Chapter Text
The dried leaves shattered under his shoes with dry, soft sounds. Sal’s shoes were too expensive to get debris on on purpose, but he was tempted to take a course that shuffled through more of the leaves. It was such a satisfying noise.
Ah, there it was! “Why, it’s even more derelict than I expected,” said Sal. “Are those broken windows? Such character!”
“You can repair them,” said Francis, lingering at his elbow. Francis was the sort of person who naturally lurked with panache. Sal allowed himself a brief moment of missing the glory days of the medieval age. Francis the advisor, himself as the jester, and the King had never caught on that two Dragons were unofficially running his kingdom…
That revolution had been such a shame. At least they’d gotten the perfectly innocent King smuggled to safety and faked their own deaths in his place.
“Repair them? You’re joking,” said Sal, shaking himself back to the present era. “This place is perfect. I’ll have everyone around believing it’s haunted in no time.”
He stepped up to the door of the mansion and took hold of the doorknob. It pulled away in his hand and the door behind it fell into the house off of its hinges.
“Exquisite,” said Sal.