The Assassin

Secrets

"...Do you know about Nostar?" The princess asked. Phillip was a bit confused, what does that have do with what they were just conversing about. 

"Isn't that the kingdom your father captured years ago?" 

"Yes, but there were survivors who built a village in the woods, my father said they were planning to attack us so him and I offered them to join our kingdom but they refused." She said.

"What did..your father do?" Phillip asked hesitantly. Luella's dread from last night was returning.

"..He sent his troops to attack the village and killed them all." Her voice was getting softer and softer the more she talked about it. Phillip didn't know what to say, should he try and comfort her? Hug her? He settled on doing nothing and just listening.

"I killed someone." Luella whispered. He almost wouldn't have caught the confession if the room weren't so silent.

"Y-you..I..I'm sorry, Luella." He wasn't entirely sure why he was apologizing but it felt appropriate. 

"The worst part was she looked exactly like your mother." She said.

"..That's terrifying.." Phillip admitted. She nodded in agreement. 

"Should I-should I not bring my mother to th-"

"No, of course you can bring your mother to the ball I was just...I just needed to talk to someone about it." She finished. Phillip made an 'O' with his mouth. He took in a deep breath and glanced at the downcast princess.

"I was just wondering..am I..evil?" Her voice broke a bit.

"N-no of course not!" Phillip said trying to get the thought out of her head.

"But you don't even know why I killed her or if I even had a reason." Luella protested.

"Well..did you have a reason?" He asked. 

"..Yes.."

"If you don't mind me asking, what was the reason?"

"..The woman was charging toward my father with a sword..so I killed her." Luella said softly.

"See? You did have a good reason, you aren't evil." 

"I suppose." She said, it still felt wrong but she appreciated Phillip's perspective on the situation.  

"If there's anything else you'd like to tell me I don't mind listening." The sentence managed to come out exactly as he intended. Luella lifted her eyes from the ground and looked up at Phillip.

"That's of course I-If you'd want to-want to tell..me." Then he ruined it. She looked as if she were thinking about it.

"There is something else I'd like to tell you." The princess said as she scooted closer to him on the couch. Phillip went rigid as her lips grazed his ear and she brought a hand up to prevent any information from straying from her tongue. 

"You remember the man who broke into the palace?"

Phillip nodded.

"The day before I went to Nostar he came into my room." She whispered. Phillip whipped his head to look at the princess with a shocked face, she put a finger to her lips making sure he doesn't say anything out loud. He slapped a hand over his mouth and drew his head back so Luella could continue her story. 

"I stabbed him but it turns out he didn't want to kill me and was sent by a queen who holds a grudge against my father for attacking her kingdom. I helped him patch up the stab wound and I haven't seen him since." The princess lowly backed away to see the expression Phillip had on his face. 

It was quite a difficult expression to pinpoint since it kept changing every second, it was mixture of confusion, interest, fear, and anxiousness, though that last one might just be Phillip being Phillip.

He opened his mouth to say something but Luella stopped him and pointed at her ear, she wanted him to whisper. The man gulped and brought his face close to her, he lightly brushed aside her soft and bouncy hair. When he had gotten close enough he could smell a lemony scent enter his nostrils, what a lovely fragrance on her. He was so distracted by Luella's quirks the thing he wanted to say almost left his mind.

"Have you told your guard yet?" He finally asked. She hurriedly shook her head.

"Heavens no!" She whisper-yelled. "He'd kill him on the spot." Phillip believed that sentiment. He drew in to ask another question.

"Do you think he'll come back?"

 Luella shrugged. 

"I asked him and he didn't say." Her voice sounded disappointed, did she want him to return? Why? Out of fear of being rude he didn't didn't ask. They sat there for a while in a peaceful silence. 

"Well, I-I guess I should be going..now." Phillip said. "Thank you for trusting me." He said.

The princess smiled. 

"Thank you, for listening."

"Of course."

They locked eyes as the man began to leave, he stumbled over a few things on the way out making Luella giggle but it was charming nonetheless. Soon he was out sight, sadly. How Luella wished they could stay talking forever, they finally were able to have a conversation just like she wanted without Oliver glowering at the poor man. She told him Phillip was only a nervous wreck because he kept scaring him, she stood up ready to go rub the fact that she was right in Oliver's face. 

Her lavender colored dress grazed the floor lightly and her shoes clicked with every animated step as she went to go look for the man. She saw Oliver was standing post near a staircase so she skipped over to him and took a big leap landing right in front of the guard with a happy grin.

"I told you he was nervous only because you were around." She said. Oliver didn't change his stark pose but he rolled his eyes.

"That man could get nervous talking to a mirror." He remarked. Luella gasped and stomped her foot.

"That is rude! Take that back this instant." She said with her hands on her hips. Oliver's straight expression slowly turned into that of amusement as Luella kept demanding him to apologize for his comment about Phillip. 

Then something rare occured. He began to laugh, not a huff or a chuckle or a chortle but a laugh.

Now Luella was really taken aback, not only was he making fun of someone she fancies then not apologizing for it, the usually stern man was laughing about it. 

"I am not joking!" The princess' voice was shrill. It only served to make the guard laugh harder. 

"You...sound," Oliver was having a hard time speaking through his wheezing. "You sound..just like when you were..a c-child." 

Great, now he was bringing stuff up from her childhood.

