Pio had finished with tending to the patrons. She had turned the rest of the evenings duties over to Cami and one of the servers. She was tired after the long ride and the constant demands of the guests. ‘I really must find my replacement soon.’ She murmured to herself.
Hanging her apron on the peg near the kithchen door, she went in and found some fruits and sliced seedcake to pile on a plate. She grabbed a bottle of Dorwinion wine and a glass and hurried through the door to her rooms.
It was dark, the only light that of the moon streaming through the window in the front room. Sitting her plate and wine on the desk near the entry, she fumbled in one of the drawers for a flint and lit the small lamp of the wall by the door. ‘There, that’s better!’
A small sound came to her ears, something scraped across the floor some distance behind her, across the room. Her hand went to the knife beneath her sleeve, She drew it quickly as she blew out the lamp.
‘Who’s there?!’ she hissed quietly into the shadows, turning toward the source of the sound.
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Eldest, that’s what I am . . . I knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
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