Surrendered To The Lord Of Sin

The corridor seemed colder than it had moments ago. Lucrezia walked without a particular destination in mind, her fingers curled loosely around the fabric of her sleeves.

She had left his chamber in such a hurry that she had scarcely thought about where she was going. All she had wanted was to get away from him, away from the terrifying sight of his red eyes and the crushing strength of his hand around her wrist.

Now that she was away, however, she found herself wishing she had thought things through.

She could not return to his chamber. Not tonight. The thought alone made her stomach tighten.

She could still remember the expression on his face when he had ordered her to leave. It had not been anger alone. There had been something else beneath it, something she could not quite understand. And although she knew he had not intended to hurt her, the memory of his grip was enough to make her uneasy.

She glanced down at her wrist.

The redness had begun to fade, but the faint impression of his fingers remained. She rubbed the spot with her thumb, then quickly lowered her hand when she heard footsteps approaching.

A young woman came around the corner carrying a basket of folded linens. She had deep brown skin, dark eyes, and a thick mass of black curls gathered beneath a white headscarf.

Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and a few loose strands had escaped around her face. She was walking briskly, apparently occupied with whatever task had been assigned to her, until she noticed Lucrezia standing alone in the corridor.

For a moment, Lucrezia couldn’t recognise her. "My lady?"

The girl slowed at once, shifting the basket against her hip before offering a small curtsy.

At last, she recognised her. The servant assigned to her.

She had seen her several times since arriving at Blackvale, usually carrying out errands or speaking with the other servants.

There was something familiar and unassuming about her presence, a welcome contrast to the stiff formality that seemed to surround nearly everyone in the castle.

"Good evening," Lucrezia greeted her.

"Good evening, my lady." The servant’s gaze briefly travelled over her face before returning to her eyes. "Are you looking for someone?"

Lucrezia hesitated.

It was a simple question. There was no reason for it to trouble her, and yet she found herself struggling to produce an answer. She had not expected to encounter anyone, much less someone who might ask her where she was going.

"Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"Of course." The girl adjusted the basket in her arms. "What is it?"

Lucrezia glanced down the corridor, then back at her. "Is there anywhere else I might stay tonight?"

The servant blinked. "Somewhere else?"

"Yes," She said. "Perhaps an empty guest chamber, or a room that isn’t being used. I don’t need anything particularly grand. Just somewhere quiet."

The girl’s expression changed slightly. She looked at Lucrezia more carefully this time, as though trying to determine whether she had misunderstood.

"Is everything all right, my lady?"

The question was gentle, but it caught Lucrezia off guard. She had been so occupied with finding a place to go that she had not considered how strange the request might sound.

She was, after all, staying in the chamber of one of the Seven Sins. Asking a servant to find her somewhere else in the middle of the evening was hardly ordinary.

"Yes. Everything is perfectly fine." The answer came too quickly.

The servant did not appear convinced.

Lucrezia offered a small smile, hoping to make the matter seem less serious than it was. "Lord Vaeron has been away for several days, and he has only just returned. I imagine he needs some rest. I wouldn’t want to disturb him."

It was not entirely a lie.

He did need rest. She had seen how exhausted he was, how the fresh scars on his face pulled whenever he moved. She had also seen him nearly drown in his own bath, though she had no intention of explaining that to anyone.

The servant glanced toward the direction of Vaeron’s chamber. "Oh."

A quiet understanding seemed to settle over her features, although Lucrezia could not tell precisely what she had understood.

"He’s been working with the Elders," The girl said. "Everyone has been talking about it. They say the wards are failing again."

Lucrezia’s attention sharpened at that. "Again?"

The servant nodded. "That’s what I heard," She said. "The guards have been changing their patrols, and some of the servants have been told not to go beyond the inner courtyard after dark. Nobody has explained much to us, though."

Lucrezia tried to keep her expression neutral. She had heard fragments of the disturbances before, but very little that could be called an explanation.

The wards. The phantoms. The strange attacks. And now the servants were being restricted as well.

"Has anything happened inside the castle?" she asked.

"Not that I know of." The girl paused, then added, "But people are frightened. They just don’t like admitting it."

Lucrezia understood that feeling rather well. She had spent so much of her life learning how to conceal her own fear that she could recognise it in others, even when they tried to hide it behind ordinary conversation.

She looked at the servant again. "I see."

The girl shifted the basket in her arms. "But, my lady, if Lord Vaeron is unwell, wouldn’t it be better to have someone attend to him?"

She gave a faint smile. "He doesn’t like being attended to."

The words escaped before Lucrezia could reconsider them.

The servant’s lips twitched, as though she were suppressing a smile. "That sounds like Lord Lust."

Lucrezia almost smiled herself, though the title diminished the expression almost immediately. An unsettling feeling settled in her stomach. It would take her quite a long while to get used to that name, she thought.

The memory of his eyes returning to hazel, of the way he had stared at her as though he could not quite understand what she was doing there, quickly erased it.

"He was already resting when I went to see him," She continued, carefully choosing her words. "I only meant to bring him something. I think I startled him, and I would rather give him some peace for the rest of the night."

That, too, was true. At least, it was the part of the truth she was willing to share.

The servant studied her for a moment longer. Then her eyes lowered briefly to Lucrezia’s wrist. "Did he hurt you?"

Lucrezia instinctively drew her hand closer to her body. "No."

The girl did not look away.

Lucrezia felt a small, uncomfortable pang of guilt. She did not want the servant to think badly of Vaeron. Nor did she want to explain the circumstances of what had happened.