Winged Dagger

He Who Hides His Suffering

I walked past the music room, where Kiyomi stood outside, her eyes closed with a light smile on her face. It was then that I realized music was coming from the room—Mozart's Das Veilchens. She smiled at me as I passed her, and the music stopped. I turned back to see Mozart offering his hand to her, and they headed inside the room together. The music resumed.

I headed down to the kitchen to help Sebastian with breakfast, but I couldn't find him. A quick gesture from Napoleon had me heading down to the basement instead.

"Arthur's been drinking more Rouge lately," muttered Sebastian, as he looked through the bottles. He picked up one with white liquid in it, which I assumed was Blanc, the substitute for Rouge.

"Really? Why?"

"I can only speculate," he said, pulling out a notebook and writing something down.

"Is that a diary?" I asked, getting a glimpse of Arthur's name.

"There is no diary," said Sebastian, putting it back in his pocket.

"Are you a stalker?"

"I am a historian. You saw no diary," he said again.

"I saw no diary," I repeated with a sigh. "Is Arthur alright?"

Sebastian shrugged. "He should be. Ah, the pangs of love."

I blinked as he handed me some bottles and headed up.

At the breakfast table, Arthur and Leonardo were having a conversation about poisons, I suppose for Arthur's next story. Leonardo did seem to know a lot about it and I wondered whether he was someone who had never lost his child-like curiosity. In my time, most kids had it stamped out of them by their teachers in schools. I swear, school had taken its inspiration from jail.

"But if I were to kill a child with poison accidentally?" inquired Arthur, a gleam in his eyes.

I wondered what someone would think if they heard this conversation. No doubt they'd assume him to be a serial killer. "Belladona," I said, as the page appeared in front of my eyes. "'Belladona, also known as Deadly Nightshade has many victims in unsuspecting children, attributed to its sweetness.' I believe it was in Chapter 7 of 'Poisons and Toxins.'"

The room fell silent as I looked up, wondering what happened. Arthur's stunned smile widened. "By jove. You just repeated it word for word."

"Hondje, how?"

"I have a good memory," I said quietly. "I can usually remember anything I see."

"No wonder you held up for ten minutes in the chess match," said Arthur, as Isaac stared incredulously. "You must have seen all the moves I've made countered somewhere before."

I nodded. "I still lost to you though. An excellent memory really can't hold a candle to your intelligence and predictive ability."

"I daresay it's rather close."

Arthur came to the drawing room much later than I had anticipated that night. I had just finished rearranging the bookshelves when he walked in and sauntered on the couch. "I see you've had a late night," I said, stopping as I looked at him. Despite his smile, he seemed to be in pain.

"Arthur?"

"Mind getting Sebastian for me, love?"

I nodded and raced down the hallway, calling for Sebastian. He appeared out of nowhere. "What is it?'

"Arthur's in the drawing room," I said in between breaths. "He looks like he's in pain."

Theo, who had appeared behind me, grimaced. "That idiot..."