Unexpected Return

Isaac sat back against a small pile of hay in the royal palace stables, lightly gnawing on a piece as he stared up at the ceiling. There wasn't really a whole lot to do out here while the lady was doing her thing in the palace so Isaac spent a lot of time just idling. Once again he was thinking about Kyrie, and his eyes closed now as he remembered just how relieved she'd looked when he'd left this time. His heart clenched with love for her, yet at the same time there was bitterness. … Why? Why had she done this to them?

Before Isaac could really start stewing on it, he started up from his lounging when another slave entered into the stables.

"Lady Dandridge would like her carriage ready in five minutes."

"W-what? Already?"

The five minute time limit easily roused Isaac from his inactivity, and the other slave simply shrugged as he moved to help Isaac get the horses hitched in time. The lady had been here barely an hour before this announcement was made! It just didn't make any sense... They had never spent less than 12 hours at the royal palace since these visits began.

… Something must be wrong.

Trying his best to piece together what it was, by the time he made it outside with the carriage, the two ladies were already out there with the King. The King gave each lady a soft kiss to their hand before smiling at them both.

"It's a shame this visit has been cut so short, but I hope that you feel better soon, Lady Deveris."

Isaac took a glance at Jiera's face to hear the King say this, and he was surprised to see that she did in fact look terrible. There were slight bags under her eyes, her skin didn't really have its usual luster, and the smile that she gave the King back was horribly forced.

"Thank you, your highness."

Mae ushered Jiera into the carriage then, but there was the briefest of looks that passed between his master and the King, one that Isaac hadn't missed only because he'd been paying close attention.

… The King knew what was really wrong here.

This wasn't just sickness, Isaac could feel it. The King stayed out, looking after them even as Isaac spurred the horses into moving, and he continued to stand in the yard for as long as Isaac could see him for.

All of this was... Very mysterious.

Was something going to be at the house when they got back? In his own anxiety, he spurred the horses on a little faster, eager to get home now. He was worried, but it was almost nice having something for his mind to think about that wasn't Kyrie. This was a little unfortunate though, since he had planned on having an idea of what he wanted the next time he saw her. He supposed... That he'd be figuring that out while he actually spoke with Kyrie later.

As they approached the gates, Isaac was both a little surprised and not too surprised to find that there was another carriage near the doorway. Surprised because the lady didn't often get visitors, and not so surprised because this fit in with the weirdness of the lady's request to return home. Isaac gave the other carriage driver a nod, but was otherwise planning not to speak to him. While Isaac waited for the guards to open the gate, the lady had opened up her window to speak to the other man.

"You can bring your carriage in as well, there's no longer any reason for your lord to go to the castle."

The man hesitated for a moment but looking between Mae and the house he decided that it probably would be for the best to bring the carriage in even if it wasn't a direct order from his master. Mae must know who this carriage belonged to already, but the only thing that Isaac could potentially deduce was that the slave looked like he was from the Dominion. Had Mae been expecting a visitor from there though? Why had she even bothered going to the castle in that case? None of this made any sense yet and Isaac wanted so badly to understand it.

It wasn't his place to ask though, so he was left unhitching the horses and putting the carriage away while the two ladies retreated into the house to go meet up with their visitor. Silence reigned in the stables as Isaac debated whether he wanted to try and start up a conversation with the Dominion slave, but the other man gave off an aura of not wanting to talk.

Before Isaac had fully decided whether he wanted to break the silence anyway, he noticed that Dessi was standing in the door to the stables. She looked troubled, to say the least, and once her eyes met up with Isaac she quickly gestured for him to come and talk to her. Sending a glance over at the other slave to make sure he was thoroughly occupied, he approached Dessi and lowered his voice.

"What's happening here?"

Instead of directly answering him, she responded to his question with yet another question.

"Were you in the stables the entire time at the castle?"

Dessi's own nervousness only increased the furrow in Isaac's brow, because it meant that she also felt that there was something wrong about all of this.

"Yes. I can't say I felt up to doing much else and I didn't spend enough time there for that to change."

"Ok... And did Lord Deveris ever show up at the castle?"

"What? No. Everything was real quiet at the stables until Lady Dandridge informed me that they were leaving again. Is that who's here right now, Lord Deveris?"

Dessi nodded to his question, and both parties fell silent as they pondered these answers. Lord Deveris... Why was Lord Deveris here? He'd never shown an interest in visiting the Terra Kingdom with his wife before, what made this time so different?

Isaac's thoughts were distracted when he saw Dessi pull a formerly sealed note from her pocket to look at it with slightly trembling hands. Dessi's pallor and continued silence was quickly making Isaac a bit concerned, so Isaac was quick to lean over and take a look. Surely this thing would be the reason why she was growing so uncomfortable? The seal on it was obviously the crest for the Dandridge family and the only words on the page were written in Mae's neat script.

