~~Metamorphosis I – Unfounded Mercy~~

Today was simply not Nicole’s day. As a servant of Hades, no days were really all that great, but today in particular had been bad. She had been running from one end of the castle to the kitchens so as not to be late for the lunch rush and had fallen and twisted her ankle. Unfortunately, they couldn’t spare anyone this particular day, and so she was hobbling along the hallways as carefully as she could so as not to drop the food and drink she carried, and now, she was going to one of the most treacherous destinations of all.

She knocked lightly on the door to the courtroom, trying her best to be quiet. This wasn’t the first time she had served Lord Rune in the courtroom, and she had been warned her first time to be as quiet as possible, and she had no problems with such a request, but she suddenly felt worried that she might stumble and drop his food or the empty tray she had under her arm.

“Come in.” Nicole walked in slowly, closing the door behind her and bowing, speaking gently and quietly. “I have your meal, Lord Rune.”

He nodded, not paying any attention to her. Nicole saw that his normally stony face looked a bit aggravated at the moment; she assumed it was related to the paperwork he was fumbling with. She quietly and slowly walked over, placing his food and drink on his desk and bowing before turning to walk off. She stifled a yawn, not even wanting to let that soft of a sound out in the courtroom, as she went towards the door.

Unfortunately, she didn’t quite make it.

She was only a few feet from the door when she stepped on her ankle wrong, twisting it and letting out a surprised noise as she fell face-forward, landing on her hands and knees. Her eyes widened when she heard the empty tray clank to the ground with a deafening resonance, frozen in shock as it continued to make sound until it settled.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The question was venomous, and Nicole scrambled for an excuse as she slowly got her feet. “I apologize, Lord Rune…I injured myself earlier and I tripped—“

“I do not want to hear your excuses, nor do I care!” he said angrily. “Do not do that again!”

Nicole felt tears threaten to come to her eyes. She was frustrated with how her day had been going so far, and now she had managed to anger a man who she had, up until now, considered to be one of the tamer Specters, into raising his own voice at her in his own sacred, quiet space. However, to her surprise, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and bent down to grab the tray, turning to him. “I said I apologize, Lord Rune. I cannot take back my action.”

Rune looked at her out of the corner of her eye. She was a simple, everyday servant, with red hair and blue eyes, dressed similarly to all the others, with the same mannerisms as all the others, and yet he was suddenly perplexed. Nobody had ever done anything but scurry off after he raised his voice. Perhaps, he thought, she was not aware of who she was dealing with. “I did not ask you to speak, woman. Leave.”

Nicole felt a twinge of something that she’d never felt towards Rune before: anger. “I’m trying to explain myself, so you can see I didn’t do it on purpose!”

The cook realized her mistake when Rune actually turned his head to look at her straight on. “I did not ask you to explain yourself, and I will not tell you again to leave!”

Nicole clutched the tray to her chest, giving him a hard look. For some reason, she couldn’t leave the issue alone. “I was trying to be nice about it; there’s no reason for you to snap at me like that, Lord Rune.”

Rune could not believe the audacity of this woman. He stood, turning towards her, expecting to instill fear in her but seeing she was unphased. It angered him further, and he walked towards her slowly. “How dare you talk back to me like that? What gives you the right—“

“And what give you the right to throw my apology back in my face?” Nicole put a hand over her mouth, shocked at the fact that those words had spilled from her mouth. Not only had she been rude again, but she interrupted him, which she had heard was another pet peeve of the Balrog Specter.

Rune growled, suddenly appearing right in front of her. “Woman, if I were not as busy as I am right now, I would deal with you as you should be dealt with. However…” He grabbed her by her chin, pulling roughly so she was looking up at him. “I am busy. Take this as a warning; cross me again and you will regret it.” As he turned, he couldn’t help but feel annoyed. He should strike her down right here and now; why did he just spare her? He thought about it, coming to the conclusion that one instance of simple words was not enough to make a fuss over. That was surely the reason why he was letting her go; he did not need to deal with such pettiness.

Nicole just glared at him and he let go, watching his eyes linger on her for the briefest of moments as he returned to his seat. She gritted her teeth, her fingers turning white from the pressure against the tray in her hands as she turned and limped out of the room, afraid to hesitate any longer for fear of enticing him into finding a punishment for her later.

She had never been so angry in her life. She was injured; couldn’t the bastard cut her some slack? In all of her time here in Hades’ Castle serving some of the most arrogant and idiotic men she had ever met in her life, none had infuriated her the way that Balrog Rune had did just now, and for the life of her, she could not figure out why.