The Shadow Falls

The Shadow Falls

The Shadow Falls

“Sister Myne, would you consider taking on a new attendant to replace Delia?”

“Do I need a new one right away?” I wasn’t living in the temple like I had been during the winter, so as far as I was aware there wasn’t enough work to require immediately replacing Delia.

“The sooner the better.”

Now that Dirk was gone, Fran could sleep at night and handle the more physical labor with Gil. Rosina, however, didn’t want to hurt her fingers doing chores, and Fran went on to explain that it would be better for everyone if Delia was replaced soon.

“If I may speak frankly for a moment, I know that you are still worrying about Delia and have a tendency to be soft on those you care about. It would be easier for me to relax if there was someone other than Delia here for you to direct your compassion toward.”

I fell silent, unable to disagree that I was still soft at heart. He must have seen me looking around the room aimlessly for Delia at times, and in the end, Fran was right: it was more important for me to work toward easing Fran and Rosina’s worries than for me to keep worrying about Delia, who was gone and would stay gone.

I sighed and briefly lowered my eyes. “...If I am to pick one from the gray shrine maidens, perhaps Monika and Nicola will do?” They had both helped Ella cook throughout the whole of winter. Wilma had recommended their services, and I already knew they were diligent workers, not to mention that I could entrust both chores and helping the chefs to them.

In reality, since the Italian restaurant was on the verge of completion, all of the chefs except for Ella would soon be leaving. Ella wanted to stay to learn more recipes, and I had already negotiated with Benno to make that a reality. It had worked out for the best anyway since we needed someone to direct the new chefs Benno would be sending our way. Plus, it would be easiest for Ella to work with Monika and Nicola since they already knew each other.

“Monika and Nicola? Sister Myne, would you be capable of taking both on at once?” Fran, knowing the financial state of my chambers, whispered his concerns to me in a low voice. It was true that they might be a slight strain on my wallet depending on the season, but I already had more orders for the games we had made for our winter handiwork, and if the picture books continued to sell well then I would be perfectly fine.

“They both worked hard over the winter, didn’t they? If I only picked one of them to be my attendant then it would be hard to ask the other to help again. Ultimately, I think it would be best to take them both on at once.”

“I do not believe you need to concern yourself with the feelings of gray shrine maidens, Sister Myne.” Rosina gave a bemused smile, but there was a big difference between living in the orphanage and living as an attendant. It would be hard to pick just one while knowing that.

“It will be easier to rest with them as your attendants instead of Delia,” Fran interjected. “Shall I go and summon them?”

“Please do. They have no experience as attendants, so the faster we get them involved the more time we will have to train them. Fran, will you be available to teach them?”

I wanted them to learn their duties before the Italian restaurant opened and took most of our kitchen staff, but Rosina was too concerned about hurting her fingers to be a proper example for cleaning. Either Fran or Gil would need to teach them, but that would be a lot harder to arrange if Fran didn’t have the time.

“Now that I can entrust paperwork to Rosina, I will have enough time.”

“Then contact Wilma and we can go to the orphanage tomorrow.”

We settled our plans for tomorrow, and at that moment there was a knock on the door. My attendants would come in at will without knocking, while temple residents like the High Priest and his attendants used a bell. The only people who knocked were Lutz and Tuuli—people from the lower city.

“Is that Lutz? He’s a bit early today.” Not much time had passed since fifth bell. I went to the stairs and peered down at the first floor while Fran walked down the steps to welcome the visitor.

Damuel opened the door with a tense expression. Lutz was there, as expected, but Tuuli was actually there with him.

“Please, come in.” Fran gestured the two of them inside, and as the door was being shut behind them I heard Gil yell “Hold on a sec!” from somewhat far away. Fran waited with the door open for a bit until Gil eventually came running inside, gasping for breath.

“Tuuli, what happened?”

“We came to get you, Myne. Let’s go home together.” Tuuli smiled as she watched me race down the steps. “Things are dangerous right now, aren’t they? I’ll protect you, Myne!” she declared while thumping her chest.

Gil planted his feet firmly on the ground and puffed out his own chest as if competing with her. “I’ll protect you Sister Myne! I’m your attendant!”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, you two, but I think this will just make things harder for my bodyguard.” I looked up at Damuel, who would need to guard all of us kids, and he gave an exasperated shrug.

