Covers the aftermath of Hax's untimely demise. Adah and Kani also have a discussion. A lot of analysis of oneself and self-doubt, which will and is a common theme of this fanfic.
7.
"A Plaguing Nightmare"
Hax's burial was delayed for two days as the investigation into his murder proceeded, the hope being that the identity of his killer would be revealed. But when no new evidence about the matter turned up, the funeral proceedings went ahead as planned, and Hax was laid to rest on the morning of the third day after his murder. The same morning of the third day that Adah spent brewing over the fact that she was now a murderer.
For obvious reasons, she did not attend the funeral. She couldn't find the willpower nor the want, to do it.
Fortunately, she wasn't the only one. Several others didn't attend. For example, few of the Angolian mice attended the funeral, as a fair number of them were a bit bitter about the blame for murder of Hax being pinned on them, which they rightly believed was being done wrongly. Additionally, none of the surviving royal family attended. Lady Grinta wished to, but was too ill to leave her room, and was terribly distraught anyway, and Kani, probably taking Hax's untimely death the hardest, had locked himself in his study, and was still refusing to exit at the time of the funeral. As a result, Methusael, ironically, presided for the funeral proceedings, another reason Adah didn't attend. The very idea of that made her feel sick.
After the funeral, nothing changed. The mice continued to be bitter. The investigation into Hax's murder pushed on, but still turned up nothing new, and probably would continue that for as long as Methusael wished it to. Lady Grinta continued to be ill. Kani continued to hide in his study to morn Hax's death. Methusael continued to manage the day-to-day matters that took place in Angola as the proper creatures to do it did not.
At times Adah wondered if Methusael had won already, and had gotten what he had wished.
But finally, after a week of this, something finally changed. Kani had a note to Adah's room, requesting that she meet him in his study at the first opportune time. Adah, however, had also locked herself away into her, leaving it only to address issues such as hunger, thirst, and other bodily needs, and wasn't ready to leave her room for any other reason than those. Plus, she didn't dare face Kani, not when she knew that it was herself that was responsible for Hax's demise. So she ignored the note, tore up the parchment and threw it away, pretending that she had never seen it.
The next day, however, Kani simply sent another note requesting the same thing; that she come and visit him in his office at the first opportune time. He apparently thought that Adah simply hadn't gotten the first note and was trying again. Adah treated that note the same way she had treated the first, however, and ignored it. So finally, on the third day, Kani personally sent his servant Mordecai to get Adah, and request she follow him to Kani's study. Adah tried to find some way to excuse herself from going, saying that she didn't want to disturb Kani's peace, particularly seeing that he wished to be left alone a lot lately. Mordecai was an intelligent fox, however, and didn't buy it, knowing that Adah was purposely trying to avoid Kani. He insisted that she meet with Kani.
So, having no practical way out of this, save confessing everything, which Adah knew she couldn't do without grave consequences, she agreed to follow the servant to Kani's study. As she was escorted to the study, Adah was inwardly terrified, and it was all she could do to keep herself from trembling like a creature with its fur shaved off in the middle of winter. What was it that Kani wanted her for so badly? Did he somehow come to suspect her? Or was she entirely on the wrong track? They did have a history of being friends, maybe Kani merely needed one right now? Could she manage that? Could she keep her cool? Or will she finally crack and tell all to Kani?
And if she did that, what would Kani think of her afterwards?
Finally, after what seemed to be an exceedingly longer walk than normal, they arrived at the door of Kani's study far sooner than Adah had hoped. She wasn't ready. But there was no backing down now; Kani was expecting her, and Mordecai wasn't likely going to let her leave. Unless she tried sneaking away, which she was tempted to try, but knew that Mordecai was observant enough that it was unlikely he would fail to notice any such attempts in time to stop her. So she stayed.
Mordecai rapped gently on the study door, then opened it. "Mistress Adah is here to see you, sir," he reported officially.
Adah almost snorted at the proper-sounding title he tacked onto her name. She certainly didn't feel like any kind of mistress anymore, save in gender alone.
"Thank you, Mordecai," came Kani's reply from within the dark study.
Mordecai then stepped to one side to allow Adah through, motioning into the room. Adah glanced at the gesture, took a deep breath, then stepped into the room. Once she was inside, Mordecai exited and closed the door behind him to allow to two to talk in private, though Adah partly wished he had stayed. She didn't really want to be alone with Kani at the moment.
