---------------PLAGUE---------------
SIX: Conspiracy

"Kel! Kel, get up!"

Kel emerged from her pillow. "Neal?" she said sleepily, squinting at him. "What the—"

"I came just like you said in your letter!" he declared, marching into her room and tearing her bedsheets onto the floor. The warmth she had been enjoying moments earlier was sucked away from her body and Kel pulled her legs up closer to her body to preserve what little was left.

"I never said anything about you coming," she grumbled, sheltering herself from the light pouring through the door with her pillow. Neal grabbed it and began to pull that away too. Kel clung on for a moment, then gave up and let him have it.

"Actually, Kel, yes you did! Remember this? 'If I'm really unlucky, you'll be sent with the reinforcements and bring your reply personally'."

Kel looked at him blankly for a moment. "Yeah. So why are you here?"

Neal shrugged. "I misread 'unlucky' as 'lucky' so I pestered Commander Buri to send me along with the Rider groups coming here. I only realised my mistake halfway here, and then I thought, 'Well, I'm sure Kel will be happy to see me anyway!'" He grinned, appearing extremely satisfied with himself.

"Well, you were wrong," Kel said, turning over to face the wall. "Go away."

His face was suddenly crestfallen, eyes glittering with tears. Kel couldn't fathom how Neal had learnt to cry on cue. "But… but… Kel, aren't we the bestest friends ever? Can't you feel our bond of friendship strengthening even now?"

Kel didn't bother replying.

Suddenly, Neal flung himself onto the bed, trying to hug her. Kel slithered onto the floor out of his range, still only half-awake.

"Leave me alone!" she cried, attempting to escape his clutches. She could barely see due to the blinding light striking her from the window, but she could just make out Neal's silhouette as he lunged at her flailing legs.

"But Kel!" he protested, crawling after her. "Our eternal companionship…!"

Kel was at the doorway; Neal had left her door wide open. It must have been quite late, which was probably the only explanation for why no-one was stood outside in the hallway gawping at them.

Suddenly Neal took hold of her ankle, trying to tug her back into the room. Kel gripped the wall and levered herself out into the hallway.

"I'm serious, Kel, I'll never let you talk to Yuki again!" Neal threatened, pulling her leg harder, but his prisoner ignored him. Kel tried to escape his grip by aiming her other foot at his face, but she couldn't see behind her properly and kept missing. Neal dodged her further attempts, complaining that she might damage his amazing good looks, all the while retaining a strong hold on her ankle. Kel writhed about on the floor in protest.

Someone stepped over her outstretched arm. Kel stopped thrashing about and looked up.

She was expecting some snide remark, something like, "Looks like Mindelan's got a new doormat," or "I'd be grateful if you didn't sprawl yourself across the corridor, Mindelan, this is a military camp, not a human hurdles track."

But Lerant didn't say anything. He just looked down at her coldly and then carried on down the hallway. Kel immediately decided she'd rather he'd spouted one of his insults; the dark, scornful look in his eyes had hurt a lot more than any of his words could. She stared at his retreating back, unable to drag her eyes away.

"Got you!" Neal declared triumphantly, dragging her back into the room. He smothered her in an extremely enthusiastic embrace.

Kel wriggled free of his arms, suddenly sombre. He was sprawled across half her bedding, and part of a report she had to hand to Raoul today was spilled across the floor, crumpled and definitely not in the correct order. That was quite enough in her opinion, but his antics had also caused another ridiculous encounter with Lerant. Kel decided she'd like some privacy to wallow in self-pity for a moment. "If you don't mind, Neal, I'd like to get changed."

"Oh. Okay." He got up, clearly disappointed, and brushed the dust off his breeches. "But I won't be following any more of your orders unless you acknowledge the burning flame of friendship that links us, like the sky links the heavens and the land, a distinct swathe of beauty over our lives, so pale in comparison…"

Kel shoved him out her room, scowling as she did so.

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Kel put down her food and slid into the seat next to Neal. He had been waving at her frantically ever since she'd entered the mess hall and joined the queue for food ten minutes earlier.

"So, Kel! Soooooo! What's this about Dom?" He brandished a piece of paper in her face.

Kel pretended not to know anything. "What?"

"Don't you remember?" he asked, frowning. When Kel shook her head, he held up the letter in his hands and began to read. "'And by the way, when you reply, please don't mention Dom. I'm kind of avoiding him, but don't ask why.'"