“...Yeah, the more people there are for me to protect, the more dangerous it gets.”

“Right? Please forgive them just this once, Sir Damuel. Tuuli didn’t know.”

There was no going back now that they had all arrived. It was a bit sooner than expected, but I decided to go home with everyone. Rosina helped me change and quickly prepared for my departure.

“Fran, please send word to the orphanage. I will be hurrying home now.”

“Understood. I await your safe return.”

We left the temple, walking down the street with Lutz and Gil in front, me and Tuuli behind them, and Damuel behind us.

“I appreciate the thought, Tuuli, but you really shouldn’t walk me home like this,” I warned.

“Why not?”

“If something dangerous happens, Sir Damuel will have to focus on protecting me. He may not be able to protect us both at once if you’re here with us.” Damuel may have been a knight, but he couldn’t do everything. And naturally, he was here to guard me, not her; my safety would be his priority in an emergency, and there was no guarantee he would be able to save Tuuli if anything happened. He might have to abandon her while fleeing with me, and worst-case scenario she might be taken as a hostage to be used against us.

“If anything, you’re in more danger here than I am.”

“...Okay.” Tuuli puffed out her cheeks and frowned at me, pouting. I knew that she wanted to say she could protect me too, but not even her cute face would change the facts. Me being in danger was one thing, but I couldn’t let Tuuli put herself at risk like this.

We passed through the central plaza and headed south to Craftsman’s Alley, then took a turn that would lead us home. We headed down a side path with fewer people than the main road, and there we saw Otto, of all people. He was holding a spear and looking around as he walked, entirely as if patrolling the city.

“Hi, Otto. It’s been a while.”

“Myne!” Otto’s face lit up the second he saw me. “I’m glad you’re safe. Seriously. Now I don’t have to worry about the captain beating me to death.”

The fact that this was his reaction to seeing me was more than a little unsettling. Had he done something that would encourage Dad to beat him to death?

“...Otto, what did you do?”

“Hey, it wasn’t me. It was the commander of the east gate and the guards on duty,” Otto replied with a shrug. Apparently he had been inside doing paperwork when the guards standing at the gate and the commander made some mistake that would be worthy of Dad beating them to death; he had just been sent out here to try and clean up their mess. “It happened this afternoon, when the captain contacted the commanders of every other gate and went to the center of town to tell them something important.”

“Wha?” I widened my eyes. That important something was probably the fact that the archduke was absent and there would be no new permits given. I had a really bad feeling about what was coming next.

According to Otto, despite Dad being on afternoon shift, he had gone to work at the east gate long before it was time to switch shifts. He immediately went to the commander, explained the circumstances, and had him organize a meeting with the other commanders in the center of the city. There he told them what Damuel had told him—that the archduke was absent and that there might be forged permits—before returning to the east gate.

“By the time the captain came back, they had already let a noble’s carriage train through. The commander of the east gate hadn’t told the guards anything, so they never even considered that the permit might be fake. The captain only learned of their mistake when it was time for his shift. He blasted the heck out of the commander for not telling all of the guards what he’d said, then ran off to the temple to make sure you were okay. You didn’t see him there?”

I instinctively looked up at Damuel, more concerned about the fact that a noble’s carriage train had been let inside than the fact I had missed Dad on the way here. His eyes were open wide in disbelief.

“They let carriages through?! Don’t tell me, was it the same noble from the other day?”

“Yep. You sure know a lot—it was the one and the same. Right now all the guards at the east gate are looking for them, but nobody’s found them. Maybe they’re already in the Noble’s Quarter? I would have thought that knights at the north gate would have caught them there, though,” Otto wondered aloud. It seemed that despite the archduke having forbidden the entry of nobles from outside the city into the duchy, not all soldiers shared the same sense of danger and urgency.

“You contacted the Knight’s Order, didn’t you?!” Damuel shouted, his eyebrows shooting up in anger, but Otto put a hand on his chin and had to think before answering.

“...Who knows? Maybe the commander did. The captain ran off straight away, so maybe they don’t know yet.”

“You should have reported this immediately, fool!” Damuel immediately took out his shining wand as he yelled at Otto for his lack of urgency. He ignored Otto—who was murmuring “Huh? Wait, you’re a noble?” after seeing the wand appear out of thin air—and shot the red light signaling a call for aid into the air.