Looks at date since last upload. Dies of shame. I've got no excuse worthy for you guys. All I can say is sorry, and please accept this chapter.
11/14/2014
54: An Understanding
I woke up in my bedroom in the manor at an hour that was later than sunrise. Well that was a pleasant surprise. Neither Selca nor any other maids were anywhere to be seen, but there was a dress laid out for me beside a bowl of water and some jewelry and brushes and stuff. There was also some food and a water pitcher and glass set out on a separate table by the big windows.
Well this was certainly the way to wake up. To room service after a nice long sleep with no interruptions from crazy matrons or jerk generals.
Well, maybe not so jerk faced… Briefly I thought about the night before, or what I could remember of it from my fuzzy, hurting head of the night before.
"I don't cause bad things on purpose you know. I don't even honestly go looking for them. They just find me. Like a bloodhound. Or a border collie. Creeping through the underbrush in a totally cute, but bad on the receiving end kind of way." I found myself defending myself.
General held one of his arms firmly around my waist, his hand resting on my back, keeping me leaning sideways into his chest as the horse trotted along back to wherever we were going. "Well I was going to berate you for leaving the manor today, but it seems a rather more cruel occurrence has befallen you, and I feel it would be unfair to add any more to it."
I scoffed lightly. "I should feel insulted. I should. How dare you. But I find I do not care. You can think what you want, and I will do what I will without you." I stuck my tongue out at him for good measure too.
To my surprise, I could hear him chuckle. Just a little, and very lightly. Mostly, I just felt it. Since I was leaning against him, I could feel the rumble up through his chest and skin. He was very warm. Solid too. But not so solid that it was uncomfortable.
"Thank you." I said suddenly, surprising myself with the words. General seemed even more surprised than I was. I felt him shift suddenly with the shock.
"Thank you." I repeated, a little more surely now that I was thinking about it. "I don't know if I've ever said that, and I probably should have. More than once too probably. You've been pretty helpful to me, all things considered. I mean, you might have been a little nicer, but you've been there. So…thank you."
There was silence for a moment as we rode, and the only sound was the soft footfalls of the horse walking us back to the mansion. And General's heartbeat which I suddenly realized I could hear. It was a steady sound, if maybe a little muffled, but it was constant and strong.
He didn't answer right away, but then his arm around my waist shifted. He moved his hand up from my back to the side of my head. He smoothed down my hair and then tightened his hold on me with a gentle but firm pressure.
"You are welcome." He answered softly.
He only said those few words, but the rare kindness in his voice and the hug-like gesture made me feel more warm and content that I could remember feeling for a long time.
After that, we hadn't really spoken to each other, and when we finally arrived back to the mansion he rode straight to the stables. We dismounted and he handed the horse off to a sleepy looking servant, before we made our way inside. He proceeded to lead me to the section of the mansion that housed my room, and once we were to the outside of my door, he actually opened it for me. I was still feeling a little woozy from all the different kinds of action today, and I was really tired, but I still felt touched by the gesture.
Maybe it wasn't so hard to see why everyone here loved this guy. Maybe he was actually nice way deep down.
I turned around to say something to him, but when I opened my mouth, I couldn't find any words. It was like, after the long day I'd had, after the past few days actually, I just didn't have anything I could think to say right now. Which for me is really a shocker, but I guess it happens to everyone.
General just kinda smirked at me, but for once, it wasn't his, I'm-better-than-you smirks; it was more like he was just kind of amused or something.
"Sleep." He said and he actually patted me on the head once. It was sort of a pat, and sort of a smoothing down my hair thing, but he did that, and then he turned to walk away. As he was leaving, he turned his head just slightly to say one last thing to me over his shoulder: "You'll find things to say in the morning."
I smiled, not even bothering to try and find that offensive, just funny, and maybe even a little sweet. Then I shut the door, walked deeper into my room, and collapsed into bed. I managed to kick off my shoes and pull the covers up around me, but then I was very deeply asleep.