Luella bit the inside of her cheek trying not to smile, his laugh was infectious and usually she'd enjoy the change of attitude if it wasn't at her expense. Oliver's laughter had subsided a bit and he now was doing chuckles here and then as he spoke.

"I remember when you were just five years old," Oliver held out his hand to show the supposed height of Luella when she was five. The princess' didn't need to bite her cheek any longer, she crossed her arms and turned her face with a huff, she's heard this story before.

"You're mother was gloating on how she had made such a beautiful daughter and that all the boys would be after you asking in your hand in marriage," He continued.

She wish he would just hurry up and finish telling the embarrassing tale.

"When you got mad at her because you said you already had someone you were going to marry, of course everyone was surprised and so your mother asked who and you pointed to me!" Oliver said with astonishment in his voice as if he were hearing it for the first time. 

Luella covered her red face with both hands.

"I was only five!" She defended herself. Oliver ignored her sentiment and kept on telling the memory.

"Your mother said you couldn't marry me because I was much too old for you and you started crying and stomping your little foot with your hands on your hips just as you were doing now." He teased.

"I am going to my room!" Luella said pivoting and leaving the laughing guard on his own. 

How humiliating.

*   *   *

Gavin was on his way to the Astor kingdom to see if the princess had returned, Vernon has had only one full day of rest so he hoped the princess wouldn't be back so soon. He needs at least ten days of rest but he wasn't sure that was going to look normal to Cassandra, he knows Vernon doesn't want to lie to her but he can't just keep saying he's tired. Gavin had the idea to pretend Vernon was sick but he doesn't think his tent-mate would like that. 

Maybe Vernon will be able to rest the ten days without anyone getting suspicious that he hasn't left his tent. That kind of behaviour would look odd for the rough man since he's always out and about looking for jobs or sometimes even picking berries. 

Gavin could just say that his tent-mate is leaving extra early in the morning and she keeps on missing on, as long as Vernon doesn't know that he's lying then it's fine, right? 

Gavin sighed. He wasn't sure. The Dens really needed that food, he's sure if Vernon just told Cassandra that he couldn't do the job she wouldn't have minded and could've helped him but now she's depending on the promise of food when in reality it's not there. He's really dug a hole from himself...but Gavin will help him no matter what, it they don't have each other then who do they have? 

The man's hope of the princess not arriving yet quickly dwindled as he heard passerbys chit chatting about a ball occurring for the princess tomorrow night. 

Crap.

Why did she have to come so soon? Judging by Vernon and his conversation from ereyesterday it sounded like he wanted to visit the princess as soon as she came back. He turned around to walk back to The Dens but he slowed his pace, he wasn't exactly eager to tell Vernon the news. Well, he didn't have to tell him right away, he could at least make sure Vernon spent all of today resting instead of going to see the girl who injured him in the first place. Yes! That sounded like a great plan. 

The pace of his stride sped up. 

The green leaves and brown trunks of trees seemed a blur as he started to run back to The Dens. It was scarce for Gavin and Vernon to have almost an entire day to themselves and he didn't want to waste it with slow feet. 

The man easily jumped over rocks and grooves very rapidly arriving to The Dens, he spread open the cut in the middle of the tent that allowed them to enter. 

Vernon was still sleeping.

Gavin was glad he was catching up on all of his sleepless nights and stressful work, he plopped down on his bed and enjoyed the silence.

He wondered if was being too loud or something because not even five minutes later the man woke up from his slumber and checked the tent,

"Oh, good morning Gavin."

"Good morning!" He said cheerily in response. "How did you sleep?"

"Okay." Vernon yawned. The man let out a sigh and relaxed once more before abruptly lifting his head and turning to Gavin.

"Yes?" Gavin asked with a grin.

"Have you checked if the princess returned. Vernon asked awaiting an answer not so patiently. Gavin had to keep his smile from dropping.

"No, not yet." He said hoping that would stop the man from asking any more questions, it did not.

"Not yet? Well, do you know when she's coming back?" He asked kind of frantic. 

"Vernon, when she comes back I will tell you, calm down." Gavin assured him. The recovering man laid his head back down on his skinny pillow and let out a prolonged breath.

"Okay." He said, Gavin wasn't sure if he said that to him or to himself. Anyway, now that that's been put aside.

"Would you like to talk about something or would you like to just rest?" Gavin asked. Vernon chortled.

"I can speak and rest, you know that, right?" He said with a small smirk. The other man just laughed in return.

"Yes, I know." He said with a satisfied huff looking at Vernon. A few moments had passed before the rugged man had waved his hand trying to get Gavin's attention.

"So are we going to have a conversation or are you going to stare at me the entire time?" He asked.

Gavin broke out of his daze.

"Oh, yes! We will have a conversation my mind just started...wandering." He said. "Uh, are your stitches still okay?" 

Vernon ran his hand under his shirt to feel the individual threads in his skin. 

"I think they're fine." He said.

"Let me check just to make sure." He said standing up.

"I'm sure they're just fine Gavin."

"I know, I just...want to make sure they're healing correctly."

"Gavin." 

He looked down at the man.

"My stitches are okay." Vernon stressed. Gavin awkwardly nodded and sat back down on his bed.

"I know you're just concerned but it's healing good, okay?"

Gavin nodded again. 

"Sorry." he said very quietly. 

"No, it's alright. I'm glad to have a friend that cares so much." Vernon said with a grin. Gavin's mood is very easily changed by the thankful words as he's already smiling and making conversation once again.

What an odd man.