A Servant And A Sorceress

He paused.  ”Perhaps it’s time I recall one of those charming Lannister guards you were so worried about, a few minutes ago?  When I’ve discovered my sister missing and realized that no one’s made any progress, why, who could blame me?”  He shrugged.  ”Aside from the guard’s family, I suppose,” he said lightly.  He was a Mikaelson.  Death and hatred didn’t bother him as much as perhaps they should have.

He glanced towards her when she spoke of the game, his eyes kindling for a moment.  ”Why play a game if the other players aren’t a challenge?”  He smirked.  ”And there is no challenge in this world quite like a Mikaelson.”  He turned to the door to call the guards back.  Soon he could hear their footsteps approaching.  They’d be there soon.

He called for the guards and she looked to the door, ready to play her part, praying that he would not turn on her, and point a finger in her direction.  Hopefully, this would be the end of it.  He would let her go, and she could run somewhere... anywhere... safer than this.  

Kol was looking at her now, as if he could see what she was thinking, and his eyes were studying hers.  She kept her chin held high, refusing to break the lock of their eyes.  She would not bow first.  His words, though, caught her.  So, he thought he could control everyone and everything... all for his amusement?

A smirk slid across her lips, and suddenly she wasn't so afraid.  He was bored.  That's all this was to him.  A game to satisfy his boredom.  And Bonnie could play this game.  She approached him slowly, her eyes still locked on his, and stopped only a pace away from him.

"What you want, my Lord, is not to control the pawns of this game.  What you want is someone to play it with you.  You long for someone to play in your game that you can beat, but I think what you secretly want is someone to play the game truly with you, on your side, sliding the pieces around the table."

She glanced away from him for a moment, and licked her lips softly over her smirk, before looking back up.  "But you are a Lord, and easily recognized, so some moves on the board are a bit harder for you than you originally imagined.  It's why you use people beneath you to do your dirty work.  I regret to inform you, my Lord, but I am not one to be controlled.  If you want to play with me, then you play with me by your side, not by pushing me around."  

But she could talk about Lys. “I was born in Westros, but I don’t remember it.” She had wanted to visit Westros once, the place that she had been born, the land that was in her blood, but she had wanted to make that journey with Jeremy. “Lys is very different from Kings Landing, the air always smells sweet and there’s markets always bustling. The sun is warmer in the East too, and buildings are made of a stone so white it looks almost like bone. But I suppose it’s similar too… just as Kings Landing there are the poor and starving and there’s slaves.” Bonnie wouldn’t want to hear such a melancholy tale though, she could tell the thought of travel was exciting to her, she shouldn’t sour her opinion before she was to experience it herself.

She hated thinking of Dorne.  Life was so different for her there, before the Highgarden.  Just as the Highgarden was so different from King's Landing.  All because of the Mikaelsons.  Everything always changed because of the Mikaelsons.

"I should like to try sweeter food, I think.  I am quite used to spicier things, as perhaps you can guess from the water." She raised her glass.  "Things with more flavor.  I hear that winter does not come to the land across the sea?  Is that why there are more fruits?  Dorne does not have much of a winter, so I surmise it has much the same connection."

Today was one of the rare days that they did not have to rush off to court. So she had the day to herself, and it would consist of the gardens to get some fruit and wine and then to the castle library to pick out a new book. 

“Oh…I suppose in the wardrobe.” She had been in Kings Landing for almost a week now and never bothered to hang her things, or take them out of the trunks. Maybe she was hoping they would not stay long. 

"Of course, mila- Melyssa."  She caught herself at the last moment, and bowed her head slightly.  "As you wish."

There were a number of beautiful gowns in her lap now, and she rose from where she was kneeling to set them all on the bed.  She began hanging them all up, then moved to the other trunk and did the same.  Next were the shifts and night gowns, then smaller items from there.  As she went, Bonnie straightened the bed covers, refolded items, and did her normal work.  All under the watchful eye of Lady Whiteash.

She looked away, not wanting to look up at him, but he was speaking again and she looked up.  The fear had to be evident on her face, but she wasn't sure what she feared most.  Her body was still shaking from her run in with Kol, and Mikael scared her more than the rest.  And now, here she was, unable to run from Klaus.  She had always been so good at avoiding the Mikaelson men... and now with Rebekah gone...

