A Miserable Day In The Manor - Damian
The young boy sat lazily at a mahogany deck, his head lain atop his crossed arms. For the moment his tutors' back was turned. She was busy scribbling on the tiny chalkboard while droning on about the rich history of Severand's capitol. Damian was absorbing none of it. Instead, his violet eyes were peering past the board to the window, more specifically the people walking around outside. Being that he and his family lived in the upper district, there wasn't much through traffic to watch though. Mostly it was a bunch of powdered old people and high elves.
"Master Damian!" His tutor snapped, demanding his focus. "Have you been listening to a word I've said to you today? Your father won't be very happy with either of us if I can't get you to pay attention. Now, Please!" The elven woman pursed her lips and scowled down at him, her hands firmly on her hips. At the mention of Magnus, Damian's eyes sharply looked up to the elf, malice manifesting itself within them. She knew nothing of how needlessly cruel his father could be. Of course, she would get a stern talking to but the boy could only dream of such a lenient punishment. Damian need not say a word to the elf, his gaze conveying his contempt.
"Well," She began again while absent-mindedly fiddling with her silk dress. "I believe that's enough for both of us for today. Why don't you go see if your mother needs anything?" Damian didn't wait to be asked twice, quickly making his way out of the second-floor study and down the hallway towards Iris and Magnus's room. Along the very short walk, his mood did improve quite a bit, after all his mother had promised to take him into the main town market. He had never been outside the upper district before but from his room, he could see the very large and busy streets beyond his gated community. He honestly just wanted to be around people aside from his parents and the staff who tended to the home. Magnus and Iris had thought fit to care for and teach him within the privacy of their manor to give him a more 'proper' upbringing. Unfortunately because of this, he found that he had never been able to make close friends of his own. His mother had always encouraged him to talk to and play with some of the other noble children but nothing thus far had managed to stick.
"Iris?" Damian called out to his mother as he rounded the corner of the doorframe. He stopped dead at the sight of a much taller, ebony haired Magnus standing in the room with the woman he had been calling for. The boy could feel his heart beating faster in his chest and the blood draining from him. His father looked back at his son with cold bureaucratic eyes. Damian could see Magnus was deciding how much time he was worth before asking,
"What do you want, boy?" his tone was very calculated and firm, devoid of most human emotions. As Damian began to try and pull the words from himself his mother instead pipped up in a contrastingly cheerfully voice.
"Oh, that's right! I promised my baby I'd take him to the market today. Didn't I?" Damian had always hated how she still spoke to him as if he were a toddler but in his father's presence, he didn't dare argue with her now, opting to simply nod back to her mostly rhetorical question.
"You didn't run any of that by me." Magnus said to her coolly. He was displeased with her decision but the objection flew right past her.
"It's fine. We'll be fine and we'll have a great time, won't we baby?" She said, still clearly looking at her son with bright, sparkling eyes. Magnus grumbled something that the pair couldn't quite make out but that they were sure were complaints about time being money.
"I'm getting my coat. I'll not have you two walking about the lower market unattended. There are still protests and you know Azaleal's thugs will be there to snatch anything that isn't bolted down." His father begrudgingly said. Damian had heard his father, as well as the vast majority of the other aristocrats, talk about the tieflings before. Apparently, they all lived in the lower district, or the slums, and did nothing but steal from the community, including themselves. Damian also remembered a town crier a few years back yelling that a tiefling sympathizer, Lillian Azaleal, had passed, a fact which many in the upper district were pleased with until the riots began.
"It'll just be a minute baby, go wait downstairs, okay?" Iris said, smiling to Damian before continuing with her makeup as she had been before he had arrived. He nodded, turning away from his parents and heading down the staircase. He had not wanted his father to accompany them but he was a difficult man to argue with and Damian was having trouble devising a reason Magnus should stay behind. Once downstairs he let out a defeated sigh and took a seat on one of the many plush ottomans.
He hoped that his evening would go well regardless.