For Hild

[bells_will_ring]

The work at the Cat Cafe, it turns out, is incredibly simple compared to the work Erasmus has been training for all his life. To be expected to simply take down requests and fulfill them with little need for anticipating needs is work that he enjoys, wishing only there was more opportunity for him to customize his services to each of the patrons but even that is wildly improved. The work is safe and it does not hurt and he is allowed to spend time with the animals.

The gentleness and the kindness that he finds at work is nearly disquieting, to be honest and he tries to fill the hours in between with gaining knowledge of the city, determined to figure out how to successfully live alone, rather than flounder his way through as he's done since leaving. The humiliation of learning who Damen has become to The Prince has simply been too much to bear, despite Damen's protestations.

He can now earn his own coin and prepare simple meals so his thoughts turn to those things that had always been provided by his trainers. Modern healing is simply beyond him but a shop catches his eyes during his daily wanderings. Some of the things look familiar, herbs and powders and the like and he finds himself opening the door, calling upon all of his hard earned bravery to seek out assistance with whomever he might find inside.

Comments

[light_of_the_world]

She removed her hand from his shoulder, thinking quickly as he did. It would not do to lie to him now, now that he had already been lied to, but she did not wish to cause him more distress than he had already suffered.

But, she thought, it was better to give him the truth and let him decide what to do with it, rather than choose what he should know and make the decision for him.

"Yes," Hild said. "You remind me of my bodywoman, Gwladus, back home. I am niece to the king, there."

[bells_will_ring]

"My lady," he breathes, wincing as he stops himself from kneeling, remembering what Damen had warned him against. He bows his head, though, again thinking he ought to have known. He ought to have recognized how she held herself.

"I appreciate the attention you have shown to me, to a slave. It has been difficult to explain myself to those unfamiliar with what I was."