Servant in the flames

In the grand office room the morning light hit the desk which was filled with stacks of paperwork, completed. The butler was troubled at the sight of the young master sleeping on the desk.

"Antonio sama?" The lack of response affirmed the depth of his sleep.

"Young master." He called more but to avail. So he took a deep breath and walked to him. Shaking his shoulder hesitantly.

"Young master, I think you would be more comfortable in your room." He talked to the half sleep young master.

"Sure." He goes to sleep on the desk.

"My neck is killing me." He yawns, walking in a luxurious hallway, passing by huge vase of blooming flowers and a marble statue.

"Well you shouldn't sleep on the desk Antonio san." Freonika said with a faint dignified chuckle. Walking next to him in a modest distance.

"I feel like paper work will be waiting under my bed if I don't finish it." He narrates like he's saying a story.

"It probably will not." She simply replies, resisting the charm.

"I haven't seen Cherry lately." She asks as the butler pours her blue tea.

"Ah, she's on a mission now." He says before sipping some tea.

"May I know when will she be back?" She looks at his cup.

'I thought he drinks coffee.'

"Hmm, maybe next month. Depend how the mission go." He looks at his cup.

"You miss her?" His smile is cryptic.

"I simply do look forward to our time together."

His mind drifts for a split second. The chandelier's shadow looms behind her.

In the night he enters the hut to see the mercenary pouring purplish water over the three children, alternating between them as their father watches with a pained expression.

"Can we heat it and bath them with it?"

"No, it should be as is."

"Can you pour it slower?"

"It won't work then."

He watched them argue, while the kids laughed. The one powerful stoic duke is now panicking at the thought of letting the kids stay wet for the elixir to work.

Antonio held his laugh as Karaza took the towels from Lester.

After it was all said and done the kids were dry and sleep. Karaza headed to the attic.

"You gonna stay here?" Antonio asked.

"Well technically I'm in a mission, till next month." She smirked. He laughed.

"How's everything?" She asked, changing her clothes behind a dressing screen in the dark attic.

"Well Freonika miss you, as for Henry the knights keep him busy. Nothing is out of the wood though."

"Will it ever be?" She said, coming from behind the dressing screen, reaching for the medical supplies.

When the thread is in the needle she opens the bandage on her arm, spraying some antiseptic on the open wound.

"You sure you wanna stay here?" She asks, he just gives an affirmative hum, sinking in the old chair.

"I can hold a mirror or a candle for you or something." He teases.

He zones out, eyes on the floor. an aware of the calling of his name. Until his father shakes his shoulder.

"Antonio! We gonna go."

"You called me?"

"Is there another Antonio?, Come on now, we have to meet the Baron tomorrow."

That authoritative ordered to a squeak when he saw his errand girl stitching herself.

"Just tell me and I will call a doctor you barbarian!" He said, running downstairs while the young male laughed, following him.

'Another Antonio huh? That was the plan.' He thought, recalling a past memory as the main palace towers over him like it did when he was a dirty commoner kid, entering the palace of the duke's brother. Wearing something nicer to be presented.

Nine years prior.

"Antonio, from today this is your companion." The father introduced to his son.

The red haired boys looked at each other. Although the real Antonio had vitiligo which started developing on his forehead they looked quite similar.

"Where did that master found such a copy." Some servants whispered.

"Shinning shoes on the street. The master got curious about the line of people on his stool, then when he saw him, boom."

"How our young master develop vitiligo and not the kids on the street!" Another servant whispered.

He bowed and greeted as he was trained, Antonio was happy seeing someone his age and that looked like him. Although shy and reluctant at first, the other kid managed to make him warm up.

He was basically another servant, one that escorted his master around and had additional playmate duties. A fate much merciful that most of the well dressed servants and maids there. Who were enslaved to the noble.

'And you think the street is as bad as it can get.'

At night he stared at the beaten down ceiling of the servants dorm. Books about etiquettes and the servants protocols were stacked neatly on his bed, supported by the wall.

'Wah! It's almost two weeks and I still can't used to the soft bed, are their beds softer than this over there? Shouldn't be possible.' He thought in ow while looking at the palace from the glass of a slightly muddy window glass.

'Isn't a hassle to let us sleep in another building? What if the master or his wife needed something in the night? Law I guess.'

'Not good, gotta sleep now and wake up on time. Or else I'm back to the streets.

"hmmm.." Antonio was growling on his stack of homework, rubbing his head.

"What's wrong young master?" The servant asked.

"I'm stuck, I can't remember how the teacher explained solving this."

The servant scanned the inequality function on the paper which had a little too many variables for the kid.

"I suggest solving each side on its own first." He spoke lowly.

"Wow, you were paying attention." The boy started working on it.

"That is my job."

Although when he got stuck again his servant chose not to spoil the next step before glancing at the pile of unfinished homework and giving up.

In the next days the servant was doing his all to hide his fascination at everything, a business party was held. Even though he couldn't fathom the existence of such marbled decoration and huge chandlers. Seeing the amount of cooked food on the table almost made him want to cry, he didn't know why. He was much fuller compared to the past.

