Blake sat in a flower field, several flower and the nymph is with her. She came out here once a week to walk beneath the rays of the sun and let it kiss her face. She wasn't like her parents who could stay in the underworld all hours of the day. It wasn't a bad place, but it wasn't sunshine, rain, and fresh air. She relished being on the surface as a change of pace from the eerie light of the underworld. It wasn't a bad place and the only place she'd known as home. but once she'd experienced real sunshine, she couldn't get enough of it.

  “Anyway, girls, it's probably about time I headed home," Blake said. The nymphs frowned and let out a collective sound of disappointment. "Sorry; I've already overstayed. I promise I'll be back next week." It always felt bad to leave the warmth of the surface, but her parents trusted her to come home on time. It was already hearing sunset and she'd promised to be home by dinner. She knew her parents wouldn't be angry-they weren't the kind to fly off the handle- but they would be worried and disappointed. Sometimes That disappointment was worse than anger…

  She stood and started to make her way to the edge of the flower field, but she stiffened as she heard something.

  The screams from the nymphs were followed almost immediately by her own as she felt arms wrap around her waist. She found herself hoisted onto somebody's shoulder and she pounded against their back. "Let me go! Unhand me, you cur!” She writhed and twisted in the person's arms but their grip was like iron. She tried to get to the poison dagger hidden on her thigh, but her current posture made it an impossible task. The person's bulky arm held her like a vice despite how desperately she twisted and writhed in their grip. Shihad no idea who this was as all she could see was their back and hair.

  "Unhand me!" she shouted again.

  The only response she got was a sharp knock to the head and everything fell dark.

  ╛

  Weiss hovered outside of the guest room where the girl lay while she recovered. Benoit was one of Lord Jacques' underlings and one of the strongest. Apparently, The girl had put up a bit of a fight, but she was nothing compared to Benoit. The man's arms bulged an incredible amount. Weiss would've hated to be hit by the man and the girl being out cold only proved why. He was strong even as far as immortals were concerned to her knowledge.

  Then again, what did she truly know? She had never spoken to an immortal outside of a very small circle. Her knowledge of anything was limited and she knew it. She really had no idea how the world functioned or anything like that. Winter had managed to learn how the world worked a bit thanks to boo smuggling books in for Winter. However, once Lord Jacques had learned about that, he banished Winter to the mortal world. She missed her sister so terribly but there wasn't anything she could do about it. All she wanted was to be snuggled into her older sister's arms but she would probably never see her again. It hurt to think she would never see Winter again.

  She glanced around and saw nobody around.

  With a gulp, she twisted the handle and opened the door. The girl lay on the bed, still out cold.

  Weiss couldn't help but be a little fascinated. She'd never spoken to a person outside of the family before, or at least not one outside of the servants that kept to hushed voices around the family. Occasionally she saw her father's henchmen but she didn't speak to them. Brutes. the lot of them. All muscle and little brain, or so it seemed with them. So to see someone up close like this was... Weiss wasn't even sure how to take it in. Strangers were basically a complete unknown to her. She was really going to have no idea how to interact with this girl when she woke up. This was definitely going to be uncharted territory for her.

  The girl lay on the bed, her dark purple skirts and dresses pooled around her. She lay still, not woken up from the injury Benoit had inflicted on her. It felt surreal to be around somebody that wasn’t family. She had her manners, of course, but she really wasn’t really sure how she’d handle interacting with someone outside of the family. And the girl was going to be here for only who knew how long.

  Weiss sincerely doubted the girl’s parents would let her remain missing for too long. Granted, it wasn’t like Weiss knew much about the underworld and its rulers. But if the girl’s parents were anything like Lord Jacques, they wouldn’t let their daughter remain missing for too long. SHe would be too valuable for future plans to let her stay kidnapped.

  Weiss left the room where she was met by Lord Jacques. She offered a hasty bow and curtsy to the man. SHe knew better than to not greet him in the proper way. “My lord, I was just checking on her. I wanted to be certain she was fine.” The girl was going to need to be put in her place, no doubt. Weiss had no idea how she’d been raised, but Lord Jacques wouldn’t tolerate any sort of slight. Weiss knew exactly how to act around him, though it was usually never enough.

  The man nodded and smiled, though his eyes remained cold as ever. “Good girl, Weiss. Be sure to teach her where she belongs once she wakes up.” He patted her head and walked off. She knew better than to accept his praise. It was laced with venom and hidden promises of future harm. She knew him too well and Winter had helped her learn his patterns through the years before Winter’s banishment.