"Do you need to read it out so loudly?" Kel hissed, trying to grab her letter from his hands. She should have known that it was a mistake writing that; of course he wouldn't just dismiss it, but rather make a massive fuss of it. He held the letter out of her reach.

"Care to tell me why you're avoiding him?"

"I'm not," she told him truthfully. (Well, she wasn't anymore.)

"Then why did you write it?" Neal said, waving the letter again. Half the people in the room were listening by now, even if they were pretending not to.

"Because…"

Neal looked at her expectantly.

Kel looked around the room, suddenly self-conscious of all the eyes on them. "Look, Neal, can't we finish this discussion in private?"

"Well, if you hadn't kicked me out your room earlier, we could have had it then! But nooo, you just had to--"

Neal's face suddenly catapulted into his bowl of porridge. Dom's hand held him down for a moment, then he let go and Neal emerged, gasping for breath and caked in his breakfast. He spun around. The second he saw Dom, his eyes went steely. "Ah, Domitan. I should have known."

"That was quite satisfying," Dom remarked. "I must try it again tomorrow." Kel smiled weakly in thanks, while hoping desperately that Dom hadn't caught the earlier parts of the conversation. Even if she wasn't avoiding him anymore, it would still be mortifying if he found out about her odd behaviour, or even worse, that she'd fancied him.

Neal's face went from outraged to sly (but it remained covered in porridge). "Well then, Dom," he said, suddenly all polite, "why don't you have a seat? What a coincidence you just turned up. Kel and I were having a discussion about you only a few moments ago!" Kel struggled to hide her alarm.

"Sorry, I can't. I promised to sit with someone else."

Neal was scowling. "Can't it wait?" he asked desperately. "Kel will make excuses and avoid me if we put it off until later. But if we do it now we can eventually force the truth out of her!"

"Sorry, Neal, no can do. This is an old friend, I haven't seen her in a while and I swore we'd catch up now before she gets too busy."

Kel suddenly felt like she might know who this old friend was.

"Whatever it is, I'm quite sure it can wait," Dom assured his cousin. "I'll see you later. Kel, we're on scout duty together after lunch, so I'll see you then."

Dom walked away to another table and sat down beside a brunette girl clad in the typical Rider gear. She smiled coquettishly at Dom as they began to chat.

So that's Tanaia, Kel thought to herself silently. Of course she'd be here; I should've realised when Neal mentioned Rider reinforcements. Well, I'm glad I don't like Dom anymore. I'd be green with envy by now.

Neal poked her. "Hey, Kel. Did I just hear right? Dom said you're on scout duty together. But I thought you were avoiding him."

"I already told you, I'm not." As if she didn't have enough trouble already with Lerant, now Neal was pestering her about Dom (again). And the whole Dom thing was old news anyway. As for Lerant, should I tell Neal about him and… what happened? If he's making such a big fuss about Dom, he might make a massive ruckus over Lerant.

Speaking of the devil, the standardbearer was walking by with his breakfast. He smirked at Kel very deliberately, no doubt having seen Tanaia and Dom sitting beside each other. Apparently he had temporarily forgotten yesterday's confrontation in the stables and the earlier encounter in the hallway outside Kel's room in favour of trying to make Kel even more jealous about Dom. He wasn't aware that Kel wasn't jealous about it at all, because she didn't have a crush on him anymore. But Kel intended to make sure that Lerant found out eventually; at least then he'd have one less thing to try to piss her off over. The whole accidental kiss incident was quite enough already.

A few minutes later, Neal begrudgingly accepted that Kel wasn't avoiding Dom anymore. He could not, however, extract why Kel had written why she was in the first place. That, she decided, could stay strictly secret. Neal would never stop pestering her over it. Kel could imagine with absolute clarity the many things he would do to irritate her; make snide hints whenever Dom was around, make 'arrangements' at mealtimes so the only seat left at the table would be next to Dom, deliver fake letters to his cousin from Kel confessing her undying love for him (he had somehow become very good at forging her handwriting), and probably more.

Kel had hoped Yuki would manage to bind up the wilder side of Neal over the years they had spent together so far, but it seemed she had only managed to make him even wilder.

"Anyway, Neal, I need to go hand in the report you knocked all over the floor earlier," Kel informed him, rising from her seat. "Don't try anything funny. I'll be keeping an eye on you all day."

"Well then," Neal said matter-of-factly, "I'll just have to carry out my plans tomorrow."

