Heir to the Empire

17. Conscience - Loldirr

Goose feathers, straw, hay, wool. Loldirr had slept on them all, but nothing felt quite like the bedding she had been given in one of the guest rooms of Ravenscourt keep.

Despite the overflowing comfort, she found sleep almost impossible to come by until she eventually took to sleeping on the hard stone floor.

She deserved to sleep on the floor. Her punishment for not seeing that she had spent the last couple of months with her guardian's son without a single word of apology.

The events of the day before had been bizarre. She recalled the cries from Millendahl Darke as he was dragged away to the dungeon before Ethelston took steps to consolidate his power within the city guard.

Quickly capturing and imprisoning certain members of the city watch, including the Captain of the guard, it appeared that any chance for an uprising had been quickly quelled. But it also caused chaos within the ranks. Until further notice, all city guards were confined to the keep.

Loldirr remembered just standing there watching the chaos unfold, only concentrating on one thing. Because of her, Ethelston's had not known his father for the last eighteen winter's, because of her, his father had been brutally executed and left to rot in a village that no one knew existed.

That guilt knawed its way through her all day and night. As soon as she was allocated a room, she confined herself to it and refused to take a step outside.

Even when she was summoned for a hog roast, despite the hunger pains that terrorised her stomach, she refused to go.

No one had died from guilt as far as she was aware, perhaps she would be the first.

A small tap tap could be heard from outside. Loldirr gradually raised her head allowing her messy red and black hair to fall aimlessly towards the ground. The tapping continued once more but she didn't feel any enthusiasm to investigate it.

There was another tap followed by the creak of the hinges on her room's door. Stood in the doorway was a young mousy haired woman. She was probably only a couple of winters younger than Loldirr.

She stepped through in her black plain dress revealing a cute smile, exposing her sunken dimples. Her smile turned to shock when she spotted Loldirr lying on the floor.

"Milady, are you ok? Did you fall during the night?" she called out, rushing to Loldirr's side, her accent was smooth and delicate, almost as if she sang when she spoke.

Loldirr recoiled away almost out of instinct. It was when she spotted the young woman's face full of fear, Loldirr realised that her own face was frowning somewhat fiercely.

"I'm ok." Loldirr replied, her voice broken and tarnished. At least that was how it sounded to her.

"We can't have you falling off your bed milady, you'll catch a cold sleeping on the floor." the woman responded before standing and tidying the bed covers in a presentable manner.

"My da' says you'll catch the death of ya' if ya' sleep on the floor. He says he's done it a fair few times, and the chill goes to your bones. Not very nice from what I can tell." the young woman continued.

Loldirr looked at her in confusion as she babbled on about things of no relevance. Almost oblivious to Loldirr's presence, the young woman continued to tidy the bed.

"These feather beds are nice, much better than the floor, " the young girl continued, "my da' says that these beds are goose feathers. Our neighbour has a couple of geese. I don't think they have enough feathers for one of these beds."

Loldirr stood, wrapping her blanket around her, aware that she was wearing very little underneath and still rather muddy from yesterday's encounter. "Sorry, but who are you?" she asked. Instantly the young girl stopped what she was doing and looked directly at Loldirr.