The Sword and The Shadow

"Sis Annie… What really happened to Big Brother Leguna?" Eirinn was called out by Alaine the next day. Alaine didn't know what really happened, but she could tell Annelotte was worried about something.

She knew that Annelotte wasn't someone who showed her feelings openly, so she was quite shocked when she heard her bring up Leguna. She quickly ran to Eirinn and yapped a ton, causing the half-elf to lose all color on her face. The way Alaine made it sound, Leguna was at the brink of his death and about to pass.

"Miss, I'll be excusing myself now." Alaine knew that the three women and Leguna had an intricate relationship while she was a mere maidservant of no real consequence. There were some things she didn't deserve to know.

"Thanks for all that," Annelotte said with a grateful nod.

Though Alaine still felt a little gloomy, she left all the same.

As Annelotte's maidservant, she had quite the relaxed schedule as Annelotte didn't really need much from her. She would only help her with some simple errands and take care of her daily needs.

Now that Annelotte was occupied in the discussion with others, Alaine found herself with nothing to do.

I wonder what I should do today… Let's go shopping then!

She had to admit that Annelotte was a great mistress to have and had never lorded over her with her status. Whenever she had something she needed Alaine to do, she wouldn't hold back and ask her to do it, but she wouldn't get mad either if Alaine if she couldn't manage to finish her task for some reason. The most she would get is an interrogation, but that showed Annelotte's concern for her more than the task itself.

Having enough time and a good pay, she found her life to be really fulfilling. But she seldom went out as she loved to serve Annelotte, the glacial empress that shook the whole continent, and took pride in it. When she had nothing better to do, she would usually stay somewhere Annelotte could get to her at a moment's notice so as to serve her better.

But for some reason, Alaine felt really annoyed that day. She did know the reason, however. It was how badly Leguna had been doing. She liked him, but had been excluded by a group of women who also felt the same, hence her bad mood.

She didn't really blame them, but she couldn't help how she felt. So, she decided to shop it out!

"That darn lecher… Even though he's so sneaky and bad… How could anything bad happen to him? I'm sure he's thinking up a plan to trick the ladies…" Alaine cursed as she walked about. If anyone heard her, they would be able to pick up on the concern laced between her words.

And someone did, in fact, hear her. Someone walked up behind her and said in a gentle and stable voice, "Something did happen to Sir Leguna, but it isn't anything life-threatening."

Alaine gave a start and turned around, only to find Leguna's assistant there. What was his name again? I think the mistress called him… Xeno?

"Good day, Miss Alaine." Xeno didn't look as calm as he sounded. The slender Stokian seemed to be blushing slightly and behaving rather sheepishly, a side of him he never showed when he was with Leguna!

"Is there anything you need?" Alaine said with an annoyed look.

"I can't visit you unless I need something?" he said with the stiff tone he used with Leguna. Xeno had been raised as a disposable death assailant, so he had far too few experiences with romance.

Alaine looked at Xeno with some surprise, but she didn't pick up on the subtler hint. After all, Xeno's status was far above her own. A little curious, she said, "Weird… aren't you usually really busy?"

"I got a rare break today. Want to go shopping together?" His face reddened even further.

"Fine, but you'll have to help me carry my stuff. I'm in a rather bad mood today, so I'll be buying my heart out!"

……

As the dense Alaine and the restless Xeno were shopping together, Annelotte and the other two women began their session about Leguna.

"He's not in mortal danger," Annelotte said, "but his mind received a huge shock."

"What in the world happened?" Eirinn asked anxiously.

"I'm sure you all know he went to meet someone yesterday, right?"

"Yes. I've heard him bring it up, but he didn't tell me who and tried to play it mysterious. I did recall he seemed rather excited about it though," Innilis said.

"Of course he was. The person he went to see was Kurdak," Annelotte said with a sigh.

"Uncle Kurdak?"

"Big Brother Kurdak?"

"That's right. It should've been a happy reunion, but…"

"But what?" Eirinn's voice began to shake. She knew something terrible must have happened for Leguna to be in that state. Did Kurdak die?

"Did something happen to Uncle?" Innilis guessed. Her face was pale and her voice shaky. "Was he…"

"It's far worse. He's fine, but he tried to kill Leguna."

"What?!"

"Why?!"

The two girls were dumbstruck.

"I don't know either." Even though Kurdak did state his reason and convinced Leguna that was the case, Annelotte didn't believe it. There were few suspicious points about Kurdak's behavior, and she instinctively felt something was wrong. She couldn't rely on her memories to judge what happened in the past, but that didn't stop the innate feeling she got, which usually turned out to be rather accurate.

"How could it happen?" The two girls weren't able to accept such an explanation. Kurdak trying to kill Leguna was just as unbelievable as Leguna trying to kill them!

Annelotte pondered for a moment before telling the story from the beginning. However, she did keep the back-to-back chat session he had with Leguna to herself.

The two girls listened with a look of wonder and doubt. However, the reason Kurdak gave made sense and didn't have any real flaws, much to their disappointment.

Annelotte looked at the two and said, "It's not time to think about that. What we need to do is to think of a way to get that fellow back up."

"What should we do?" Innilis asked.

"It's simple." Annelotte turned to Eirinn confidently. "Eirinn, we need you for this."

"Me?" she said, pointing her finger at her self with surprise.

"That's right, only you. Thanks to what happened not long ago, Innie isn't a good candidate. Only you can console him and get him to recover."

Innilis's face darkened for a moment, but she knew it wasn't time to mull over that matter. She soon looked back up and pretended that she was completely fine with it.

Eirinn patted Innilis's back gently. "Then… What about you, Sis Annie?"

"I won't do either. He doesn't trust me now. Also, his matters are none of my business."

The two girls found her last sentence to be quite weird. Even though she had gone through all that trouble to get them to convene to settle his problem, she claimed that she had nothing to do with it. Her reason couldn't be weaker.

"That's why, Eirinn, only you can do this," Annelotte said, gazing at her solemnly.

She gave it some thought and nodded. "I'll give it a try!"

……

Surprisingly, Eirinn didn't immediately go to Leguna after their discussion. Instead, she rushed back to the church to deal with the patient's injuries.

Innilis and Annelotte were quite perplexed, but Annelotte didn't have anything to say . She knew that Eirinn was the best at what she did and left it to her.

Eirinn left Leguna alone for two days. During the night of the second day, she made some food and brought it to the door that had remained shut the whole time. She made Leguna's favorite dishes herself.

"Big Brother…" Eirinn knocked on the door gently and called out, "You haven't eaten for two days. You must be hungry, right? I made some food. Can I come in?"

There was no response, but Eirinn wasn't the slightest bit surprised. She smiled warmly and teased, "If you don't answer, I'll let myself in! I have a divine miracle for unlocking doors."

She no longer cared to wait for a response and immediately opened the lock.

Innilis poked her head out from a corner of the room with a small notebook in hand. She was taking notes with the quill in her right, before prodding her cheek with the other end of the quill as she muttered, "I see… so it's best to leave Big Bro alone first and let him sort himself out… then make an approach with food? Hmm… it does make a good excuse to go to him… What does he like to eat? I don't think I can copy that exactly… what about…"

Innilis continued to mutter to herself as she seriously took notes.