Kel glared at him, then brightened. "By the way, Neal, you still have porridge in your hair. I'd sort it out if I were you or the others might mistake it for a chronic case of dandruff."

Neal touched his hair self-consciously. "And here I was thinking porridge in the hair is rather dashing."

"Yes, well, we all know not to trust any of your thoughts," Kel said. "See you later."

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Upon returning to her room, she remembered that she hadn't bothered to put the pages in order when she picked them up from the floor. Unfortunately Kel hadn't thought to number the pages and thus re-ordering the report might take longer than she had expected. Sighing, she sat down on her bed and began to rifle through the pages.

Someone leaned into her room from the doorway. A voice drifted in. "Lord Raoul wants your report now." Kel looked up, trying not to betray her surprise. Lerant was standing there, looking uninterested.

"It'll just take a minute," she said, returning his blank tone with a similar one. She re-arranged another sheet of paper slowly, pretending it would take a long time, wanting to at least get her own back for his smirk at breakfast. She wasn't even sure why he was waiting for her to finish. Perhaps Raoul had asked him to go back to his office with Kel.

"Hurry up, will you?" he urged impatiently, scowling at the opposite wall.

"Sorry," Kel said sincerely, pretending she hadn't realised his impatience before. She painstakingly double-checked each page she had moved, reading the sentence at the end of the first page and the one at the start of the next to see if they matched. "I dropped it on the floor and now the pages are out of order."

He suddenly sneered at her. "Flustered over Dom and Tanaia this morning, I bet."

"Hardly," she replied calmly, despite her insides protesting at his suggestion. Lerant really knew how to get on her nerves. "Maybe I would've been a few days ago, but not anymore. He's just a friend."

At first, it looked as though he was about to announce he didn't believe her, but after a moment he scowled and accepted it. Just the fact that he didn't have a reply gave Kel immense satisfaction. "I thought you didn't want me to speak to you, anyway," Kel pointed out.

"I said don't talk to me like we're friends. This isn't exactly friendly banter, is it?"

Kel shrugged. For some reason she was feeling extremely bold, which was probably the only reason why she even thought about saying what she said next. "I just always get the impression you hate talking to me at all."

His gaze shifted to the floor. He hesitated, as if he didn't want to admit what he was about to say, then said begrudgingly, "It's not like that."

Kel looked up, surprised. That was the last thing she had been expecting him to say. She couldn't help it; she smiled to herself. Maybe she was starting to crack the shell of Lerant of Eldorne.

Kel looked down at her report. Although it had been in the correct order for several minutes, she had carried on pretending it wasn't and moved pages into the wrong place only to move them right back. Kel decided she didn't have the heart to carry on, not after what he'd just said. "I'm done," she announced, standing. "Let's go."

Lerant was already out the door. Kel lengthened her stride to catch up, even though she suspected he had gotten a head start on purpose so they didn't end up walking side by side. But when she levelled with him, he didn't say anything. He didn't even look at her.

"Did Raoul send you to get me?"

"No. Dom and your friend were in Lord Raoul's office, and when I walked in they said I should go check on you because you had to hand in a report but your friend had knocked it over this morning. Raoul didn't protest, though."

Ah. So he had actually known how the report had ended up in the wrong order, despite hinting earlier that she had dropped it because she was thinking about Dom and Tanaia.

"His name is Neal," Kel told him. "I would have thought you'd know. He's Dom's cousin. And he was at Haven…"

Lerant shrugged dismissively. It didn't seem like he wanted to carry on the conversation, so Kel didn't say anything more.

As they approached Raoul's office, voices drifted out the open door. Lerant held his arm out to stop her going in.

"What?" she mouthed at him. He shook his head and lifted a finger to his lips to indicate she shouldn't speak. Kel sighed and concentrated on listening.

"…acting up?"

"Maybe she has a cold," Raoul suggested.

"I think I'd know if she did," said Neal's voice. "No, I think Kel has a case of loneliness."

Kel stared at Lerant, horrified.

Raoul laughed. "Perhaps Alanna didn't teach you as well as I thought. I think your diagnosis is a little off."

Suddenly Dom's voice entered the conversation. "I don't know, sir, all evidence points to the conclusion that she hasn't had a significant romantic relationship in years."

Kel scowled, already plotting numerous ways to punish Dom and Neal; one included several thrashings in 'practice bouts', several meals in their faces and perhaps… all their clothes going missing.

