A Changing Tide

Things changed the day that I was eating in the banquet room.

I’d settled down to some eggs and steaming linked, sausage for breakfast. The Dining Hall was relatively empty.

As it usually is when I come to breakfast.

It seemed I was generally the only early riser. Which was why I did it so often. I liked the peace of being the only one in this great hall, save for the guards near the mantle and door and a sprinkling of servants cleaning, I was the only occupant.

I sawed at the bit of sausage with my knife and took a delicate bite. Savoring the spicy, tangy flavor.

Nearly oblivious to the presence of the servants working diligently around the room. A man feeding logs into the fire and a few maids dusting.

A servant stoking the fire, threw in the last log a bit carelessly. Which was what first drew my attention to him.

Servants are not usually so careless for fear of reprisal.

My blue gaze flitted over to him in time to see him spinning round and leaping into a full tilt run. Nearing