Chapter 60: Going still
Third person’s POV
The following morning came with quietude unlike the loudness of the previous night. The day had fully broken but Stefan could still not be bothered.
Getting to sleep in a bed after the few days of using animal furs relaxed his bones in ways he couldn’t explain.
He turned to his left, exhaling softly through his mouth and the system decided it was time to interrupt his beauty sleep.
DING!
"Did you sleep well, Host?" It came soft this time, sounding conversational. Hearing the system using a soft, conversational tone this morning again made Stefan cocked his head in disbelief.
He had thought the system sounded soft to him last night because he leveled up and was expecting it to go back to its usual self.
"Did you sleep well, Host?" The system repeated.
Stefan chuckled without opening his eyes.
"Sarcastic little shit," he muttered. He knew exactly what this was, the system needling him about how he had put every mission, every duty, every damn thing on hold last night just to ’enjoy and sleep like the dead.’
"Merely confirming in order to be certain Host is ready for the daily tasks and whatever follows." the system replied.
Stefan smiled into the furs. "Of course you are. Coy little thing." He stretched, his bones popping. "I’m ready."
Afterwards, the system dinged with a notification.
[DAILY TASKS:]
• Do 100 push-ups — 100 AP + 1 Strength
• Do not eat anything sweet today — 100 AP
Stefan groaned at the push-ups, still recovering from the last time he had humiliated himself trying to hit ten, but the new stat attached to it caught his attention.
Strength. He had never had a number on that before. He wanted to know what it would feel like. More so the leveling-up with the Incubus physique developing seemed fascinating enough to Stefan and it required some training.
So without complaining, he got down from the bed and got on the floor, ready to challenge himself. But he had barely gotten into position when the door opened without warning. One of the Queen’s bodyguards walked in and when she saw him on all fours, the frown on her face deepened.
"You. Follow me. Now." She barked.
"Why?"
"You don’t question me."
Stefan’s brow lifted at that, and right on cue the system chimed.
"Authority may be applied here. Authority allows host to demand answers and respect proportional to its current value."
Stefan grinned. "Now the system is talking."
The system interface brought the attribute available, with the option hovering over it; Apply.
He clicked it into effect and instantly felt something settle straighter in his spine, and he pushed himself up off the floor.
"Why," he said again, slower this time, "do I need to follow you. Tell me the reason first."
The bodyguard’s jaw tightened. She looked at him a beat too long, like she was working out whether to strike him for the insolence or answer him, and something in her posture lost half an inch of its certainty before she spoke.
"The Queen has summoned you," she said, the words coming out almost reluctant, an afterthought dragged loose rather than volunteered.
Stefan blinked. This early? Why? He ran through the possibilities fast - the won-over Flowers, still lying in that wooden carriage waiting on him, or something worse, something with Kara’s name on it. He didn’t know which. But he decided it didn’t matter yet.
He put what authority he had to full use and fell into step beside the bodyguard instead of behind her, his chin level, his shoulders back.
"Shall we get going?" He asked sharply, looking at the woman innocently as if he hadn’t just used anything on her.
The woman glanced at him sideways, clearly disbelieving that a slave would dare walk shoulder to shoulder with her, but she said nothing because there was just something in him that was commanding some degree of authority. Something that the bodyguard couldn’t explain.
So she swallowed hard and leave him be.
Stefan kept his back straight the whole way and told himself, whatever waited on the other side of this, he was going to walk into it standing up.
~~~~~~~~
The Queen’s bedroom was obscene in its size, gold on every surface that could hold it, the morning light catching off the walls until the whole room seemed to glow from the inside.
Saffron stirred awake beneath layers of fine cloth, and her First lady-in-waiting moved to her side before she had even fully opened her eyes. The woman knelt and washed the Queen’s hands gently, water poured from a golden basin, and there was an ease between them that an outsider wouldn’t have expected from a woman who threw grown warriors into fountains for sport.
This woman was called Dove, and Queen Saffron was almost fully undressed in front of her, unguarded in a way she never allowed herself to be in front of anyone else.
Dove didn’t wait to be asked. She knew, the way only someone who had served a person for years could know, exactly what sat heaviest on the Queen’s mind that morning.
"The lady-in-waiting carrying the honor still hasn’t been found," she began to talk, soft, careful. "I sent the head of the court ladies to search among them. She wasn’t there. Neither was the honor."
Saffron’s face didn’t change at first. Then something sharp moved behind her eyes, and her voice, when it came, was low and furious in a way that made even Dove go still.
"She would dare embarrass me like this?"
"I shall have her found before the day ends," Dove said quickly, bowing her head. "You needn’t worry, my Queen."
Saffron didn’t look reassured. She looked like a woman deciding exactly how much blood this embarrassment was worth.
That was the moment the bodyguard announced Stefan’s arrival at the entrance.
"You said you’d be having a discussion with him first thing this morning so I sent a Flower to bring him." Dove said to the Queen.
Saffron’s head turned toward the doorway, her fury still simmering just beneath the surface of her face, not yet aimed anywhere in particular. She opened her mouth to speak.
But before a single word left her, the system dinged in Stefan’s vision, loud and sudden and formal in a way it hadn’t been all morning, and whatever scrolled out across that notification made Stefan’s mouth fall open, his whole body going still in the doorway of the Queen’s chamber.