Kyrie was sitting outside in the stables, waiting for Isaac to come back from his latest visit to the castle. Ever since that night that she'd worn the lingerie for him, she'd been trying to spend as much time as possible with Isaac since she knew that at some point soon she'd have to tell him about what she'd done with Renard. She was trying to savor the good times that she had left with him.
So when the gates of the manor opened up, Kyrie got up to look out from the stables. When her eyes met with Isaac's she could see that he seemed to be stewing on something, but he quickly tried to mask that up with a smile sent her way. Kyrie couldn't help but wonder what was bothering him.
Renard and Jared hadn't shown up upon hearing the gates open, so they likely were in another part of the grounds entirely. Kyrie felt a little weird being out here while Mae and Jiera were going to see her, but as long as she made a show of helping it shouldn't be bad of her, right? When Isaac brought the horses to a stop, Kyrie stood next to him, lightly touching his foot and smiling up at him.
"Welcome back."
Isaac leaned down to briefly kiss Kyrie's head before hopping off the other side and opening the door for the two ladies. Jiera turned to thank Isaac as she stepped out while Mae did not acknowledge him in any real way aside from observing he was there. The two ladies swept into the house while Isaac got back up on the carriage to properly bring it into the stables. This time when he brought the carriage to a stop, Kyrie started in on helping unhitch the horses to bring them back to their stalls. Isaac was rather pensive as they did this, and unable to contain her curiosity, she spoke.
"What's on your mind, Isaac? Something seems to be bothering you…"
For a moment, there was an irrational fear rolling through her that he'd learned of what she did with Renard. He'd kissed her earlier though, plus how would he even have learned about it without Kyrie telling him? Vivian wouldn't do that, and Renard would've said something to Kyrie first so that she could prepare herself if he was going to say anything.
Isaac looked over at Kyrie briefly before letting out a soft sigh, lightly scratching at his head.
"I think I'm just overthinking things."
"Tell me about them then? That might help you put your things in order."
Isaac gave Kyrie a soft smile at that, and after putting away the horses he moved over to cup her cheek with one hand and kiss the other. She was so sweet, always wanting to help him with whatever it was that was bothering him. On one hand he wanted to try and shield her from any negative things that might come her way, but on the other hand he didn't want her to feel like he wasn't comfortable sharing things with her.
"I actually saw the King today."
Interest sparkled in Kyrie's eyes from these words, mostly because the new king was still such an enigma even after being in the castle for over two months. He didn't hold very many balls or get togethers so his face wasn't seen very often by the other nobles. He wasn't seen much by the common-folk, either: he rarely left the castle to do things, and the words and policies that he made to affect their lives only trickled down through word of mouth or postages on the walls of the city. Though honestly, there really hadn't been a huge amount of widespread changes. Things had mostly just stayed the same. It really raised the question of why he'd even bothered having a coup in the first place. Still, the majority of the lower class population continued to be quite optimistic about him, and he sent out a little something just often enough to keep their enthusiasm up. Isaac just couldn't figure out what his aim was. Letting his arms move around Kyrie to hold her in a loose hug, she settled happily into his embrace as she waited for him to continue on.
"He came out to the stables when Lady Dandridge and Lady Deveris were heading off this time, presumably to go out riding on the castle grounds. The slaves were passing him a horse as he gave the two ladies a farewell."
This didn't seem like something that would warrant such deep thought from Isaac so Kyrie gently began probing.
"Is there something special about the King?"
Isaac winced a little. That's what he'd been afraid of. This question, because the answer to this question was the one that had him thinking the most.
"Well it… It was so bizarre. It was like I was seeing a male version of Lady Dandridge that shows a bit more emotion on his face."
"Really? He looks that similar to her?"
