An elderly man stood at the doorway to a lavish bedchamber, his withered hands clasped behind his stooped back, sparse strands of hair falling in white wisps across his wrinkled forehead. "Sir?" he queried, cautiously. Someone within groaned a response, and a moment later a pillow flew into the door frame, hitting the wooden floor with a gentle plop. "Sir, you really must come and review these documents, as--"
"Yes, yes, I know," the youth within cut him off, stepping out in unlaced boots, his finely woven black tunic partially unbuttoned, hair still a mess, "But really now, Alistair, you are such a bore. I can't imagine how my father managed to put up with you for so long."
To any casual observer, there was no change in either man's demeanor, though those who watched closely- perhaps the guardsman who stood at attention nearby, might have recognized a depression within the elderly gentleman, a sinking of his features as his willowy frame shrunk back and away, a slight dulling of his previously bright hazel eyes. The youth, meanwhile, quieted at that, sucking in his lower lip before absentmindedly running a finger over the pink scar that crossed his high cheekbone.
There was a moment of silence, and in it one could hear a pin drop. Certainly, the guardsman could hear his own heart beating. Somewhere outside the fortress walls a crow let out a mournful craw-caw before a hunter's arrow found its heart.
"Yes, well, in any case," Zacharie finally broke, with a sigh, hand moving from scar to chestnut hair, smoothing it back before letting it fall about his head as it may, "Show me these papers, lead me to the accounts and so on." He urged the withered manservant on with a whirl of his hand, not unlike how his eyes might roll, had he not enough tact to allow such an event to come to pass.
"And you," he tacked on without a moment's pause, attention shifting to the guardsman, "See our lady clothed, and led back to...the tavern, or wherever in Ziamdaka's name I found her."
Review personal assets and the assets of County Oathbreaker.