The atmosphere in the study didn't help, either. You could feel the gloom of Kani's sadness hanging in the room, that gloom added to further by the fact that the room was unlit save for the light that filtered through the study's only, but large, window that sat behind Kani's desk, casting it in shadow. Kani himself sat in the chair behind the desk, having turned it so that he faced the window, with his back to the door. Adah could not see his face. Feeling more nervous still, Adah cautiously made her way to stand before the desk. A moment of silence fell
"You…wanted to see me?" she inquired, the best she could think to say.
"You've been avoiding me again, haven't you?" Kani asked, bluntly.
Adah felt her ears droop. "Yes," she confessed, seeing that she could give no other answer that Kani wouldn't see through instantly.
"Is that why I virtually had to have your arm twisted to get you to meet with me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Such an innocent question, but one that spelt trouble if Adah answered it truthfully. Unable to come up with a cover story, and lacking the nerve to tell the truth, she stalled. "It's a long story."
"Seeing how things have been going around here, though, I'm certain I already know a fair part of it," Kani reasoned.
Adah bit her lip. "Kani, I know Hax's death has hit you hard. It's hit all of us hard," she paused, "Myself included, in more ways than you know. I know what you're going through…so I let you be."
Kani was silent for a very long moment, then rose from his chair and turned to face her.
"Someone murdered him," he murmured, "Murdered my only brother, and I don't know who and why. You can't possibly know what's that's like."
Adah realized he was right, because she did know who did the deed and why. "You're right," she admitted.
Kani looked down at his footpaws, clearly sad. "It wasn't his time," he murmured, "he had his whole life before him. He was a friend to all. I knew of no one who didn't like him. Why would anyone wish to kill him?"
Adah hung her head, and did not respond. Under normal circumstances she probably would've said something along the lines that she would tell Kani the answers if she knew them. But unfortunately, she did know them, and telling those answers scared her to death.
Kani sat on his desk, and sighed. He seemed to be more thinking aloud than talking with Adah now, as his chain of thought had veered away from her. "Methusael has been persisting that the mice are responsible for my brother's death," he remarked, "He says I should do something about it, as acting lord. But I won't believe it until I see it. There's no motive for the mice to do it. They liked Hax, they all liked Hax. Which actually gives me an idea who might have done it."
Adah looked up sharply at this. "Who do you think it was?" she asked, her voice cracking in fright.
Kani sighed. "I think a fox did it," he murmured, "Possibly someone in this very castle."
Adah's heart started beating in terror so fast, she feared it was going to burst. "Like who?"
"That I don't know. I just know who it isn't. Not Mordecai, not Methusael, not Bluejay, and certainly not you, Adah," he gave her a comforting grin at this, "I don't think it's anyone I know personally. Possibly a lowly member of the royal guard with delusions of grandeur."
Adah avoided eye contact, unsure how she should feel about the fact that Kani was heading in the right direction, and yet was still so far from the truth. Kani continued talking.
"Whoever it is, when I find out who it was that killed my brother, will suffer worse than death."
Adah looked at him for a long moment, and knew what she had to say. "You certainly have that right," she paused, "I don't know how that murderer can even live with herself…or himself, of course…maybe death is what that creature needs. To escape whatever it was that drove that creature to cause such a deed."
Kani was silent as he processed this, rising and turning to look out the window again at the snowy expanses outside.
"What if the murderer killed Hax unintentionally?"
Kani turned to look at Adah, puzzled by her thought. "How can you kill someone mistakenly?"
Adah's eyes locked onto his. "Maybe Hax was mistaken for someone else."
"How? He was stabbed in the front. The killer had to have recognized his face."
"Maybe the killer tried to backstab him, but Hax realized he was in danger and turned to try and protect himself."
Kani looked away. "If that's so, then Hax did so too late."
They were both silent for several long moments. Kani shook his head sadly.
"This has all been just a plaguing nightmare," he muttered, "One I can't seem to wake up from."
Adah hung her head. "I know what you mean."
"It feels like I'm trapped, with no where to go."
"No where sensible at least. You can try to escape still…but it's dangerous."
"Then there's the gnawing sensation that if I were to figure out the truth behind all of this…I won't like what I find."
"You won't like it all, Kani, I can tell you that much," Adah sighed, and sat down on the floor before the desk, leaning her head against it's front, "I just wish I could forget it all."
Kani suddenly perked up, and glanced over at a cupboard on the study wall. Adah noticed, and glanced at him.
"What is it?" she inquired.
"A possible idea," Kani remarked, and wandered over to the cupboard and opened it. In it were two bottles. Kani removed one and handled it for a moment, "Blackberry wine," he murmured, "It's Methusael's favorite beverage. He gave me those two bottles as a gift this past season, obviously with the intent to drink it," he turned and grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and strolled back over to his desk, pulling the cork from the bottle, "Maybe it's time that I do just that."
