"You are quite annoying to have scared us like that." Fiora told Aiden as they stroll down the city. Night was already falling with all tantrums of cold. They walk towards the church to their normal place where they camped with the people every night. Aiden had managed to take care of that night's food supply, but he assured Fiora there wasn't much he would be able to do the next day to come.
"How else was I supposed to get your attentions? Just walking in with no permission would have gotten me a death sentence with you and your immortal friend guy." He said, regretting why he'd even brought up his name. He wasn't the type to get jealous, but he was certain he didn't like how Fiora talked and looked at him.
"Friend guy? You mean Sif-"
"Doesn't matter." He hushed her, though not intentionally. He was not ready to get into an awkward discussion about this friend guy of Fiora. "But I'm here now and that's all that counts."
"Wait, how did you even know where I lived?" She asked.
It was simple. He followed her the last time they saw, before visiting Ropert.
"I followed y-" he stopped like he was choking on his own words. He'd better be, because never was he bold to tell Fiora his entire tale about when he walked behind her, hiding so she wouldn't notice him. "I followed the signs. The aura of the wind spirit."
"You are crazy."
"Yes, let's leave it at that." He said, confirming her statement. He would rather be crazy than a stalker. Though in his opinion, he stalked her for a good reason.
"Look, I'm sor-"
"It's fine. I'm the one that is-" he began to say till she cut him off.
"But it wasn't really your fault for-"
"It was. No no, it was. But I just-"
"Me too." She added quickly, and he nodded with a slight smile. "Let's not hurt each other so we never have to apologize like that again."
"With due pleasure, yes."
****
Helen was never meant to suffer like that. The councils stayed for about ten minutes, then fared their Queen a good night and disappeared. Startled by what had just happened, heavy tears began to rush down her face.
What had just happened? They just mocked her and left with no punishment at all. The worst part was that, it wounded her soul so much and crushed all the bones in her body. What she feared her whole life now was beginning to happen.
"Helen, don't listen to them." Clement tried for empathy comments but they did not stick to her in any way. She continued to cry, not minding the state of her weak side that revealed itself to Clement. "Helen?"
She couldn't move, or talk. Her head remained stiffed in one position, like if she altered any movement, sharp pointed arrows would all target their selves to kill her. Her mouth parted slowly as she tried to choose her words. "I am your Queen and referring to me by my name is punishment by hanging." Her eyes did not turn to stare at him, her mind was not even weary of what she was saying.
Was it not only a few moments ago Helen was begging she be treated like her normal self and not as the Queen? Maybe she was just grieving. Maybe she was not stable mentally. Though Clement weighed the latter thought over the former. "Of course, your majesty. Please forgive me."
"Go." She said and he was forced to raise his gaze to steal a glance at her. Her eyes were already drenched with tears, red and puffy.
"Go away." She said again and her voice barked with authority. "I said, go away. Go. Go."
"Yes yes, of course." He bowed and took his leave. From behind, he still heard her scream out some commands that were not necessarily important because he was already leaving, attending to her wish. Then the scream turned into muffled talks with tears in between, low giggles following.
****
When all things fell apart with powerful people, they didn't die. Only if they wanted to. But if they were really powerful and wise, death was not their portion. Instead, they'd improvised. Her late husband chose death along on his path. She would not be like him.
Maybe they were right after all. She was not fit a good Queen because she lacked good people around her. Tobin was powerful not because he was born like that. He owed all of his influence to the people he gathered around him.
Why hadn't she thought of things like that? Go beg your people her foot! She was not a weakling.
With one final glance at the piece of paper in her hand, she smiled with contentment before calling one of her guards. "Hand it over to her, personally." She told him, offering to slit his throat if he came back failing his simple task.
****
Alan Noeler was fast and smart at his job. He knew that was why Helen still kept him around. He praised himself for his quick wit and blessed the heavens for blessing him first. With just a few connections across the city, he found her standing in the crowd, yelling at some men for some reason he did not know of. Tall, slender, masculine with long brown hair and the contoured face of a man? He cleared his thought to refresh his mind and recalled how Donn had described her again;
'Tall, annoying, ugly with an even uglier attitude, proud', more of the other attributes of what made a terrible person, even more insulting words that had Alan stopped to frown, then lastly, he never mentioned her to be a man of course. 'Young, full of bloody cheerfulness and wife to a rich young lad.'