"It's not just the looks, but the looks certainly help. He has the same sharp features that Lady Dandridge does, and his hair is jet black like hers, Teru was even more comfortable around him than he is with most people. He's much taller than our lady, standing a head above her, but the way he carries himself and the way he keeps his expressions rather measured are so similar. He's not quite so stony-faced as our lady, he did smile in the brief time that I saw him, but it's clear that he puts a fair amount of effort into remaining controlled. From what I can tell he's very cordial with the two ladies and he seems to prefer their company, though I imagine that has a lot to do with the fact that they've been frequenting the castle so much."
It really was strange just how similar the King and Mae were, and Isaac couldn't help but wonder if these similarities actually meant something more than they meant on the surface. Had Mae actually had something to do with this coup? She had never been close to her family, in fact, she'd pretty actively disliked a good number of them, but did that mean she had something to do with all of their deaths? The fact that she was becoming quite friendly with the current King seemed to suggest as much.
It made a surprising amount of sense the more Isaac thought about it. Mae had done some underhanded things before (at least, Isaac was inclined to believe that the lady had indeed killed her former husband, especially after witnessing her whipping up an antidote the night of the attack), and the lady had been careful not to have these things link back to herself. This coup definitely wasn't going to link back to Mae, not when she was also one of its targets. She wasn't even the only survivor either so it wouldn't be obvious that she was the one to point the finger at. There were other fringe members of the family that had been married off or lived in the country that survived as well, but understandably they'd been rather absent from politics after the upheaval. If Mae had helped to get this coup up and running then it would explain why only she and Jiera were able to get close to the King instead of disappearing into obscurity like most of the royal survivors and nobility.
Yet, as much sense as it made, there was also a lot that didn't make sense. If she'd really wanted to overthrow her family why hadn't it happened much sooner? There was really no point in waiting this long, especially if she was doing it for the sake of the people. Which brought up the other weird thing about all this: nothing was really happening. If Mae had been the one doing this, they would see subtle but steady changes coming out of the castle, and yet anything coming out of the castle at this point did nothing but uphold the status quo. Also... The other thing that pointed to this not being her was how her daughter had been involved in the attack. Mae was ruthless, but always at her own expense. Isaac remembered how tense she had been the night of the attack, how she had single-mindedly focused on her daughter until finally passing out. Isaac just didn't think she was cold enough to calculate something that would put her own daughter's life in danger.
There was just too much sacrifice: Mae wasn't usually one to go for such deals.
"… Teru liked him?"
There was disbelief in Kyrie's voice at this question, and Isaac was promptly drawn out of his thoughts. Out of the things he had said, to him that was the thing that potentially meant the least, but to Kyrie that said a lot. Being the menagerie keeper, Kyrie knew Mae's animals particularly well and Teru was like a watchdog of sorts. He didn't associate with anyone aside from Mae, and Kyrie knew enough about how Teru worked to know that the only way he'd be friendly with someone else was if they were either involved in his training or knew them before the training started. Otherwise everyone aside from his owner was a potential enemy.
"But… But that would mean that the King knew Teru when he was young. Teru has been trained not to respond to anyone but Mae. He doesn't even let me or even Lady Jiera feed him or carry him around."
These statements from Kyrie left Isaac rather dumbfounded and his brain struggled to process what that even meant. Did… Had the King known Mae before this coup had happened? But didn't that just further cement the fact that Mae might have had a hand in it?
"You don't think… Mae had something to do with the coup, do you?"
"What? No!"
This was primarily Kyrie's snap response, but even as she started to think through it a bit more, that no just solidified more and more in her mind.
"No. Definitely not. Mae would never put her own daughter in danger to advance a political end, and she wouldn't have had you and Dessi go out immediately after getting attacked to check for gossip! She would've already known what was happening if she'd had a hand in the planning. Perhaps she just knew the King back in the past, and when she found out it was him leading the revolt she tried to take advantage of their past connection!"
Well… Kyrie's theory was just as plausible as Isaac's was, and he had to admit the one that exonerated their lady from all this killing was greatly preferable to one that had her right in the thick of things. He was lost in his own mind again, so Kyrie reached up to gently touch his cheek to get him to focus on her.
