Indebted

10

Back at the castle. Plots were afoot with the servant class. The day maid, Shiri was not happy that she had been seen with Quwent. Her whole life plan had been to catch the eye of someone with any rank, any station higher than her own and get out of servant life. If word got out that she had been with one of the lower lords. A wolf no less. Never mind that she had let the handsey lord have his way with her body for money, she would be ruined in every single possible way.

Thankfully, everyone and every rat in the castle knew the former Lady Estella's face. Carefully, Shiri planted seeds, looking for someone to help her get the former lady out of the picture forever. Pleased when only days later, a group of soldiers indicated they too had their own grudge against the former lady.

A trap was set. After three weeks, the influx of visitors had slowed after the latest bastard royal had shown up. Shiri was able to figure out Estella's routine each day. Two days in a row, Estella had passed by Shiri and not noticed the maid hiding the shadows of the servant corridors. Lady Estella seemed like she was ashamed of her position, only ever running the long way around the castle in the hidden corridors. The third day, the trap was ready.

Estella was on her way to light the fire for the dragon who was still unable to acclimate after too long spent near an active volcano. Shiri burst into the hall from a corridor that lead to the gardens. Screaming, "Help! My Sister!" Just as Esti was running past the same intersection with her heavy coal scuttle on her back.

"What's wrong?" Esti, stopped, skidding on her smooth soled shoes as she came to as quick a stop as she could manage with her inertia from the added weight of the coal. "She was in the well, we got her up but she ain't breathing." Shiri said, frantic, near screaming at Esti. An expert performance.

Esti wasn't a doctor, but she knew enough first aid and biology to know that speed was everything with a drowning event. Esti dropped the heavy coal scuttle, and ran, telling Shiri to show her where her sister was. In the heat of the moment, Esti was who she always had been, someone who was good.

The same was not true of Shiri. Shiri didn't even have a sister. No one was in danger but Esti. Esti followed Shiri far longer than she should have. Going outside the castle for the first time in months. Blindly letting herself be led far from the safety the castle walls gave her. This area of the castle had been forbidden to her when she had been a lady. She wasn't sure how large it was, or anything more knowledge than a vague outline in her mind.

Esti hadn't been outside the castle since her first morning back. It was her unfamiliarity with the area, paired with her fervent desire to forget what had happened, her focus on trying to remember how to help a drowning victim that kept her from recognizing the trap. Not until it was too late.

Esti didn't know anything was wrong until she had entered a shed she had seen before, the smell of hay filling her senses, triggering her memories. There was no drowned sister in a well. "You should have died already" Shiri said before running out the back door. Every face save one from Esti's nightmares was in front of her once again. So much like the first time, that Esti's body knew it was past time to panic.

The day maid, had tricked Esti, leading her here. Esti had been stupid and trusting for a single moment. Wanting to save someone from drowning, Wanting to help was going to lead to her own end. "No." She had dared to say out loud. As if the simple, small word would be enough to save her now.

"Yes." Berny growled at Esti. A lifelong slave who savored the chance to hurt Esti. A pampered Castle princess for sixteen whole years. Luxury he would never once have a chance to know himself. Ever since he learned a highborn lady was going to be a slave, he had thought about how he could hurt and break her. A balancing of the scales in his mind. Flipping her first meal to the floor on her return was the most tame of his plans.