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It wasn’t unlike her beloved apothecary.

She wandered, uncovering alcoves, seating areas, and rooms for study; one room was filled with equipment that the scholars must have used to bind, copy, or mend the books. What she could do with all this equipment back home.

She wandered over to a door and pulled it open to find a broom closet filled with cleaning supplies. Another door led to a room that housed candles, matches, and extra rugs. There were even some old garments, aprons, robes, and a few faded guard uniforms.

One closet held weapons. Lore quickly closed that one.

Once she explored each room, she pulled up an old chair and sat down with a huff before immediately sneezing from the sudden cloud of dust.

Well, she’d found the candles, but she would probably needa cloth to cover her nose, gloves, and another hundred cloths to wipe the tomes down with.

And coffee.

She would need lots of coffee.

***

Rapid staccato knocks interrupted Lore’s exploration of the library, and she was glad for it. The sun had dipped below the horizon and the library had quickly gone from thrilling to chilling. She pushed the doors open and peeked out to find a tall female wearing a green uniform with the royal emblem sewn into the corner.

The woman retreated, holding a broom in her hand with the handle pointing toward the doors. Apparently, she hadn’t wanted to get close enough to knock with her hand, so she had improvised.

The scene was comical. Lore couldn’t help but smile a little.

The female stood up straight, lowering the broom to the floor. “I’m Elra. I’ve been told to show you to the dining hall for dinner, after which you will head to your room for the night.” Her tone was curt, stiff, and dismissive.

Lore’s smile fell.

Not long after, she sat by herself in a large dining hall. Elra had made it painfully clear that, although she’d been assigned to show Lore where to go, she had no intention of remaining in her presence a second longer than she needed to. The moment Lore had her food, Elra scurried over to a few other uniformed females and ignored her.

The servants’ hall was large but simple. Food was piled high at a table in one corner. Guards and servants in various uniforms filed in in twos or threes, filled their plates, and sat at the unadorned wooden tables.

Though the food wasn’t fancy, it was flavorful and hot. Lore wasted no time in sopping up the last remnants of her mutton stew with a roll of freshly baked bread bigger than her fist. Her goblet was filled with a thick cider that tasted a littletoostrong, forcing her to sip it sparingly. She didn’t want to find herself drunk on her first day. She would need her wits about her, where the fae were concerned.

Nobody sat at her table. The other servants made it clear she wasn’t welcome to sit with them on their dinner break.

Lore suspected it had nothing to do with the layers of grime caked on her from the earthshake, the road, and the library, and everything to do with the fact that she was a human. At least her hands were clean; despite Elra giving her only a few moments to wash up, she’d managed to scrub them raw.

Lore stood, filled another bowl with stew from a great cauldron on the table, and grabbed three more rolls.

She sat back down at her table, brushing off the stares with another bite of steaming stew, and had to stifle a groan as the savory taste of the broth, coupled with the sweet fattiness of the mutton, burst over her tongue. Not to mention, the stew wasfilledwith vegetables she had never tasted before. The rolls were hot and soft as a cloud, with fresh butter melted on top.

She ate more butter in that one meal than she probably had in her entire lifetime. Even if they served this same meal every night she was here, she didn’t think she’d ever grow tired of it.

A slight wave of guilt coursed through her. She wished more than anything that she could share this meal with Milo and the other kids. It wasn’t fair that they were probably eating plain rice while she got all of this. But, when she came back with the promised coin, she could buy them food that tasted like this too.

If the food for the servants tasted this good, the royalty must eat like the old gods.

She used her third roll to sop up the very last of the stew in her bowl and looked around. What did she do with her empty bowl and the still mostly full cup of cider? She eyed trash bins and a large bucket filled with other soiled dishes; no doubt there were scullery maids who took care of these dishes.

She spotted a fae male dropping his bowl off at the exact moment she stood to do the same. She hesitated, immediately itching to pull the rock from her tunic pocket. Should she wait until he walked away? So far, she hadn’t suffered any rude comments from the fae who worked here, not to her face at least, but she also hadn’t gone near any of them either.

She sat, placing the bowl and cup back on the table, watching the fae from the corner of her eye.Thistle and Sage.He was just hanging out by the waste bin like a trash goblin. Was he waiting for her to come up there so he could mess with her?

The fae wore a guard’s uniform, same as the two fae who had brought her here, but with one main difference: this guard wore the blue stripes of a sentry. She searched the male’s face; had she seen him before on the outskirts of Duskmere?

The guard was tall and slim, his skin a gorgeous reddish-brown that looked a shade darker than Lore’s own. A thin scar bisected his eyebrow; she followed the line of it, past a lovely, wide nose, and a very full, even more lovely, bottom lip. There was an odd juxtaposition between the beauty of the sentries and their cruelty. A children’s rhyme detailing just that came unbidden to her, and she had to stop herself from humming it.

She might have recognized his uniform as that of a sentry, but after some more inspection, she was sure she had never seen this guard before. She would’ve remembered a face that magnificent. Then her eyes snagged on a patch where his tunic had been mended, and his boots, though freshly shined, were worn. Not high ranking enough to warrant a new uniform then. His black,wooly hair was pulled up into a loose topknot, and it wove around two brown antlers that stretched toward the low ceiling of the dining hall. Wooden ornaments on the tips of his ears matched the rich color of his antlers.