Yes, Tessel was afraid, but that didn't stop her from being diligent. She had a lot of work to get done, and though the sight in the room had been horrifying, it was also nerve-wracking in a different sense of things. Everything was out of place and... violated. Soiled. Tessel found herself wanting to get the room clean, if only to convince herself there was part of the world that still had structure and order. Clean. But first she had to find someone to... help Akakios. She quietly stepped through the hall until she was at the door of one of the laundry girls' rooms. Tessel knocked quietly. She could hear moaning from the inside.
"Wha' do ya want?"
"Master Akakios," she simply said.
Tessel could hear a sigh from the inside of the room.
"Aw, hell."
A creak of the bed, the shuffling of feet, and the door opened to reveal a pretty dark tan skinned woman, no older than twenty three with long, braided brown hair and dark blue eyes. She glared at Tessel in surprise.
"Tess?" she muttered, looking at all the blood. The woman nodded sagely.
"He's really hungry tonight, huh?"
Tessel nodded.
"He's taking a bath. Wait for him in his study," she said flatly.
The woman nodded.
"Two minutes then," she agreed. She began to shut the door behind her, but opened up to peek her head out.
"Tessie," she hissed.
"Huh?"
"Are you okay?"
The young woman paused and shook her head.
"How can you be?" she wondered.
The laundry woman smirked in a dull sort of way.
"Hun, you've been livin' here your whole life. Get used to it."
---
I'm used to it, Tessel thought grimly as she vigorously scrubbed the floors. By this point, the night had been mostly spent. If Akakios has rose hell destroying the room, she took to cleaning like a tempest, collecting papers and books, scrubbing the furniture and rug. The curtains were taken down, she would replace them last. The paintings were taken down as well as they were utterly destroyed. No doubt her master could afford new ones. All that was really left to take care of was the corpse, which was starting to reek something awful. Tessel herself was drenched in it, her nightclothes stained, her hair, face and arms, especially , covered in caking blood. She looked like a ghost who had just gotten their revenge, but hardly looked pleased about it.
Still, she was rather proud of her work. She smiled, taking in the effect. The smile was wiped away when she looked back at the body. Well, she's been avoiding it up until now... Except, as Tessel tried to move it, she couldn't. It was hard, as the woman was larger than she was. Tessel supposed she could drag the body, but that didn't seem effective, either.
I could ask Toren, she thought.
Of course, her master had forbidden her, but she wasn't going to ask for help getting him a 'meal', just with disposing a body. The thought of his displeasure was frightening, but Tessel was stuck; she needed help.
She quietly exited the room and glanced down the hall before running down the stairs again, down the servants' quarters, and towards Toren's room. Just as she did before with the girl, she knocked quietly on his door.
"Toren," she pleaded. "Please wake up!"