This time Neal's voice was hushed. "And you remember when she was courting Cleon of Kennan? Wasn't she all upbeat and happy? Don't you think we could use a Kel like that? Her being all moody and aloof isn't exactly helpful in this kind of situation."

"I'll admit she has been a bit distant, but I think it's more likely due to a quarrel with our Standardbearer," Raoul said. "It will solve itself in time."

"But, really," Dom interjected, "you owe Kel, sir, wasn't she the one who set you up with Commander Buri in the first place? Wouldn't you like to return the favour?"

Several of Kel's punishment plans became a lot more violent. She couldn't believe Dom was actually suggesting that Raoul try to matchmake for her. Dom, the man who she'd thought herself in love with for so long she had forgotten where it had started; the man who she'd always thought was a hell of a lot more sensible than his cousin. Obviously not.

"I don't know," Raoul said amorously. "It's clear you've been planning this for a while, but do you really think Kel would appreciate this? Seems to me like she's quite happy where she is right now."

"Oh, I don't think so," Neal said. "I am, after all, her closest friend. I think I have the best insight into her mind. Even if her change in attitude is due to that Eldorne person, I still say a man would speed the process of making up with him."

"We'll be carrying out our plans whether you support them or not," Dom said casually. "I'm sure we'll be able to get others involved. It'd just be a bit of fun. Getting Kel into a better place would just be a bonus. And I'm sure it would motivate the rest of the men. Apart from the one we're trying to set her up with, of course, we can't tell him anything."

There was a creak; it seemed Neal was now leaning on Raoul's desk. "And as a father-figure to Kel, wouldn't you love to see her smiling like she did when she had Cleon?"

"That sounds rather a lot like blackmail," Raoul pointed out.

"Yes, that's right. Emotional blackmail normally does the trick."

Kel narrowed her eyes.

"Anyway, sir, we thought we'd just try it out without her knowledge at first. She'd never agree to it to start with, but once she's sneaking off every five minutes for a romantic rendez-vous with her lover I'm sure she'd be really glad we thought of this in the first place. But if she gets a bit… distressed, well, we can stop anytime, it's not like we'd be forcing her or anything."

There was a long silence. Presumably Raoul had managed to convey his agreement during this lull in conversation as the next thing Kel heard chilled her to the bone.

"Well then! Who would you say is the most eligible bachelor here?"

Raoul paused, still sounding a little reluctant. "Dom, I suppose."

"As I'm in on the plan I don't think it would work out that well," Dom said quickly. "We're just friends, Kel and I. No romantic feelings involved. Besides, I'm… already involved with someone. So I'm not exactly a bachelor."

"Oh well," Neal lamented. "I would've found a relationship between you two quite amusing, but I suppose it's not meant to be."

Any relationship you try and make between me and another man is not meant to be, because you're just interfering, Kel thought angrily. She would've quite liked to storm in and stop them in their tracks, but they'd probably go ahead with their plans anyway. At least this way she'd have an idea of who they were trying to set her up with so she could manage to avoid them.

"Who's next, then? Remember, we're taking into account looks, whether they seem to like Kel, whether Kel seems to like them… it can't just be some random stranger."

Raoul thought it over for a moment. "Lerant, I suppose, but as he's not particularly fond of Kel…"

"Well, as I say, I always like a challenge, but I think that one might be just a bit too challenging. Apparently Lerant isn't very experienced in the love department, so it wouldn't work out as well."

"Actually, just the other day I saw a woman go into his rooms, so he can't be that inexperienced. Must have been a village girl. I guess he's had to lower his standards a bit. But I swear it looked just like Kel." That was Dom's voice.

"Well, it couldn't have been her, from what I've been told about their arguments. If Kel tried to get into his rooms he'd probably gut her on the spot." There was a short pause, as if everyone was picturing Lerant emerge from behind his door, brandishing a large and potentially fatal knife. Neal broke the silence. "Okay then, let's move on. Better be quick, or they'll be back soon."

"By the way, Neal, what a stroke of genius sending Lerant to get her. They're probably at each other's throats right now, buys us some more time."

Kel scowled. So that was why they had sent Lerant.

"Wolset is eligible," Dom pointed out. "He's got experience and the ladies find him reasonably attractive. He and Kel aren't the best of friends but they talk sometimes."

"Even better," Neal said. "I think we may have found the perfect candidate."

Dom's voice was lowered. "Wolset, then? Are we agreed?"

