King Roland was furious, no scrap that he was downright livid. He had spent over 24 hours interrogating Garrick and his wife. 24 hours that he should have been with Sofia and Hugo, 24 hours that Axel wasn't being prosecuted. It was 24 hours that Roland cursed himself for not being a good father to Sofia, he should have protected her.
It mattered not how the king felt however because Garrick had no clue what had happened, he was just as confused as Roland. His wife, however, had seemed to know more than she let on, she remained silent during the interrogation. The knight had tried to get her to talk which had done nothing, the queen remained tight-lipped. At their failure, Roland ordered the queen to be taken to the cells and for Garrick to be placed in private quarters under armed guards. King Roland had given Hugo's father all the evidence James had collected and a written account of testimonies from the guards on who caused Hugo to collapse. He had left Garrick to review the evidence and made his way to the infirmary. There he found his children asleep next to Sofia and Hugo. His wife, however, was nowhere in sight.
After scouring the room, he still couldn't find her, so he asked Bailywick if he knew where she went. The steward smiled at him sadly.
"She went in the direction of the royal chambers sir."
"Thank you Bailywick" the king turned to leave but his friend called out to him.
"Sir.. please don't think I am overstepping my bounds here but the queen… the queen is breaking. They told her that due to the princess's collapse her recovery could be set back. The queen didn't take that news very well sire." Roland's shoulders sagged, he wanted to bite back at his friend. Of course, the queen was breaking, her daughter was in pain!. Still, he knew that would do no good, so he nodded, kissed his children on the head, and went in search of his wife.
When he found her, she was in their bedroom, pictures scattered around her. Her face had dried tear tracks on it, and she looked exhausted. Roland entered the room, trying to be quiet as not to startle her. When he got to his wife he sat down next to her, she didn't even lookup. Roland looked at the picture in her hands, it was when Sofia was a baby. Miranda was cuddling her, and Sofia's birth father had them both wrapped up in his arms.
Roland was confused, Miranda rarely brought up Sofia's father. It wasn't that Roland never asked or wasn't interested but Miranda just didn't like talking about it. Roland knew that every year on Balthazar's birthday, Sofia and her mother would help out at the docs. They would cook cookies for sailors and help them clean their boats. He used to feel jealous because he knew that Miranda still held a special place for him. When he told Miranda however she had laughed, saying that he was Sofia's father and she would always love him, but she wasn't in love with him. No, she was in love with the king. Roland had stopped being jealous after that.
He had been staring at the picture for a while before Miranda spoke.
"They never found his body," she said suddenly. Roland said nothing in reply, sensing that she needed to say what she was going to say.
"I know it sounds stupid, but I wished they had. Then I would know that he was definitely dead you know. I could lay him to rest properly and Sofia couldn't say that if there was nobody then he might be alive." She took in a shuddering breath, trying to find the right words.
"When… when Sofia was gone it felt the same as when her father died. She was gone and nobody could say if she was alive or not. I wanted to… no needed to believe she was alive but I knew people thought that she was dead." Her breathing began to get quicker as she began to get more worked up.
"Now, she's home but she's not Sofia… she's a stranger. I was told once that a mother could always recognize her child, but I don't. I don't recognize her Roland! That girl isn't my Sofia, she's broken and it's killing me because I can't fix her!" she yelped. As she began sobbing Roland wrapped her up in his arms, rocking her backwards and forwards.
"She is Sofia… she's just different but Sofia is still in there. She just needs a little help. No child was the same at 12 than they are at 14, lord knows the twins aren't." He reassured her. She didn't reply, she just sobbed into his chest.
Roland felt like his world was breaking, for two years his family had been shattered with only one goal in mind. To find Sofia but now that they had found her it wasn't the grad reunion they had hoped for. Sofia was scared of them, something Roland had never wanted for the poor girl. Still, it mattered not because the King was going to make sure that her captors were punished to the full might of Enchancian law. Nobody hurt his family and got away with it.