Merlin stretched as he left his study, heading to the High Queen’s study. He knew the High Queen would be there soon to hold court with the Heads of Staff to discuss how things were going. He was sure that the High Queen would be a few minutes late to the meeting anyway. He heard the Mourning Dinner the night before was eventfully with the same family drama that occurs when various family members showed up for a dinner and wanted to discuss the ‘correct’ thing to do when a loved one died. Belladonna was the most vocal on what to do and what not to do while Kalliope argued with her. It was strange to see and hear Kalliope growing a backbone. However, the rumor floating around from the various servants who attend the dinner said Kalliope was pregnant and there was a good chance Uther wasn’t the father. Courtly drama. He didn’t miss it one bit.
His eyes roamed over the horizon, seeing the sun started to peek over the castle walls and crept over the ground. The Queens’ Tower stood in the distance and he spotted the Lady Morgana opened the doors to her balcony, stepping out, wearing a dark color, skimpy dress he knew she wore to sleep in. He smirked. He was tempted to do something, but he didn’t have enough magic to something really mischievous. Maybe another day when his magic pool refilled completely. He knew she would get him back, but he really didn’t care. She should know better then prance on her balcony in the morning hours when the entire castle was stirring and started to move about.
Speaking of moving about, High Queen Kalliope had request his presence during the meeting the Heads of Staff. Merlin didn’t know why, but he didn’t question it. It was nice to feel important again and needed to help in the day to day running of Camelot. Uther, may he rest in peace, didn’t like Merlin or Morgana very much and had much prefer not to see them at court. Kalliope was the opposite. She valued their opinions and their knowledge they had gained over the various years, citing there was a reason behind their long life.
Merlin strolled through the castle to the High Queen’s Study where High Queen Kalliope was already sitting in the high back chair in front of a long table. She had papers scattered in front of her. She didn’t bother looking up as he stepped into the room and walked to a chair. He spotted the heads of staff already sitting down in the various chairs pulled up to the table. Morgana already informed him that she wasn’t going to attend, needing to go down to the crypts and expand on the outcropping where Arthur’s mother, Melissa, lay, so Uther could rest beside her. Eventually, when Kalliope passed, she would join them.
Melissa didn’t live to see Uther become King of Camelot. She died in childbirth, giving birth to Arthur. Uther had been upset over her death. Everyone who saw them interact with the other, knew their love was true. Uther only took Kalliope as his queen-wife for Arthur. The young prince needed a mother and Kalliope was young enough if Uther wanted another child, he could try with Kalliope. Another thing came out from the Mourning Dinner, Uther had fathered another child with a Lady of the Court. Merlin wondered who the woman was for a long moment. He hadn’t been visited by any woman of the Court for a moon potion for over a century. He frowned, thinking about, not since the Drake Family managed to take over the Kingship. They had been extremely lucky when it came to the various Kings within their bloodline. It was either a son of the Drake Family or a daughter married the man who became King. He hummed at that thought.
Merlin pushed those thoughts aside as he took his seat at the table. His eyes roamed over the paper scattered over the table top and spotted lists of guests who have already checked in and who hasn’t and a sitting chart of who will be sitting where during the funeral ceremony. He didn’t know if Morgana was going to show up for this meeting or not.
“Beth,” Kalliope broke the silence as her eyes moved over a page, looking over the information, “Do we have enough clean sheets for the rest of the available rooms?”
“I have my teams working on them, right now, my lady,” Beth, the head of housekeeping, spoke up. Merlin’s eyes drifted over to Beth before he blinked. Beth, to his utter amazement, was old. Her dark brown hair was now white with age. Her smooth face showed laugh lines, crows feet, and her cheeks shagged. However, her eyes still blazed with the same intensity he knew her to have.
Where did the time go? He remembered her as a little girl who ran after her mother as she worked as the Head of Housekeeping, teaching Beth everything she needed to know; the young woman who talked with Morgana about the love of her life and how the wedding went; the new mother trying to figure out why her baby won’t go to sleep; and how she was taking the passing of both her mother and husband during the Kingless Kingdom Era.
“We have completed the North and West Wing of the Castle. They are at full capacity with the arrival of yesterday’s lords and ladies of the Court and the Representatives. I have three teams in the South Wing and the rooms in the South should be ready in the next two to three hours. If something changes, I will let you know,” Beth went on.
The High Queen nodded, listening to Beth, as she shifted in her seat, causing the glistening red dress she wore with white roses along the neckline to sparkle in the morning sun. “Cook Sanji,” she turned her attention to the Head Cook of the Kitchen.
Sanji sat straight up in his chair where he had been slouching, only half listening to the High Queen. His blue eyes focusing on the High Queen. That was another Merlin watched grow up.
