Indebted

27

Esti watched enraptured as Atticus pulled a black velvet bag from nothing. "How did you do that?" She had never seen anything like that before. No one at the castle could do anything like that, nothing even came close. Esti turned, making certain they were truly alone.

Atticus flourished his hand to reveal an intricately carved, twisted button on his cuff, "Enchanted," tapping the twin button on the bag. "It's not as impressive as it looks, I can only summon this." Raising the mysterious bag that was worth the enormous effort of the linking spell, magic Esti had only read about. Esti was still reeling from the ballroom; she had no idea what Atticus could have, it still felt like her mind had been struck by lightning or trapped under invisible bands of air. Leaving her unable to grasp at her thoughts. 

Their pace had slowed, they were in the oldest parts of the castle now. This hallway was supposed to be a dead end. Functionally it was. Unless one knew how to access the servant door to bypass the bricked over entrance to what had once been the secret retreat of Queen Savatt, Mother to Lord Magnus. The true legal wife of the previous Lord Magnus, Sixth of his name. Who had murdered his Lawful wife, many of his own children and loyal nobles after his dragon's concubine died in the birthing bed. Magnus the seventh of his name, was the only heir to survive the night. Over eighty had perished in the explosive fight that ensued to end the feral dragon king.

The latest King Magnus had ascended to his father's throne, had the ruined sections of the castle expunged. Nearly everything that had been damaged that night had been dismantled like it was never there. A similar event had occured a few generations ago; the source of the old castle Esti had camped in once.

Magnus however, could not destroy his mothers garden. Instead he had walled off his mother's tower. A monument, reaching into the sky. Left untouched. The cherry blossom tree still thriving to this day, sending a confetti of petals over the castle grounds each year, near the season of Queen Savatt's birthday. Someone was almost always executed during the week the blossoms were at their thickest in the air during the reign of Lord Magnus, Seventh of his name.

Atticus stopped short when he saw that the path ended, abruptly. The stones did not match those around them. He only had a moment to look confused before Esti moved a threadbare tapestry out of the way, finding a secret catch with her nimble little fingers, and revealing a cobweb strewn passageway. 

Esti smiled, a moment that was easy until her entire body remembered that even her skin felt too tight and wrong right now. The way Atticus looked at her, made her want him, viscerally, a need as strong as oxygen was to her body right now. Esti turned silently, and walked into the dark passageway. Esti didn't need to fear the dark any longer, her beast let her see even in the darkest spaces now. Senses and changes growing stronger.

Atticus gave her a sporting, several second head start, before he began to prowl after her. No one had been down this hall in a long, long time. Esti's scent was the only one in the hidden servant hall. Old and fresh at the same time. Esti, Atticus surmised that Esti might know this castle better than any living right now, or at least was the only one able to make use of the all the hidden features, the only one aware of so many secrets.

Atticus slowly followed Esti. Prowling on silent feet to prolong the chase and hunt. Finding her shoes first. Kicked off mid stride for his mate to continue on barefoot. Then her dress, carefully folded on a chair that until mere moments ago had been protected from dust and decay by a drop cloth. Protecting the ancient chair a little bit from the rot that was setting in all around it.

Next a pile of hair pins and fastenings were left for Atticus to find. Esti's scent stronger now as her long, thick hair swung free down her back as she continued to run. Stockings were next, as Esti led Atticus up the tower steps towards the Queen's Garden.