Royalties

Part 5: Shadow

Emrys

It seemed like Beck was warming up to me, ever so slightly. He didn't look at me like I was some criminal who murdered his whole family but somehow got off with a slap on the wrist. I could see that I was more human in his eyes. What wonders one on one time did to people. Rueben said that he'd give me an official tour and introduce me to the financial team later this week. He had some stuff to attend to before he had enough free time. Since he was going out of his way for me to be comfortable here, I was fine with whatever his schedule was. Anyway, it was nice to have a little vacation from work. I hadn't had one since... since I started working. I think I took a week off my first year in the company to go on a family trip, but since then, I didn't have any plans, and since I got the weekend off, I felt fine. Now that I had all this time to myself to relax and lounge around, I realized how much I needed it. My workload was crazy. But that's how these big companies work. They want you to quit after so many years so they don't have to pay you more when you get a promotion.

Rueben walked me back to my room after hearing about the fiasco that was last night.

"Yeah, I was too tired and got cocky," I explained as we walked.

"I'll remember to look out for that next time," Rueben said with mock seriousness.

Rueben left me at my door. I wasn't that tired, nor was it even that late, but there wasn't much to do. Now that I was alone with my thoughts, I wondered what to do. I didn't have any books to read, not that I had even thought about that as a pastime. Somehow during the day I had occupied all my time with one thing or another and I hadn't gotten bored. Well, I guess I spent most of the day wandering around the palace, and this place is so big that I don't think I even saw it all. The little courtyard I had found was nice, and I got to pet a cat, so it was a pretty successful day, all in all.

When Rueben had taken me to get my measurements for clothes, he had told Maurice that winter wasn't too far away, but I really didn't know what to expect. It was still fairly warm and the weather was nice. Even at night, it felt good to leave my window open and let the breeze in. If I wanted to, I could go throughout most of the day in shorts. So if this was what autumn was like here, I was pretty sure I'd like it. I had never liked super cold weather, and it was easy to get depressed when it was cloudy all the time. But, with my workload as of late, I didn't get much chance to see either the clouds or sun.

I opened my curtains and then the window and let the breeze in. As I pulled my chair up to the window, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. A black shadow of a figure passed by on the outskirts of my field of vision. My room looked out to the side of the palace, so there probably shouldn't have been someone sneaking about there. But because I didn't see them very clearly, I almost wasn't sure there was a person there at all. If someone was sneaking into the palace, I'd feel somewhat responsible if I didn't let anyone know, so I walked to my door and peered out. I hoped a maid or someone would be there so I wouldn't have to find my way towards Rueben or Beck. Sure I had gone to Beck's room a few times now, but that didn't mean I knew how to get there; and I had no idea where Rueben's room was. Luckily, there was a maid just outside my room.

"Hey, hey," I said, getting her attention. She walked over to me with a curious look on her face. "Would you go tell Rueben or Beck that I just saw someone suspicious outside my room? I'd get lost if I tried to tell them myself."

"Of course, ma'am," she said and scurried off.

The maid had done a good job hiding her surprise and worry about this possible intruder, but as she basically sprinted down the hall, I could tell that this wasn't going to be good. At the same time, this couldn't have been the first time someone had tried to break in like this, so hopefully the palace was well equipped and could handle one person.