"Princess!" King Tae said raising from his chair and walked over to the people at the door. "I was deeply worried about you! How can such a thing happen!" he held out both his hands gently holding Tari's hand with concern drawn all over his face.
'It's sincere, I think.' Tari thought.
"Why in the world would you leave the palace grounds without an escort!" King Tae said. "The pharaoh will be furious once he comes across this news." He murmured sighing deeply, not ready to take the tantrum that the pharaoh will most probably throw. After all, his daughter was kidnapped here on his watch!
'Ah oh' Tari yelped. "NO!" She yelled gaining the attention of everyone around her. "I think it will be for the best that this isn't reported to my father!" she grumbled.
"I think that will be for the best too!" the king clapped his hands in satisfaction. She was going to save him a lot of trouble and he couldn't be more thankful.
"But I still have to include it in my weekly report to the pharaoh." Azar bluntly said standing behind Tari making her look at him with Aw.
"Please don't!!" she pouted then stopped as she realized something that she was missing all this time. "Wait! You report to Papa every week! Why didn't you say so before!"
The silence lasted for a couple of seconds, Azar wasn't supposed to tell the princess that he reports every week to her father. "Keep quiet on the reports, I don't want Tari to go around careful of what you are going to report to me," Akhenaton said to him a day before they departed from Kemet.
"Ahm…" Azar faked a cough.
"Don't even think to change the topic like you always do, you sly knight!" Tari said glaring deep into Azar's deep desires.
"You hurt my feelings, princess!" Azar faked a cry while wiping the non-existent tears. Tari crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrow.
"Alright, I'll let this slid this time!" Azar murmured upset that his act is not working on the princess. How could it work when he has been her knight for 10 years? They literally watched each other grow. Creating a bond that went beyond the bond of a knight and his princess, it was more of a brother-sister bond.
Or so that's what Nefertari thought. She had no idea that every detail that was happening in the palace was reported to king Farzad.
'How will she react when she finds out the truth?' Azar said in the back of his mind as he watched the princess joyfully talk to her male friends as he stood back and watched.
He felt almost…disappointed.
But, disappointment is a feeling that he can't afford now, not after all this time passed.
'She'll come to understand.' He thought rubbing the back of his head.
"Tari!" a familiar gentle voice called from behind.
"Min-ah!" Tari exclaimed returning the hug that he gave as he rushed towards her.
"And where have you been all morning?" Yu Jun asked. "Do you've any idea of the mess that was going on in the palace while you were slacking off in god knows where!"
"Yu Jun!" Tari warned him. "Don't yell at him like that! I'm sure he had something important to take care of. Right Min-ah?"
Min Jun awkwardly smiled at Tari. "Are you okay Tari?" Min Jun asked with a small smile on his face.
"Yes, I'm okay." She said pulling back from the hug they shared, for a moment there her nose twitched at a very uncomfortable scent that she knows quite well.
'Blood? Why do I smell blood?' she sniffed a couple of times and started to look around her to see that none of the people around her were injured.
"Is everything okay?" Joon Wo asked as he took a closer look at her.
She gave him a reassuring nod and shrugged off that thought of smelling blood. She has been through a lot in just a day, she must be tired she thought.
"Alright, enough with the commotion." King Tae said. "Everyone, off you go, the princess must be tired from everything that has happened, you should let her rest." She waved them to leave.
Tari smiled at them and then walked out of the room, thinking that indeed a nice bath and lying in bed for the rest of the day wasn't such a bad idea.
Passing shoulder by shoulder with Min Jun, she halted turning to look at Min Jun as he was getting lectured from his older brother as to where he has been.
'The smell is coming from Min-ah…' she whispered under her breath.
"Is everything okay?" Min Jun said after Tari stared at him for too long.
"Eh?" She said finally snapping out. "Oh, no it's nothing. Just tired, I'll see you later." And she hurried across the halls to go to her room, she was so out of it that she didn't notice that Joon Wo was walking with her.
"HEY!" Joon Wo called out loudly after he was being ignored for an uncomfortably long time making Tari yelp in surprise.
"Since when have you been here!" She questioned.
"I've been here since you rushed out," he said. "Are you okay though? You blacked out there for a second."
She smiled at how cute he was when he worries about her. "I'm fine, just lost in thoughts." She reassured him.
He sighed. "Can't you just let it go for today and let your mind rest," he mumbled.
"Eh? What was that?" she tilted her head not hearing his low mumbling.
"Nothing," he said as they both stopped in front of the door to her room. "So, are you going to sleep?"
She nodded rubbing her arms, not knowing why she suddenly felt awkward. "Y-yeah, I'll take a bath a call it a day. It's been a long morning." She said.
Joon Wo only nodded in response, turning on her heels to walk in her room after she figured that that was the only answer she was going to get. Somehow, she felt…disappointed.
What should she be expecting anyway?
She sighed before feeling strong sturdy arms envelope her from behind with warmth.
"J-Jooni?" Tari stuttered.
"Just, stay like this for a while," he whispered in the crock of her neck. "I was so worried about you I thought I could die."
Her heart skipped a beat, she worried that he might hear how her heart was hammering inside her chest but wait, she could feel his heart hammering on her spine as well.
It was crazily beating, matching the rhythm of her own heart.
"I'm sorry," she whispered through the silence of the place as dusk fell on them, showering the palace with its golden rays. "I'm such a bad friend for making you worry."
"F-friend…" Joon Wo stuttered in disbelief. "Yeah, friend." He pulled back allowing her to turn to look at him with aw.
"Tari, you might be a genius in politics and excel in martial arts but you truly are dim-witted when it comes to this." He whined.
"What? Why!" she asked in complete ignorance.
"That's enough," He said. "Go to bed." He ordered as he dragged her inside her room after he was sure that she was inside he closed the door.
"Don't think of anything and rest." He said from the other side as he leaned back on the door.
"Alright, goodnight." She said from inside the room.
"Damn it," he whispered covering his flushed face. "Why does she make it so hard for me!?" he cursed.
~~~~
"Your Majesty!" one of the king Tae's advisors came rushing in. "We found her!"
"Found who?" The king puzzled breaking his conversation with his sons who stood on either side of the throne hall in front of him.
"T-the maid who served the poisoned cup to the 2nd p-prince!" he struggled through panting breaths.
"What! Bring her to me at once!" the king yelled in anger at the reminder that he almost lost his son.
"T-that's the thing, Your Majesty," the advisor hesitated. "S-she is no longer in this world."
"What?" Yu Jun said.
Min Jun flinched.
"She ran away from the palace that's why we couldn't find her. This morning the yard received complaints of a bad smell coming from a certain house but no matter how much they knocked no one answered. The soldiers broke in and," he paused to talk his breath. "They found her dead, Your Majesty. Her throat sliced open."
Silence took over them, they all processed the words they heard and they all reached the same answer.
The mastermind behind the attack has ordered her death so that she won't be a threat to her. This was clearly an inside job, they all thought except for one.
"She must have been betrayed by whoever ordered her to poison the cup," Joon Wo said mostly thinking out loud.
"This is just getting more complicated," the king covered his eyes with his hand. "Start investigating her death immediately."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"