Numair was upset. Actually, he was beyond upset. How could they expect him to come to court, where he'd spent so many days with her. Didn't they realize he was still mourning the loss of his student? Couldn't they see that he was still trying to forget her? To forget the way he had failed her? He hated that the king had ordered him to leave his tower, citing that a year of mourning was enough. That she wouldn't want him to waste away. What did they know? How could they know what she would want him to do? They just didn't understand why it was taking him so long to get over a student, a friend. Granted, they didn't want him to forget her, but they didn't want him to be forever tied to her.
Despite what he thought though, the others did know why it was so hard for him to move on. It was him that didn't understand the feelings he had harbored for his young student and friend. Everyone else knew that he secretly loved the girl. Or maybe not so secretly as unknowingly since they knew and he didn't. That's partially why they were so worried. This is the first time that their friend had ever been in love and to lose the girl before he could even tell her was terrible. The rest of the reason was that he was wasting away in that tower of his thinking of her. That's why the king usually ordered him to court at least once every two months to make sure he was taking care of himself.
Generally he would come, looking sullen as always. He would dance when asked to by friends. He would listen to them tell jokes without really listening. He would eat what they asked him to. He would tell them what they asked him to tell. Other than that he didn't do anything except stare out a window and fume that they had forced him there. All he really wanted to do was stay in his tower and pout, not that he would call it pouting.
So imagine the surprise of the others when after a year and a few weeks, he came of his own free will. He didn't give them any reason just said that he was coming. Everyone rejoiced, thinking that maybe he had finally gotten out of his mourning period. They were greatly let down when he just came and locked himself up in his room for four days. He finally came out when word of a traveling party from Carthak wanting an audience with the king was heard. He rushed down there just in time to meet the pair.
"Professor Lindhall, Kaddar welcome."
"Numair, it's so good to see you. We have so much to tell you," Lindhall told him.
"I hope why you are here is included."
"We will tell everything, but we must talk to your king," Kaddar answered.
"Yes , of course, come," Numair said, leading them to the King. Once inside the room, the two bowed.
"Welcome to Tortall," Jonathan said.
"Thanks for allowing us be here, your majesty," Kaddar replied.
"Of course, but I must say I am most curious as to why the Heir of Carthak is here."
"Well, your majesty, that is very simple. My uncle had planned to kill us and we were hoping to seek refuge in your beautiful country."
"What? Why?" Numair demanded, knowing what it was like to be wanted by the Carthaki emperor.
Before the two could say anything, they went into sneezing fits. Unseen by anyone, there was a woman dressed in all green in front of them. She was crying and still had her hand up from where she had blown powder into the faces of the two foreigners. She whispered, "I'm sorry my darling daughter, but the gods are not ready for you to be found out just yet," before disappearing completely.
Lindhall was the first to stop sneezing and answered Numair, "Ozorne is forcing a young lady by the name of Josephine to marry him. She was terribly lonely and became good friends with us. Unfortunately, Ozorne found out that we were meeting with her when we weren't supposed to and planned to kill us at dawn the next day…"
"Lucky for us though," Kaddar picked up, "Her servant happened to be walking by when these plans were being made and told Lady Josephine. Josephine immediately had Messa, her servant, take a message of warning to us. That is why we are here. We were hoping that maybe we could stay here."
King Jonathan thought for a moment before deciding they could, "We will find proper living quarters as quickly as possible and you may stay as long as you both wish."
"They can stay with me," Numair offered, "It gets lonely in my tower and it would be nice to have some other minds in on my experiments."
"Would that be alright with you two?" the king asked.
"That would be splendid," Lindhall answered for the both of them. This gave everyone some hope. Maybe things would finally start looking up again for Numair by living with those two.
A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update when I said I would regularly. I coudn't get this thing to upload and then I went to my grandparents' house. I'm going back til the end of the month and don't think I'll be able to update there. If I can't, I will as soon as I get back. Anyway, Thanks to the following for reviewing:
Stories-have-souls
Tortalls Resident Wildchild
Ethuliel
soccerchick-08
laurashrub