Upon thinking about the night before, the fight that had gone bad for me, my surprise rescue by my nemesis—ok, he wasn't really my nemesis, but he was close right? All we did was fight—the even more surprising niceness of interaction between me and my nemesis, and my rather stupid state throughout the whole thing.
Well aren't you just a noble prize winner? I thought to myself.
Hey, I never said I was all that smart did I?
And how does that help your cause at all?
Oh yes, I am a brilliant person, with all the maturity of a reigning queen. Not.
The question for my genius thinking to think upon, was what do I do now? And not only in the literal, at this moment with no Selca to tell me what to do with my day, but what do I do with General? We actually acted a bit, civil to each other the night before. That has never happened, and I am completely unsure as to how I should continue on with him. It's not like we're friends, but I don't feel like I can keep holding all this animosity towards him when he showed that he actually can be a nice guy.
Frienemies. That was what General I had seemed to have become last night. Or…had we been that way all along?
From out of nowhere, I started to wonder. Had we actually not liked each other or had we just had one of those relationships where we were mean to each other but didn't really dislike one another?
What, whoa! Hold your horses, back this train back into the gate, where did this come from? I stopped myself from my random ramblings about General and mine's weird way of acting around each other.
General is a meanie-bo-beanie who has issues with other people and then he is unreasonably mean to me even though I've done nothing to him. I'm only as mean to him as he is to me, and it's his own fault if he decides to take all his issues out on me causing me to push back.
Whatever, I'm thinking about General too much. I just need to do what I need to do for me, and let him be a stuck-up noble off on his own if he wants. And I what I need to do for me, is to get something to eat.
As if in agreement with me, my stomach chose that moment the give a rather loud gurgle-growl sound. Suddenly, I remembered that I hadn't had dinner the night before since I'd been out with the kids for so late and then ran into trouble on the way home. Once I'd gotten back here all I had done was crawl into bed and sleep.
Well that solves the problem of what to do right now I guess. Deciding I was too hungry to worry about how I looked at the moment, I skipped putting on the dress they had laid out for me and instead went right for the small breakfast and fruits and breads available. And then I ate all of it since I was so hungry. Hey! I hadn't eaten since the night before, and then I'd been in a fight and been injured. I'm entitled to eat a lot of food after all that I think.
Finished with all the food available and feeling better because of it, I used the water to wash my face and hands and to wash my neck, shoulders and arms too. It was very hot here and while having another bath seemed like a nice idea, I wasn't willing to put up with the cold hell that a "proper" bath had been. Better just to get more presentable and wait to get a bath when it could be the kind of bath I wanted.
Oh if only there were showers here. Nice, warm, but not too hot or too cold, showers to just stand in and relax. But showers were as far from me as cookies and recording studios, so I would just have to make do without until I could find a way out of all of this.
And help people in the meantime. That was something I had not forgotten, my words to Raku the day before.
By the time I had left my room, I'd put on a simple white dress and some minimal jewelry as usual. I then proceeded to wander around the halls, hoping to either find something to do, or to find someone who could tell me what to do. But not in a bossy way like Selca, maybe someone could just give me some ideas of what I could be doing instead of wandering around bored. After spending yesterday outside, I wasn't in too much of a hurry to leave the mansion at the moment, but what can you do inside when you have no one to talk to, you can't read the language the scrolls are written on, and there's no games or movies or music or anything like that?
Rounding another corner, I gave a huge sigh of boredom. It had to have been at least an hour, but I'd only crossed paths with a few servants who bowed politely to me but didn't speak and kept on their way. I was beginning to think I ought to just go back to my room and take a nap. I wasn't all that tired, but what the hell else could I do?
The hallway I was in now was a lot bigger and it seemed a bit more grand. Naturally with all my absentminded pacing about, I'd gotten a bit lost in here, and I wasn't very sure where I was. Since everything looked very fancy right here though, I image this was meant to be a hallway that was supposed to be seen by people a lot and that way it could be admired. At the very end of this hall, were some fancy double doors, and just as I was contemplating going over and seeing what was beyond them, I heard a lot of shouting coming from inside.
