For a Servant and a Master

Part 1: Chapter 2

Magnus was to start the next morning by moving in and touring the house.

The house was four levels, with the ground floor being taller than the rest to account for the impressive ceilings and stone arches.

The basement served as the kitchen and common room for the servants. The ground floor was the entertaining area, always to be kept presentable by a team of parlor maids, and had an elaborate grand staircase to the second floor, which was just hallway after hallway of bedrooms. The final floor was servant quarters. Magnus had his own room, much to his relief.

He owned very little and what he did have was being kept in a little room above a tavern in town.

He was completely settled in by lunch time, which he spent watching the kitchen staff and footman flurrying around in panic. If this was lunch, what would dinner be like? He leaned against the wall, in a full valet's uniform, a black coat over a grey vest and white dress shirt, one foot propped up against the wall.

A lady's maid was floating around in the servants' dining room and Magnus figured she seemed more interesting than post-lunch clean up in the kitchen. He sat in the seat across from her.

She looked up from her sewing, strands of untamed blonde hair, cluttering her face.

"You must be the new valet," she said, setting it aside.

"That I am," Magnus said.

"You're a smug one," she said, with only mild contempt.

"On a good day," Magnus smiled.

"My name is Catarina."

"Magnus."

"I work for Lady Maryse."

"I'm not quite sure who I'm working for as no one's really told me," Magnus said.

"Master Alexander," Catarina said.

"And he is--"

"I don't gossip," Catarina said. "It's what separates me from everyone else."

"What's life downstairs without gossip?" Magnus pressed.

"Why don't you entertain me with something other than your horrible bantering," Catarina said, frowning. She picked up her sewing.

"Do you like jokes?"

"Not particularly."

"Riddles?"

"Depends on the riddle," Catarina said.

"Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?" Magnus asked.

"Nothing," Catarina said. "My father taught me that years ago. Try harder."

"If I have it, I don't share it. If I share it, I don't have it. What is it?"

She opened her mouth to speak but a little bell on an entire wall of them rang.

"I don't know yet," she said, rising. "But I will figure it out."

"I can not wait!" Magnus called after her.

"Mr. Bane," Mr. Davies said, entering through the door Catarina had just left through. "Shall we go meet Mr. Alexander?"

Magnus smiled, rising.

.......

Two boys were lounging under a tree, one with jet black hair, arranged in no particular fashion, and a blond with an equally messy head. The one with the black hair was peeling an apple with a knife while the blond gestured up at the sky.