My servant Devil

Session 4 - chef Bart

The night is restless for Abigail. She has nightmares - returning her back to the ship, seeing her mother rushing away, telling her to stay behind. She tries to run after her but she's getting further and further away, disappearing into the smoke. The smoke is pulling her into the ice cold water, into darkness. Then there's Lucian standing, smiling, beautiful. Then the imagine gets distorted, looking more and more inhuman, strangling Abigail. She struggles to breathe, tries to get away from him, his mouth looks like monster's throat with demon fangs, pulling her closer and closer. She wakes up disturbed, sweating. The sun is already out but there's no smell of tea or Lucian today. Instead, she can hear screaming and shouting. It wasn't just in the dream?

She puts on a gown and leaves her room, hearing Lucian scream: "FINLEY! I TOLD YOU TO NOT ENTER THE MANSION WITH YOUR DIRTY FEET!" As she's about to walk down the stairs, she hears a second, familiar yet unknown, male voice: "Oi snot, when can I see my little Abby darling? You said she'd be up by now!" Abigail freezes. Before she can do anything he has swopped her up and twirled her around in his arms, then pulls her to his chest and rubs his very rough and stubby cheek against her head. "Oh my poor little Abby, I heard what happened! I am so sorry I would have come much sooner but I had no idea what happened to you! Oh my poor little darling." He is in his 40's, has dark blonde hair which looks very unkempt, his whole appearance looks very untidy. He has a small beer belly, a cigarette in his mouth and stinks terrible of smoke and alcohol. "Don't worry, now that uncle Bart is here things are gonna be much better."

"I told you not to touch her!" Lucian is suddenly at Abigail's side, pulling the man away from her. Bart doesn't seem bothered and just pulls her in with his other arm: "And I told you that I do not listen to orders from some pompous prick. Who is that snot Abby?" Abigail explains that Lucian is her servant, after a bit of bickering Bart makes his way to the kitchen, about to prepare her "favourite". Lucian runs off when there's a loud bang and shattering coming from one of the rooms. Fin's doing. Abigail follows him and finds Fin completely covered in mid, struggling against Lucian, making him dirty as well. "Look Abby, I'm a mud monster, raaaawr!" Abigail sighs defeated and talks with Fin, explaining to him why he can't bring mud inside. They agree on Fin staying outside in the garden and only coming inside when Lucian has washed him. Lucian looks very fed up. About to explode. "Why. Don't. You. Go and. Enjoy. Your. Breakfast. My lady?" Abigail watches him afraid but in the end leaves him alone and makes her way to the kitchen.

Black smoke and stitch are coming from the kitchen. She gets dressed while Bart finishes his cooking and serves breakfast which is absolutely inedible. "Uncle" Bart turns out to be a chef who has served Abigail's family for years, watching her grow up. He was put on vacation when Maglockes went to America and now he has returned when hearing about the tragedy.

Abigail is saved from having to finish the disgusting excuse of a meal by a knock on the door, Oliver has come to see her. She leads him through the mansion to the tea room. He immediately guesses that Bart is back by the smell. "Don't ask me why your dad never fired him. I have a feeling he never had the guts to." According to Oliver, Bart always cooks horribly, nearly setting kitchen on fire. It's difficult to escape him and impossible to fire him.

The ball is near and Abigail has forgotten how to dance. Oliver offers to teach her how to dance, so that they don't embarrass themselves. Lucian plays music for them, this devil can do anything. Both Oliver and Abigail are absolutely gobsmacked by Lucian's talent and try to learn something. Oliver doesn't seem to be the best dancer himself but at the end of the day, they manage to put together something usable.

After Oliver has left, Abigail visits the garden to check up on Fin... who completely destroyed it in the meanwhile. She asks him to put it back to its previous state and goes to her father's office, looking for a keyhole for the key she has found a while ago. After a bit of searching, she finds it, hidden behind one of the books. As she puts the key inside, there's a click and a mechanism is set to work. The whole wall shifts and reveals a second hidden library.

On the wall of the library hangs a richly decorated golden staff, golden vines are ranking around it with a sapphire on its top. Abigail picks it up - it feels nice in her hand, warm, like there's a beating power inside. She spends the rest of the day looking through the books, trying to find information about the staff or goat-humans. She doesn't manage to find anything useful by the time night falls. Lucian comes to see her, when he touches the staff, his eyes light up in red and quickly hands it back. He tells her that it is a magical wand but that's all he can really say. He may be the devil but he's from this world, not the Other world where magic comes from.

On the way back to her bedroom, she's caught by Bart who forces her to the dinning hall, serving her brown barely edible something. Bart watches her nonstop, so she tries very hard to not throw up and eat his food. He's close to tears of happiness when he sees that she has eaten it.