It was fucking bright outside the Kotas manor, Sil squinting at the low sun and sighing. He was so tired he was nearly dead on his feet, and the chance to escape for a bit of fresh air was almost enough to make up the fact that he was being used as some stupid errand boy.



Almost.



His first few days in service to the Crown Prince had been...eye-opening. Not only in the depressing reality of what his days looked like now, but also in how busy the man was, and how Silanos, much to his dismay, was expected to keep the same hours as Vangelis. Deprived of all the things that he would usually use to aid him in both sleeping or staying awake, he stumbled through the hours like some kind of wraith, blinking back the tiredness and trying to follow whatever words were directed at him. Only, as he’d come to realise, he was also expected to follow what wasn’t aimed at him too. It had been an awkward silence when the prince had asked Silanos to explain what the Baron of Elimea had been discussing with him. Sil had looked at him blankly because he’d just been left standing by the door like some servant, and had abruptly tuned out whatever dull conversations he wasn’t being included in. The fact that he was supposed to pay attention to he could answer Vangelis’ questions afterwards had been a rather unpleasant discovery.



So now his head was filled with all manner of fucking boring information that he had no want or need for, except for to avoid the wrath of the Crown Prince. Which, though he couldn’t say he was thrilled about the fact, Silanos was coming to see was his best choice going forwards.



Stifling a yawn, he shambled through the courtyard and onto the streets of the upper level, eschewing a horse in the hope the walk might help him wake the fuck up. In his hands, the insulting cargo that he’d been given to deliver, and there was a very real part of the young lord that wanted to just toss the missives into the sea. It was a part that he had to ignore though, knowing full well he’d pushed his luck far enough of late.



Timaeus had barely spoken to him since the meeting where Vangelis had demanded the younger Valaoritis’ indenture as payment for his transgressions, and that conversation alone had left Sil in little doubt as to how fine the line he walked truly was. He rubbed absently at the spot on his chest where the prince’s sword had been levelled. There had been no weight behind it but still, it was not as though the moment were easy to forget.



Fuck’s sake. It was such a dumb thing to get hauled over the coals for too.Barely even worthy of being called a kiss.



He was so busy scowling at the missives he held and feeling hard done to by life that Silanos didn’t look where he was going, didn’t notice the person that stepped into his path until too late and the lord let out a litany of curses as the parchment fell and he had to bend to retrieve it from where it landed at the feet of..
.


Oh hello. Maybe he wasn’t as annoyed as all that.



Without so much as thinking how perhaps he ought not to, Sil stood back up slowly, giving the woman a very obvious once over as he did, before he shook the dust off the missives he’d dropped and winked at her. It was as natural as breathing, and felt like a bit of light relief after the day he’d had, the young lord seeing no harm in delaying a few moments to talk to a pretty woman.



“Hey. There are easier ways to start a conversation you know”