BELLRAM V01 - Ambivalence of Light and Shadow I

BP001-P46 - The Violin's Violence 4

In the corridor, Mr Monet waited with Meia, then she unfortunately realised that the way down would be less bearable than she had first imagined and that is because she heard the voices of her two colleagues. The older one was called Cora Urlund and the other Innes Mitwind. The two would surely tease her for weeks about being carried this way by Mr Monet. It would have been better if they had just left them upstairs. From the sound of it, they were unhappy about having to go downstairs anyway.

In the next moment, two soldiers turned onto the stairs and came stomping down. Physically, they were of similar stature to Mr Monet. Meia saw her colleagues too, but mainly from behind. She didn't know whether to laugh because the two men each had one of them on their shoulders. The girls were overtly unhappy with the situation. Innes held her hands in front of her face out of embarrassment, and Cora beat her carrier nonstop.

~Am I here amongst cavemen?~

"I demand that you put me down immediately!"

The soldier did not respond to her at all.

"Let me down! You clod!"

In frustration, Cora drummed her fists on the man's back.

"Thank you."

"What! Are you even listening! You are supposed to let me down-"

The soldiers arrived at their place. Cora saw Meia beside her and immediately stopped acting like a petulant child. As if her previous behaviour had never existed, she pretended to agree to be carried by the man. The acting was not perfect as her head turned bright red.

"Francis, We have the two."

"Nice. Let's go."

Meia was carried to the hall with the other two. All the staff from the palace were present. There was a count and an explanation of the situation. Meia could not hear the whole explanation. She was only there for the count, then Mr Monet sent her to the doctor. He wanted to bring her back himself, but he had to go back to work. Meia had been able to find out a few things regardless. No one was hurt in the palace and the property damage was limited, but the harbour was badly hit. The granaries were devastated. Many warehouses were destroyed. Many of the ships had sunk. The temple had been damaged and there were also many dead and injured as a result. Some of the staff had to go to the harbour as relief workers. Meia did not have to. But not because she was injured, but because she was a maid to the queen. Her two colleagues did not have to go either.

The doctor told Meia that she was lucky. The eardrum was not damaged. The noises would probably disappear again as long as she rested.

Just outside the doctor's office, Meia was surrounded by a four-man squad of palace guards and escorted to her room. It sounded as if they had already been looking for her. By the time they reached her room, someone had re-hung the door and cleaned up the shards. All her things were neatly laid out on the table. New bedding had also been put on. Only a few hours later, a workman installed a new window for her and she was temporarily given a floor lamp to replace the ceiling lamp. Meia was placed under curfew. From that day on, she was no longer allowed to leave the tower. It had the advantage that she no longer had to work, but in return she was hardly allowed to do anything else. Without interruption, two guards stood at her door and no matter where she went, they constantly followed her and did not let her out of their sight. For the first time, Meia understood what the bars on her window were for. The palace was on a cliff, but a few floors below was an open area with columns and balustrade as a parapet. It was a kind of loggia. Meia would never dare to do such a thing, but theoretically it was possible that if she had a lot of sheets, she could rope down from here, swing inside and get away. That was certainly something they wanted to avoid. Many maids were not here by choice. They were usually sent by their parents to find a husband. For the same reason, the position as the queen's maid was also quite popular, because the queen met more important men than you happened to meet while cleaning the toilet.

Meia did not try to escape. She mainly wasted her time bathing. Her colleagues could no longer block the bathroom either, because the key had been removed. They could no longer annoy her either, because the guards were always outside the door. It was actually very relaxing not to have to do anything for a change. The bathtub was prepared for her with the desired temperature, lots of foam and expensive bath salts. The towels and, optionally, a bathrobe were laid out for her. Food was delivered to her. If she did not like something, they apologised to her with a bow and brought her something new within minutes. She could sleep as long as she wanted. She could lie around as much as she wanted. She did not have to lift a finger. As a prisoner, she was treated like a queen. After two days she heard normally again. That changed her attitude and the half suffering turned into full enjoyment. Meia laughed at the maids who had to make her bed several times a day while she lazily boiled in the bathtub. She also laughed at the workers who humped at the docks while she curled up in her blanket again for a few more hours. She felt that for the first time her position had a benefit. The simple maids were all envious of her. After all, they always knew immediately how important she was. They could no longer ignore her status. It was rubbed in their faces. The two guards in front of the door, were no longer simple palace guards. Since the second day they were from the queen's personal guard. The men were from the high nobility and looked like models. And they did almost everything Meia wanted them to do. Whenever they came into the room, they asked for forgiveness. Whenever they had to wake her because some thing was prepared for her, they would gently shake her by the shoulder until she woke up and apologise for it. Whenever she got up, they would go down on their knees to pay their respects. If Meia had a fan, she would use it and laugh hysterically. She could get used to being a prisoner permanently...

But unfortunately it remained at half a week. On the first day of the new week, early in the morning, someone raked open the door and almost kicked her out of bed. Her eyes snapped open. Next to her, she saw an unshaven man with a cigarette butt in his mouth standing right next to her. She almost called for help, but realised in time from the coat of arms on his chest that it was probably a soldier from the army. In what felt like one word, he told her that she had one hour to pack her things and then they would move her to another location. Meanwhile, Meia leaned out of bed to see the door behind the corner of the wall and had to find out that the handsome men were no longer there, but instead a whole troop of young soldiers that stared into the room as if it were an animal enclosure. Struck by their stares, she quickly retracted her head. Just as she sat upright in bed again, the head soldier was already out and slammed the door shut. One hour later, she was led outside the palace by the same soldiers. On the street was a wagon with her two colleagues, many more soldiers and an occupied carriage with the curtains drawn. She was put in the front of the wagon and that was where she sat now.

So why was the Queen of the Land travelling with this convoy? The truth was, Meia had no idea. She did not know where the convoy was going. She did not know why it was going anywhere. She did not even know for sure if it was really the Queen in the carriage. She only suspected it because she had happened to see a woman in a dress enter the carriage from the window of the first inn and suspected that this woman was still in the carriage and also that this woman was the Queen.

.../ End Part