At Kelsaen House

At Kelsaen House

Postby channe » Thu Jan 05, 2012 5:01 am

For a very long time, the mansion at the end of the lane had been unoccupied, dying of silence and choking in weeds.

It was the "King's house," to the locals, and it signified just how much Chedwry and his golden family paid attention to Myrken Wood -- the place had been empty, full of old, musty furniture and some rats, its stables devoid of horses and hay, the whole place padlocked and guarded with a magic that kept teenage risk-takers from climbing over the walls to hold illicit parties. The nominal Trae Kelsan representative, a wiry man who didn't do much at all or have any power whatsoever, lived in another part of town and spent entirely too much time at the teahouse.

Until today.

The carriages thundered into town, all of them painted gold, pulled by white horses and laden with items -- furniture, domestic goods, some weaponry, and people. Quite a few soldiers, aides, even a few domestic servants, butlers and housemaids alike -- all of them began to carry in the accoutrements of life and business. A few soldiers went out to buy provisions from the locals, all of them clean-cut, extremely polite, and paying the price requested -- no haggling, not like your average Myrkener. And, for the first time in years, Maunder Mellan saw the curtains to the old place thrown open.

Maunder, a groundskeeper for the house next door, had always looked at the King's House with some greed. Once, it had sported a garden to be envied; a number of varieties of roses there survived, still, as well as some hardy bushes and Myrkenborn flowers. Of the slight, tropical southern flora there was nary a sign. He had always thought of that as a symbol of Myrken's independence, of Myrken's sovreignty, of the fact that, no matter with what it was faced, Myrken survived.

But as Maunder stared through the open gate, with the gaggle of locals who'd come to gawk, he noted that some of the soldiers carried potted plants into the house. Lister-flowers. Garden-eyes. St. Chiela's wort. All plants that die with the first frost.

In the middle of the winter.

But he was late for work, and there was snow to push off the front walk at his lordship's place, so Maunder turned and walked away, turning his collar against the cold.
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channe
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