Well now I have to see what's happening, obviously. I walked a little faster towards the doors, trying to decide how little me was supposed to open one of the huge things when it burst open right in front it me.
Startled I jumped back a bit, and as I did so, a man came flying out from inside, yelling and screaming in rage the whole time.
"You cannot do this to me! I will not let you frame me for this—!"
Whatever he was going to say next was rather abruptly cut off with my fist to his face.
Well when a man comes barreling towards you out of nowhere, what else can you do? So I punched him, right in the jaw, and then I watched in uncaring silence as he slumped to the ground in front of me. I looked up, mouth in a tight line and eyes glaring to see some guards rush out of the room behind the man in a—now useless—attempt to catch the fleeing person. Looking beyond the guards I noticed the room was filled with many more people, most of them important looking men wearing lots of jewels, soldiers' weapons and in a few cases both.
And General was there was well. Watching me with his own face set in a partially amused smirk but his eyes were very cool.
There was stunned silence for a moment as everyone stared at me, but I just kept looking back at General who was obviously the person in charge here.
"People who run only make themselves look more guilty." I said evenly as I crossed my arms across my chest.
General smirked a little more. "Our thanks to you then Lady Kiara, for stopping him before he could get too far." He answered sounding somewhat amused. He gave a regal nod then, and the guards resumed their mission of apprehending the man, only now they had to pick him up off the floor and drag him away.
I gave a slight nod, looking only at General as I did so before turning and walking away with my head held up high.
But as soon as I was out of sight I bolted. Man! My hand hurt like nothing else. That guy's jaw was hard, and he'd scared me into putting a lot of force into that punch, plus he'd been running into it when it had hit him. I flexed out my hand and tried to figure out how to get back to my rooms. A nap sounded better than all this confusion after all. I may have acted calmly with all those people staring at me, but if General didn't come and explain things soon, then he would be the next person I was punching out.
To say he was surprised to have seen Kiara outside that door wouldn't have been much of a statement. She was often surprising him with her habit of being in places she was not meant to be. The more appropriate statement, would have been his surprise at her actions on the outside of that door. He had expected the man to try and run; Fethur knew he had been found out, and he would be executed for his crimes; what man would not try to escape the punishment? He had not expected the mayor's guards to be so inept as for Fethur to be able to break right past them, and he had not expected Kiara to be just outside to bring the man down. Who knew the small girl had that much strength in her?
Actually, that last was a ridiculous idea. Kiara had almost nothing but strength, as he had seen time and time again. What she lacked, was a large amount of tact. Although, remembering her night spent dancing and the times she had escaped her watchers, he had to admit to a certain amount of devious sneakiness in the woman. She was capable of being clever he would admit; it was just that her actions usually were misdirected and not well planned. She got herself into the most interesting situations with her sneaking about and good intentions. Lucky for her, he was rather good at tracking her down and getting her out of those situations since he was able to think rationally about things instead of merely reacting as she did.
Ah well, she was not so useless as he had feared her to be, though she was not nearly as useful as certain others.
Best not to dwell on those thoughts, they would lead only to more depressing ideas, and he did not have the luxury of time to brood about it right now.
It was more than an hour after Fethur was taken away that he was finally able to get to Kiara's guest rooms in the mansion. He had had to see to a lot more business before all this mess was done, and he was certain that in a few more hours—likely even less than that—there would be more matters that required his attention. First though, he knew he needed to speak with Kiara before she did anything else that would give him a headache.
He knocked on the door twice out of courtesy, then went ahead and walked in. No one else was around to notice his lack of politeness, and he did not care about it irritating Kiara; in fact, it might be amusing if it did bother her. He went inside, past the small sitting room and rounded the thin cloth curtain that separated her bedroom.
She was sleeping.
Ramses stepped further into the room to stand by the bed. His arms were crossed as he looked down at the woman sleeping comfortably buried in the blankets and pillows surrounding her. This was not the first time he has seen here sleeping like this, but it was the first time he had stopped to look at her. Before, he had been eager to repay some mischief to her, but now he just looked over her while considering her.