Neal immediately confirmed, but Raoul was a bit slower. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he said reluctantly. "If it goes wrong then it'll just be another conflict Kel will have to deal with. And if she finds out she'll probably try and kill you."

Dom and Neal laughed. "Oh, we're aware of that," Neal chuckled, "but we're willing to sacrifice our lives if it means Kel will have a chance at happiness."

Kel rolled her eyes.

"So then, we'll initiate our first plan early tomorrow morning. Don't worry, my Lord, we'll only be asking for your help once in a while. Kel will never know you're involved."

"Now we'd better talk of other things," Dom suggested. "Kel and Lerant will be here any moment."

Kel looked across at the standardbearer beside her. He had remained silent and motionless the entire way through the conversation, even when they'd mentioned he hadn't much experience. Personally Kel was bristling with contempt. When Dom and Neal switched their conversation to the number of deaths due to immortal attacks in the nearby villages, it was clear they would learn no more.

Lerant signalled that they should creep a little way up the corridor and then walk down loudly so the men inside would think Kel and Lerant had only just arrived. Lerant pulled on a stony face, to make it look like he was irritated at having to get Kel, and Kel feigned a neutral expression that suggested she was ignoring Lerant to the best of her ability. Lerant led the way in.

"Ah, Kel!" Raoul said, his voice slightly strained. The friendly smile on his face was a little too wide to be genuine. "Have you got that report?"

"I do," Kel confirmed, handing it over. She turned to look at Neal speculatively, who at first looked alarmed, then also offered up a smile as wide as Raoul's. "Hello, Neal. Getting your orders, are you?"

"Yup," he said quickly. His gaze was over Kel's shoulder at Dom. Kel glanced behind her and then turned to greet Neal's cousin, too.

"I was just showing Neal the way to Lord Raoul's office, and thought I'd stay to hear Neal's orders," Dom said hurriedly, as if his presence required an explanation. If they keep this up I'll have trouble pretending not to have found out about their plans, Kel thought to herself. They're being so obvious.

"Well, I have duties to attend to, so I'll be going," Kel said.

Lerant muttered a similar excuse and left after her.

Once they were out of earshot Kel let her blank Yamani mask crumble away and found herself clenching her fists in anger. "I can't believe they even think they could get away with that," she said, more to herself than to Lerant. As their rooms were beside each other they were walking in the same direction. "What a bunch of idiots. And Wolset? He's well enough, but nothing they do is going to force me to develop feelings for him, it's just stupid."

"Don't tell them you know," Lerant advised. Kel didn't question him suddenly speaking to her.

"I'm not planning to. I'll get much more satisfaction from my revenge if they think I don't know what they're doing." She paused, speculating. "I wonder if I should tell Wolset. It'll be easier if I have an accomplice, and he'll be—"

"Don't."

Kel looked at Lerant questioningly.

"It'll be too obvious. They aren't completely stupid. They'll probably be watching all the set ups and Wolset isn't a very good actor so they'll know straight away that something's going on."

"But I could never--"

Lerant turned on her, suddenly irritated. "Then just ask me to help out, jeez! They were saying stuff about me too. Mainly because I hid you in my rooms that one time Dom came looking, you realise."

Oh yeah. 'Apparently Lerant isn't very experienced in the love department' and 'I guess he's had to lower his standards a bit' were probably the comments he was talking about. Kel wouldn't have thought Dom would say something like that, him being friends with Lerant, so it was no wonder Lerant was bitter and wanted a bit of revenge.

Kel looked at him unsurely. "But… like they said, we're practically at one another's throats—"

"I already told you, it's not like that." He stalked off, apparently having had enough.

Kel rubbed the back of her head, amused.

Somehow, seeing Lerant contradict his earlier attitude was kind of touching.

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Well, that was a long'un! I was going to split it into two separate chapters, but I didn't have the heart. I felt like nothing much interesting happened in the first half so tearing off the last half would leave it a bit boring. In my personal experience this was quite a speedy update for the length of the chapter so... be glad :) anyway usual thanks for reviews and alerts and favourites and such. Please continue reading and offering your feedback, I'm sorry about putting in matchmaking (it's quite clichéd in the horrific KelDom pairing), a little credit goes to ClaireytheFairy who is writing a fanfiction where Wolset and Kel pretend to be lovers (to make Dom jealous, bleh) which gave me the idea of using Wolset. Please review and tell me what you think, any suggestions you have will also be appreciated :) see you next chapter.