Reunited
Karris looked up into the face of Andross Guile after the platform settled into the floor. She met his smirk of humor with her own of grim triumph. "Let this teach the old bastard not to mess with her or the late Orea Pullawar," she thought.
She then straightened up from her wide Blackguard stance to her full height to look as imposing and formidable as possible. The High Luxiat, after closing his open mouth, scurried over to declare her the next White on the Spectrum after several long minutes of swearing to serve the Cromeria and other such nonsense that she was ready to be done with. All the while she stared Andross in the face daring him to say something about her earlier performance.
"Hopefully he knows when he's beat," she thought, "but he looks thrilled that one of his opponents took him by surprise. I should be on my guard for his next scheme."
Karris cast a worried glanced over at her son, Zymun. "What did he think of his mother now?" she fretted. His face only showed vague interest at this point, he was more concerned with scoping out the crowd. When the High Luxiat declared he was finished she cast one last look at The Guile and swept toward the doors as the other Luxiats struggled to unlock and remove the massive chains from the handles.
She declared, "I am tired and I need rest. I will retire to my husband's room for the time being. I will see to the preparations for the White's funeral and for taking over her quarters."
"But surely you expect Zymun, now that he is the Prism-elect, to move into Gavin's old rooms?" Andross questioned.
"Surely you would show respect to your daughter in law and her new position by allowing me at least a week or more to properly prepare a ceremony fitting for how long Orea has served this nation? Plus I will have to arrange a place for all of Gavin's things and my own after living there for so long. Besides I assumed since you were Promanchos and Zymun was your candidate you already had rooms for him in the Guile estates," Karris haughtly stated. All the while Andross's smirk soon turned into a grimace and then he slowly grew red with anger at the insults she had slipped into her statement. Zymun, from where he sat, observed both Karris and Andross with all of his attention.
Karris thought to herself, "I probably shouldn't have gone that far but I am exhausted after dragging Gavin, my beloved Dazen in disguise, from his near death in Rath. But," the other side of her argued, "I need to show Andross that I am not be be messed with and I can play his games." She then put her focus back onto the door in front of her.
The young Luxiats that saw her coming worked faster to remove the chains so as not to be yelled at later for failing to have the perfect ceremony. They finally removed the chains and one opened the door with a sigh of relief as Karris swept by. The sagging Lightguards immediately brought themselves to attention as she exited the doorway and made her way to the lift. Once there, the Blackguards guarding the lift fell into step behind her. They set the weights and she was off to Dazen's room.
Once there she announced to the Blackguards that were still hot on her heels, despite the lack of Commander Ironfist's leadership, that she was going to take a nap and they could guard outside her door while she slept. They promptly fell back and let her enter the room alone. She immediately went to Dazen's desk and wrote a note to be delivered to the Orea's room slave telling her to start packing and sorting her things into what needed to be kept and what could be repurposed. The next letter she wrote was to be delivered to one of the High Luxiats telling him to retrieve Orea Pullawar's body to be embalmed for burial next to her husband. The last letter Karris wrote was to be delivered to the chirurgeons tending to Dazen. She then sealed all of the letters and handed the pile to one of the Blackguards outside her door informing them to instruct every Blackguard member that she would meet with them later in the evening. When that was done she stripped to her underthings, feebly crawled under the covers, and promptly fell asleep.
When Karris finally opened her eyes and wiped the crust away she slowly pulled herself out of the bed, favoring her badly bruised left side, and sat at the edge of the bed. She looked over and noticed that Marissia, Dazen's room slave and the late White's head spy, had laid out a comfortable pair of pants and a closely fitting tunic. Karris sighed and lugged herself out of bed to change. Once finished changing she glanced at the desk and saw one of her messages returned, and unopened on the dark wood. It was the letter meant for the chirurgeons inquiring as to Dazen's well being. Karris fingered it briefly and then strode to the door. She questioned the Blackguards stationed there, "Why was this returned?"
One of them swallowed hoarsely and stated, "Lady Guile, I mean White Karris, the slave that was used to deliver it returned and stated that no one was present at the premises. We thought you would want it put back on the desk and not be disturbed."
"No, no. That was fine. I will be remaining in here for the time being and wish not to be disturbed. I need to think and plan out some things. Do not bother me unless it is of the utmost importance. Thank you," she kindly announced.
Karris closed the door behind her and strode over to place the letter back on the desk. "Oh, Dazen what is your father up to now? I placed you in Ironfists care and yet you still have disappeared. Where would you go to hide?" she said aloud to herself. She gazed around the room until her eye fell on one of Dazen's closets. She quickly opened the closet door and crawled underneath the lowest shelf. She felt everything on the floor she could find. There was nothing. She vaguely remembered Dazen telling her how he made it to the chamber used to keep his older brother captive when she was recovering from wounds sustained from an ambush on the street.
Karris crawled back out and stared at it some more. She removed the shelves and all of the linens and placed them in a different closet so no one would notice anything was amiss. She then examined every inch of the closet only to still find nothing. She crouched into the tiny closet and closed the door wondering if a lever might pop out. With the clicking sound the floor made after the shutting of the door she suddenly remembered the rest. She opened the closet door again and went searching through Dazen's things for a mag torch, or any source of light. Finding what she needed she made her way back to the closet and closed the door. Drafting just enough green to make a panel underneath her feet she then pulled the hook up from the lowered floor and threaded it through a hole she had made in the board. After doing this she then grabbed the rope break and held on to both of them. Edging open the floor, she shifted her green panel into placed and whooshed down the chute.
After quickly picking up speed and cursing Dazen for his reckless designs she pulled on the rope break. Slowing herself just enough to not risk further injury by the time she made it down, she landed in a tiny, extremely dark room. Lighting her torch she looked around and found the blue wall Dazen described. With one touch of her hand it became translucent, even though she had never drafted blue in her life. She waited the customary five minutes required for one of the chambers to rotate into place. She knew she needed to get back upstairs and actually work on something that mattered not distract herself with other things, but she had time for that later.
When the blue chamber finally rotated into place the last thing she expected to see was a person. Most of the head was bandaged and he was wearing dirty clothes. His hair and long beard were dark, but despite this with a sick feeling in her stomach she knew who it was. No matter how much she pounded and screamed to the person lying into the translucent blue window he didn't move. Karris sunk to the ground, tears streaming down her face. She looked up and asked in a broken voice, "Orea, what would you have me do now?"
*All characters are the property of Brent Weeks along with any original ideas borrowed from the canon. If you haven't already read all of his books stoop everything you are doing and get to it. You will thank me later.