Make Your Move Katherine

The Fact That He Hesitated

“The Mage wishes to see you before supper,” Oni informed Kat roughly four days later and dismissed the other girl who had been assisting her with her sketches. She nodded and the girl stepped back out to the outer room and stood there silently. Katherine knew she was awaiting confirmation to the requested appointment but Kat was feeling her spirits brightening with the simple words.  It was barely past breakfast and Kat was feeling overwhelmed already but Ju’s soon-to-be meeting uplifted her mood. It was not a meeting that would wait she thought as she left her things lying about and set out of the room.

Things had been back to the norm as before her leave, around here.

The King still frequented with his mistress while Kat sketched. Anthony continued on as if nothing happened but he once again became the cold man she had first met in the corridor outside her apartment. He hardly even met her eyes these past few weeks. Oni had reverted to her servant behavior also.

Having not seen the mage since that morning she had given her the little display of her strange mumblings, Kat has been impatient for an entire month. There was no trace of the marks given to her by Oscar! That night when she showered, Oni had asked her why she had the scarf still around her neck, at bath time. Kat had smiled and waved it off till the girl left. Then she had removed it, staring at the reflection of the plaster in the mirror then slowly peeled it back. 

Gone. As if it had never been there in the first place.

She had wanted to thank the woman and ask her what was the pill but in the two times she had requested her presence, she was told the mage was busy. Oscar had intervened she knew, for if she had indeed been busy, she would have visited her after, wouldn’t she?

Now, Kat almost ran- almost for she could not. She walked in a hurry however, while the guard that accompanied her seemed to be wanting to tell her don’t walk so quickly but was afraid too.

Good. She entered the mage’s room and sat down. Eric and the mage both stopped what they were doing and stared at her then at each other. Eric switched off the burner he had been using on the table. Kat hadn’t seen him since her return here.

“Yes, well, I have been waiting for you so long, Mage that I could wait till supper,” Kat muttered answering their shocked expressions, for supper was hours away. She dismissed her royal guard and he bowed and stepped out politely but she knew he was just outside, in case. Royals were never left completely alone. “By the way- is it okay for you to have my number?”

Both still stared at her. “Is Oscar here? What is wrong with you both?” she gave them expectant looks and they both got up bowing their heads. In her excitement, she had forgotten who and where she was. But she was disappointed when they showed her titled respect. After all, she had liked the Eric in her apartment and the almost spunky mage. It reminded her that their loyalty was with Oscar not her and her feelings were bruised.

“My Queen,” came from Eric.

“Your Majesty, forgive me- us,” Ju almost said loudly. “Yes, you can but why?”

“Why? Why indeed would I prefer a message or a phone call, to a long walk? It is tiring when I have to walk all the way here and 'My King' frowned and declined my suggestion of hoverboards- yes?” Kat had learned to formerly address Oscar as King when speaking to or about him with others.

A quick exchange of numbers followed.

The walk over to this wing of the castle was indeed tiring that is why people mostly came to the royals and not the other way but Kat looked forward to these little walks for her mind was bored stiff. Her suggestion of mobile numbers had nothing to do with being tired had everything to do with excitement.

It’s been almost four long weeks now, she had been waiting for any sort of news from Ju, about who was intentionally making her sick previously. Or even attempting to take her life. Four weeks of being in a panic- knowing it was not Oscar for he could have killed her and didn’t. It was someone else in the castle and that terrified her. She had even attempted to ride the stupid bicycle that Oscar had sent her but one fall had her instructing the guard to lock it away.

“But Your Majesty- we are to meet with the King later today.”

‘Who would bring a wrong message to her guards?’

Kat stared at Eric and the huge man looked down to his feet. Releasing a heavy breath Kat flared her nostrils, for now, she was mad- a bit. “See Eric, this could have been avoided with a phone call, couldn’t it?” she pulled in her lips, nodding as she spoke, for her emotions were coming full front out.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Where was the man that had bullied her in her apartment and who was this- gosh, Kat looked away, feeling a bit disappointed by Eric’s almost meek movements now. How this title of hers made everything and everyone so complicated. Kat kept being reminded she was no longer a juvenile investigative reporter- in training. Journalism was long behind her and no longer who she is. And every day Kat felt pieces of herself slipping away- she shook her head and looked at the two mages- well one and the other the apprentice…like she had been.