Sleeping like this, her face was more open and peaceful. There was no irritation or annoyance on her brows, and her mouth was not turned into an upset or angry pout. She also was not wearing a smug smirk or smiling one of her too wide smiles meant to be falsely reassuring. She did not look like such a terrible bother like this. How could there be such a difference in a woman as there was in her?
She shifted then, perhaps sensing his presence. She turned onto her back, stretching and flexing her spine and arms, and suddenly he remembered how flexibly she had danced and the way her muscles had moved then. It really was strange to try and picture that exotic performer as the woman he knew to be only irritating and unthinking.
Then she opened her eyes, and they were as blue as the sky above the Nile on a warm afternoon, and he could not look away. Thankfully, she frowned after a moment of staring back at him, and he was able to restart his mind and smirk at her.
"What are you doing in here?" she asked not bothering to remove herself from her tangled position.
"I have come to make sure you were not finding more unnecessary trouble." He told her with a shrug. Kiara rolled her eyes at him and then finally sat up and began to move the blankets off of herself.
"Yeah whatever jerk. Now tell me what was going on early? Who did I punch out?" she asked crossing her own arms over her chest.
Ramses kept up his smirk as he answered her. "That was Fether, the former advisor to Mayor Jeither and murderer of Yeireth."
Kiara wrinkled her nose slightly and she looked a little bit unsteady, then she seemed to shake herself out of it. "How do you know? How are you sure?" she demanded.
Ramses wondered a bit at her insistence on knowing. She was so upset by the murder, he had clearly seen the shock and fear on her face when she had seen the body, and every time it was mentioned her shoulders got a little more tense, and she drew her body in a little tighter. He was not sure if it was admirable that she wanted to know despite her fear, or if it was foolish of her to continuing upsetting herself when she really had no reason to be involved. None of this had anything to do with her.
"He knew some details about the murder that I had been keeping from the public gossip." Ramses answered. She remained frowning and continued to stare at him.
"Surely that isn't it?" she asked her tone getting a little cooler. "You wouldn't send someone to jail or execution over a tiny bit of evidence?"
Ramses tensed his jaw slightly, but he understood her reasoning. He did not, however, understand why she thought she had any right in doubting him. She was, after all, the one who kept getting into trouble and making a mess of things. "There are other factors involved. Evidence in his rooms, witnesses attesting to the treasons he was committing. Things that make his guilt certain but which I do not need to explain to you." He told her.
Kiara narrowed her eyes slightly at him then looked away. "So…Fether was the mayor's right hand guy, and he could use that position of power to do bad things, and Yeireth was probably the money man. I guess Fether figured Yeireth would tell you about whatever it was that was happening, so he killed Yeireth before you could talk to him."
In short, that had been Ramses's theory as well. He had not expected Kiara to understand it, or at least not as quickly as she had. Either she had been thinking about it quite a bit more than she let on, or she was a lot more clever than she let on. Neither option was that appealing to him; he did not like not knowing how this woman functioned. "I am surprised you could come to that conclusion without too much guidance."
Kiara shrugged, but she had a bit of a smirk. "Honestly the worst part is keeping all these weird names straight. Haven't you people ever head of John? Nice and simple, no need for fuss or confusion."
Ramses bit back his own smirk. Her words did not make much sense—what kind of a name was John?—but her teasing tone was hard to miss. "Of course, Kiara, glad to see you understand." She laughed lightly and opened her mouth to say something, no doubt some more snark, but he knew he needed to be getting back to business soon. "Now that you have been informed as the current state of things, I need to tell you what shall be coming next.
"Messages have been sent to important people who needed updates, and I expect replies shall be coming back in the next day or so. There will be a feast tonight in celebration of catching the murderer; you will be allowed to attend, provided you can behave yourself. The following day, assuming nothing else occurs, we will be going back to the Hittite capital."
