Trouble / Watching

Lethila returned to the castle early the next morning. Her time with Horace was coming to and end, and the pain in her chest was more than she felt she could bear. She had weakly made promises to him to send letters through his son and grandson, but she didn't know how long that would last. He would be growing old and would soon be beyond even a letter's reach. He had jokingly said she could seduce his son, but she didn't feel comfortable with taking that idea seriously. A part of her had wished that the castle chefs didn't add the herbs to prevent pregnancy to all her meals. Having a child to remember him by would have given her a measure of peace...

Lethila had bathed before leaving Horace, so she needed only change and crawl into bed. She had planned to tell her maids that she felt ill later so that she could spend the day in bed. Her rest though was quickly interrupted as the door opened and the most vile of men she had ever had the displeasure of knowing swept into the room as if he had every right to be there. Rienlest had a wicked grin on his face as he stared down at the princess who had just gotten comfy in bed. She glared back at him in response.

"This is a royal sweet and you have no right to enter unbidden!"

"You didn't seem to mind so much last time, my dear. But I fear that I have an important reason for this intrusion."

"And what could possibly be so important," she spat.

"Why... That a spy from the Empire has infiltrated this very city. In fact, I plan to have my soldiers take care of him when he leaves the city so that no one knows he was even here."

"A spy? But wouldn't you need to report that to... Oh no."

"Oh yes my dear. I saw you and that human getting cosey in that bar. It looked like it wasn't the first time either."

Lethila fought the urge to panic or to throw up. He would only get more glee from such reaction. It was clear to her what Rienlest's end game was, but she needed to hear it out loud. She steeled her heart and faced him.

"What do you want?"

"What I wanted, was for us to do this as friends. I would have loved for you to willingly come to my bed. But since you seem to hate me so much, I'll play a little dirty this time. So here is my offer: come to my room tonight and do whatever I ask, and when your... friend, leaves the city, he will do so in peace. Reject me, and I will have him killed as a spy and his body dumped in a ditch along the road."

"You're a monster. How can you play with peoples lives like this?"

"You brought this upon yourself. I would have kept you as a concubine after I married your mother. You wouldn't have been left wanting for anything. But you had to make things difficult, so now you will be my toy. When I want you, I expect you to come. Otherwise, you can face the consequences."

Rienlest then paused and contemplated something for a moment. He then smiled that same wicked smile again.

"I'm not without reason though. As long as you keep me occupied, I won't have time to seduce your poor sister. I had so wanted to complete the set, but I suppose I can make do with just you and your mother."

He then spun on his heel and left, leaving Lethila to mourn her freedom, knowing she was going to have to trade it for the people that she loved.

Mitri turned the small knife over in her hand, remembering how Broden had handed it to her the night before. He hadn't taken it back from her after their time eating the pie and she found herself carefully cleaning it and keeping it as her own. Mitri didn't quite understand the feelings that were growing inside her, but she knew that she wanted to explore them and understand. She tucked the knife away and made her way to the training ground once more. The men that were there were all the normal Elven soldiers, and Broden was nowhere to be seen. Disappointed, the young princess spent the next hour watching the men go through their training maneuvers and hoping to feel and understand what she had felt the night before.

As she watched, Mitri became aware of a few things. The first was that none of these men sent that same heat through her body. Although their movements were quick and effective, they lacked that savage beauty and grace that Broden had displayed. Where his movements were a fluid dance of ****, these men lacked that same strength and flow. And none of them had his size or muscles... Thinking about Broden, Mitri almost gasped as that heat started to spread through her again. That was when she first realized that she was feeling attraction to a man. One that wasn't even an Elf.

After that shocking discovery, Mitri made her way to throne room hoping to discuss these confusing new feelings with either her mother or sister, but found that Ethimilee wasn't alone. As she sat on her throne, before her stood that mountain of raw strength that had captured her attention. Broden and her mother were discussing safety measures and battle plans that he wanted to propose at the next war council. While the topic wasn't of any interest to her, Mitri found that she saw something in their eyes. Both Broden and her mother weren't just talking to each other. She saw a fire in their eyes that it seemed both of them were trying to ignore. At times she caught her mother's gaze linger on Broden's muscular arm, or see the Orc hold Ethimilee's gaze in a pause that lasted longer than necessary. Mitri watched silently from the shadows as these two people moved on from the topic of war to sputtering over small talk. She quickly realized that they were desperately searching for a reason to keep talking, but were running out of things to say. Just like Mitri herself, Ethimilee desperately wanted to spend more time with Broden.

Soon enough, the conversation truly died and Broden awkwardly excused himself to let Ethimilee handle actual business. If her mother already had such an effect on the mighty warrior, did Mitri have any hope of getting his attention? Before, she would have given up and simply gone back to being her normal and shy self, but not this time. She had discovered feelings that she didn't know she could have, and from how poorly her own mother had dealt with those same feelings, Mitri saw that there was still a chance that she could grow and get closer to Broden.