"I'm sure our lady has the ability to be ruthless if she needs to be but this coup wasn't her. Lady Dandridge… She puts a huge amount of work into having a corner that she can call a safe haven. She's not hugely altruistic, she doesn't do what she does for the sake of everyone, but anyone that's in her corner can be confident that it is safe and well accounted for. I don't know what exactly she's doing with the King, or even what her plans are going forward, but I suspect that everything she's doing is to make sure her corner remains stable and as isolated as it can be. She has always struck me as someone who wants nothing more than to be left alone."
Isaac let out another heavy sigh as he held Kyrie a little tighter, moving his face down to nuzzle up against hers.
"I just... I wish I knew what was going on. Every time they go to the castle I'm left with more questions from what I hear from the slaves and what I see with my own eyes. Lady Dandridge seems to be doing such mundane things with the King: chatting in the sitting rooms for hours, perusing the royal castle's library, dining on fine food, going out for walks in the garden... All the things you'd expect from nobles. There has to be something more though, something has to be happening behind the scenes and I wish I knew what it was. I feel like if I knew what was coming then it would be so much more rewarding than continually being in the dark."
Perhaps that was the real downside of being interested in current affairs and history: it meant that Isaac would make all these predictions for the future and guesses about the past but he would only ever really be able to confirm probably less than half of them. He just wasn't privy to all the conversations that went on behind closed doors, or even all the public conversations: it just wasn't his job to be near the nobles while they were doing anything important. He presumably had a lot of time out in the stables to think about all these things, but without any confirmation it was just an endless circle of wondering. He could try to find patterns in history all he wanted, and while it did repeat itself sometimes, there were plenty of nuances that made real prediction for what was going to happen difficult.
Kyrie hugged Isaac tight, letting her fingers brush through his hair while she kissed the side of his head.
"I can't deny that I have also been curious about what goes through our lady's head… I don't mind trying to unravel the mystery that is her by talking like this though. I hope it's at least helped to get these thoughts out there to someone else."
Isaac smiled a bit a that, nuzzling against her once more.
"It has, Kyrie. Also you bring a different perspective to the table, one that I might not have seen if I continued to stew on this alone."
… What was he doing? Why was he getting so bent out of shape over all this? Usually when he made guesses for what was going to happen in the Kingdom there was a bit of excitement, it was an entertaining pastime. Usually though, Isaac wasn't trying to predict something that affected his own lady. Mae didn't often get visibly involved in the politics of the castle, and the fact that she was now made all of this feel so much more personal. It felt like there were more consequences to his inferences regardless of whether he was wrong or right, and these consequences were things that he wasn't sure he really wanted to face.
That was truly silly though, because no matter what Mae did outside of his view, she was still the Mae that he'd always known and would continue to be so to them. She was fair, calculated, and ruthless should the need occur, but in general she tried to create a harmonious space for herself and the people that she had jurisdiction over. Any negative words that could be applied to her were only the case because they were needed to maintain the peace. She was still ultimately a good person, and one that he was proud to serve under.
…Besides... his predictions weren't always right anyway.
Tired of being in a bit of a mood over all this, he straightened himself up, holding Kyrie at arm's length now as he took a deep breath.
"Well, I'll keep on guessing about what's happening and hopefully we'll be able to see if I need more room to improve on my inferences. What about you though? Surely you have your own guesses for what's going on with the lady and the King?"
The way he said this put some heavy emphasis on lady and the King, and it was clear by the lightness in his tone and the smirk on his face that he wasn't looking for much of a serious answer. Kyrie smiled at the implication that Isaac was making, and she made a show of snubbing him a little bit.
"I wouldn't dare to comment on the relationship between Lady Dandridge and the King."
It wasn't unheard of for siblings, royal siblings especially, to marry one another, but it was absurd to even think of Mae marrying again. What made this particularly funny was that Isaac wouldn't put it past other nobles to be thinking something along these lines.
Clearly they had no real idea who Mae actually was.
Her slaves and family did though, and this thought helped Isaac feel a little better about the state of affairs.