and wiping at her face discreetly with her apron.
"Oh, off with you! You can't help having to move the horses around, and you know what Bram's like, all work and no play. It's just me, worrying."
'That's better.'He chuckled, halting in the doorway.
"Yes, yes, and the exact opposite when we were growing up, he was. I'll leave you in peace."
Zeke barely caught the bundle of pastries flung at him, but he laughed anyway, slipping back into the corridors and disappearing into the crowd of people to see the Lord. When the guards of the chamber saw him, they bristled like overgrown bulldogs, axes crossed and squinting glares suitably directed.
"State yer business."
"I know what it is, and it isn't yours. Zeke to see Lord Raiden."
One of them scoffed, edged forwards as if the urge to bludgeon him to death was itching unbearably beneath his skin.
"And what kind of a smart guy are you, then!"
Zeke pulled his travelling cloak aside at the hip, revealing the glinting katana blade.
"One who doesn't really have time to waste talking to guards."
From inside, there was a rumbling laugh.
"Let the boy in. It's about time he came to give his report."
A few muttered yessirs, and he walked into Raiden's chamber unhindered, expression mild. The door shut, the room empty save for him and Raiden, and the mildness melted into hard lines.
"Assassin Zeke, reporting from my mission to the Northern mountains."
The leader, lounging in his throne-styled council seat, lifted his grey eyebrow, shadows dark in his deep set face. Those blue eyes glinted unnaturally.
"Go on."
"I believe, my lord, that we have found them."
&&&
Aiya tried not to focus on the jeering from the soldiers mess, instead throwing her weight into scrubbing down the main tables in the banqueting hall. They were disgusting; her little brother had better table manners than some of the pigs that gorged in here night after night, but there was nothing she could do about that, was there?
Not much she could do about her little brother, either.
Another roar came from the mess. Her eyes drifted from the task, staring through the window at the long, rowdy building outside.
'I know you're in there somewhere, Lim.' The image of the ten year old, dressed as a page and riding out with the army to their campaign of terror was enough to make her cry. But not here. For now, she was just a scullery maid, the weakest of the weak and lowest of the low. Getting a job here had been hard enough, and she had to work well to keep it, and her head.
But she was one step closer to saving him.
'I'll find you, I promise.'(Ramble, ramble, ramble, lots of dialogue and probably not that many openings for you guys now I think about it. x.x Feel free to shove your characters in anywhere, and if I haven't given you the prompt you needed for them to appear, the layout of Ruler HQ is pretty much your average castle - so really, opportunities are endless. Hope that helps a little.)