  She returned to her room and picked up her quill with a sigh. There was nothing to do but wait until the girl woke up…

  ?

  Blake groaned and winced as she sat up. She looked around, ears twitching as she realised she was in a bedroom she didn’t recognise. Where was she? She really had no idea. Everything was so…blue. The entire room was made of crystal, a stark contrast to the dark earth tones and sone of the underworld castle. It gave off an eerie light that unnerved her. It wasn’t like the magical glow of the underworld either. It was…different but in a way she couldn’t easily quantify. She was used to the light of the sun and the underworld, not…whatever this was.

  It seemed like it originated in the crystals and was the very life of the crystals themselves. The light really was eerie but she knew these not from the underworld also found that light eerie. She’d met a couple of her generation that came down to the underworld and were beyond unnerved by the preternatural light that emanated from an unknown source. She hadn’t understood until she’d seen the light of the sun for the first time.

  The room was opulent and large, quite unlike the room she had in the underworld. THe mattress was thick and lush, covered in heavy blankets which were sorely needed. The temperature in here was chilly, far below even that of the underworld. She already missed the warm rays of the sun. This cold, eerie light from the crystals and the stiff, crisp air was completely different from anything she’d experienced before… SHe had no idea how to handle any of this.

  What was she supposed to do? She really needed to get out of here. Her parents would no doubt be freaking out about her disappearance. She wasn’t sure how to get out of here. She really needed to figure it out. Her mother could track souls, so maybe, given enough time, she could bide and wait for her parents to find her.

  She really wasn’t sure what was best. She knew her parents wouldn’t let her stay kidnapped for long. Even os, if she were in the domain of another god, finding her would be that much harder. Gods in their domains would skew another god’s powers…which would mean it’d take her parents that much longer to find her.

  But she knew her mother. Kali was notoriously ferocious and protective of her children and would do everything in her power to find her. She probably wouldn’t be here too terribly long, but it might still be a little while… She hoped she wouldn’t have to endure whatever treatment she would get here. Someone bold enough to kidnap a daughter of the underworld certainly was full of themselves.

  It was then that she heard the door open, her ears going back. Apparently, this place was sound proofed. She hadn’t heard the slightest footstep outside of the door. She could always hear the slightest footstep at the end of the hallway in the underworld.

  A man with coiffed white hair, striking blue eyes, and dressed in a mixture of white and extremely light blue walked in. His stride was smooth and he looked nonplussed. His hands folded behind his back after he turned the knob. “Now, now, what do we have here? His tone was smooth as the silks he wore. Even Blake didn’t wear silks.

  Her ears went down as it snapped into place. “Jacques! Why did the lord of dust kidnap me?!” she growled. She didn’t know the man personally but pretty much every god warned her away from him especially her parents. He was known for his cruelty and cheapness. He kept the best dust for himself and sold it to the highest bidder in the mortal world. Not to mention his missing daughter, Winter. She’d disappeared some time ago and no other god could find her. All they knew was that she was probably somewhere in the mortal world.

  “Hm? Kidnap? All I did was bring you here to keep my daughter company. She’s lonely after her older sister left and I thought she could use some company.” His tone was unflapped, though she saw his blue eyes flash a bit. He definitely was going to put up a fight against her and she definitely wasn’t going to roll over like a dog and take it.

  “Your little lap dog took me against my will to a strange location and you’re isolating me against my will! I think that constitutes kidnapping! And don’t try to pass Winter’s disappearance off as her leaving; every other god knows you banished her!” Nobody was sure where Winter was. She’d been missing for several years now. Recovery attempts had been made, but the mortal world was a vast place. Finding a single, fledgling sub-goddess among the mortals was like trying to find a needled in a haystack.

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  Jacques didn’t react though his blue eyes remained flashing dangerously. She didn’t like the look in those eyes. But he still didn’t react beyond a shrug. “She was a bad daughter and needed to be taught a lesson. She never behaved properly, not like Weiss does. You could also stand to learn a thing or two from Weiss. She’s a good girl and listens to me. You would do well to listen to her while you’re here. For now, though, I must go. Make yourself at home here.” He straightened out hsi tunic and left the door open. She still couldn’t hear his footsteps as he walked down the hall.