He set the two glasses down, and started filling one with a drink. "Care for some?" he asked Adah, starting to fill the next glass.
Adah wrinkled her snout. "I never particularly cared for blackberry wine," she stated.
"Nor do I," Kani said, taking both glasses and sitting down in front of the desk beside Adah, "but it's very strong."
Adah glanced at the crystal glass she offered him for a moment. "True," she confessed, and accepted the glass.
"In memory of my brother Hax," Kani proposed for a toast, "May he rest in peace."
"To Hax," Adah agreed, and clinked her glass against Kani's before they both drained their glasses.
They pulled faces at the drink's kick, then looked each other for a moment, before Kani reach around and grabbed the bottle to refill their glasses.
Several minutes later, the bottle lay of the floor empty, and both foxes were now very drunk. But on the upside, they were both in much better spirits, and for the first time in days, they both had a reason to laugh again. They had forgotten that reason at the moment, their minds as clouded with drink as they were, but it was a reason either way, and they were laughing heartily for several minutes. They started to wind down, but then started back up again, pretty much laughing at nothing now.
But it felt good to laugh.
"Whoo-hoo-hoo, it's been a long time since I've laughed like this," Adah remarked in-between giggles.
"Can't say I've had a good reason to laugh lately either," Kani agreed, going to swig from his empty glass for the third time, only to remember again that it was already empty, "Plagues'n'pestilence, this blackberry wine…stuff…is very liberating when drank…drink…er…drunk in large qual…quantities."
"No wonder Methusael loves it so much," Adah remarked, "And to think, he doesn't show it. He's always so serious. You should've seen him when he was talking to me the day Hax died, he looked so threatening, like he wanted to kill me!"
"Ha!" Kani laughed, "I can just picture it! Hax's murder had a really weird effect on Methusael that day."
"Oh, trust me, weird doesn't even begin to explain it," Adah assured him in a melodramatic voice, "If only you knew what went on in that fox's head…"
"Probably just military this, military that, yadda, yadda, yadda!" Kani snorted with a laugh, "Like I care, Methusael! All that militer…millie…military stuff is your business, not mine! I'm just acting lord, after all! What do I know about any this, anyhow? Of course, why would he care? He never cares about what I think!"
Now Adah laughed. "That is so true!" she laughed, "He really doesn't care a thing about what you think, or even what happens to you! He'd probably push you off a cliff, and not even bat an eye!"
Kani was just about dying with laughter now. "Ha-ha, If he ever, hoo, ever did that, why I'd-I'd-I'd, hee-hee-hee, I'd fire him on the spot, ha, right then and there, whoo-hoo-hoo!"
"Aw, how could you if you're falling off a cliff?"
"I'd shout it out as I fell! 'Methusael, you're fired!'"
"No, no, no, it'd be more like, 'Methusael, you're fiiiiiiirrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeddd-whee-hee-hee, great seasons, I love this blackberry wine!"
"Oh, so do I, don't know why I've never done this before!" Kani remarked as he went to swig from his empty glass for the fourth time before remembering he was out, and reached over to grab the bottle from where it lay, turning it upside-down and shaking it. Not even a drop fell out. "I certainly wish we had more of this, though, I want more to drank…er…drunk."
"No, no, we're the ones who are drunk!" Adah corrected.
"Oh yeah, that's right, I suppose we would be fairly drunk by now, wouldn't we?"
"Ha! What was your first clue, Kani?"
They broke down into another fit of laughter, leaning on each for support as they rested their backs against the front of the desk, until Kani leaned a little too hard on Adah, and they both toppled over. Their laughs cut short to a fit of giggles, they looked at each other, lying side by side.
Kani grinned foolishly. "Y'know, you really are quite bute…bleaut…er…beautiful, Adah."
Adah blushed, and playfully slapped his shoulder with one paw. "Oh, stop it you silly beast, you're just saying that to be nice!"
"No, really, I mean it, you're the most beautiful creature I know!"
"No, no, if you really knew what kind of creature I am, Kani…"
"I just know that you are the most sensible, fun, and beautiful creature I have ever met, Adah." Kani pressed. Adah glanced at him, and saw that he was being dead serious about it, too.
The very idea of that touched her. "Thank you, Kani," she murmured.
They looked at each other for a long moment, then before either of them had really realized it, Kani had leaned in for the kiss, and for several moments, their lips would not be parted. When they finally did, Kani sighed, and rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, a silly grin on his face.
"You always have had a way for cheering me up, Adah," he remarked to her.
Adah rolled over onto her own back, paws over her beating heart. "So do you, Kani."