'Gerard Deveris is here to pick up the children and bring them to the castle.'

Honestly, it didn't look like anything should be wrong with this note except for the fact that Gerard hadn't been to the castle before arriving at Mae's house and the fact that it was unlikely that Mae would entrust the children to anyone aside from her slaves, herself or Jiera. These discrepancies caused the hair to rise on the back of his neck and he was beginning to think that maybe he had an idea of just what was going on.

"When Lord Deveris arrived here he gave me this... But if he hadn't been to the castle, and Lady Dandridge hadn't spoken to him yet, then why would he have this? And why would the lady have told me this morning to send a pigeon if anyone was to arrive at the manor today if she already knew someone was coming?"

Quickly taking the note out of Dessi's hand so that he could scrutinize it himself, Isaac really couldn't find any fault with it when compared to Mae's own script and seal. And yet... With the information he was learning from Dessi this had to be a fake. Mae could've sent Gerard a message on his way over, but if she had she wouldn't have also told Dessi to send a pigeon should someone show up. His own throat felt like it went dry as the implications of this really began to hit him. The idea that had been percolating was fully cementing now. Dessi didn't quite have the full picture yet though, so she was just getting more agitated.

"And what... What could he possibly want with all three children if he wasn't sent by our lady?"

This question raised by Dessi caused a bit of bile to rise in Isaac's throat because he certainly had a guess as to what he could want with the children.

"This... With the information you've given me, it sounds like Lady Dandridge has lured this man into a trap."

"A... A trap for what?"

Isaac looked at her in silence for a moment, and understanding began to dawn on her face, but it was an understanding mixed with pure shock. After all, someone from the Deveris house had tried to have Mae killed before, it was just surprising that that someone was Gerard Deveris himself.

"For trying to kill her..."

Their voices had been hushed for this entire conversation, but as Isaac said this his voice went even lower. For a moment this froze the both of them with the sheer horror of it, and Dessi sent a glance over at the other stablehand to make sure he was thoroughly occupied before quickly trying to refute Isaac.

"But if it was him then why would he even come here! To the very house of the woman he tried to kill?"

"You said it yourself: for the children."

"W-what?"

"If he had possession of arguably the most important thing in the world to both of these women then they would be at his mercy."

This statement stunned Dessi into silence as she turned to stare down at the floor.

"I... I can't believe I let this man onto the grounds."

Isaac placed a gentle hand on Dessi's shoulder then, shaking her a little to get her to stop trying to blame herself.

"Come on now, there's no way we could've known any of this. I'm not even sure my theory is entirely correct anyway."

"Maybe not... But it does make a whole lot of sense... It helps explain some of the strange things I've picked up on when interacting with Lady Deveris... And if Lord Deveris is so willing to... To use his own children like that then it's no wonder they've been here for so long!"

Isaac let out a soft hum as he peered off in the distance towards the manor, and the thoughts that he was thinking soon became voiced by Dessi herself.

"What do you think is going to happen...? Both Lady Dandridge and Lady Deveris seemed perfectly alright with Lord Deveris being here, but they have to know that he's the culprit!"

Isaac was silent for another few moments before turning back to Dessi, his eyes imparting the gravity of this entire conversation.

"I think that another man is going to turn up dead as they travel away from Lady Dandridge's manor."

This was clearly a reference to Lady Dandridge's late husband, and Dessi simply fell into silence as she stared off towards the manor now.

"I... I don't think the rest of the house needs to know about this. Not until it's over..."

"Agreed."

They were silent for a few moments more before Dessi mumbled out a goodbye and dazedly walked off, but Isaac didn't return back to work right away. Instead he stared up at the manor, his brow furrowed as he thought to himself. Even though he'd told Dessi that his theory might not be right, he was about as certain as he could ever be that it was accurate. Lord Deveris had come here himself because that was his best chance at being able to catch the lady off-guard, but she had been ready for him. She was always one step ahead of her competition, she had to be: she'd have died long ago if that wasn't the case.

Why had Gerard even done this though? Surely he had to realize that through his wife he could have an incredibly powerful ally in Mae. The only way he wouldn't be able to have Mae as an ally was if he was trying to get her assistance with something that she fundamentally disagreed with. What could that be though...? The lady was quite reasonable, you had to be really trying to find something that she would refuse to move on at all. Unfortunately though, Isaac just didn't know enough about the lady's politics to know what she would consider completely unacceptable. Well, aside from obvious assholery, but even then, she'd continued to put up with her family while they were still alive.

Letting out a soft sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair, he knew that what he'd concluded now was about the best that he was going to get. So with that, he turned back to the stables to finish up his work... And also start thinking about his problem with Kyrie again so that he could be properly prepared for the upcoming evening.