He wiped the tiny tears, exited the kitchen to fulfill his role.

Despite the shyness of Antonio and his almost refusal to greet the guests it went well. The servant heard some of the adults talking, exchanging pleasantries, talk about business and money affaires, makings deals even.

If his eyes were shiny with tears before the party, they are now shiny with something else, a want.

As the weeks passed the stack of books on his bed got taller. It would've collapsed without the wall's support. Accounting and affairs books got in the mix.

"This is useless." Antonio whispers in a choked voice.

"On the contrary young master, you're doing better." The servant looked at the equation.

"No, it's all useless, I won't be able to carry the family's duty. That if I was allowed to carry it to begin with." He choked, looking at the developing vitiligo on his arm.

The servant eyes tore between sympathy and the stack of undone homework that he would be blamed for if not completed. Blinking slowly thinking how to end or postpone the meltdown.

"There is nowhere for me to belong." Tears fallen.

'I guess that when it hit me.' The older man comment on his memories.

"That's not true young master. I heard about a place, a whole land in the matter!" The servant whispered.

"What?"

"Yeah, people with illness, infertility and stuff worse than this live there and get treated." He explained with contagious excitement, opening his arms in the air. Giving hope.

"Really? Even though, I won't be allowed to live there, and I can't leave everything." The realization wiped the innocent happiness upon the sight of papers.

"You can! I can do all your duties, we look like each other. Nobody will know."

"And this ?" He pointed at his forehead.

"Healed with some magical cream over night. Nobody complain'n!"

"But my eyes and yours aren't the same color!" The master argued more.

"They got something for that, they call it contacts lenses! I read about them in magazines." The servant persuaded.

The doubt in the master's eyes got chased away by the idea, the opportunity, he looked at his servant for conviction, and conviction he found.

"You promise?"

"I promise." They hooked pinkies, whispering quietly.

Upon the promise the books on the bed got heavily annotated. The softness of the bed became familiar.

bright light in the night woke him up and everybody else up. Like an overfilled balloon the panic explode. The main palace was on fire.

"WATER! The palace on fire!" Someone yelled.

"What water! Everybody run! It's our chance to be free!"

"Run where?! They will hunt you down!"

"Call help before the fire reaches here!"

The shouting turned into altercation between some. Some Ran away, other collected anything with value before running, some grabbed water to put the fire. The boy froze in his bed as the adults duked it out, each on their own way.

He hastily shoved the books under the bed.

In the line of people passing the water to put out the fire the boy passed by, running toward the flames inside the palace.

'Why I was running to there?' The man pondered the memory. Trying to solve a mystery inside him.

Walking and coughing through the flames, barely avoiding some collapsed pieces of the ceiling.

He pushed the fire eaten door of a large meetings room, gasping for air.

"Emergency call, it should be there!" He barely tear out a painting out of the wall, taking a carrier pigeon like device behind it.

"Password. Password of the noble family to activate." The device outed.

He wrote a series of numbers on a paper with blurry eyes and shallow breath. Giving it to the device to eat.

'It should be true.' This is the one Antonio was told.

The pigeon flew away, and the boy fell down.

He was woken up by his own viscous coughs. His vision remained blurry but he recognized the two new figures when he turned. A tall scrawny man, luxurious clothes burned and dirty, and a little girl with sliver hair and a big dress plus the axe.

As his vision regained itself, as more oxygen entered his system he registers a fact. The fact that a bookshelf has collapsed over him.

"I'm so sorry your grace!" A voice said.

"That can't be possible! Search more! " The duke yelled in despair, causing the servant to run again.

The splashing of water continue inside and outside the building. Drops leak it's way through the shelf to his face as he watches the girl speak to the duke in broken sentences.

" No voices. Not planned."

"Are you sure?! How? Something like that can't be an accident!"

"Search more." The girl said. The duke walked in circles.

"Someone must be alive! The emergency call need someone with the password to activate it. Search every knock and cranny!"

The girl jumped in a sudden, running toward the bookshelf, flipping it with ease. The little light makes the boy cover his eyes.

"Oh lord! This must be Antonio! You called for help!" Lester shouts, lifting the boy off the ground.

"It's gonna be okay child! Medic!"

"His leg is broken, I need to do tests to make sure everything else is alright." The doctor said, securing the cast on his leg. He was laying down, hands still covering his eyes.

"What about his eyes, Antonio love, tell us what you feel?" Lester asks.

"The smoke probably dried them out, that's why he can't open them, he should open them in couple hours." The doctor explains as the boy stays silent.

The dukes assistant calls upon him, suspecting they found the source of the fire.

'It's funny if you thought too much about it, a mere oil lamp that lighted the corridor. Fell to the ground and ignited a fire. Since the law didn't let any servant stay in the palace at night the flames eat itself bigger. '

'We couldn't even tell if it was a genuine accident or someone tampered with the lamp.'

The young man looked at his reflection in his dark room.

He removed his eye contacts, amber eyes getting some freedom for the night. looking outside the window, to the dukedom border with the wild.

'There is plenty deadly things there. But perhaps we are the cruelest of them all.'