There was nothing but the sounds of the others contemplating on how to remove stains without removing the original coloring or smudging the blood. I wasn't sure how long it took for their arguing to fade but all I know is that there was an uncomfortable feeling of being watched. This feeling startled me awake and I awoke to silver eyes staring into my apparently now hazel eyes.
I didn't flinch, I didn't move away, and I certainly didn't blink. I only stared into their cold eyes with my warm ones.
The face slowly moved away, and I saw that it was the person from before. His long, dark hair dragged along the floor as he moved further from me.
He raised his hand up to my face and brushed his knuckles along my jawline.
"Back so soon?" He muttered
I tilted my head in confusion. The movement caused his hand to brush harder against my face.
"Sir, I'm so sorry for my sister. This is our first job, and she isn't used to doing so much work. Please forgive her." Mansi explained as she approached him slowly. Like she would a wild animal.
The man stood and straightened his clothes. When he turned, he said, "I have a few concerns about your work ethics and so, I will work one on one with each of you these next few days."
Movement next to me caught my eye and I saw that it was the same woman who was with him the last time.
She stepped up and said, "Your Majesty, are you sure this is a good idea? There is too much work to be done, and you can be fooling around like this."
The man saw me look away and got a dark look in his eyes. He moved in front of the woman and blocked my view of her.
He then replied, "Is it fooling around if I want my soldiers to have the best care I can provide for them?"
She shook her head vigorously, "No, sir! That's not what I meant. I just…isn't there anyone else to-"
"I will teach him properly myself. Is there no one more capable?!" He raised his voice.
The woman bowed and said, "Not at all, your majesty."
I raised my head to see him glance back down at me. He looked away quickly, "We start training tomorrow." And with that, he left.
The woman followed him soon after, leaving just the four of us in the training room.
"Sooo…break time?" Karmon asked
We all nodded in unison. He pumped his fist in the air and fell backward onto one of the mats, and fell asleep.
We were allowed to return to our room after we served dinner to the guards. Thankfully, we didn't burn the food as badly as we did breakfast, so the guards didn't complain as much this time. They also sat down first and waited for us to serve them their food.
We all sat in silence in the room for a short while before Karmon asked me, "Do you know the king?"
I shook my head.
"He seems to know you very well. You must know him and not know it. Why else would he be so interested in us?" He asked
"This is a good thing though. We're getting closer to the king. Once we find a weak spot, we can go back home." Mansi said
"If we even get a one on one with him," Maven said
"What do you mean? He said we will." Mansi asked
"You saw the way he was looking at Tori. He wasn't thinking about us when he said that one on one crap." Maven explained
"It doesn't matter. As long as one of us-" Mansi began
"That's if he wants to do it. He has nothing to do with any of this. What makes you think he will put himself in danger just because we asked him to?" Maven said
The three of them looked at me. I pulled my hat down as I blushed. *This is a very uncomfortable situation.*
I brushed my hand against my hip as if something was missing there.
"I'll do it," I muttered.
"You don't need to do anything you don't want to do," Mansi said
I shrugged. "Wanna do it"
"Okay! This is a game changer!" She said, starting to rifle through her bag.
She pulled out a wire with a clip on one end and a microphone on the other.
"This is a recorder. Just place it somewhere the king won't see, but also somewhere you can record his voice." She explained
"How is this going to help? Shouldn't we save this for more important things?" Karmon asked
"We should test it out first. To make sure it works for when the time comes." She explained
Maven rolled his eyes, "You just want to use your outer region technology."
"Nooo…Well… I do kinda have technology withdrawal. It's not my fault this region doesn't have technology! You all depend too much on your gifts. It's like you're in the dark ages again." She looked sideways. "Anyways, Tori, you'll probably be first, so you should wear it on the first day."
She had me try it in different ways. Around my leg at first but we wouldn't be able to hear anything. The next was around my waist but it kept getting caught around my pants and hanging out. We finally figured if we placed it higher on my back, we should get away with it.
We got ready for bed, and for the first time, we all fell asleep together, me included.