Concerns of the castle

Standing alone and keeping watch, a woman stood in full plate armour, looking more like an executioner than a maid. Bessie was tired, certainly, but that didn't prevent her from maintaining her focus. The infirmary itself was busy, but the area near this private room was calm. It let the maid relax a little.

Beneath her helm, little cow ears twitched as she heard the faint sounds of deep breathing. Both of her mistresses were peacefully asleep by this point and she couldn't help but let a small smile creep onto her face. She had cared for Valentina since she was a child and always felt closer to an older sister to her if anything.

The archduchess was a tyrant ever since her youth, but for whatever reason always seemed kind towards her maid. It was like they had a shared appreciation and acceptance for each other that let them feel safe in the other's company. In all honesty, Bessie was likely more of a family than Valentina's own flesh and blood relatives.

And then there was Dahlia. The girl had been around for five days, yet already the minotaur-kin felt incredibly close to her. Something about her cute quirks and mannerisms, her genuine affection and kindness, and finally her pitiable circumstances simply tugged on the maid's heartstrings. Motherly instincts took over and she just wanted her to smile and thrive in her new life.

Seeing the girl's face light up with regards to everything she experienced day after day left Bessie excited to start the day's work and support her liege. Even the idea of a life bond wasn't scary. With Dahlia, she felt like she would be content and happy to support her throughout her life.

So with the two people most precious to her sleeping soundly, Bessie felt a sense of true compassionate euphoria. Things might be bad, but so long as those two can be together and be happy, the world could burn for all she cared.

However, a burning world wasn't ideal. Bessie wasn't so blinded to not see that things had gotten… problematic. There were a few things that needed further attention. First of all, there had to have been an information leak somewhere.

Dahlia's new suite was warded from divination magic as well as from uninvited visitors. Not only was the doppelganger the perfect counter to the wards, it was one of the *only* counters that didn't require large amounts of time, intelligence, or brute force. Additionally, that suite was supposedly a secret. Normal workers had no idea what its purpose was or who its occupant would be.

In other words, someone obtained that information as well as the information of Bessie's personality in order to disguise themselves as her. Then there was the concern with other intruders. While Bessie and Dahlia didn't come across anything deeper in the castle, it seemed like in multiple places throughout there had been surprise attacks and skirmishes inside castle walls.

While at first this might not seem incredible, the castle itself was warded and well protected. The fact that anyone managed to get in, let alone so fast meant that there was a turncoat within the castle. Thinking that, Bessie's heart began to tighten.

In all honesty, she didn't have any strong feelings for most of the staff. Some were nice, and there were a handful that could be considered allies and friends, but most were inconsequential. What made her heart tighten wasn't the sense of loss and betrayal, but rather what might happen with Valentina.

Unlike the maid who merely had a working relationship with everyone, the Archduchess felt a bit differently. While she might not view them as friends, nor be particularly cordial with them, Valentina still respected and trusted her employees. For good reason too.

After the massacre of her family, the vampiress had a mental breakdown where all trust had been lost and paranoia gripped her like a vice. It was only after a huge span of time that she managed to calm down and a big factor that allowed that peace of mind was a rigorous vetting process.

After going through mountains of paperwork and conducting mentally taxing interrogations as well as magically aided lie detection, Valentina finally had a set of people under her employ that she didn't fear having them literally or figuratively stabbing her in the back. Now though, that was all moot.

Bessie only hoped that the Archduchess maintained some sanity because otherwise her vision might be clouded. She was scared for herself being doubted and tossed aside, but even more she was afraid that Dahlia could get hurt due to the vampiress' paranoia. She could only sigh in hopes of things not escalating as much as they had before.

The one saving grace was that Dahlia seemed to be viewed in a separate category from anyone else, so even if Valentina lost herself to paranoia there was a decent chance the girl would be spared at least. Nonetheless, Bessie was hoping that the entire issue could be avoided. And the best way to avoid it? Begin monitoring and vetting every single employee. The maid saluted the poor soul that would be in charge of that.

Then there were the added concerns of what was going on outside. Bessie may be scatterbrained at times, but she wasn't stupid. The fact that the Archduchess was so exhausted, or that both she and Lilli were on the front lines meant that it wasn't just a group of ordinary raiders. The grand duchy was already dealing with so many issues, it was obvious that at least the majority of their problems were orchestrated, but this new development was far more overt than anything before.

