Beyond Immortality

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

His attention darted to my tiny voice as I called out to him. The entire council held their tongue surprised at the unexpected interruption. On the table are maps of different territories. I chose to let them handle their business and not pry, my urgency was with his majesty, to alert him of my return. Orion too was taken aback probably not expecting me to be back yet here I was. The council then goes on with their discussion even when the king had withdrawn from them approaching me with mixed feelings. Out of courtesy, Orion follows behind and both welcome me back home, the king holds out his hand for me to take as my other hand holds the book, collar, and mirror given to me.

"Never thought you'd be back so soon," King Hemsworth says.

"Neither did I," I answer. His expression turns cold when he spots the marks on my wrist.

"What happened?" he asks. I pull my hand from him and shake my head forging a fake expression to ease his suspicion.

"Nothing to worry about.  Training does have its ups and downs," I lie.

"Training you say?" Orion starts and I almost want to have his tongue cut off. He takes my hand and examines it. "Your foul mouth must have gotten you into trouble," I grab my hand from his hold forcing a giggle.

"Council dismissed," the king announces.

"No! No! Don't dismiss them. We will talk after dinner, deal with the matters of state first, we will get our time right after," I suggest. With one last smile, I start to leave only for him to command Orion to walk me to my chambers. Quietly, we walk side by side through the hallways my mind pondering at his cause of action from what I said to him the day I left.

"Glad to see you are back in one piece," he begins after we awkwardly stand outside my chambers for a while.

"Here I am thinking you did not miss me, never knew you cared." I tease. He scoffs.

"How are your attention-seeking stunts getting along because you clearly have my father's attention?" The Orion I knew is back. I sniff deeply.

"Is that jealousy I smell or do you want the woman of your choosing doing it instead?" I eye him after my remark towards Enmyria.

"Don't think I have forgotten your treacherous threat," he says avoiding my question.

"OH! About that, if you ready we can start now,"

"You are so arrogant," he says dismissing himself.

"Have a lovely day Prince Orion," I say chuckling and getting into my chambers. The place is clean but a bit deserted. No sheets on the bed, no pillowcases or candles. My presence there felt like it had vanished completely. I check my chest wardrobe and find clean sheets but the rest of the bedding is nowhere in sight. I take the sheet and spread it on my bed. Tucking it in making sure that all is well lined and laid on the bed. The door opens up and Mithian gets in. She looks jovial. In her hands are the blankets.

"My lady, I tried getting back as soon as I heard of your return." She says. I smile at her helping her put them down. " I'll be done in a dint."

"I will help you with that," I say. She goes ahead and gets a bucket of water and starts cleaning the floor and dusting the room. We chat the entire time as I help her out with work.

"Will you tell the king about it?" she asks.

"I can't tell him that the place he thought would be of help turned out to be a death trap," I explain to her.

During dinner, the king asked about the place and I had to be careful with every word coming out of my mouth, trying to be discrete with the truth of how it all went down. Enmyria was the only person who shared no thrill of my return. Orion had at least tried to make me feel at home, Mason was overjoyed as he kept asking things like 'What can you do now? Can you turn Orion's head into a cabbage or give him the brain of a donkey? Orion fired back at him playfully. If things can be like this then I would not wish to be anywhere else.