Daybreak:Volume 1 Chapter 8
Chapter 8 - Inquisitive Hope
By Monday afternoon, Kaede starting to feel burnt out. Not actually being a bookworm, there was only so much reading she could stand before the task started draining her health. Over a week of almost nothing but research pushed even her focus.
Pascal's dour mood all weekend hadn't helped, but Marina's visit did much to lighten it.
"You're welcome to come down visit us in the servant's quarters," she offered, her smile bright enough to light the room. "It's just beyond the kitchens at the end of the dining hall."
"I'd love to," Kaede beamed back. "Probably sometimes later this week. Are you around here during the weekends?"
"Yes. Most of the staff lives around the nearby town of Kluis and goes back home during the weekend," Marina explained. "But just enough of us are left to keep the kitchen and dining hall running. I'm not from this area -- came up here two years ago in search of a job -- so I also work during most of the weekends and holidays."
"Wow, that must be tough, two years without a single break." Kaede couldn't imagine doing that herself. With her modern standards, she would lose control from sheer stress alone. "Where did you live before?"
"I was an orphan raised in the western borders of the Empire," Marina casually spoke without any of the melancholy expected of such words. "My parents died during the chaos of the last war ten years ago."
"I'm sorry," Kaede muttered back with downcast eyes, uncomfortable after breaching such a topic. But Marina merely shook her head and smiled before returning to work.
----- * * * -----
In an unusual turn of events, Kaede found herself waking up late at night. She felt feeble -- weaker than usual these days -- and aching all over, as though she just recovered from a fever. There was also a constant buzzing in her head.
"You are finally awake," Pascal noted from beside the bed. With his back against a chair and a book on his lap, his worried eyes drooped in an uncharacteristic display of fatigue. "Do you remember what happened? I found you collapsed on the floor after returning from my classes."
She looked at the wall clock. It was four in the morning. Has he been watching over me the entire time?
Thinking back, Kaede tried to recall her last memory: "I was searching for my cup... but I couldn't find it and was getting thirsty, so I just used yours..." She eyed the silver goblet that sat on the bedside table.
Pascal nodded: "it was on the floor also, just beyond your reach. I thought you might have been poisoned, but I scanned both the cup and your system with Detection and nothing suspicious came up. Neutralize spells had no effect on you, and Rejuvenate would not wake you up either. The healers' only suggestion was that you might have been feeling anemic; none of them really knew anything about Samaran physiology."
"Well... it's true that I haven't been sleeping well, and changing bodies might still be taking its toll." Kaede stared at Pascal from under her frown. "But..." she trailed off as her gaze returned to the chalice:
I don't think it was me... Other than the drowsiness I've been getting used to all week, I didn't feel dizzy or any discomfort all day, and I've never heard of anemia or exhaustion that strikes out of nowhere. But other than me, the only person who touched anything in this room since Pascal last left is...
Thinking back, she remembered that Marina didn't just perform the usual cleaning, but also gave all the furnishing in the room a thorough dusting. She must have at least lifted the goblet when cleaning the bedside counter it sat on.
But why would Marina want to harm Pascal? If this is poison, it's far too low grade... almost like an immature prank.
Kaede concluded that the latter may actually be more likely. Pascal was the son of Weichsel's Marshal; his father no doubt gathered plenty of enemies. But at the same time, Pascal's own character was hardly to the type to avoid burning bridges.
"But...?" Pascal leaned just a touch forward.
"How reliable are those detection spells?"
"High. But anything that was invented so long ago may have its counter."
"Then... I don't know. Maybe I was just more tired than expected," Kaede lied with an uncertain scowl. I can't lay suspicion on Marina for no reason; who knows what these nobles may do to a mere servant girl. Besides, it may really be my fault.
His eyes narrowed:
"Are you sure?"
"I hardly know this body well enough to be sure about anything," she simply shrugged back. "And whose fault is that?"
Pascal sighed, partly in response but mostly in relief. He then stood up and began taking off his dress shirt.
"Take the day off tomorrow and sleep in. In the future, tell me when you are feeling under the weather. You do have a girl's body to take care of now."
Kaede merely nodded back, two dozen other thoughts running through her mind, reviewing everything that had happened yesterday. Even after Pascal shut the lights, she still couldn't think of another clue other than her new maid friend.
Looks like I'm dropping by the servants' quarter earlier than anticipated.
----- * * * -----
"Marina! You have a visitor!" The burly chef called out. He then nodded towards Kaede before returning to the kitchen.
"Thank you."
Kaede had tried her best to sleep in, waiting until half-hour after breakfast ended at the dining hall before coming down. By now, Pascal and the rest of the students should have started their daily courses.
It took only a minute before the brown-haired petite maid rushed out, still wiping her hands with a cleaning towel.
"Oh, I should have known it was you."
"You don't seem very happy about it," Kaede smiled back.
Marina's hands rushed to wave it off.
"No, no, of course I'm glad! I was just surprised; thought it was a staff member or something."