There was this underlying sense of foreboding that she could feel. Everyone in the castle was aware of the issue and the tension was gradually rising amongst all the staff. Some people had even left recently out of fear of the impending crisis. She knew things would only be getting worse moving forward, but all she could do was reinforce her drive to support her mistresses. Everything else would come second.

Her thoughts mostly remained on these ongoing concerns as well as how best to care for the two women in case things got worse. Time went by and things seemed to be getting calmer outside. Bessie herself was beginning to struggle to stay awake and seeing that things were finally calming down, she began to take off her armour and finally sat on the bed where the other two were still sleeping.

She looked down at their sweet sleeping faces and brushed the hair off to the side. Awake they both were so different, but seeing them both like this in peaceful bliss curled up into each other, the maid couldn't help but smile. She laid a kiss on either's forehead, something no one else in the world would dare do but just came naturally to her, and then she finally walked to an adjacent bed and accepted her rest.

When Bessie went to sleep, seven hours had already passed since Valentina had arrived, but it wasn't for another four that one of the two finally woke up. Surprisingly, it wasn't the Archduchess but Dahlia instead.

Some healers had already started treating her, and the giant wound in her arm was at least closed by this point. With a huge chunk of muscle still damaged though, it was difficult to move her arm. Luckily, that wouldn't be necessary. The damaged arm was currently being held firmly by the sleeping vampiress like a stuffed animal and Dahlia imagined that, with the tightness that she was being held, she likely wouldn't have escaped even at full strength.

She was going to lay back down and return to sleep when a pair of silhouettes caught her attention at the doorway. Two people she didn't recognise stood there, though from the looks of things, they were practically asleep on their feet.

One was a woman with fire red hair, fox ears, and a bushy fox tail. The other was an androgynous figure who was thin as a stick and had an overall pale complexion. Only a pair of dark feathered winged arms broke the otherwise pale tone.

Beyond immediate appearance though, both were in what looked to be outfits based on their position. They were colour coded to the black, red, and silver of the grand duchy and fell somewhere between militaristic and scholarly in design. Symbols signifying their authority were clearly displayed on their chests like badges of honour, but despite their apparent hierarchy, neither seemed like fighters.

Figuring that the two were likely waiting for the Archduchess to wake up, Dahlia just called out gently to them, hoping to at least cut their wait a bit shorter.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, but you can come in if you want. I can wake up Her Grace as well if you need. She seems fairly well rested so I'm sure it would be fine…"

She had no idea if it would be fine. Clearly the other two also knew that that was a false promise, but after waiting for two hours, they really didn't want to stand any longer and stepped in. The fox woman introduced herself, followed shortly by the winged individual.

"Hello My Lady, we haven't had the chance to meet yet, but my name is Rosaline, but you can call me rose. I'm the head archivist of the castle, and from what I understand I'll be under your direct supervision soon as you take control of the libraries and magical item archiving. I look forward to being in your care and hope to work well with you in the future."

"And I'm Avery. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance My Lady. I am both the head secretary of the castle as well as the head scout for local affairs. I'm in charge of most administrative work other than what Rorik or Her Grace do and was also the first point of contact in today's raid. I suspect we'll be working with each other in the future quite a bit as well."

Dahlia raised her eyebrows a bit at their introductions. It felt weird being treated as a person in a position of authority when her whole life she'd been treated like a speck of dust. There was a brief moment where she considered asking them to treat her on more personal terms like she did with Bessie but… perhaps for now remaining professional was important. She didn't know for sure, but there was a fear that acting too friendly might lower people's respect for her partner.

"Well, as much as I wish we had met on a better day, it's still lovely to meet the both of you. I also look forward to working alongside you both as I'm sure you have plenty I can learn from. Now… would you like to pass your message off to me, wait in some chairs or a bed, or should I wake Her Grace up now?"

Before anyone could answer, an arm slipped around her neck and dragged her back into the bed as a seductive slightly raspy voice came from the recently woken woman.

"Sweetheart, don't call me 'Her Grace', even around others. I want the world to know our relationship so don't go hiding it, ok?"

