PeaceMaker

Without a moment of hesitation, her mother began down the hallway, her hands clenched in a tight ball. Annabeth wanted to laugh, it was hysterical. A ripple in the perfect picture, placed in gold frames, and hung on a weak wall, was resonating through the flow of distorted colors. It was truly hilarious. 

She continued down the hallway, her mother's heavy footsteps close behind her. They were staggering. Annabeth stops at the entrance of the living room while her mother stands behind her, they stayed there for a few moments until Annabeth heard another pair of footsteps coming behind them, entered the living room.

The room had an eerie silence that nobody was willing to break. Not even the servants that swamped the kitchen getting the room ready, their moments were as silent as they could be. Not even after they were done working did they stop moving, they didn't want to get swept into the silence in the air.

This time no stares were exchanged as neither one of the people in the family really wanted to lock eyes with each other. They were done with the tea before they even took a sip. The stiffness of the air they had been breathing in was thicker than the tea itself. 

"Ahem. Servant," Mrs. Crowly called out.

All breathing was cut off in a second due to her words and those seated at the table resisted the urge to turn and look and the servants lined up behind them. Annabeth cleared her throat. She certainly didn't want to be the servant that was just reached out to and judging by the silence that followed, neither of them wanted to be the person either.

"Do not make me repeat myself," Mrs. Crowly muttered, her voice so low and yet commanding that Annabeth wanted to give a round of applause for it.

The servant shuffled forward with reluctant steps. 

"Yes, Lady Mannerism?"

"How are you performing the task I assigned you with?" Mrs. Crowly looked up at the servant. 

Annabeth, appealed by the conversation, decided to take a peek at the servant. The male servant exchanged a quick glance with Jena. Annabeth let out a low defeated chuckle, the same emotion expressed in the grip of Mrs. Crowly's hand around her fork.

In one smooth movement, Mrs. Crolwy's fork was thrown out of her hand and nearly grazed the servant. "What filth."

The room paused and the beady eyes of those around her peered at her. An insult directed at two pierced 12.

The servant didn't dare to reply. So Mrs. Crowly stood up and faced him at eye level. 

"The task that I assigned you with. Has there been any changes?" she asked once again. Her question was met with silence. 

When the dainty hands of her mother twitched, Annabeth noticed. There wasn't anybody in the room that didn't notice, for if they overlooked it, her stoic face would have given no hint to her anger. The rhythmic tapping of her shoes said otherwise.

The servant, overwhelmed with the choice of backing away from the cold glare Mrs. Clowly was shooting him with her hazel eyes or looking up to them, cowered. His lower status dropping below that of his kind with each second he stayed under her gaze. She loomed over him in both status and anger. It wasn't his first seeing that type of stare but it had been directed at him before but the contrast between the original and her copy beside him sent shivers down his spine.

He was trapped in a cage without bars. 

"I'm sure you weren't brought into this place with illiteracy so why act so now?" Mrs. Crowly smiled. It was as fake as the servant's clothing, wrinkled and worn down. 

"Lady Mannerism, the task is going well. Lady Jena did not leave your permitted areas of movement you have assigned her," The servant bowed his head further. 

Mrs. Crowly nodded and grinned, at the same time below her, Jena took a bite out of the 3 spoonfuls of salad on her plate. Mrs. Crowly's smile came to a silencing stop as it faded into her porcelain skin. 

"Am I supposed to believe that trickery?" Mrs. Crowly chuckled, her face showing no signs of delight. It was all leveled. From her eyes to her eyebrows, to her lips that laid slightly ajar to let out huffs of a laugh, everything was leveled in blankness.

She took a seat back at the table and turned to Jena. "Mind explaining to me what you did last night, my dear."

Never had Jena heard such an empty affectionate word before. Especially not from her mother. The only thing that wasn't stiff at this point was Mrs. Crowly's hands as they continued to feed the mouths of a peaking mother. 

Jena glanced at the servant to her mother before smiling. "I knitted mother."

"Well aware of that, anything else?" Mrs. Crowly nodded, taking the second tiny bite of the 3 and a half spoon of salad on her plate. 

"I sewed mother," Jena continued, "I was making something for my dear mother too."

