The Kings Personal Joker (boyxboy)

Chapter Fifty Three

[A/N] Big shout out to IdolizedSonic for the lovely artwork attached above. For some reason the first one wouldn't upload but the the others would so I chose the gloves. There is more to look at, if you're interested in viewing them all I posted them and the link attached to this chapter takes you to them.

My face burned.

Although I was sure this was not an established rule, and more following a sense of general etiquette in this palace, I couldn't help but feel some sense of reluctance in thinking that he would hear about it. I could not pinpoint exactly why.

I flushed red again and shook my head quickly. "Why must it be described this way, surely if I was naked I would not be wearing anything at all..."

Natham stared at me. "Elpis..." He chided me quietly.

"You have been here long enough to learn the customs of the inner palace. You are not an outsider any longer, and you must behave as such." He scolded me.

I scowled into my hands. Talking informally with the man was not only difficult to do but also probably not the wisest move to make in front of Natham. Ophelos was pretty much a second to the KIng in power while the King was in charge, people did not cross him.

"I did not mean..." I sighed. "I didn't know where they were..." I said under my breath, so that it was impossible either of them understood what I had said. "You came here, to my room, to scold me?" I asked him.

He did not seem to be listening to me, from inside his robes he pulled the clothes I had hastily left on the floor in the King's chambers and dropped them, now neatly pressed and folded, onto the bed. It was bizarre to see them reappear here. To know that what was evidently evidence of the night before had been returned to me by his servant.

Did he know?

Ophelos knew.

How much did he know?

I stared at them, and back at him, and then caught the gaze of Natham who looked thoroughly bewildered. My heart beat savagely in my chest as I moved in front of them to block them from his sight.

I had no reason to jump to conclusions, maybe he didn't know, maybe he was just as confused as I hoped he might be and was simply good at hiding it or the King had given some sort of reason for them being there.

But however comforting the thought was I couldn't imagine it, I couldn't imagine him giving excuses for anything. The King was too bold, too careless in the strangest most intimidating way. Although it would surely be a greater embarrassment to him than to me he did not appear to hide his interest in me.

I wondered if the palace ghosts were not only good at noting information, but also adept at burying it too, and there for any part and present relationships he has driven forth were buried beneath the sands of this palace never to be rumoured of or mentioned again.

"Right, thank you." I muttered, moving towards the bed, trying to hide the neatly folded fabric from my friend who was now watching us both with the sort of curiosity that suggested he would be ready to come to my aid, sword wielding and all, if he supposed the slightest wrongdoing.

Perhaps he was considering that Ophelos might be involved in the bruises I wore in the morning. Though I doubted that, because Natham, while kind and the sort of friend many men would endeavour to find, was oblivious, and quite likely disbelieving, of my relations with the peak of this strange society.