She lovingly nipped her ear, eliciting a squeak of surprise from the girl before she finally turned to the visitors. There was a smirk playing on her lips and Dahlia was still being held tight and close, but she just did a curt nod to the two. "Go on."

Both looked at the scene in shock. Who was this woman and where did she put the Archduchess? Waking her was often a death sentence and combine that with the affection shown and it felt as though the sun were rising from the west. Avery was the first to regain their senses though and began a report.

"Ahem, uhm. Right. So, I'm sure you already saw my initial report from my scouting. The rough sketches that I made have since been improved. I was able to also make sketches and take notes and a handful of other points of note. I have details on the birds, the individuals, the lion creature you fought, three giant tortoises that I didn't recognize, and one terrifying undead that Commander Lilli was able to put down. I also recorded some peculiar movements of what first appeared to be civilians, but I wasn't able to follow up on anything."

The woman spoke up next.

"The instant everything began happening, I knew we would need to review all past employee information and likely redo background checks. I've already started organising everything for that to progress smoothly. Also, after all of the chaos and distractions inside the castle, I was concerned that there would be an attempt at theft and there was. However, the intruders were unable to break through all of the vault's barriers before guards and myself arrived. We managed to detain one of the thieves, but I suggest we implement new security measures."

The two each had file folders that they left on a bedside table, but Valentina didn't look at the moment. There was so much going on that she didn't even know where to start. With a brief squeeze pulling Dahlia in even tighter, she looked at the girl and exclaimed in an exasperated tone.

"And what exactly is your report, huh? You should have been safe in those rooms. What the hell happened?"

Her voice wasn't accusatory, but Dahlia couldn't help but feel a little ridiculed, despite doing nothing wrong. Seeing the sheepish expression, the vampiress' eyes softened and she left a gentle kiss on her cheek before egging her on to explain.

"R-right. So… I don't know how it happened, but in the time you and Bessie were away, a shapeshifter disguised as Bessie walked in. They announced that they had doppelganger blood, but I think their aspect was also well suited to infiltration. Anyway… I tried to escape but if it weren't for Bessie I'd probably be…"

Dahlia frowned as she imagined how bad that situation could have gotten. They didn't seem to intend on killing her, but being hidnapped or tortured was far from appealing.

"Anyway, she said her name was Bella Torivald and also had some hate for me specifically. If I had to guess, she's related to Count Torivald who was supposed to be one of my suitors, but I have no idea what their relation actually is. After Bessie showed up she bit an equaliser pill, so… she was neutralised, but I have no idea if she'll still be able to be interrogated."

One question after another kept getting raised in Valentina's head, but now wasn't ideal for asking questions. Things needed to be straightened out first. She knew one priority though, and that was holding her love close. Keeping Dahlia tight to her in a way that screamed both affection and possessiveness, the Archduchess simply glanced over the two employees in front of her before nodding at them.

"Alright, I'll look over your reports and try to follow up asap. There's plenty I need to do beyond what you two have shown me, but I'll have followed up on both reports before ten hours pass. Until then, I expect you to use your authority and make sure everything is streamlined as possible and use your judgement on how things should proceed. Today's been long so feel free to get a couple hours of rest, but we need to make sure the castle is running like a well oiled machine."

She glanced at Dahlia and gave a consoling smile.

"Looks like I'm going to be busy again after all. For now, you focus on recovering as a priority, but it would also be nice if you could keep training your magic and combat skills. Lilli doesn't like to do paperwork if she can help it, so I'm sure she'll be eager to keep training you. My hope is that soon you'll be able to protect yourself even if Bessie isn't around. If you have time outside of training though, now would be a good time to start working with Rose and Avery. I'm sure they need as much help as they can get."

The two nodded like chickens pecking rice. The current workload was obscene and they had both heard rumours that Dahlia might actually be quite clever. If that were true, then having her aid might truly take some weight off their backs.

Dahlia couldn't help but sigh. Valentina had worked so hard nonstop just so that they could spend some more time with each other and suddenly all that work felt wasted. Regardless though, she was keen to prove her worth and if combat training and working with the archivist and secretary would help demonstrate her value, then she was more than eager to begin.

She looked over at her two new comrades and gave them a wide and slightly cocky smile.

"Well then, I suppose that soon we'll be working together in earnest. I'm going to help you complete the best work of your life, I swear it."