Chapter 7

Mandy's POV

Mandy gave the Vampiress a bored look and took a sip of her wine before gracing her with an answer. Mainly it was so she could get some moisture into her throat before all this talking triggered another coughing fit like the one she had in the halls on the way here.

"Anything may change at any moment." She replied mysteriously. She could tell that her aloof attitude was starting to get to some, including the Vampiress if the twitch in her eye she just displayed was any indication. She was getting some entertainment out of this. They had expected to be able to dance around her with questions and find out everything about her without her even realizing it, but instead of the sheep they had gotten the wolf who could dance their dance just as well or better than they. A stalemate had settled over the room for the moment, as they knew they could not press further without being outright rude, and she was not going to offer up anything more.

She finished her glass of wine and within moments of setting it down it was refilled. That was somewhat of a relief as it meant that she would not have to figure out how to sneak a cough drop. She wasn't really worried about being considered a lush as a few of the others were well into their cups by now, and it showed as the topic was turned onto other things and they began talking among themselves.

She knew that it was not over though, not by a long shot with the way that the Vampiress and the Purple-suit skeleton was keeping an eye on her (or...socket, whatever.)

The rest of the meal seemed to go more smoothly, mostly as many of the others had seemed to have grown bored with her for the most part. She kept herself from becoming bored by taking mental notes as the night wore on on who would be useful to her and who might cause her some problems. Most of them were of little use, too content with staying within the bounds of their own little Court nonsense. The one with the multiple tentacles was friendly enough and might be a good source of information. The Vampiress she was fairly certain she could win over to help her with getting rid of the High Engagement, but she was still unsure of the skeleton.

Grim's POV

He inwardly cringed. Something he seemed to be doing a lot lately, this time at Mandy's cryptic response. He would have to keep a close eye on her. With responses like that, as level-headed she could be at times there was still a great possibility that she would do something stupid. All in the name of getting rid of their High Engagement.

He couldn't blame her for that, really. It wasn't as though he was too thrilled about it either, but for the moment he was glad that her cryptic remark seemed to have shut up the others for the moment. He could tell that the Vampiress was rather annoyed and he smirked at that. That was another burr in her saddle and to see her annoyed greatly amused him. He didn't like her.

The tedious meal stretched on farther than he would have liked, but eventually ended as tired Lords and Ladies pleaded exhaustion and excused themselves. Grim nodded to the others as they left in ones and twos and, glancing an eye at a equally tired Mandy, decided it was high time to retire as well.

He stood, nodding to everyone left, and thanked them for joining them. They were free to linger in the castle if they wanted, even after he and his...fiancée, retired. He turned to Mandy and held out a hand to help her rise, doubting that she would even take it. She looked up at him, seemingly echoing the thought of it being ridiculous for him to even offer, but took it to his surprise after rising a little.

He guided her around her chair in a smooth gesture and whisked her out of the dining hall with her arm tucked into his. The moment they were alone in the corridor she finally tugged her arm free and continued along on her own.

"You should rest. Tomorrow will be...busy. Paperwork an' such." His voice sounded about as thrilled with what tomorrow held as she probably felt. They both had a lot of reading ahead of them, her perhaps more than him as he already knew a lot of it, but he certainly had much more writing to do. Preparations, invitations, equipment and decorations to order...The list already seemed endless.

"Paperwork?" Mandy echoed.

"Yeh. Laws, workings of da' kingdom and reapin' ya' gonna need ta' know." It wasn't at all long before they reached her rooms, next to his. The doors were elegantly carved in fanciful whorls of plants, animals and richly dressed skeletons astride equally skeletal horses in some kind of hunt scene. She had not noticed it when she had left them earlier in the evening.

"Get sum sleep. Goodnight." He had not completely missed the lines under her eyes and the way she weaved as she walked. Or that without his help, she would have not made it out of that chair as she had. She was plainly still sick, though stubborn as ever.

He did not kiss her hand before he retreated, as a fiancée might. He wasn't stupid, at least when it came to self-preservation. Kissing a charging Rhino would be a wiser choice, and would most likely do less damage to his anatomy. He did however, open the door for her and gave a stiff nod, not quite a bow, and left her standing in the doorway as he swiftly walked the short distance down the corridor to his chambers. His door was carved even more than hers, bearing some sort of coat of arms and the frame carved into geometric patterns similar to those on his robes with words in some sort of ancient language woven around the portal.

Mandy's POV

Grim disappeared into his rooms without a backwards look. Mandy thought for a moment to go exploring, now that she was unsupervised, but decided against it as another wave of nausea and dizziness made her grip the door. It was only that which had made her take his hand earlier when leaving the dining hall. Once they had gotten to the corridor the feeling had passed enough for her to pull away without falling over. She was still very sick, needed to lay down, and desperately wanted out of the restricting dress that was beginning to chafe a little.

She stepped into her rooms, closing the door behind her and wasn't really surprised to see a servant waiting for her. Not the one she had scared before she noted, but one that looked a bit like a tall Brownie. Her hair was the same dark brown as her leathery skin, which made it seem as though she had a spiky mane under her head scarf. She quickly rose from the fireplace she was tending and bowed.

"If ya' will Lady, we kin git ya' outta dat' dress an' into a prop'r bath an' warmed bed." Her accent was heavy, though Mandy understood enough and allowed her to draw a bath for her and help her undress. With the corset and numerous petticoats, she wouldn't have been able to get out of it herself without ruining the fabric and passing out from exhaustion. And she was already ready to do the latter.