She shook her head slightly, and took in a breath.  "It is nothing, my Lord, simply the worries of a servant.  I thought to go to the Lord Han- the Lord Elijah, as, as that is what Rebekah told me to do should I need anything," she almost choked on her half lie.  Rebekah had always just said that Elijah was the one that took care of things.  

As they walked out of Rebekahs room into the hallway she sighed a bit. She walked ahead of Bonnie even though she really did not know where to go. But she kept her ears open to listen to her followers footsteps to know when to stop. 

Melyssa smiled as a woman, another from the court was heading towards them. Though she could not remember her name, she nodded to her even so, she always had to remember her manners. When Bonnie spoke she stopped her walking and turned around, and nodded. “Thank-you.”

She waited in the hallway as Bonnie went about to find her trunk. Melyssa slumped against the wall as she waited, when Bonnie reappeared she straightened up and gave her a relieved smile. “Oh, wonderful!” 

Melyssa wrinkled her nose, “As I said before, I do not have any handmadiens. I’m afraid I have made quiet a mess out of my chambers looking for these items. If you could…help me straighten up again?”

Lady Whiteash led her through the halls towards what she assumed to be the Whiteash rooms.  Bonnie had never ventured over here before.  It was always the Mikaelsons, the servants quarters, the kitchens, and the Godswood.  Anywhere too far out of place, and questions would be asked, and questions could lead to answers she couldn't give.

They reached her room and Bonnie stepped inside to see the mess.  Alright, this was easy enough.  The new trunk had arrived and Bonnie glanced around again.  She could certainly clean all of this up.

“You Nan sound lovely,” Elena made herself smile before taking another sip of the drink. The herbs certainly did make it taste lovely. “And the drink tastes so good.”

"Lys?" she asked, getting excited.  "You came here from the east?"  

Adventures were running through her mind now.  What would it be like to travel in a boat?  A ship, really.  To see strange new places.  Dorne to Highgarden had been strange enough, but she had been young and they were still in Westeros.

“Oh, well I cam to Kings Landing with no handmaidens. And I know certain items had been packed and I just cannot seem to find them.” She lifted her hand and pushed back a few locks of her brown hair. “I was simply wondering if you knew where they would have been placed.”

The Lady was walking just ahead of her, as was suitable, but Bonnie was the one leading them through the halls.  When she and Rebekah had come to the Keep, half of her luggage ended up in the Mikaelson quarters, while the rest in the Guest quarters.  She suspected they were likely there.

A passing Lady curtised to the woman beside her and said Lady Whiteash, and Bonnie sent up a thankful prayer to the Seven.  She was the new Lady Whiteash.  First name. What was her first name.  Lady Whiteash would have to do for now.

"Let me ask a few maids, milady, as I believe they may be in one of these here rooms."  Bonnie curtsied and slipped into a side door for servants.  A few questions later, and two men were carrying a large trunk towards the Whiteash quarters.

She glanced down at the floor where the curtains were, a frown coming across her face. Melyssa knelt down to the floor, picking up some fabric. “I’m not much of a sower, but would you like some help with these?”

The Lady even went so far as to look at the fabric across the floor.  Bed curtains that Bonnie would be working on forever, and her jaw dropped. "Help me? Oh, no no, milady. I can do me own work.  Simple stiches and all.  Just have to mend the Lady Rebekah's bed curtains."

She stood up and pulled the curtains with her, and bundled them onto the bed.  She would have to wash and press them again before they were rehung anyways, so any wrinkles that she got in them could be pushed out later.  

Bonnie was so kind, the kind of girl Elena would love as a friend, but what kind of friendship could she offer the girl? Elena was nothing, after all. “Thank you,” she said, taking the cup from her. She was thankful, her throat was feeling tight and perhaps it would help her to stop crying.

The girl had said nothing other than Thank You, so Bonnie kept going.  "I'm from Dorne, you see, and most of our wines are either very sour, or very sweet. So, a lot of flavor in them.  When I moved to the Highgarden, the wine was too flavorless, so my Gran, she works as a Healer so she has access to lots of plants, took a bunch of spices and put them into this mix that I can mix with wine or water to give it more flavor.  Always something a little different, and it's soothing to the stomach I find on occasion."