He was from a distant land in the far east and traveled to Camelot while he was in his mid-teens with his mentor on a ship. The ship sunk off the coast of Camelot during a Hurricane and it was a miracle that Sanji and his mentor managed to make it to shore. They were nursed back to health by the castle’s medical team and through some magic, the Court managed to find out that Sanji and his mentor were from a land called Japan and their ship got lost on their voyage to another land called the United States.
Merlin and Morgana realized then the two were from the Outside World and they urged them to keep the fact they were from the Outside World quite when the magi confronted them about it, explaining where they were at now, claiming that Camelot and the surrounding Kingdoms were not ready to rejoin the outside world. Even now, Sanji never told a soul exactly his origins.
Merlin thought Sanji’s mentor might have on his death bed a few years ago, but he was never for sure. After his mentor’s death, Sanji took over the Camelot Kitchens and the food tasted never better since then. Camelot got lucky when Sanji and his mentor washed up on shore.
“How is the Kitchen’s stocks?” Kalliope asked. She held a quill over a piece of parchment, obviously taking notes on the meeting.
“Increasing and decreasing,” Sanji stated, “The various farmers who live within a day’s travel are trying their best to meet our needs as well as the fishermen Guild and the Hunting Guild. However, they are finding it somewhat difficult on such short notice. Most of the goods are still not ready for harvesting, yet.” He paused, “I have reached out to some further farmers to see if they will be able to help out. Some of them are able to and we are expecting the first shipment of goods, today.” He tapped on the table top as he went on, “What should I prepared for the evening meal?”
“Do we have a couple of boars available,” Kalliope questioned.
“I will check with my butchers,” Sanji replied, “Should there be a back up, in case, none are available?”
Merlin knew Sanji kept a regular contact with several butchers in the city, usually two or three in each cardinal direction. The head cook, sometimes, would have only hours to prepare a large meal instead of the two or three weeks for a major meal for an important visitor or a ceremony. He was some sort of miracle worker when it came to food.
“Duck or pig,” she answered, glancing up at the head cook. He nodded. He shifted in his chair, obviously wanting to leave to get start. Merlin knew some of the meats needed hours to cook and become tender, however, Sanji was a master at cooking. The battle mage had witness the head cook to create some of his own ‘magic’ to get the meal on the table. “You may leave, Cook Sanji.”
“Thank you, my queen,” Sanji said, smoothly as he stood up. He bowed at the waist before he twisted and hurried out of the meeting room, no doubt heading to the kitchens.
“Sebastian,” Kalliope addressed the Head of Butlers and Maids. The man in question looked at the High Queen with an emotionless expression.
Sebastian was a hard man for Merlin to read. He had worked his way through the ranks of the service to become the Head of Butlers and Maids. While some could argue that Housekeeping and Butlers and Maids were the same thing, Sebastian thought differently, claiming that Butlers and Maids were design to make sure their charge was comfortable as their first priority, cleaning second.
Butlers and Maids brought their charge the meals throughout the day, running the simple errands like delivering a letter, or acting as guides for a charge who never been to the Camelot. Morgana had claimed that one of the Maids that been assigned to her could fight, decently, hand to hand, as well as used improvised weapons. Merlin tried to see if that was true, but every he tried, Sebastian was there, blocking him. It had become a game between the two of them over the decades they had served Camelot and the Ruling Family.
Merlin frowned as he thought about when Sebastian had came to Camelot. He didn’t remember, exactly. He knew it was decades ago. Merlin’s fae senses didn’t detected anything off about the man, but the mysterious man still looked like he was the same as he did when he first came to Camelot. Sebastian’s black hair was slicked back out of his face, the ends curled at the back of his rounded ears. However, his light gray eyes focused on the High Queen as he replied to her, “Yes, my queen.”
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“How is your staff?” She asked, shifting through the various papers in front of her. She didn’t look up as she found the page she needed and quickly read through it.
“We are fully staffed,” Sebastian replied, “I have assigned at least three of the Butlers and Maids to each representative, but General Genesis refused his Butlers.” Sebastian’s lips twitched into a smirk. “He threatened to use me as a target for target practice if I tried to assign anymore Butlers to him.” That sent a round of chuckles at the table. “I did try again to if he would follow through on his threat. He hasn’t yet.” Merlin shook his head in amusement. Sebastian was brave. Not many of the Heads of Staff would do that to the Explosive General, let alone for their own amusement. “I did follow my usual rules: Female Representatives got a maid while male Representative got a Butler.” He explained. He was like that, often setting a few rules in place to make sure none of his staff was taken advantage of. If they were, well, it won’t be the first time Merlin and Morgana had to craft a mysterious death scene at the Castle. They had to do several times in the past since Sebastian took over as the head of Butlers and Maids. Merlin knew he would have to do it again if he needed to. “And Families got a mixture of both.”
