Jiera left the house almost as quickly as she entered it, and now that she was gone the mood of the slaves just seemed to get worse. While the woman and her son had been here she'd made things feel good and almost normal, but now that she was gone, the slaves realized that they were no closer to knowing whether their livelihood would remain as good as it had been. Mae and Raine had an easy time going back to normal, but for the slaves it was much harder: none of them felt like they were any closer to knowing whether their lady was safe.
It was true that Jiera had been an exemplary guest, and none of them really had any complaints with her, but still... What if that all was just an act on her part? What if she had set up something in the house for Mae to be torn down someday in the far future? None of them had been able to find any clear evidence either way, and what was worse was that they found themselves actually liking both Jiera and Markus. Jiera had such an easy and truly charming manner to her that it was hard to look at her critically, and Markus was just a child. A child that had all the strappings to be as outgoing as his mother, but still only a child.
The whole predicament left a bit of a cloud over the table.
Vivian sat next to Renard and chatted with him as usual, but when she thought no one was looking her smile dropped and she looked absolutely exhausted again. Kyrie was sitting next to Isaac picking at the remains of her food while he sat close to her to give her a bit of comfort. While Dessi just let the respective couples interact, not really saying a whole lot herself.
Finally though, Dessi let out a loud sigh and all eyes turned to her, as if they'd been expecting this.
"Well? What do you guys think?"
There was silence from the lot of them as they seemed to busy themselves with looking at anything but each other but this wasn't an acceptable response for Dessi.
"Surely we must have at least a bit more insight than we had? What about the lady's slaves? Was anything learned from them?"
Looking between the other members of the house, it was Isaac whose eye she caught first. Effectively trapped now, he scratched his head a bit apologetically as he responded.
"I can't say I really learned that much from Gunther. He told me a bit about his job at the Deveris household, and how working at Lady Dandridge's was a nice break; Lady Jiera has a near constant stream of guests coming by so there's a lot more to do over there. He mostly just had a bunch of stories about strange happenings in their stables due to the variety of guests they got. Friendly guy. A bit of a chatterbox once you get him going, but he didn't seem to know anything about his lady's intrigues."
Dessi narrowed her eyes at Isaac, as if to ask what good he was if that's all he got, and Isaac just shrugged.
"Rosalie was equally unhelpful."
These words from Renard caused Vivian to tense up next to him, and she covertly balled her hands up into tight fists in her lap. Of course Renard had gone after the girl, of course he had. They hadn't met up for most of the nights that Jiera was visiting, and now her dark suspicions of what he might've been doing when they were apart were proving to be true. They almost always were when it came to Renard.
"She told me a ton about how hard it was keeping up with everything Lady Deveris did, but the only specifics she had were things regarding social events that she happened to attend. Teas with council members, gatherings with other young mothers in the lady's circle, and of course time spent with just the family. None of these things were particularly illuminating."
Dessi ran her hands over her face with another soft sigh, and even though she knew it was a shot in the dark, she looked between the two girls.
"I don't suppose you two caught wind of anything?"
Finding herself compelled under Dessi's imploring gaze, Kyrie shook her head.
"No... Lady Dandridge would always send me out to go help Vivian once I'd given them some refreshments. Every time I entered their room they were just talking about pleasantries; their children, the menagerie, their home lives, the balls Lady Deveris has attended... Those sorts of things."
Seeing as she was the only one who hadn't responded yet, all eyes turned to Vivian. This caused Vivian to scrunch her brow up.
"What, you think I would've learned something? I spent all of my time watching Raine and Markus and all I can say is that Markus seems to be a happy little boy. Nothing too out of the ordinary or unusual about him, but considering Markus's age he's not exactly a key player here."
The five slaves fell back in to silence then, none of them really satisfied with what they'd uncovered about Mae's guest. By every metric, it seemed that she was a good person, but the fact of the matter remained that their lady had been attacked.
"Jiera was right."
The sixth voice that resounded in the slave's dining area caused every one of them to jump up to attention. Eyes snapped over towards the doorway to the slaves hall where the lady herself was standing. She wasn't a tall woman, by any stretch of the word, in fact she was really only taller than Kyrie and Vivian, but that didn't seem to matter: her presence easily filled up the doorway she stood in. Her striking red eyes (the clear evidence of her royal blood) surveyed the room with an emotionlessness that made them all worried about what was actually going through her mind. Was she mad at them? Was she planning to punish them somehow? Was she going to praise them for their suspicion? The lady's expression belied nothing of her thoughts, and she quietly reached up to pet the chest feathers of the crow on her shoulder whose color mirrored the color of her own hair. He was quite docile at the lady's side, quiet and seemingly happy for the touch of his master, but his eyes also were flitting between the various people at the table. Teru did not help at all in making the lady less intimidating.
Before the slaves could gather their wits enough to try and stand, Mae gestured for them to stay seated. Almost reluctantly, they settled back down in their chairs, but all pairs of eyes were fixed on the doorway.
"I certainly do have loyal staff."
Mae pushed herself off from the doorway and stepped into the slave's quarters now, and still none of the slaves had found their voice. It was so unusual for Mae to show up in the slave's quarters; most of the time she just called the slaves up to her. To have her down here made it feel like they were being caught in the act of doing something wrong. Or perhaps it was a weird invasion of privacy: since nobles never deigned to grace the slave mess hall, they were havens as well as prisons. Whatever it was, it left all of them completely at a loss for words as Mae's noble personage moved through their space.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Mae had heard everything that they'd been saying, and they held their breath, waiting for the shoe to drop. They'd just been trying to paint the woman's friend in a negative light, surely that would be something she'd take offense to? Still, this was Mae, ever the logical woman, and it was possible that she was pleased with their suspicion. To them, it was better to just stay silent and see how she approached this before trying to guess at her thoughts. Sure enough, Mae finally spoke once she'd made it close enough to the table to be able to touch it.