Melyssa was about to pull her hair out. There was clothes everywhere in her chambers. Thrown on the bed, across the stone floor, ever trunk she had was opened and disheveled. They had left her with no handmaidens, and the Queen could find none to spare. She had no idea what her handmaidens back home had done with her things. Corsets were missing, linens that she knew had been packed, and her favorite red gown. She tried to think who could help her, who would possibly know where they had been put. 

She opened her chamber doors and headed down the hallway as it slammed against the stone walls. She probably looked like a mad woman, but she honesty did not care. 

Her mind searched for the possibilities and then she remembered, Rebekah, who had somehow escaped the hell hold of Kings Landing had left behind her handmaiden, Bonnie. “Now, where would she be…” she wrinkled her nose and stopped in the middle of the walkway, her mind trying to map out where each chambers was. She snapped her finger and smiled as she remembered that Rebekah’s chambers had been on the west side of the castle, over looking the courtyard instead of the ocean. Melyssa turned around on her heel and headed in that direction, hopefully her handmaiden Bonnie was looming around the chambers. 

She had no real tasks now.  She still worked for the Mikaelsons, but it seemed to be a general understanding that Rebekah would be returning soon enough.  Everyone seemed to have their own idea as to what she would be doing for them, and Bonnie hated this new adventure.  Was this why she had left the Highgarden?  To find some sort of adventure in her life?  She was a fool.  Truly, a fool.

The door to Rebekah's chambers burst open and Bonnie looked up, startled.  Who was it this time?  Elijah?  Mikael?  She had already had a run in with both Kol and Klaus, and her heart was racing enough from that.  Why couldn't they just leave her alone?  She was a handmaiden, not a spy!

But the voice that called out was not that of a Mikaelson, nor even of a man.  She did not recognize it, but Bonnie knew that more and more were coming to court every day.  She assumed it was just another servant, and called out, "Back here!"  She was, after all, on her knees beside the bed, and out of view from the chamber door.

She thought she should deny this Bonnie, tell her she was fine and hurry back home, but then she would only have her tears for company and Elena felt so very lonely when she wasn’t with her lord. She smiled, though this time it was not a false smile. “Thank you Bonnie,” she said as she finally took the young woman’s hand and rose to her feet.

They reached Bonnie's quarters and she let Elena go inside first.  It wasn't much.  A room with a small cot, a table with a few personal items on it, a little fireplace, a few chairs.  There wasn't much that a servant needed, but Rebekah took care of her.  "Would you like something to drink?"

She poured two glasses of water anyways, and mixed in a few herbs that would make the water slightly sweetened and spiced.  She offered a cup to Elena, then turned back to her possessions and searched through a bag to find one of the salves that her Gran had packed for her.  Finding the right one, she set it aside, then went to her own pitcher of bathing water.  She dipped the rag folded beside it into the water, then beckoned Elena closer.

Kol nodded as she rattled off the truths about his father.  ”Oh, you know him well.”  But don’t think he does too much for us, mused Kol.  What he does, he does for the family name and himself.  Not for us, never for us.  “Ah,” he responded, putting two fingers under her chin.  ”And then I came along to break your perfect record of utter obscurity.”  He glanced away for a moment before looking to her with a smile again.  ”I really can’t find it in my heart to be too sorry about that, darling.”

“What you lack in subtly you certainly make up for in ingenuity,” he commented, brightly.  A part of him had enjoyed watching her tear the room apart, knock things asunder, rip.  Taking two strides towards the bed, he ripped the bed curtains down from one side until he heard the shriek of fabric pulling apart, and dropped what was left lamely on the floor.  ”There,” he said, spreading his hands.  ”Perfect.”  He’d seen enough violence to know just how its aftermath appeared.

"Explosive anger results in you taking out your anger against something... or someone... and the nearest person would be me."  She turned to look at him and took a step away.  She knew how this worked. A man that discovers his sister missing would likely kill or greatly injure the nearest person to him, and that was her.  If he laid even one finger on her, she would gut him like a fish.  Except she had no dagger.  And she had no where near enough strength in magic as of yet.

"You want to use me," she said, her tone firm, as if she was stating a fact.  She was, after all, going to be used by him, no matter what.  He had already threatened to do so.  "And not in this terrible game that the houses play, but in your own game, that you play amongst your family."