"How pleasing, would you mind showing me what you have made?" Mrs. Crowly asked, her head cocking to the side. 

Annabeth nearly forgot her coverup, almost placing her spoon down to fully enjoy the scene. 

"I fear that it is far off into my room mother," Jena bowed her head, "I would hate to leave tea time to retrieve an unfinished present."

"Hm, ok," Mrs. Crowly chuckled, nodding her head in fake agreement. She looked up at her daughter's half-eaten plate and turned back to hers, "Continue with your meal. We don't have a lot of time left." 

"Yes mother," Jena nodded, raising her spoon up to her mouth and swallowing her few pieces of generously seasoned leaves with an overjoyed expression. 

"While you're at it, explain what you did last night and your relation with this servant," Mrs. Crowly added. Her comment soon followed by a quick cough by Jena.

She had nearly choked on a big cabbage leaf.

As Maria scrambled to help her sister while Justin and his father stared with concern, their eyes switching from Mrs. Crowly and Jena, Annabeth tried her best to push down her giggle while she sipped her hot tea, and Mrs. Crowly stared at Jena with an air of un-amusement. 

Mrs. Crowly waited until Jena was settled again before continuing with her sentence. "As I said earlier, we do not have that much time before the king arrives so I'd like to hear an explanation.." Mrs. Crowly's hand stopped mid-stroke and her head looked up at Jena. "Now."

Jena once again froze and her lips open for another bleak explanation before quivering shot. She looked away from her mother. Her gaze was threatening, as if it was filtering the words to come out of her mouth before they even reached her tongue. She was warning and begging for the truth, Jena didn't have the answer she wanted.

"Are my words, words of the wind now? Do they not reach your ears?" Mrs. Crowly sighed, placing her spoon down on her last spoonful of salad left.

"My lady," Mr. Crowly interrupted, cutting her words short.

Mrs. Crowly turned to him, her eyes peering at him but not noticing his presence. "Is there something you would like to add?"

"...No there isn't," Mr. Crowly muttered.

"Great," Mrs. Crowly smiled before turning back to her daughter, "now would you mind continuing your explanation?"

"My lady.." Mr. Crowly repeated, this time his tone pleading her. 

Mrs. Crowly didn't turn to look at him. She knew she would be persuaded if she dared to look. 

"So I know clearly what's going on now. I can't speak right?" Mrs. Crowly chuckled. "You'd all like me to stop talking right? Pretend to be oblivious? Act like everything is going smoothly?" 

There was no reply.

"I knew very well all of you have words to say, are you nervous? Scared? What for?" Mrs. Crowly giggled, her eyes turning to pierce her husband, "you've done worse anyways."

Guilt flooded the room with reasons none of the people in it knew. There was just this deafening silence that hung over them, no one daring to speak over the buzz of its coaxing. 

"How pathetic," Mrs. Crowly chuckled, standing up from her seat, her tea left untouched. Cold and bitter, just like the air after her words.

"Isn't it amusing?" Mrs. Crowly giggled, stealing the words right of Annabeth's mind. "How we all know what we're doing is wrong yet no one has the mind to stand up and say it?"

Silence.

"ANSWER ME FOR GOODNESS SAKE! ISN'T IT AMU-"

"Lady Mannerism," a messenger ran into the room, lowering her head immediately when she felt the tension in the room, "t-the escort to the palace will be here in 3 hours. It is preferred that you begin to get ready." With shaky hands, she let out her hand, an envelope laying in her hands.

Mrs. Crowly looked at the gold emblem on the envelope and turned to her family. "How disgraceful," she muttered to all in the room, including herself. 

Quietly she took the envelope from the messenger's hand and started her way out the room but stopped at the doorway, her brake stopping the entire room again. Slowly she turned around and gave a threatening smile at the servants. 

"Oh and, not a word out of your mouths shall leave this room or even a word from this conversation be remembered. Wipe it clean, cleaner than you wiped that countertop," Mrs. Crowly instructed, her eyes squinting at the countertop. "While you're at it, rewipe the entire surface in this room-" 

Her eyes trail to Jena and the servant, then to the rest at the table and finally her husband.. "-It feels filthy."