The New Story

Chapter 21

Genta was waiting outside for them, arms crossed, feet planted, her eyes squinting trying to see in the sun.

"I was wondering when you were gonna arrive, shouldn't keep a pregnant lady waiting," she said to them as they got out of the carriage one by one. Still keeping her defensive stance.

"We've been through a lot to get here Genta," Keoat told her.

"And I've thrown up three times this morning. Tell me all about your journey when we get inside, Frano didn't tell me anything except that you needed somewhere to go, had a lot to say, and it was an emergency." She pushed them all inside and waved away the carriage driver. Her home was very simple. It was made out of a strong wood and a few assorted furniture pieces. A small kitchen and a dining table littered with papers.

They all say down around the den and Keoat gave her a summary of what's happened since graduation.

"Oh my gosh Keoat I'm so sorry. You too Audrielle. It seems everyone went through hell to get here. It's nearly sundown and you all must be hungry. Road food is never as good as road food. I have two bedrooms upstairs that are not in use at the moment. Girls in one boy in the other. Get unpacked and I'll start on dinner," she smiled at them sweetly. This woman seems like her mood changes often.

The girls took the room on the left and the boys had the one on the right. Audrielle looked at Magia and saw that her hair was getting kind of unkempt.

"I had long hair, do you want me to fix it up?" Audrielle asked her taking her comb out of her bag. Magia looked unsure at first.

"Do you know how to do long hair?"

"I had long hair almost all my life, I cut it short for graduation," Audrielle explained.

"Sure why not," Magia smiled, sitting down in front of the mirror in the room. Audrielle smiled.

"I'll be right back," Audrielle said. She left the room and tracked down Genta downstairs.

"Do you have a bucket and anything to wash hair?" Audrielle asked Genta as she was chopping up vegetables.

"I have both those things in the bathroom, at the end of the hall on the left," she gave Audrielle a small smile but seemed to keep most of her focus on the food she was making. Audrielle then went up the stairs and got those items from the bathroom, as well as filling up the bucket through a spout.

She then finally made her way back to the room and then brought Magia all the way to the bathroom.

"Lean over the bathtub," Audrielle told her, and Magia did so. She then began to wash her hair, making sure that the roots were thoroughly cleaned as well. She let the soap soak a bit, and then rinsed it all out. She found a towel and they went back to the room where Audrielle started drying Magia's hair. It was not an easy task, but black hair always seemed to dry fast since it was so thin.

After it was mostly dry Audrielle started to comb it. She found some pencils scattered in drawers under the mirror, along with a few pins and started to twist Magia's hair on the pencil and pin it there to stay. After doing that with all the hair except two medium chunks, and she started braiding them until they met in the back and she twisted and pinned them together.

"Now we wait for an hour. What do you want to do until then?"

Magia was taken aback by the question. No one has really asked what she has wanted to do before. She has always been a follower.

"I could do a portrait of you. There is some paper and there were some ink and a quill I could use. I've always wanted to try that medium for portraits. It would be interesting with just light and dark shadows and not having a range of grays."

"You'd want to do a portrait of me?" Audrielle was surprised.

"Of course. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met," Magia smiled at her, taking out the paper and the ink. Audrielle turned a bit red. She has never really had these type of compliments before, and Magia was already like a little sister to her. And that type of admiration made Audrielle smile from cheek to cheek.

Audrielle just sat on the bed, while Magia focused on the paper, trying to make sure every stroke she made was the right one. Maiga didn't really realize at first that this was ink, not pencil. You could erase any mistake you made. But it seems like the thing with the most risks has the most payoff.

A bit more than an hour later Magia set the paper down and put the ink and quill back away. She was finished.

She held up the picture all mighty and proud of her work. It was beautiful and captured everything Audrielle liked about herself. It was drawn with great observation and patience, and it just made Audielle so proud.

"It's amazing," Audrielle told her. Magia smiled back and set it down to dry. "Time to unpin your hair." Audrielle got up from the bed and started unpinning the hair from the pencils and when she pulled the pencils away it left beautiful twirly curls all around her hair and it looked absolutely stunning.

"Oh my stars my hair has never looked like this before," Magia was in awe.

"Do you like it?"

"Of course!" Magia exclaimed. "It's so pretty, I didn't know my hair could ever look this pretty.

"Dinner is ready!" Genta yelled from downstairs. So everyone dropped what they were doing and came down the stairs to see that the dining table was magically cleared of the messy paper from before and had instead a whole line of food steaming and plates set up neatly set up.

"Everyone sit down and eat you must be starving," Genta said motioning for them to sit down. Everyone gathered around. "We also have a special guest today that should be arriving soon. But knowing him he will be fashionably late," Genta rolled her eyes.

"Who is it?" Keoat asked.

"Why my husband of course," Genta said as if it was obvious.

"King Felix II?" Audrielle asked. Genta nodded.

Audrielle then started to become very nervous, and very self-conscious of how she sat and how she looked.

"Don't worry about it, he's just Felix here. He hates it when people are formal when they don't have to be," Genta assured her.

Then there was a knock at the door.

"Come in it's unlocked!" Genta yelled. Then entered none other than Felix. Genta looked around and gave him a warm smile.

"I'm so glad you guys got here safely," Felix said as he came in and sat down at the table. He looked more normal without his crown and his robes. It made Audrielle feel a little better.

"Do you know what has happened to the traitor?" Keoat asked.

"My best guess is that he is still in captivity. He shouldn't have been sent out on a mission, he wasn't suited for in the field work. I'm doing more to crack down on more of the rebels like Han who would cower in the field and give them less stressful work they could do to still help the cause." He then paused and looked over at Genta.

"How was your day, this month has been harder than most," Felix looked over to his wife.

"It's been like any other day, I'm not getting any better but I'm not getting worse at the moment. I'll be fine really it's just a baby loads of women have babies," she waved away his concern. You could see it stressed her out.

"You're the only woman in years who has had an immortal child...besides Audrielles mother," Felix acknowledged.

"What, when did she do that?" Audrielle seemed surprised by this,

"Your father was immortal, I don't know what his background was but that was evident about him. He wouldn't tell anyone who he was."

"What does that mean?" Audrielle asked.

"It means you're immortal too."