“Excellent. If you have anything you from your home, go and then return immediately. Cressa will handle the rest of the details, such as where you can sleep and when your shifts will be.” Marielle turned to talk directly to Cressa. “Inform Gillivan of the new hires and handle the rest of the arrangements. You did good work today, Cressa.”

With her orders given, everyone left the room. She knew Gillivan would no doubt be annoyed at the fact that they were hired without his consultation. He was their de facto top guard, despite her personal suspicions and it should have been his job to hire new and vet new guards.

The guards returned after a long period, no doubt having many things they needed to handle personally before they could dedicate themselves fully to their new position. Gillivan was there to welcome them in. Despite what Marielle thought, Gillivan was professional, welcoming and directing them without issues. Gillivan looked at Marielle as he assigned the shifts, Matais and one of the guards Heratio had hired would take the night shift.

“This is to be cautious, as we don’t know either pair well enough to trust you completely,” said Gillivan. The two assigned to the night shift weren’t too happy but voiced no disagreement.

The day passed after that quietly until dinner. A meal was served with all the new house staff in attendance. Augustus greeted them and welcomed them to their service. After, the sunset and the lantern were lit. She and Augustus played a game of stixis, then when their eyes grew heavy and their bodies chilly from the cool air, they went together to bed for the night.

Marielle opened her eyes to the complete dark. She had only slightly awoken, her memories of her dreams still fresh in her mind, her imagination still running rampant pulled her back to slumber, she was in a state of half-sleep. It felt like the middle hours of the night, the time between first and second sleep, but she could feel her husband still beside her, feeling that indent in the mattress created by his weight. She removed her blanket covers and went to the water to urinate, stepping quietly, opening and closing the door to the next room gently.

She navigated to the chamber pot, holding her hands out to bump into any obstacles first, allowing her to avoid bumping into the tub. She moved from memory and found the chamberpot without making too much noise. She wore a loose gown that covered her up, but with no undergarments, she could easily squat over the chamberpot and let loose without much difficulty. The sound of her spray, hitting the bowl and not splashing against water told her her husband hadn’t awoken yet. She got up, ready to return to bed when she heard faint murmuring.

Instead of coming from inside the house, where the still awake guards might be chatting, it came from the other side, from outside their windows. She froze in place at the sound. Perhaps the guards had gone outside to patrol around the building? She asked herself. She stepped silently, back through the door to her bedroom. The windows were shut, they could be forced open from the outside but that would create enough sound to wake the household. She stepped forward, moving to the nightstand until her arm grazed it, then grabbed the lantern and the flint they kept there. Striking the flint there would wake up Augustus, so instead, she moved out into the hall.

Once there she lit her lantern, and finally, she could see again. She heard noise from inside the building now, the sound of two people talking. She moved towards it, turning each corner carefully, moving to the opposite side to peer around it first before moving around it. If there were intruders, they would spot her immediately, her lit lantern being an unmissable beacon of her presence, but she was still attempting only to move into areas she had some sense of. She finally got to the corner that led to their reception room.

“Who’s there?” asked Matais. They had seen her light.

“It’s me, Marielle,” she said while turning the corner. They both stood up immediately, putting his hands over their chests.

“You’re awake, my Lady. It’s not quite the middle hours, trouble sleeping?”

“I think I heard something, some talking from outside the building. It woke me up.”

Matais squinted his eyes and pulled his sword out from its sheath. “We should wake up the house.” The other guard nodded. “Marielle, hang your lantern somewhere and find a safe spot, we will take of this.”

“Honestly, it might be nothing.”

“I’d rather be cautious on my first day on the job. We will wake up the rest of the guards then search the perimeter, just to be safe.”

The two split up, heading to the other guard’s beds and leaving her alone in the room. He was right, she thought exactly the same, but still felt she needed to say that it might be nothing, it was better to be cautious. She moved to another room, the room they ate dinner in, hung her lantern up. That room was next to the study, she opened that door and left it open, allowing the light to shine in. She went to the bookcase, to the exact location she remembered and grabbed the dagger she had hidden earlier that day.

She found a spot to hide, a dark corner that the light didn’t touch, in between bookcases, and waited. Eventually, she heard footsteps, again coming from outside the building and the rustling of leaves. This wasn’t the movement of confidence, the movement of her guards checking an area for intruders, these movements were trying to be stealthy, but in the calm and quiet of the deep night, those slight sounds of brushing against twigs and soft footsteps could be heard.

She could place the footsteps, they were just outside the window that was just across the room. Then, the window doors moved apart, ever so slightly. The latch that held them in place was put to its limit, they wouldn’t budge any further. But it allowed just enough space for a tool to slide between the window doors, a thin piece of metal with a u-shape at the end. They slid it through the bottom gap, then brought it up until it touched the latch, then they turned it. It undid the latch. It was like a clever key, she thought.