Kalliope nodded in understanding before she spoke up, “Are we short anywhere?”
Merlin was dreading this question. He knew someone would complain about being short staff somewhere. He resisted the urge to sigh and wait out the storm of complainants when a voice rose up, coming from the last person still waiting to speak. The woman’s name was Heather. Merlin couldn’t remember her last name, but it didn’t seem important enough to remember, due to, how much the woman complained about this and that around the castle.
Kalliope nodded in understanding before she spoke up, “Are we short anywhere?”
Merlin was dreading this question. He knew someone would complain about being short staff somewhere. He resisted the urge to sigh and wait out the storm of complainants when a voice rose up, coming from the last person still waiting to speak. The woman’s name was Heather. Merlin couldn’t remember her last name, but it didn’t seem important enough to remember, due to, how much the woman complained about this and that around the castle.
“The Serving Staff is always short,” an arrogant voice spoke up at the far end of the table. Merlin resisted the urge to sigh as he recognized the voice. It belong to Heather McDonald, the head of Servers. She worked closely with the kitchen staff and often criticized her people to the point they transfer to a different position somewhere in the Castle or found work else where. He didn’t know how many times he had heard people complain about her attitude towards her servers. “I can never find enough people to cover the evening meal, let alone a major ceremonial meal like the Funeral Meal.”
“I am fully aware of your complaints,” Kalliope stated. Her voice held an even tone. Merlin was also aware of the various complaints Ms McDonald about her staff, but the worst of the complaints were about her.
Heather went on like the High Queen hadn’t spoken, “I can’t be expected to work this short handed. I just had one woman just had a baby the other day so I have to find a replacement for her.” She waved her hands in a stressed manner. “Then two more that decided not to show up this morning.” She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, “They won’t be receiving a good recommendations from me for that, if they try to get one, and if they try to put in a transfer to a different area of the Castle, I won’t approve it.”
‘Bet they won’t,’ Merlin thought as he rolled his eyes, hiding that fact as he lowered his head to the table. A glanced toward Sebastian informed the Battle Mage what the Head of Butlers and Maids thought of the complaining and knew Heather was getting what she deserved for treating her people so badly. Merlin knew many of the Butlers and Maids had transfer from the Serving Staff to get away from Heather’s treatment and stated loudly when they could that Sebastian was a much better Head to work under then Heather. It often led to disagreements between the two Heads. Sebastian would end up going behind Heather’s back to get the transfers approved anyway, by going straight to the High Queen and explain the situation.
“I need more people to help out with serving the food to the court and representatives,” Heather went back to complaining, “Just how am I supposed to work with what people I have -“
“Heather,” Kalliope cut in, causing Heather to paused and looked at the young woman, “Who is your second in commander?”
“Patrick Johnson, my lady,” Heather replied, a confused note in her voice.
“Guard,” Kalliope looked past the Head of the Server Staff. One of the Castle Guards, a member of General Bartholomew’s brigade, stepped forward, “Please, retrieve Patrick Johnson for me.”
“Yes, my queen,” The Guard banged a fist to his chest and bowed before he turned to leave. They waited in silence as Kalliope returned back to the papers. Merlin noticed there was a glint in her eyes. She was going to change something and he had the feeling he knew what was going to happen. He should have brought a snack for the fireworks.
“We will handle the Server Staff being short handed in a moment when Patrick Johnson arrives,” Kalliope stated, “How is the decorating coming along, Madam Flora?”
Madam Flora smirked in amusement, “It is coming along quite nicely, my lady.” She paused, taking a breath, before she went on, “Despite being short handed ourselves and not having skilled decorators, my decorating team will have the Great Hall ready in time for the Evening Meal as well as the Southern rooms ready to be filled by the time of Court to begin and the arrival of more representatives.” Madam Flora sent Heather a smirk. “My team and I are used to working with what people we have since the ability to properly decorate a room is a skill that not many have the ability to learn.”
Merlin bit his lower lip as he heard that backhanded insult. He knew Heather had tried to join the Decorating Staff when she first join the Camelot Staff, but she showed no skill at it, she was pushed to another department and another until she ended up in the Server Staff.
“At the last report I received my second, the Great Hall was nearly prepared and several of my staff had started to drift to the Southern Wing to see which rooms they could get started on,” Madam Flora went on, “As you have requested, my queen, the Great Hall has been decorate in the Drake House Colors of Red and Gold through out the room while each of the rooms have a different theme to them.” Kalliope nodded.