She knew that although he had been harsh towards her, Eric had not been unkind and abused the trust the king had in him, nor had he gone overboard in hurting her. He was a man overpowered by duty and respect for his king.

Kat felt slightly ashamed that she had thought he was about to- erm assault her in the shower.

She could have been the reason he died too and Ju. Oscar did tell her he would execute anyone that harmed her or was the reason she was harmed or removed from his life. But she was alive and well and with him, so all had been forgiven by the king.

Here before her stood two people she owed much to as they had risked their lives to aid her. She had seen how Eric was torn when she pleaded with him using her eyes. She felt slightly embarrassed now for it was nothing but paranoia on her part. How Ju could have lost her life as well when Kat abetted her and she had not even thanked them.

“Eric, Thank you, for that night.”

“I did nothing. I left you,’ he said head still bent.

“You hesitated Eric and he is your king so that was enough, so thank you.”

“Then you are most welcomed, My Queen. May I be excused?” he grounded out and Kat nodded.

Eric did not say that he was just doing his job because he truly did not. His job would have been to just walk away. But Kat saw just now how he tightened his fists by his sides. She was certain that only when he left that the queen does not thank anyone- for she had.

Oscar’s rules were ridiculous at times. Kat felt that if a person wanted to express gratitude, they should be free to do so- after all, it was her life and not just some ball she had batted over a fence.

“He had been terrified too and ashamed that he left you,” Ju settled her thoughts for her. “Eric is a devote Catholic, and he told me that he waited outside the door for quite some time just in case.”

In case of what? Did Eric also suspect the king would- might have but didn’t kill her?

Kat suspected but now she knew that although he was cherry that morning, it had been hiding his deeper, truer feelings from his King. His smiles had been wide and pleased almost. Like he was super glad- relieved, she had been alive- although hurt- but alive. The two puncture wounds had since healed nicely, leaving an almost non-existent scar.

“My Queen, we might be obedient to the king but you are queen, the king’s wife, a Royal too. We are on your side- both of you.”

By her simple words, Kat felt anew. The nagging, ‘but the king always comes first’ was noted but shoved into the far corners of her mind. Instead, she chose to focus on her gain; she had two new friends- yes friends. Kat felt she could rely on them both just like her friends back home except while she doubted Dom and Simon would give their lives for her- Ju and Eric will.

Sometimes loyalty was better than friendship Kat is learning and her thoughts travel to Oscar. Her husband who never spoke to her about anything but current events of the country and a bit about the world around them. And that was only to keep the other royals from making gossip, as Oscar had put it, for they needed to see that he and his queen were on good terms he had stated to her. It did not matter what they spoke off as long as she laughed now and then. So, Kat had found herself smiling when he told her that locusts were swarming some nations, one time.

She is beyond curious about this meeting and her curiosity only grew as she looked at her husband less than an hour later, through a glass screen.

They were back in the outer room in the white room department but in another section. Kat could only see filing cabinets upon filing cabinets and desks. She guessed this was the storage area where all the paperwork and files were kept.

The place as usual spotless. All traces of any blood, gore, and death void. The clean-up crew did a marvelous job always, she had to admit. She had gotten accustomed to the hospital smell now and preferred to call it as such. It sounded better in her head rather than ‘they disinfected the blood out’. Coffee was in the air too- not burnt this time. And who knew that paper had such a strong pleasant scent from such a distance? To get such a smell, one normally had to literally stick their nose close to the paper stack.

And ink. It literally smelled similar to her shared office back in Armedia.

They were discussing another case that a team had been working on, undercover, almost a year now and was stagnant, she was gathering. Oscar and three detectives were looking frustrated and tired as they seem to have been rummaging through videos from security footage since the day began.

But his team had taken down several men in a building- all were dead and nobody seemed to care enough to bat an eye. In her studies, she had been taught how to be, furious yet calm, passionate but smart enough to be decisive and fair. Self-discipline, logic and organized thinking all of which Oscar lacked but Kat did however and protested against the cruelty. “You can’t possibly think this is justice?”

The men had just leaned back on their chairs stretching and Oscar was perched on the edge of a desk when Kat busted in. They all sat up straight, clearly startled and Anthony and Yeon came in behind her clearing the room, leaving them alone.