"Ah! Milady, please don't!"
The maid who had come through the doors cringed in fear, but to her credit refused to drop the thick metal tray upon which some light refreshments were placed. A blush of embarrassment threatened to erupt across Evangeline's face, but she controlled it and lowered the sword from a directly threatening posture, the maid slowly unfolding from her bent position. Her eyes stared at both Evangeline and then the Emperor behind his desk, before focusing rather intently on the Rechtstahl. But Evangeline did not sheath the sword entirely, she could not. Her instincts were no longer screaming, but they were nonetheless murmuring in her ear.
"Well! I certainly feel safe," Magnus said brightly, causing both women to jolt slightly in surprise.
Evangeline turned about on her heel, shaking her head ruefully. It took a nod from the Emperor to cause the maid to continue her path into the room, though she circled as far as possible away from Evangeline as she went. At the same time, the Rechtstahl once more lowered to Evangeline's side. Eventually the small sandwiches and drinks were placed on their porcelain plates, and the maid straightened to hold the tray flat over her stomach to the right and behind the Emperor. She fidgeted when Evangeline looked at her, and Evangeline worked to strangle a deep desire to fidget herself. Long lacy white gloves stretched from fingertip to past the upper arm, the lace at the top waving in the air with every movement of the maid.
"You are wound quite tightly, Evangeline," he murmured, a hands folding beneath his chin. "I can imagine why."
"I…cannot apologize enough-," she ground to a halt as her new master shook his head.
"No, your instincts were good. You'll need them like that in the future. Leah was once one of the greatest assassins in the Old World," he spoke casually while tilting his head in the maid's direction. "You couldn't tell exactly what, but something was setting you off. That's a lot more than many manage."
Evangeline just stared, first at him, then the maid…who suddenly looked much less like a maid. The nervous ticks were gone, the tiny fidgets disappeared into lethal stillness, and the fear in the eyes simply evaporated. An annoyed pout replaced the worrying at the lip before that too smoothed itself away. In return, Evangeline suddenly looked at someone with some of the coldest gazes she'd ever seen. Most infuriatingly, the clothes still appeared natural on her, instead of just being a costume, which is what it should have been. Her mind was playing tricks on her even when she was aware of it!
A slow smile carved its way across the woman's lips as she watched Evangeline study her.
"I am…afraid I don't quite understand?" Evangeline spoke slowly, looking from Emperor to maid and then back again.
"You did not have to tell her," Leah spoke in a demure whisper, ducking her head with her words.
Were it not for how she kept a disturbing unblinking stare on Evangeline, it could have fooled many into thinking that she'd become nothing but a maid again.
"She has literally just become one of my main representatives to the outside world, Leah," Magnus looked at the maid with a raised eyebrow, "Things like this are going to come up, and I'll not have her stew in ignorance if it is not absolutely required." He adjusted in the seat slightly and glanced back towards Evangeline. "I have many shields, Evangeline, some of them are required to be less openly shown than others," he jerked his chin at Leah. "She is one of them…as well as being a capable maid."
A look of incredulity crossing her face was impossible to halt from forming. Leah, for her part, just smile wickedly before looking down pointedly at her tray. With slight, nearly imperceptible motions, the metal handles and edges of the tray clicked, then rotated. Evangeline watched, astonished, as two thin and serrated blades were drawn halfway out of the tray's body in previously hidden sheathes. Another simple push and slight twist and the handles of the blades were once more simply parts of the tray. One hand disappeared into the dress itself, unfurling a longer blade, one nearly a foot and a half long, from…somewhere within its ruffles. Once that blade was returned, a hand crossbow was withdrawn to replace it. Also from somewhere that could not be perfectly understood. Then a trio of vials of disturbingly colored liquids, which then disappeared. Leah, at that point, halted the process with a dainty shrug of her shoulders. One that, rather obviously, implied that it was not all she possessed.
"The tray has a sheet of gromril inside of it," the older woman said in her near whisper. "No runes, but…."
Evangeline did not gape, but she rather felt like she should have been.
"How did…why…," she finally managed.
"The why? I can answer that one simply," Magnus said as he grabbed a small sandwich. "Who better to protect from assassins than one of their own kind? As for how…," he looked meaningfully at Leah.
Leah sighed, looking entirely more put-upon than Evangeline thought she had a right to. Then she began to speak, which made things even worse.
"Once upon a time there was a little girl born in Marienburg," Leah began speaking in a disturbing tone reminiscent of a mother telling a bedtime story to children. "She was raised in a cult dedicated to the God of Murder. Her first murder was her own brother, at the age of five."
Evangeline could have done without the cutesy gasps and overly exaggerated expressions.
"She drenched her body and soul in the blood of innocents and guilty alike, all at the whims of her parents, who ruled the cell with an iron grip. They made money, and were allowed to constantly commit murder, for there were always those willing to pay for spilt blood."
The maid looked to Magnus, who nodded, and then placed the tray on the table. Her arms thus freed, she peeled away at one of the arm-length gloves with excruciating slowness. But the moment the glove was pulled past the elbow, Evangeline could see the way the skin twisted into melted and scarred masses. On top of that, however, were a vast number of tattoos and symbols belonging to only Goddesses – Verena, Shallya, Myrmidia, and Rhya. Once Leah made sure that Evangeline could see, the maid tugged the glove back upwards.
"The girl ascended in the cult to quite a high point, the God of Murder's markings were indelibly – or nearly so – inked from fingertip to elbow," Leah said with far too much warmth. "She was ready to ascend to the head of the cult itself, even, to slay her own parents as they had done to their own, but had to complete one final mission first."
Gloved fingers picked the tray up in a delicate grip.
"To murder an Emperor, whose reunited Empire was beginning to make it much harder for the cult to continue existing," Leah glanced at the Emperor. "So the girl, a woman then, went to do her work. She made it all the way into the Imperial Palace, to his very bedroom. He awoke, however, somehow, and instead of immediately striking her down…,"
Something gripped the maid, then, something that choked her words off. It took her a moment to continue.
"He talked to her. He just…talked to her. Like no one – no one – ever had," Leah's face gained a small, watery smile. "And five hours later, the God of Murder was renounced, forevermore. In return, as thanks, that woman has sworn to serve that Emperor until she dies."
There was something in that promise that tasted to Evangeline practically of a dwarf's oath.
"Thank you Leah," Magnus said, giving her a comforting smile. "You may go."
"Thank you, sir," the maid bowed deeply to him before heading on her way. "Lady Hertwig," she added as she passed Evangeline and out of the doors of the office.
Then they were alone once more.
"I'm not sure I understand," Evangeline said once more.
"Not everything is as it seems," Magnus answered, no humor in his voice whatsoever. "But now then, where were we…ah yes. Tell me of your journeys with the dwarfs, if you would."
"…all right?"