There was a knock at the door and the guard stepped into the room with Patrick Johnson behind him. Patrick, Merlin immediately noticed his hair color, had a rich blond that glimmer with shades of icy blue. That was unusual. Not many people had that color of hair. The Battle Mage blinked in surprise as it clicked in his head. Patrick was from the Johnson House. They were known to shade of Ice Blue throughout their hair. At one time, the on-going rumor was the members of the Johnson were related the mysterious Snow Witch that lived in the far North part of the county and thought to have similar powers to the Snow Witch. So far, none of the rumors to be true.
“You request my presence, your highness,” Patrick walked forward to the table and stopped a few feet behind Heather’s seat, waiting for an explanation to the reason why he was summoned.
“Yes,” Kalliope set the papers aside and looked at Patrick and Heather at the opposite end of the table. “Heather, you hereby removed from your position as Head of the Server Staff. You no longer have a job in the Castle.” Merlin glanced at Heather whose face slackened in a mixture of horror and shock. She looked like she wanted to protest. Kalliope went on, “You have two hours to remove yourself from the Castle. You may not returned to the castle during the rest of my life.” Merlin frowned at that wording. “You may not visit for any reason. You will have to have a royal summons to enter the castle. You may leave.” Heather didn’t move, staring at Kalliope. “Now before I have you escorted out without your items.”
Heather slowly stood up and walked by Patrick who looked as shock as she did over the turn of events. She paused, long enough to glare at him. It didn’t take a genius to realize that Patrick was going to be her replacement as Head of the Server Staff. He didn’t meet her gaze. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
“Now, that is taken care,” Kalliope said, ignoring the outright disrespect from the former head of Server Staff, “Patrick, you have been promoted to Head of the Server Staff.”
Patrick jerked toward the High Queen, his mouth parted. It took a moment for the news to sink in. When it did, Patrick immediately bowed, “As you wish, my lady.”
“Head Sebastian,” Kalliope addressed the head of the Butler and Maids, “Would you please be so kind to lend aid to the Server Staff, until they are fully re-staffed?”
“It would be my honor, your majesty,” Sebastian replied with a small smile. His eyes danced with glee. He was also tired of Heather’s complaining about being short-staffed. It was sometimes the management the problem, the staffers. “I think I have few dozen Butlers and Maids will be free to help out the Server Staff.”
“Thank you, Sebastian,” Patrick nodded and gave him a grateful look, “I need to spread the word of the change of Management before Heather could start spreading rumors of what had happened.”
“Alright,” the High Queen said, “Now, that is taken care of…” she looked up at the people at the table. “Is there anything else we need to take care of before it becomes an issue?” Merlin glanced around the table, seeing no one had any protests. “Alright then,” the queen went on, “Thank you for giving me an update about your progress.” She stood up, causing everyone to stand up as well. “Mage Merlin, would you please escort me to the Seasonal Throne Room for welcoming the rest of our guests?”
“It would be my honor,” Merlin bowed toward Kalliope.
“My Queen,” Sebastian spoke up, “I will send a team of 30 of the Butlers and Maids to the Seasonal Throne Room to escort their charges to their rooms. I will personal see to the help of the Server Staff.” Kalliope nodded, waving him away. He bowed before he left the room with Patrick on his heels. Both already deep in conversation about their game plan how to handle the evening meal.
“I will be checking on my decor team in the South Wing to see their progress for myself,” Madam Flora announced, “If you will excuse me, my lady.” When Kalliope waved her away, the Madam Decorator hurried from the room, heading straight to the South Wing of the Castle, knowing it will be filled up by the end of the day.
Beth was the next to speak, “Pardon me, my queen, but I need to head over to the South Wing as well, to check on my team. They should be almost done, cleaning out the unused rooms for the rest of the Staff to tackle.” She hurried away, following Madam Flora.
Merlin was left with the High Queen. He turned to her and held out his arm, “Shall we, your highness?”
Kalliope gave him a smile and nodded, taking his offer arm before they strolled out of the room, heading to the Seasonal Throne Room. There was a few moment of silence before Merlin asked, “What made your decision on firing Heather, if I could so bold to ask, my lady?”
“Truthfully,” Kalliope sighed, “I got tired of her complaining about being short handed when it is her own fault.” She paused before she went on, “I have a headache from the amount of alcohol I drunk last night.” Merlin nodded. “Plus, I think I told the family one of my secrets during the dinner.”
He hummed as he led her through the various hallways. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, debating if he should asked about it or not. However, Kalliope beat him to the punch, “I’m pregnant and it’s not Uther’s.”
Merlin blinked and slowly nodded. So the rumors were true. He asked, “Who is the father?”
“I’m not ready to inform anyone of that just yet,” she replied.
He frowned. That was interesting. He wondered why she isn’t willingly to inform anyone of the identity of the father. It would be something he would have to think about.
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