In Pieces

Chapter 9: How can anybody live like this?

Everyone in the Emperor's palace knew that former General Hayl Lox had fallen from grace and received a borderline humiliating task of being an attendant to the mysterious Niki Oberyn. Hayl heard servants whisper and snicker behind his back, as he entered into the kitchen to collect the food he had to bring to his new master. He didn't care what anybody thought of him – he kept his head down and was only focused on his task.

Hayl had heard a lot of dirty rumors about Niki Oberyn – many assumed that he was Prince's favorite pet and that he had somehow shamelessly tricked Prince Kai into keeping him at his side for so long. Hayl had a feeling that things might not be as simple as the rumors made them out to be.

He knew that the youth had appeared in the palace around three years ago and since then would always accompany the Emperor-in-waiting to all the important events. However, Oberyn's rooms were not on the East side of the Palace where the Prince's harem resided. That would suggest that his status was very different from that of a simple bed mate.

Be that as it may, Hayl was a man who took all his duties seriously. He carefully picked up the tray with the food and left the kitchen, paying no attention to the curious gazes and the heavy silence around him.

As he was climbing up the stairs, he couldn't help but think of the day when he lost his title. It had all happened so quickly but at the time Hayl knew almost immediately that this was the end of the road for him. It was surprising to see the ruthless and aloof Adnan Minn out of all people suddenly take his side. He never thought that this seasoned General was so naive and that he would further ruin his standing with the Regent in hopeless attempt to help Hayl. He shuddered to think what the Regent would do to General Minn in retaliation for such a blatant display of insubordination.

As he reached Niki Oberyn's room, Hayl put all the unnecessary thoughts out of his mind and knocked on the door. After a long while he finally heard a distracted "Yes?". He pushed the door open... and suddenly froze in shock.

To say that the room he saw was in disarray would be an understatement. Open books, sticks, yarn, stones, dried plants, even bones were scattered all over the floors. It almost looked like something exploded here not so long ago.

Hayl Lox was a military man through and through. Since early childhood he was used to keeping everything in order. His clothes were always immaculately folded and all his things were in their places. He couldn't imagine it any other way. Now seeing something like this truly shook him to his core.

A thin youth with white hair and extremely light complexion was standing at the table, noting something down while studying a long scroll through a magnifying glass. There was a stack of books on the chair next to him – that was probably the reason why he wasn't sitting down.

There were also numerous stacks of books towering on the table – in fact, it looked like the table would crumble under all that weight at any moment.

Hayl looked around in disbelief, and noticed big mountains of scrolls in the corners of the room. He started to suspect that the bed was buried under one of those mountains. It was however impossible to say under which one.

It smelled like dust and candle wax. Hayl was willing to bet there were some old forgotten half-burned candles lying here somewhere in all this chaos.

Not only had he no idea where to put the tray with the food, he didn't even know how to step inside without trampling over something.

Hayl was just about to say something, when he suddenly sneezed.

That finally attracted the guy's attention, and he lifted his gaze to look at Hayl. His unusually big eyes seemed almost completely purple in that light. Hayl's mouth suddenly seemed dry and he subconsciously took a step back.