  She went to the doorway and looked down at the floor. Carpet. Incredibly thick carpet. It completely deadened the sound of anybody walking. She saw servants passing by and they made nary a sound as they walked past. Why would he want his footsteps so deadened? Something about it felt very off as did the way he acted. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about the way he acted put her on edge. She didn’t like it, but she just couldn’t figure it out.

  What should she do? She didn't trust his words about making herself at home. Everybody knew not to trust the king of Dust. He was well known for his lying, scheming,and conniving to try to get ahead of other gods. He could and absolutely would manipulate others to further his own ends. Others were merely a tool to him and not his equals. Even the other gods weren't his equals, let alone the mortals who worshiped him. Unfortunately, there was only so much Blake could do against a full-fledged god when she was only a wakeling, a young deity that hadn't come into their full power yet.

  First, though, she desperately needed some food.

  Well.

  Those of the Lustral Concord didn't need food in the same way mortals did. Blake could have gone her entire life without eating a single morsel, but the underworld was a place that dampened the senses, so her parents did everything they could to engage all of their senses. It was one reason she left so frequently to visit her nymph friends; it fed her senses in a way nothing in the underworld could. She wasn't sure if the Gilded Expanse would act in the same way as the underworld or not. She wasn't sure if there was a kitchen here or not.

  She found a servant and flagged him down." S-Something I can do for you, my lady?" His voice was soft and he didn't meet her gaze. Considering he served the king of dust,she wasn't surprised. Lord Jacques was known for his ruthlessness toward anybody that stepped too far out of place in the Gilded Expanse... He had banished his own daughter to the mortal world to the point no other member of the Concord could find her.

  "Is there a kitchen here where I could find some food?" she kept her tone low. The man was unlike anyone she had seen before. His skin was clear and glass like with an inner light like the crystals that made up the home's walls. It was clearly some sort of construct Lord Jacques had made himself. She could see cracks on the man's body which didn't instill her with confidence about her own treatment.

  "Y-Yes. Right this way." He seemed beyond nervous which really didn't instill her with confidence. Looking closer as she walked, all of these glass-like servants had cracks and chips in and on their surfaces. They kept their gazes down, heads low. Apparently the way she'd been warned of Lord Jacques truly wasn't wrong. All members of the Concord knew he wasn't a good man, but this was beyond what she imagined him capable of. These odd life forms had been literally broken. She didn't like this, not at all. It really didn't bode well for her own treatment while she was, here.

  “What are you exactly?" She'd never seen anything like him before. There were some artificial life forms such as golems and homonculi, created by magic and alchemy, no doubt like these. But the precision with which these were made was like nothing she'd ever seen before. They were beautiful with all sorts of colors refracting through their many facets. They wore clothes that looked like spun light that only enhanced their beauty. It was a lot to take in and process. She had no idea what they were.

  He glanced at her nervously. "We are the Lucerine, personal attendants to the Lord of Dust. We are living dust. We are only temporary until He finds us no longer adequately serving him. We exist only in this castle where he can oversee us."

  "Do you have a name? I'm Blake."

  He shook his head. "None of us have names. Our only purpose is to serve Him until the Shattering." She frowned, not liking the sound of that. But she also felt like she shouldn't probe too much. If she asked too much, no doubt it would get back to Lord Jacques. Every deity knew he was a control freak. She would have to be very careful when dealing with him or doing anything here. She would not be cowed by him or his behavior. She was a daughter of the underworld and would not be intimidated by him.

  They arrived at a lavish dining room where a door led to a separate room. The servant pointed her to the room and she went through the door. A colophony of noise greeted her and she had to dodge out of the way. Hooves clacked on crystal floors as numerous faun raced about. She hadn't expected to see Faun of all races here, but they were among the best cooks the world had to offer. She frowned when she noticed cracked and blunted horns among them. She really was seeing a lot of damage to servants here, not to mention the Lucerne having personalities but seemingly being disposable.

  One Faun stopped and looked at her. "Need somethin', miss?" he asked. "We're workin' on midday meal right now, don't got time for nothin'."

  Well, that sucked. "Do you have anything like bread I could snack on?" She wasn't trying to intrude on them or anything like that. She really didn't feel hunger, but she wanted something to snack on as she hadn't had anything since that morning. She was used to having food at her disposal at all times. It was close to midday meal, but she wanted something to eat. A warm bit of bread with butter on it or some fruit would do the trick in her mind.

  "Sorry, miss, no food an hour before or after meals by Lord Jacques' decree. At least when it comes to the family."

