Timeless

26

Jeshua stands there shamed by his former thoughts. Grey will pay with his life for saving them just like Lady Ari had.

"Why was Lady Ariele dying?" That's something Jeshua didn't understand.

"I don't understand the why of that either. But if she hadn't given her life tonight she would've been dead by morning anyway. If you want a more detailed reason for her dying you'd have to ask Lady Jaylen and that lady gives me the creeps." Taren whispers that last part. Jaylen has a bad habit of showing up unexpectedly.

Just then the door to Anna's apartment opens. Anna looks around and sees the two men and gestures them over. "Go find somewhere to sleep, Alexis will be staying here all night. She'll be safe enough."

"Wait Anna, one third, one third, and one half." Taren says before she shuts the door.

"Half? Half of the..." Anna shuts the door on the rest of the sentence. Taren is just as glad to not have to deal with the coming temper she'll be displaying.

Taren motions Jeshua into motion. "I don't have rooms assigned inside yet." Jeshua says. He's in no mood to go back to the barracks when so many of his fellow guards were traitors.

"Don't look at me, I've been staying with Lady Anna." Jeshua just nods. The rumors had said that he had been but he doesn't believe rumors until the person they are about tells him they are true.

"There's Grey's and Ari's room." Jeshua says. Someone should stay there and protect their things until Anna can decide what to do with them.

"Go ahead and stay there. I'll find some where to bed down. I couldn't stay in my brother's room right now." Taren says wearily.

Jeshua is so tired that he just nods and keeps walking. It isn't until he gets to the room and closes the door that he realizes what Taren said. "Taren and Lord Grey are brothers?" Then he realizes just how hard it must be for Taren to know he will be the one to take his brother to the executioners block.

"Let me go to him. Please Lady Jaylen, can't you hear his pain?" the woman says listening to Grey's agonized cries through the stone wall.

"NO. He must not know about you until the trial. If he finds out you're alive things might get truly nasty with the people. They must realize how much it agonizes him." Jaylen is adamant.

"I won't stay for long but he's hurting so bad he won't have a voice left. What good will getting him off for murder be if he'll never be able to speak again?" The woman cries.

Just then the crying stopped. "There now, you won't have to ruin things for tomorrow. Be a good girl now and get some sleep." Jaylen says going to the wall and disappearing like she does at times.

"Let me help you ma'am." Alexis says she's so relieved to see Ari alive that she doesn't have it in her to be angry. She helps Ari into the borrowed nightgown since it would have been strange for them to request a night gown from her room.

The night goes by impossibly slow. Ari waits feigning sleep until she's sure that Anna and Alexis are both sleeping. Silently she slips out of the bed and goes to the wall that she knows doesn't exist. She slips through the wall and over to the sleeping man.

"That's right my love sleep deep. Tomorrow we'll be reunited once more, I promise." And though he never wakes he murmurs her name and peace comes over him.

Ari lets her own tears slip down as she watches the man she doesn't dare to touch for fear of waking. She knows that he took her words to mean they'd be reunited in death. But whatever brings him some solace is better than nothing.