Opal Wings

Chapter Twenty - Atempause

The trip heading up to the castle was one spent in pensive silence for Obi, his thoughts looping back around the conundrum that was Akazawa Saki. It was back to his charge of guarding Shirayuki, like usual, but given the results of his most recent exchange with the volatile ex-maid, his thoughts were of course, elsewhere.

It stood to reason that because of this, he hadn't noticed the peculiar silence that had fallen upon Shirayuki when he arrived at the Court Herbalist Office. Additionally, this was the reason why he didn't realize something had happened until it hit him; Quite literally.

A hand had slapped him over the back of the head, hard, and it was enough to startle him out of his train of thought. It wasn't sudden enough to have him react on instinct he'd tried to bury away since coming to Zen's service, but it was sudden enough that he'd actually flinched and turned his head promptly to his so called attacker.

There, however, stood none other than Garrak, who looked none too pleased with him at that moment.

It was perhaps the first time he'd been concerned about what she could possibly say to him, which was concerning enough as it was.

'What did you do?' Garrak demanded, her tone just as stern as her expression had been, and that unpleasant train of thought he'd been plagued with didn't fail to hint what she was probably asking about.

The volatile maid, no doubt.

'About?' He responded dumbly.

'To Akazawa, you buffoon!' Garrak snapped, tersely, enough so that Obi had actually shifted back a little. 'What did you do to upset her this time?'

Had the maid been in while he'd been away from the city?

Needless to say, he was quite perplexed by the revelation.

'Nothing that comes to mind, really.' He lied, choosing to play dumb; Maybe he'd get answers if he did. 'I'd noticed she had a forge and asked if she'd forge something for me.'

'What did you ask her to forge?' The woman demanded.

'Just some arrows we found at a bandit massacre.' Obi answered.

Garrak's eyes actually seemed to narrow in response.

'I hope you didn't request that just to get a rise out of her.' Garrak snapped.

Well, guess he'd better keep that tidbit of information out of the equation.

'What's exactly wrong with asking the surly maid about forging a quiver of arrows?' Obi questioned sheepishly, slowly lifting his hands up in his defense in response to the narrowing of Garrak's already sour expression. 'Did I step over a taboo?'

Instead of answering, the chief herbalist instead let out a breath as she moved to step away from him, almost as if she was about to drop the discussion altogether.

'If you're trying to pry into whether or not she executed those bandits herself, you may as well drop it.' Garrak dismissed as she headed for the stairs that lead up to the woman's office. 'She has no qualms with admitting she did.'

At that remark, Obi lifted a questioning brow.

'Then why did she burn down her house and leave?' He called out after the woman.

'Please, Obi, just let the woman be.'

Needless to say, her remark had left Obi feeling none too inclined to listen.

* * *

Dancing thoughts twirled and spun, breaking in glimmers of coloured shards and piercing her concentration like hail on a stormy summer eve. Wherein normally Saki would pause to humor them, if only for a second, now her thoughts only irritated her enforced train of effort.