The Shadow In the Palace

After checking on Sarah, Sav'era decided to mingle with the rest of the help for a bit. A palace was a place of tightly controlled chaos, and as much as the nobles wanted to project an image of grace and timeless beauty, it was actually maintained by a whole lot of rushing about behind the scenes and making sure that everything was constantly in a state of being used, being prepared or being cleaned.

It was easy enough to blend in with the others; no one looked aside at a new servant, and Sav'era was friendly, and joked and laughed and when given a task, she'd complete it swiftly and well. No one commented as she drifted through the underbelly of the palace, using the passages intended for the servants. She visited the massive kitchens, where hundreds of cooks and helpers laboured to feed the entire palace each day. The heat down there was sweltering, and the grim-faced head cook reminded her of certain demons she knew.

After this, she rotated to the laundry rooms where massive tubs of water and soap were being used to wash whole consignment of clothes. Thick-armed men and women were dunking the fabrics into the water and beating them with heavy sticks or scouring them clean. Sav'era did not spend much time here; she was recognised as an interloper and quickly fled.

Beyond this, there was the gardens. Every palace had gardens in Sav'era's experience. It seemed that the most peaceful benevolent king and the most power mad, bloody tyrant both agreed that gardens were an essential part of ruling. She'd never figured out why.

The gardens of the Palace of Sylant were impressive and majestic. A whole army of gardener worked on them each and every day. There was a hedge maze, and banks of colourful flowers. Bushes had been grown into various shapes, and there was a large pond near the centre where ducks and geese could be seen and fed (Or indeed, fled from in the case of the geese.)

Near the back of the gardens, there was a section devoted to more wild flowers which was overhung by a copse of trees. The shade there was promising and Sav'era made her ways toward it to rest for a few moments before returning to the palace proper.

She had hoped to find a few minutes of rest beneath the trees, but instead she found a crying woman.

That was the point when Sav'era knew that today was going to be an interesting one.