Salvage ~ V1: Nuts and Bolts (Steampunk/ Gaslamp Romantasy ~ F/M, M/M)

Chapter 14: Much To Contemplate ~ pt.2

The next morning Kazia was summoned to see Mistress Amelys in her office. Upon arriving, Amelys did not invite her in, but handed her a parasol and led her out of the tower. The summer heat was almost unbearable, and Kazia held the parasol over the both of them as Amelys led her at a leisurely pace down the bailey toward the inner gate.

"Is the Seamist not working?" Amelys asked after strolling in silence for a while.

Kazia was confused.

"No, it seems to work as usual," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"You were on edge all last evening," Amelys answered. "And then there was your outburst when we returned. That isn't like you."

"Oh, that was just... Lord Meratha," Kazia said with a laugh. "He can be quite an irritant. It's nothing to worry about."

"No, if such a small slight from Kel is enough to provoke you, I find that quite worrisome. Are you sure there was nothing else?"

Kazia thought quietly for a long moment, replaying the night's events in her head.

"Master Ilianus," she said nervously.

"Are you not getting along with him?"

"Oh, no!" Kazia protested. "He's been lovely. I mean, I haven't really had much time to get to know him well. I only see him when he checks in on my work. But I've been wondering if I've ever met him before? Sometime in the past, I mean."

"I don't know where you would have met him," Amelys told her. "As far as I know he left Thalesia at eighteen and has been here in Elisaen the past fifteen years or so. What exactly is your concern?"

"Although he always appears to be so calm, his emotions are very turbulent, volatile even. So much so that without any context, I can't pin down what it is that he's feeling. Normally, I would say that's none of my business anyway, but he seems to have a certain interest in me. It always feels as though there's something he wants to tell me, but can't bring himself to say it."

"Do you think he knows of your abilities? I have told him nothing."

"No, I don't think that's it," Kazia said. "He doesn't react the way people usually do when they know that. There is no fear or hostility. He mostly seems a genuinely kind and gentle soul. If he weren't so... unhappy about something, I would probably enjoy his company quite a lot."

"I'm sorry, I can't think of what it could be," Amelys said. "Perhaps in time as you get to know each other better Tamyn will tell you himself."

"That was part of it last night," Kazia went on. "And I really was having a good time until Lord Meratha had to sour everything at the end. I was just tired. Mistress, where are we going?"

They had reached the gate in the inner castle wall and Amelys showed the guards her gate pass before leading Kazia through.

"Just around the corner here," Amelys said. "I have something to show you."

The outer ward surrounding the castle held a scattering of small outbuildings used for various purposes and was also planted with orchards of fruit trees, their shade very welcome in the Caedran summer. Rounding the corner of the inner wall, they came to a gate set in an iron fence, planted with a hedge of evergreen shrubs and overgrown with ivy.

Amelys unlocked the gate and led Kazia through into a large garden where beds of flowers and herbs bordered a long lawn of cropped grass. Two stacks of hay bales had been placed along the far side of the lawn. The scents of hay and freshly mowed grass stirred memories of the farm, and Kazia sadly remembered the thresher she hadn't finished repairing.