"This is good, your instincts on this matter will be invaluable to my house moving forward. Still, let me save you a bit of time so that your efforts can be more effectively focused: Jiera is not plotting against me. Assume that this statement is unconditionally true from now on. The two slaves she brought were carefully scrutinized by her before arriving, but you are right to be suspicious of the help in her household. Someone there doesn't want me around anymore and Jiera and I are in the process of figuring out who and also why."
In response to this, Dessi's face scrunched up a little, but she ended up biting her lip to keep from speaking out of turn. The ever observant Mae picked up on the fact that Dessi wanted to say something though, and so she fixed her eyes on Dessi.
"Speak."
Snapping her head up towards the lady briefly, Dessi was soon looking down at her lap again. It was rather uncharacteristic for Dessi to be so submissive like that, and it was a little comforting for Kyrie to know that it wasn't just her who felt that way in the lady's presence. When Dessi finally did gather the will to speak, her voice came out a bit quieter than usual.
"How do you know for sure that Lady Deveris isn't plotting against you?"
The older woman was greeted with silence from the lady for a much longer pause than any of them expected. The other slaves were eagerly watching this progression, and hoped that Mae would actually give them an answer, one that would be more satisfactory than just because. Perhaps Mae was pondering herself why she believed so much in Jiera, or maybe she already knew but had just never put it into words before. Whatever the case, when she spoke again it was as if her words had been very carefully picked.
"We have shared much with each other over the years and have also learned much about each other. I know Jiera as much as I know myself, and she would never do something like what was done to me. Based on what we both know of each other, it wouldn't make any sense. If she was ever to move against me, she wouldn't do something quiet like poison in the night."
It was a vague answer, likely by design, but it was detailed enough that they actually felt like that was more than a non-answer.
"I have many enemies in the Terra Kingdom, but it seems I have at least one enemy in the Dominion as well. There is more to this situation that is veiled to me than I care for, but what I do know is this: anyone who is not Jiera or myself is not to be trusted. Treat them with the same scrutiny that you've been showing towards Jiera and if you notice anything unusual, anything at all, then bring it to my attention immediately. Even if it's something as seemingly little as a slave getting up to take a walk in the garden at night. It's always better to be over informed than under informed."
Dessi gave the woman a nod, and Mae looked at each member of the room until she got a nod from all of them.
"We'll get through this, one way or another."
With that said, Mae turned to leave the slave's quarters. She paused briefly though to look back at all of them.
"Keep up the good work."
With that she slipped back into the gloom of the hallway and if the slaves hadn't seen it they hardly would've known she'd left: her footfalls were light, and it was no wonder that none of them had actually noticed her arrival until she'd spoken up.
Waiting long enough so that they were all assured that Mae had left the area, they found themselves letting out a collective sigh of relief before tentatively smiling at each other. Mae coming down had swept away most of the bad mood, at least in regards to Jiera, and the air in the slave's quarters felt a lot brighter despite how terrified they'd all been at the prospect of potentially being in trouble with her. Not only were they not in trouble, they had just been praised by the lady! They also now knew that Mae's best friend was not the person to be concerned about. Sure, they still had the problem that someone was trying to kill Mae, but they felt like they had a bit more direction for that now, like they actually knew what they were looking for.
Letting out a soft laugh, Dessi dug her fingers into her scalp.
"The lady certainly does have the mysterious power of taking our fears away, doesn't she?"
"It's not mysterious, it's just what she does."
Some questioning glances were sent Isaac's way from this statement, and he just shrugged.
"She solves problems, doesn't she? If her help is too stuck on some wrong idea then she's going to correct it."
There was a nod from Renard across the table, and a smile from Dessi, but Vivian remained sullenly silent and Kyrie just wasn't sure she fully agreed.
"She does solve problems... But I also think that deep down she cares. She wouldn't be able to manage animals and children so well if she didn't."
Even though Kyrie was met with skeptical looks from the other people at the table to the point that she had to look down into her lap to get out of the spotlight, she still believed strongly that Mae had a caring heart; the only reason it didn't show very often was probably a protection measure on the lady's part. If she had so many enemies both locally and non-locally, it made sense to hide what Mae actually cared about.
"Well whatever it is, I'm grateful that she's our master."
There was a murmur of agreement around the table to Dessi's comment, and now the women got up to set about undoing the table. No one was eating anymore, even though the food was really only half finished.
The mood in the kitchen was almost jovial as the women worked through the dinner scraps, and the two men stood by, waiting for their respective ladies. It wasn't too long before Renard was offering his hand to Vivian. She hesitated for the briefest of moments because of thoughts of Rosalie, but ultimately, she knew that she just couldn't stay mad at him. Placing her hand in his, she gave him a slight smile before the two headed out of the room. Isaac and Kyrie didn't stick around for much longer either before heading off to enjoy the night themselves, leaving Dessi to finish up the last little bit of the kitchen.
Somehow things really did feel better even if the reality of the situation hadn't changed that much. Perhaps it was good to know that they had the lady's support. None of them were entirely sure how much Mae knew about their snooping, or even how she'd learned that they were snooping (she couldn't be everywhere in the house at once, after all), but somehow it wasn't particularly strange that Mae knew. She had a reputation for being one step ahead of everyone else, and it would seem this included her slaves. So the fact that she had come down to adress them about it had been weirdly comforting, in it's own way. Comforting enough that they all felt relatively optimistic going forward rather than low-key worried all the time.