Kiara looked thoughtful for a moment, then opened her mouth again to say something, but again Ramses interrupted her before she could. "I need to be getting back now. I shall send someone with food for you, and they will also be able to help you prepare for tonight. Try not to cause problems between now and then." The last bit he said as he was leaving the room.
"If I do cause any problems I'll make sure it's all for you to get stuck with!" Kiara called out to him as left her rooms. He shut the door with a grin, very certain she had meant what she just said. What a troublesome woman.
After General left after telling me that the man I'd punched at been the murderer—which I was trying really, really damn hard not to think about—I couldn't go back to sleep. I really wasn't tired, and I didn't want to just lay there thinking about things, so I went ahead a got up. And then I paced a bit. When did he say someone was going to come help me? They were just going to help me get ready for a party tonight right? What time was the party even going to be?
And how did anyone tell time here? Were there tiny sundials that people carried around as watches or something? Like, did everyone get trained to tell the hour by the placement of the sun as children? I mean, I could kinda do that. Rise in east, set in the west. If it's right above me it's noon-ish time.
Anyway, time was weird, I had too much of it at the moment, and nothing to do.
What would I be doing if I was home?
Well, that was a sad thought. Cause I am not home. Also, because what would I be doing? Sitting bored on a plane going somewhere? No, I could be learning a new part, or singing a new song, or telling jokes on a talk show. I did some fun things. I could be learning a new dance number.
Idea. That I could do.
And that was something I could do. So I dug into my bag and found my MP3 player—which is awesome cause it's solar powered so even in the land of no electricity so it still has power. Then I found a good strong, fast playlist that I could just dance to.
All the singles ladies, all the singles ladies…
Upside down, bouncing off the ceiling, inside out, stranger to this feeling…
I'm the best damn thing that your eyes have ever seen…
Hips don't lie…
Please don't stop the music…
Genie in a bottle…
I danced for a long time to a lot of songs. I didn't really choreograph anything, I just moved in the ways that felt right, and it did feel right. I miss dancing, and I miss the fun it is to dance in front of other people. I mean, I'm not egotistical or anything…well not too much anyway, but I love to perform. And not only that, I like the way it feels to move and follow the beat and sometimes you make a story out of your body and other times the stretch and burn just feels like a really awesome release of all of your energy.
And so, some unidentifiable time later—unidentifiable because I lost track of how many songs I heard and because these is an incredible lack of digital clocks here—I stopped to lay on the low-backed couch in the living room area and just breath and let me muscles cool back down. So I dozed there, and that's how the two servants found me when they came in some time later.
Thankfully Selca was nowhere to be found and these girls were helpful but not condescending or pushy. They'd brought me more water to clean up with, some oils which were light but scented in pretty floral tones, various cosmetic things and clothes and jewelry to wear. Unlike before with Selca, I had been brought a selection of things to wear, so I got to choose what dress, jewels, shoes, and even what oils to wear. It was actually really awesome to get to choose, and the selection wasn't that bad. I mean it wasn't great, and it didn't fit quite perfectly—a little tall, a little loose here, a little tight there—but it was still pretty cool in the end, and I did look nice. I think. They have a lack of clear mirrors here along with that lack of clocks.
But anyway, the dancing had been good, and the dressing up had been good, and tonight there was a party, which I usually do pretty well at. So once everything was in place, it was time to go show off.
Ok like I said, there's no real excuses except that life is hard and I've been dealing with that. Also, truth be told I've lost a lot of my drive for this story, I've moved on to other fandoms that I love and this just doesn't occupy much of my thoughts. But I do have it planned out, so if I could just keep up the motivation to type out what's in my head I'll get it to you as soon as I can manage. Please don't hate me, but I'm slow.
Also I think throwing back to the old songs is kinda fun, obviously Kiara wouldn't know the current stuff because this story has her taken out of the modern world around 2009-ish-which is forever ago, I mean wow.
Also please ignore if the writing style seems different to before, I'm trying to keep it mostly the same and to keep my characters the same, but it's been years since I started, and I write differently now. So I'm trying not to make a big huge change, but if there is something specific that you notice and don't like please let me know.
