Chapter 2: New arrivals

Eva was assigned to see the door that day to open and close it for people going in and out. She stood on wobbly knees stiff and straight melting into the cool dark shadows of the castle wall. It had been hours since anyone had yelled at her or told her to do a task and she felt the immense weight of it roll off her back leaving her to her relaxed thoughts. Then a big booming knock interrupted her reverie. Pulling her awake away from the relaxed reverie. 

She scuttled to the door tugging it open tiny against its big frame and a torrent of rain and wind. It stung her bare legs and whipped her hair around soaking her meager clothes in an instant. Three figures were in the threshold. Two tiny figures against one tall lanky one. They stepped in sopping wet make puddles where they stood. Eva looked inquiringly at them and saw it was a man and two small children looking no more than nine or ten. The man appeared to be in his forties. He had a sharp graying brown beard that was topped at its end by a sharp metal piece giving a sinister appearance to his personage. He had a raggedy black business suit under his brown overcoat and a top hat on his mess of brown hair. His gaze was cruel and merciless. Eva recoiled she knew of these types of men. They thought they were the smartest and had no end in cruelty like the one that brought me here she thought shivering. He had two small children in his wake who were shivering. They had dirty clothes that might have been beautiful at one point of time, but were now in tatters hanging by their sides torn by time and circumstance. They each had black hair tangled beyond belief; their eyes a startling green urging a surge of pity through her. She had been like this once, but she had been helped by Bartholomeus I’ll take care of you she thought . One was a girl looking at her with fear, and the other a boy who looked half afraid, half defiant and a bit curious. They looked like twins and they clutched each other in desperation. After viewing the sight she bowed deeply and spoke in a low tone not looking up “you seek my master do you not?” The man responded in a single nod pointing his chin up as if he was above all this. Eva stiffened and she fought down anger. NO! she roared in her mind, but she humbly bowed again and said “this way.” She pressed a small button on the wall and signaled another servant to come and replace her. The strange man followed her, wringing out his coat looking mostly dry underneath but the children were shivering more than ever, but their eyes looking around in wonder at the tall hallway towering before them like a lion’s mouth right before swallowing you. As she wound through the hallways the dripping inhabitants of the castle grew larger as she got closer to the heart of the castle. She passed fellow servants who nodded cordially to her then to notice the stranger behind her and quickly hurrying away. She stopped at a magnificent cedar wood door of the finest material carved with griffons, dragons, and magnificent pegasi but they were not engraved flying but tethered to posts with the original Guardians standing over them with whips in their hands. One of the children sneezed as she knocked on the door receiving a sharp cuff from the man who whispered “I can’t wait to get rid of you . I can’t abide the sight of you. Your mother is too much engraved into your ungrateful faces.” 

A crackly crackly voice met the knock “come in. Are you a servant, Guardian , or apprentice?” “I am neither oh humble of high sire-ey-nenss!” responded the raggedy man who pushed passed her “I have come to propose a deal.” Then he walked in and threw his wet and smelly overcoat on the ground and stood before the High king of Harmony Heights .The king was an elderly man with a long white beard that fell on his chest that supported a thick black cloak that cascaded down to his wrinkled ankles. The cloak had a hood that cast shadows on his deeply wrinkled face, and there was a golden laurel that wrapped around his forehead securing the hood. The one thing that was odd about this elderly man was his violet eyes that gave off a certain sparkle that gave away that he was more than he seemed to be. 

“Yes, what do you propose?” said the High King, his voice weak. “These are my children, they have not been named. I heard about the servants here, and that you need more of them and if you pay respectively you can have them.” The man stepped forward and shoved his children up in front of him. “By the way I am Oregano, Oregano Stoops.” The king looked at him thoughtfully and said with a pensive tone “where do you come from.”  

“I came from the lower lands more known as the swamp lands where I have lived until my beautiful wife died from the blast illness from the blast north. The blast illness has not been named yet, but I do not care any more for that I have moved from that cursed place and I will never never NEVER return there. My children are no worth to me, only my wife truly loved them. They are expensive and that is it.” Eva looked at the man intrigued and saw the flame in his eyes knowing that she knew his whispered secret. “Fine, I’ll take them for 5 pence.” Responding, the High King “10” haggled Oregano emotion gone from his hard expression. Then the king suddenly stood up and called in a strong voice “guards!” Oregano started and cried “okay okay now.!” “We’re settled then” said the king looking pleased “goodbye.” He said and ended the conversation. Guards came in their armor shining crossbows and spears in their hand faces hard, but they’re eyes glinted with a mischiefness gave themselves away as personable fellows. They escorted Oregano out, shoving him as they went and Oregano didn’t look back, his back turned away from the now weeping children. Eva ached in her heart, tears in her eyes connecting to the pair of innocent children and then she felt a bit nauseous vision fading as the room swayed before her as she blacked out. The blackness was almost comforting, folding her into its arms then slowly releasing her into a vision. There was a dark room where a tear stricken face of a younger Eva called out for help tied by chains to a metal chair as a big man yelled at her. A flashlight beam shining in her wide eyes. Then suddenly the present returned as it had departed to her she gasped for breath on the ground the calls for her help in her own young voice still rang in her ears. The young girl above her tugging lightly on her sleeve worried eyes she and shakely shook of the concern of the children bowed and mumbled an apology to the king bowing before his wrinkled knees and started to the corner the room, her mind racing. This wasn’t just a regular memory, it was a forgotten one.