He scanned through the crowed and focused his gaze on any young woman with a rich young lad. A lot of these people didn't even fit half of the description in his head. They shot him awkward stares that made him glad for not coming in with his full knight armour. Still, they stared. Almost all of them looked tattered and unkempt with ragged cloths.
With still no search of her, he walked forward and began searching like the smart man that he was.
"...yes, a girl. She's also proud, ugly with an even more ugly attitude, annoying... Wait, listen to me." He raced after a woman who quickly evaded off to meet her other people. They stared back at him in disgust but that didn't stop him from moving over to a new person to start his search all over again.
After more than, at least a dozen of searches, he observed as a lady marched forward to confront him. She was indeed slender, tall, bright and not full of bloody cheerfulness, or any kind of cheerfulness. This look on her face was starting to resemble a murderous one. He didn't fancy it too much.
"You were looking for me? Did dear old Donn send you to me?" She frowned, her voice indicating firm authority. He also knew it was her, judging from the rich lad that stood behind her.
"You must be the husband?"
"What?"
He smacked his head a bit too hard and instantly regretted sounding like an imbecile. He was a knight and knights were always fearsome and bold and knew what the say at the right time. "Do forgive me," he apologized.
"Who sent you, huh! Begin to state your business or else-" she was cut off from her threats as Aiden gently wrapped his hand around her waist and brought his lips close to her ear to whisper something. Maybe he did that purely out of unawareness, but Fiora was sure that if just any other man had try to pull up a move like that, getting physical with her, she would had punched out any form of life that existed inside of him. He said something, but she didn't quite hear him. His warmth slowly washed her off her mind and her breath seized involuntarily.
"... listening to me?" He asked and she quickly shrugged off whatever it was that she imagined happened. Did she somewhat liked him close to her? "We don't know him, and technically, this isn't your territory. So questioning him that much is not so, uh... proper." He explained with an hushed tone.
"Uh, sorry to disturb this magical romantic moment," said Alan.
"What? Romantic what?" Aiden asked and immediately let his hands off her waist. They both gave enough distance between themselves.
"Don't mind him, he's a clown." Said Fiora who instantly got both puzzled faces stared at her in confusion. "The strange man, I mean. Not you." She quickly corrected and Aiden cooled a bit.
"I am not a clown, I beg your pardon!" Alan objected.
"Then who are you? Why were you searching for me?"
He frowned and cleared his throat. "I am Alan Noeler, Son of Rugard the third, grandson of Rugard the second, great grandson of Ru-"
"Care to skip the details, my friend?" Aiden quickly interrupted.
"Oh. Yes of course. I am from the palace."
"The palace of another kingdom and not here, you mean?" Fiora asked at once.
"Of course not," Alan chuckled. "It is the same palace, abode of her royal highness, Queen Helen."
"Fiora, halt." Aiden squeezed Fiora's hand before she could burst out in outrageous anger. Though secretly wondering what Helen would want with her too.
"I have a," he rummaged through the bag he had swung across his shoulder. "I, hold on a moment." Still searching, he frowned with a tinge of disgust in his eyes. "Well, this is embarrassing." He muffled to himself. "Oh," finally, he brought out a piece of paper. "I have a message for you from her highness." Handing the letter over to her, he bid his goodbye and turned to take his leave. On one side of his mind, he hoped they would call him back for a nicer little chat over dinner. Unfortunately for him, they let him strode off with no effort of stopping him.
Fiora's heart sank with despair, but mostly anger and rage. "Did she try to summon me because I beat up one of her baby thugs?" She asked looking at Aiden for a response, then back at the letter in her hand.
"Helen would never summon you for your punishment with a nice letter like that. She'd have her other baby thugs forcefully take you to her." He said, then took the letter from her and opened it. Without reading yet, he got more closer to her and widened the paper more so they'd both read it.
"I have grown a strange fondness for you. You seem like a smart young woman." Fiora read out aloud, unable to believe her eyes.
"Come to the palace and sit with me over breakfast tomorrow." Aiden continued the next line. "Breakfast with her?" He asked, and with no clue at all on her mind, Fiora gazed at him with a blank expression.
"If you don't, I'll keep sending twenty men to find you and redeliver this message."
"After every twenty minutes? Okay, she is insane."
"Indeed." Agreed Fiora.
"She even left her signature to let you know the letter was official. What a woman!"
"I'm not going." Fiora said immediately. "No matter her threats. I'm not going anywhere near her."