"I do wish this was purely a social call, but... I need your advice on something," Kaede decided to approach the topic directly. "Do you have a private room here? Or should we go back to mine? Pascal won't be back for hours, and I need to ask you something important."
Marina's shoulders stiffened as her smile froze. She looked thoughtful for a second, then:
"Probably mine then. The walls may be thin, but all of the other servants are out busy at this hour. Should be fine as long as we keep quiet." She then turned around towards the kitchens' rear: "follow me."
The wide hallway behind the kitchen connected directly to the outside. On one wall were doors leading down to storage cellars, some of which Marina introduced as 'refrigerated'. The other side held two gateways that linked to the servants' quarters, segregated by gender. These proved no different from old boarding schools' dormitories, with each room furnished in a utilitarian manner: two to four bunk beds lay against exposed stone walls, and a writing desk or two stayed close to the glass windows.
Marina pulled Kaede into a small room just barely large enough to fit two sets of beds and still cram in a table. Clothes, including girls' underwear, hanged off a horizontal bar just above each bed.
Since she was here for serious business, Kaede found it easy to keep her eyes from wandering.
After closing the door behind them, Marina gestured for Kaede to sit on one bed before following suit on the other:
"So, what is it that you wanted to ask?" The mask that hid her anxiety and nervousness was paper thin.
If she really is a spy, she's not a very good one, Kaede thought. Probably some noble just bribed or blackmailed her into doing it. I just hope to still stay on her good side.
"Marina, I collapsed last night after taking a drink from Pascal's silver chalice that was on the night counter." Being an amateur at this herself, Kaede opted for directness again. At least the weight of information kept the momentum on her side and gave her a better chance at reading the other. "Since you were there cleaning in the afternoon, do you know if anything might have gotten in?"
"Uh, no? I don't remember doing anything there except dusting. Are you okay?"
The maid's concern seemed genuine, but the switch of topic itself betrayed a hint of nervousness.
"I am now, thanks. But are you sure you don't remember anything weird in there when you moved it for dusting?"
"No... Honestly, I didn't really pay much attention to it."
Kaede couldn't place an impression on that statement. But after shifting the blame away for a second to alleviate Marina's stress, it was time to boomerang the pressure back:
"Are you sure? Because you were the only other person who came inside all day."
"I'm certain! I didn't do anything other than move it!"
I didn't quite ask if you did anything...
"Please don't lie to me, Marina," Kaede begged. "Don't worry, I won't tell Pascal about any of this. He doesn't even know that I'm here. I mean seriously, why should it matter to me if that noble asshat gets poisoned or not?" She felt a prickle of guilt as she spoke her prepared lines. "But this didn't affect him, it made me sick! And I want to know what it is!"
"B-but I'm telling you the truth!"
Be it desperation or frustration, Marina soon had tears at the corner of her eyes. Kaeded decided it was time to switch tactics again as she leaned back against the wall. Using the bunk beds to cast a shadow over her disappointed expression, she deepened her voice as much as possible:
"No, you're not. I borrowed a thought detection spellglyph from Pascal," Kaede bluffed with her best attempt at being ominous. "Of course, he doesn't know its true purpose. But I can use it well enough to know that you're lying to me. You did do it... I want to know what it is and what for, otherwise I'll have no choice but to report this."
Kaede knew she was in for some permanent damage to their relationship if her gamble turned out wrong. But as color rushed out of Marina's countenance while she stiffened into a board, Kaede thought to herself: bulls eye.
"H-he'll know anyway," the maid stood up frantically, her shaking finger slowly stretched towards Kaede: "you're his..."
"--Pascal promised he will not intrude upon my senses without asking. If nothing else redeeming, he's a noble who values his prideful sense of honor. I trust him to keep his word on that."
"H-how can I..."
"--You'll just have to trust me," Kaede finished for her, warning: "if you want to have any chance of still keeping this under wraps."
"It's... it's... it's just a knockout poison," the maid finally stuttered out. "It doesn't have any long term effects, just puts the drinker unconscious for a few hours."
"What's the point of something that weak?"
"It's... it's the strongest antimagic poison available."
Sirens blazed through Kaede's head as Marina revealed the latest information.
No wonder Pascal could neither detect nor neutralize it. It must be immune to magic. This is no mere prank or malicious act by a peer... resources this advanced, that he has never even heard of, could only come from a major benefactor... and the only reason to knock Pascal out for several hours would be to...
"Why are you trying to kill Pascal?" Kaede struggled keep her tone merely curious.
"W-wouldn't you like to have the link cut and be rid of your master? T-that way you could return to your home in Samara." Marina forced out through her teary gaze.
Kaede almost froze on the spot. Her eyes sprang wide as she realized that she had almost made a deadly mistake: the maid's seeming naivety and apparently stress under amateurish interrogation could have been all an act. It certainly did not suppress a keen mind that was busy drafting a counter-proposal. Thankfully, Kaede had left herself an opening earlier when she still wasn't sure of Marina's guilt.
"I'd love for an opportunity to go back," Kaede's dry voice spelled out her wistful hope. "But that's..."
"I-impossible? That your life would be forfeit if the link was severed? O-of course he would tell you that."