  "I am not family, nor am I even a guest. I was kidnapped." She folded her arms, ears going back. She was neither a guest nor family. Few went to the Gilded Expanse due to stuff like this. Lord Jacques was a control freak and few members of the Concord wanted to deal with his ridiculous rules. Blake didn't want to abide by whatever nonsense he had laid out. But she also didn't want to get the Faun in trouble. He had clearly hurt a lot of them if their horns were any thing to go by.

  He shrugged. "sorry miss, no can do. Orders are orders. No food for family or guests unless we're given explicit permission. It'll only be another thirty minutes or so." He turned on his hoof and went back into the fray.

  Blake left the kitchen, ears still back. What was she supposed to do now? Thirty minutes wasn't that long. so she didn't need to occupy herself for an extended period. Maybe there was a library? She found another Lucerine and asked. The woman shifted nervously. unable to meet Blake's gaze. She could tell they were treated poorly and this one was no exception. One eye was missing and web-like cracks went across her face and upper arms.

  "Yes, there is a library…" the Lucerine said.

  "Can you show me?" Books were one of her main methods of entertainment. Her parents had a large library with many epic poems that had been long forgotten by mortals at this point. Many eras had come and gone, many with their own gods that had died out. This era's pantheon was small and of knowledge that didn't exist elsewhere in the Concord'sburgeoning, but the underworld remained. It was a repository realms. Not even Lord Jacques probably had half as many books as the underworld did. It was the only place she knew of to have any record of previous civilisations.

  "His Grace doesn't like others to use His library if he's not with them."" The Lucerne shifted, her singular eye darting around. Blake sighed. Anybody that visited her family in the underworld could use the library. Was Lord Jacques really—

  Yes.

  The answer was yes.

  He really was that much of a control freak.

  She sighed, her ears drooping. "What is there to do here that he approves of?" She really didn't want to draw his ire and get herself hurt. The Lucerne and Faun were all hurt. so she could only imagine what he'd do to her should she draw his attention. She didn't want to play his games. but she also didn't want to endanger herself through doing something that would get the Lucerine or faun in trouble and further hurt…or outright shattered.

  The Lucerine looked around as if someone spoke to her and was quiet for about ten minutes. All Blake could do was remain silent while the Lucerne listened to…something that even her sensitive hearing couldn't pick up. She looked at Blake, "Lord Jacques said you are to have unfettered access to the kitchen and may have some access to the library. However, you are not to be unsupervised unless in your room. A Lucerine of his choosing is to accompany you to the library and see if your choices are allowable. You are also to stay in the Quiet Veil Wing unless going to meals or the library. It is three floors, so you have ample room to wander."

  Blake stared. How did she know that and those restrictions... This was not going to be a fun stay. Only allowed in one wing? How obnoxious. Same with being accompanied at all times. She didn't want to play Lord Jacques' games, but she also didn't want to get herself or the Lucerine hurt. There was only so much she could do. All she needed to do was bide her time until her mother found her.

  Then all guardian dogs would break loose.

  She sighed. "Very well." She hated having to kowtow to some other god's threats. He would not break her and she would see to it. "Xan you show me to the library then?" Ahe knew she wouldn't have terribly long in there, but it was better than waiting around here in her opinion-she wanted to avoid Lord Jacques as much as possible. "Do I have to take my meals with the family?"

  “He didn’t say anything about it, but if you want to appease him, I would say yes. He doesn’t like it when guests don’t sup with the family.” Apparently avoiding him would be much harder than she thought… This did not bode well for her, but she didn’t have much choice. “But yes, I can take you to the library.” The Lucerine bowed and departed the dining room with her.

  Blake took careful stock of her surroundings as they walked, footsteps almost completely silent to her ears due to the thick carpet. All of the hallways looked the same to her and the odd light in the crystals that made up the structure hurt her eyes. All existed in a white-blue hue no matter where they went and the light messed with her eyes i na way nothing else had before.

  “You won’t have long, miss…” the Lucerine said.

  “I know. But I’d at least like to have some books in my room.” She looked at titles and started handing them to the Lucerine. “Would you take these to my room, please?” She didn’t have the time nor ability to flip through them and see if they’d be interesting or not. She’d have to check them out later. She loved to read and nothing would change that.

  “We should head back to the dining room, miss.” Blake sighed at the decree and followed the Lucerine back to the dining hall. Time to face her execution…