"Lady Ahndraya? It's me, please open the door." Zonta's muffled voice carried through the closed door.
Kel wiped her eyes and opened the door, keeping herself hidden to anyone walking by.
"Goodness, Lady!" Zonta cried when she saw her. "What happened?"
Kel sighed and shook her head. "I don't even know. Fhire basically told me that they all think I'm dead! Dom still loves me, but he is forgetting. He is probably going to move on."
Zonta looked puzzled. "Fhire told you all this?"
Kel shook her head. "No. But it was obvious. He is going to forget me and move on, and there is nothing I can do!" She said, wiping her eyes again.
Zonta sighed. "There is always something you can do." She said.
Kel shook her head. "There is nothing."
"Kel!" Zonta said angrily. Kel looked up, shocked that Zonta had used her real name. "There is always something you can do, don't you understand? At least you are here, not halfway across the world. There is always something you can do."
Kel looked at her. "What?"
Zonta smiled weakly. "You could always tell him." She said.
Kel spat out a laugh. "Of course, I never thought of that! I can just march up to him and say, 'I'm sorry, love, but I really needed to get away for a while, so I left you for seven years and then showed up here again. I may not have told you who I was for two weeks, but you're not mad, right?'"
Zonta frowned, but Kel continued. "And then of course, I can just stroll up to the king! 'I'm sorry, your majesty, but I really needed to just go and work for another country's government. Please don't accuse me of treason and expel me from the realm!'"
Zonta stood up, quivering. "Lady Ahndraya, is that your answer? Continue this charade forever, until the pain goes away? Ignore everything you're feeling, just because you think he will be angry at you? He will understand. Just tell him. Keeping secrets may have worked for a while, but it must stop. It will just lead to more pain. Ignore the pain, and it goes away. That is what you seem to think. But you're wrong! If you ignore it, it will just come back stronger, and then it will be too late! You will be back home, and he really will have forgotten about you! Is that your answer?"
Kel didn't say anything. "Goddess protect me." She whispered. "Gaosh un adona. Bless my soul, I can't do it."
Zonta relaxed and sat down beside Kel. "You can do it, Lady. And you must." She put her arm around Kel. "You must."
Somewhere on the other side of the door, a man walked by and heard shouting coming from a foreign dignitaries room.
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ooh... I am on a total roll today!
I love it!
"I guess we were all guilty, in a way. We all shot him, we all skinned him, and we all got a complimentary bumper sticker that said, "I helped skin Bob.""
-unolimbo