Did he lie to me then?
The feeling of being betrayed lanced through Kaede as her eyes narrowed at Marina, her stony gaze demanding an explanation.
"I-I don't know all the specifics but... f-familiars of those who die naturally and of old age often manages fine. I-it's likely that a familiar's link only traumatizes them if the master's life ended shockingly, which wouldn't be the case if he d-died during his sleep."
"Even if that's true... that doesn't help me get back to where I came from." Kaede said, deciding that it was best to extract a proposal without revealing that she was from another world.
"My m-master has an excellent Wayfarer -- a teleportation expert. I-I'm sure he could arrange something."
If teleportation entailed bending space-time to give the wormhole effect it felt like, then... maybe that person can offer a possible method of returning home.
"P-please, help me," Marina knelt down in a glassy-eyed pleading face as she pulled out a vial and held it up to Kaede. "If you can get your master to drink this -- even just coating his chalice with it will work -- my master's men will be able to smuggle us out of the country once their task is done."
With the vial pressed into her palm, Kaede slowly wrapped her delicate fingers around it as though it was precious and fragile. Meanwhile, her own emotions and thoughts lay in utter chaos.
Can I even trust her? Compared to Pascal?
She quickly concluded that was a stupid question.
But then... will I even have another chance?
Still, isn't this premeditated murder!? Even if my hands don't draw blood, I'd still an accomplice!
Pascal's selfishness might have caused all her recent problems and put her in this dilemma, but there was no way Kaede could believe that he deserved to die for it.
But what other choices do I have? Even Pascal said that the only way to cut the link -- sever my connection to this world -- was through death.
Is committing murder ever acceptable just for my own gains? just for a chance of returning?
Kaede squeezed the glass in her hand. Though certain that her answer should be obvious, she was nevertheless unwilling to close the other door.
"How do I know that your master and his men will keep their word?"
For a moment, Marina looked uncertain. Then:
"R-remember when I told you I was an orphan from the Empire? I was raised by a duke, and I've spied for him ever since to repay the life I owe. I can't p-promise you, but I doubt my master will throw away a decade of work so easily while I still prove my worth. They will definitely give me a way out, which means helping a second isn't much harder. Besides, we're friends," Marina promised through a tear-stained smile, "and once we return, giving you a teleport home should be easy."
Barely nodding, Kaede looked down at the glass container in her shaking hand.
"I just need to coat the chalice in this? Do I need to give you a signal or anything if it worked?"
After thinking it over again, Marina clarified as she wiped away her tears:
"Wait until tomorrow afternoon. I'll contact the other folks to make arrangements today, then give you an update tomorrow on how to proceed. If you want to back out, this is your last chance. Once I tell the rest, they won't hesitate to kill you if you try to leave the plan."
A cold shiver went down Kaede's spine, but she nevertheless closed her fingers around the vial of antimagic poison.
Kaede wasn't sure if she dared to risk taking Marina's offer, but she did know one thing for certain: regardless of which way she leaned, accepting the task and becoming part of the plan was her best option.
"No. Count me in."
----- * * * -----
"How could... why did you decide that on your own!?" the chief groundskeeper snarled again, this time in the dark confines of a storage cellar.
The maid was sniffling with tears running down both cheeks. But he wasn't fooled. She had been raised for subterfuge because their master recognized that her naive appearance cried easily when under pressure, a feminine trait that often disarmed others and made them underestimate how capable her mind was even under duress. It was unusual, the way emotional turmoil didn't stopper this girl's thoughts the way it would for normal people. Plus Marina was intelligent and resourceful to begin with.
"S-she's a Samaran; she dreams of returning home; and I k-know she hates aristocrats. All of her motivations only stand to gain from helping us..."
"--But she's also our target's familiar! However abnormal it may be for a person to be a familiar, she's still bound by the same links!"
"I-I believe her dislike of von Moltewitz is g-genuine. It's known throughout the academy that she h-hurt him on the roof, even if she took him by surprise rather than any kind of skill," Marine asserted. "There is c-clearly no loyalty to speak of. Besides, if I did not b-bring her in, she would certainly have revealed us to her master."
"And you think she's reliable just because of that!?"
"S-she can be used as long as she has some t-trust in me, enough to give her hope. B-besides, I told her that we worked for a duke of the Empire. This way, even if she t-tells, we could at least use her for disinformation."
The groundskeeper sighed. While there were indeed nobles in the Empire of Rhin-Lotharingie who oppose their crown princess' betrothal -- even a matrilineal betrothal -- to the scion of von Moltewitz, he and Marina actually worked for a northern governor of the Holy Imperium, executing a direct mission from their Emperor.
"We'll need to ensure that she understands there will be consequences, immediate and deadly, should she dare to betray us. Have her carry out the task this Saturday afternoon -- the holiday weekend will have the dorms thinned out once all the nobles with nearer estates leave for their homes. She is to come to the dormitory keep's exposed roof at dusk as her signal, before the rest of us reveal ourselves and make our move."
"I-I understand. I'll inform her tomorrow."
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