Seven Districts: Seaside

[DUEL Rory Laurent]

The walk from Dragon’s Gate to Seaside had been so silent that Rory was actually uncomfortable. She cleared her throat after ten long minutes of silence. "So you lost your challenge," she spoke to the man whose naturally brisk pace she was struggling to match.

Cletus Ganderfald’s dark eyes swivelled from the path ahead onto Rory, soaking her in for a long moment. She shrunk in that intense look. "You’re very observant," he replied in a tone so neutral that the sarcasm wasn’t immediately obvious.

With that failure at starting a dialogue hanging over her head, Rory fell silent and Cletus returned his gaze ahead of them. She came to accept that the awkward silence was better than any attempt at a strained conversation. Cletus Ganderfald made Rory more nervous than almost anyone she had ever met. He wielded a blade with the same complete confidence that made Xenograg awe-inspiring but Cletus’s dark stoic features, biting repartee, and regal air added an intimidating element.

He slowed to a halt at a long dirt path lined with budding oak trees. "Follow this path to the house. It’s impossible to miss."

Rory glanced down the path but was unable to see the house from this vantage point due to a high stone wall. The path ended at an opened gate. She strained to see what was beyond it but was unable. "You’re not coming with me?" she asked Cletus, frowning at her own high, child-like tone. The man made her feel like a whiny five year old.

"I have business to attend to but Arane is there. She will show you around." Without so much as a goodbye, Cletus continued down the road further away from the center of the city.

Rory remained transfixed for a long moment staring at his back until his bulky frame disappeared around a bend. With a heavy sigh, she started towards the gate. The heavy fortified wall enclosed only three sides of the house, leaving the ocean view unobstructed on the far side of the house.

She stepped through the opened gate and came to a screeching halt as the entirety of the stone manor became visible. Rory felt confident that the manor was enough to render even the wealthiest, noble house-buyer speechless. While the walls around the house left the backside exposed to the ocean, it certainly did not create a vulnerable point. The ancient manor’s thick walls seemed designed to withstand a cannon volley from a warship on the ocean. Within the gate, the dirt path turned to a carefully laid fanfare pattern of cobblestone and cut through the inner courtyard in a circular driveway. The overgrown shrubs and the weeds choking the exotic flowers suggested that the garden courtyard had not been kept up in some years but that at one time was a sight to behold.

A tall man, whose bulging muscles seemed to be busting the seams of his shirt, was standing silently beside the front entrance. Rory forced herself towards the house. Her gaze soaked in the amazing architecture. Her imagination immediately dreaming up the lovely twilight galas that must have once been held here – horse carriages full of wealthy couples in their evening best, the garden in full bloom, an evening that would be talked about for months to follow.

"Mrs. Ganderfald is waiting for you inside," the man, who Rory assumed to be a bodyguard of Cletus’s wife, said, interrupting her girlish daydream.

Unable to find her voice, Rory simply nodded her thanks and stepped inward. Her footsteps echoed through the barren entrance hall as she cut through into a grand parlor. The furniture was covered in protective drop cloths and a thick layer of dust covered everything. The front windows of the parlor over looked the overgrown courtyard while the floor length back windows looked out over the sharp cliff side and ocean that lay behind the manor.

Rory spun to the massive staircase as the sound of descending footsteps alerted her to the presence of Arane Ganderfald. If Cletus was the aloof king, Arane perfectly fit the role of his evil queen. Her blonde curls were upswept perfectly so that they framed her deceptively delicate features. A stark white dress, which Rory would have managed to stain irrevocably within the first five minutes of putting it on, covered Arane’s almost too thin frame. Cool dark blue eyes swept over Rory before her lips turned upward in a tight, controlled smile.

"I am afraid that we will have to make this quick," Arane spoke with a much more conciliatory tone than did her husband. "My youngest daughter has come down with a cold."

"I understand. Thank you for seeing me."

Arane briefly lifted a drop cloth from a piece of furniture, momentarily inspecting an antique end table beneath. "The house has three stories and ten bedrooms. It is furnished in period pieces that all appear to be in relatively good condition. It has not been used in well over a decade, though."

"It is simply amazing," Rory managed to murmur as she continued to stare out the back windows at the smooth ocean view.

"There is a dungeon beneath the house. The stairs that lead down to it are–"

"There is a dungeon beneath the house?" Rory asked in an incredulous tone.

Arane’s gaze narrowed at the young women momentarily, not at all used to being interrupted. "Indeed," she replied in a manner which suggested that every proper house had its very own prison.

Rory leveled her gaze on Arane as she brushed her dusty palms off on one another. "Cletus told me the price that you want for it. I don’t understand. This place must be worth ten times that."

"Probably more like eleven times what we are asking of the sport but that is of no consequence. I inherited this manor many years ago and do not intend to ever use it. My husband and I have a fine home outside the city and one in Talsiny. We have no need for it nor is it very child friendly," Arane replied.

The explanation did not put to rest Rory’s confusion but she felt that Arane was used to dodging questions with superfluous speeches. Before she could press the matter further, a well-groomed, slender woman stepped in from the entrance hall and offered a polite nod to Arane. "Mrs. Ganderfald."

"Ah, excellent timing," Arane spoke with a warm smile to the woman before turning her attention back to Rory. "I must be off but Eleanor will answer any further questions that you have." Arane nodded politely to both before quickly disappearing from the room. Eleanor remained off to the side, allowing Rory to explore on her own.

Rory’s gaze was again drawn out those back windows to watch a large cargo ship passing in the distance. "That makes two," she whispered softly.