She took a short bath, during which she had banned the servant from the room who would have tried to help her with shampooing. She dried herself and dressed in the simple sleeping gown laid out for her, surprised and annoyed at how much those simple tasks drained her. Clearly all this running around was doing her no good at getting better.

She finally exited the bathing room after making some use of the privy. It had taken her a moment to find the flushing chain. Though there were some modern things in the castle, it seemed that great pains had been made to at least make the new additions fit in with the old decor.

The servant didn't seemed surprised or hurt when she slapped away her hands when attempting to arrange the blankets around her body. She seemed to be figuring out Mandy's disposition and started to back off at her silent cues. She retrieved the hot bricks that had been used to warm the bed before Mandy got in, put them back in their sheltered spot on the hearth and left Mandy with a little bow.

Once alone and settled, Mandy struggled to stay awake to plot her moves for tomorrow, but between the warmth and comfort of the soft bed she finally succumbed to much needed sleep with a slight frown.

Later the next morning...

She felt as though she was back in collage again. Breakfast had been a short, tense affair with only the few courtiers that seemed to have stayed overnight in the castle (their own homes being too far away to leave that night.) Afterwards she and Grim had been whisked away in different directions. Him surrounded by Advisors in the direction of either the Audience hall or perhaps a study. She was pulled in a tide of well dressed hand maidens and a couple Schoolers, towards a huge Library as she soon found out.

If there was anything of hers that could be called a passion, it was that of reading. It was enormous, two stories tall with sweeping stair cases, a scattering of comfortable looking furniture, and rolling ladders with brass fittings. She very much wished she could shake her escorts and go exploring, her fingers itching to wander among the neat shelves and their treasures.

Instead she was to sit, study the ancient tombs laid out on the table before her while an ancient stick of a man droned on about the contents. Granted the chairs were as comfortable as they looked, but it was not much comfort against the dry lecture she was getting.

"Enough!" She interrupted his flow of dialog, startling him into momentary silence as though he had quite forgotten she was there at all.

"I can read them just fine myself, so shut up will you?" She growled. If it wasn't for the fact that she was hoping to find something that would help get rid of the High Engagement among the stacks on the table (not to mention that they were interesting in themselves) she would have stormed out of the wonderful Library long ago if only it meant that she would get away from his high and dry ramblings.

The man could positively make anything sound boring!

He gaped at her for a moment, his face going purple before he made a offended sound and stormed from the room. The others sitting nearby were shocked, but also somewhat relieved as it meant that they were no longer in danger of falling asleep from listening to him either.

Smirking, she turned back to the books and scrolls. The history of the kingdom she had skimmed over mostly. She would take a book back with her to read when she could, but at the moment she was more absorbed in finding out more about the High Engagement and possible ways she could dissolve it. They were little real help. Whoever had written these accounts had been at the very least a closet romantic, as they were written in such a flowery way that each account of a High Engagement had a sort of 'Happily Ever After' twist to the end spanning the entire history of the spell from it's birth to current day. She wish she could meet whoever wrote it and slap them silly...sillier...some of these were almost cavity-inducing.

"Is there anything else on this High Engagement? Any other texts that describe how it will progress other than this drivel?" She demanded, pushing the last tome in the stack away from her in disgust. That one had been written by a worse author than the previous. They stared at each other for a bit, then shook their head as one. For some reason their hive-mind behavior angered her more than the answer she got and she stormed away from them to search the stacks herself.

The door to her room never made any noise, she noticed. Aside from the click of the latch it was quite silent for it's size and weight. Again, she had someone else open it for her, though this time was a passing servant she had appropriated to carry the books she wanted to look at later. She had chased the group of handmaidens out of the library hours ago, as they never broke from their annoying habit of acting as one. So creepy.

She hadn't found much, but there were a couple promising books among the stack the young Page was burdened under. All of the "official" books or books that specifically talked about High Engagements had been among those on the table. Still, she would look through these and see if there was anything that was missed and in second thought she had also grabbed a couple of the history books she had only skimmed through by the barest of margins. She hadn't been told that she couldn't remove books from the library, either by the gaggle back there, the Historian or the Page. So she had also grabbed those that interested her on other levels.

The Page deposited the heavy stack on the first table he came across, nearly knocking over a slender small vase, bowed and then hastily exited the room, probably to get away before she could think of anything else to make him do. She left the books on the stand by the door for the moment to investigate a small parcel on the table sitting on the table by the fireside chair. It was wrapped simply, with brown paper and string. She didn't want to touch it, really. She was sure to have some strong enemies in this world who wouldn't think themselves above getting rid of her, even in such a direct manner as placing a bomb in her rooms. Then again, it could be a gift from one of her supporters, or even something from Grim, though she doubt that he would present it in such a way. She was debating whether or not she should touch it or leave, or get someone else to investigate it when she noticed a folded piece of paper on the floor nearby. It looked much like a card, one that had possibly been propped upright on the table and had fallen or blown off. She picked that up and read the short message inscribed in stiff-handed print.

Freedom awaits. Enjoy.

A moment after she had finished reading the short message, the words shimmered and the paper crumbled to ash in her hand. Freedom, huh? She reached for the parcel, certain now that it wasn't something that would blow up. She hefted it in hand for a moment, staring down at the plain packaging. It felt like a book...Upon investigation, that proved to be true. As plain as the wrappings it had been in (which also crumbled to ash after removal) the book appeared to be more of a journal. The text inside was handwritten in a slanted and cramped style. Some parts of it dissolved into handwriting so bad that it made her eyes water to attempt to read it. Several words caught her eye though and it was fairly obvious that this is what she had been looking for...

But who had left it for her?