Glacia
[1]
Not many people intimidated Karla.
She was a Queen, a Black Widow, and a Healer. As a triple gifted Blood female, she was well-respected and fear for the power she possessed. Those who treasured their existence made sure to tread softly around her. Ilona, one of the women from her First Circle, did not take part of that.
The Blood female was a well-respected Healer. She had joined Court since the beginning Karla took over as Queen. Ten years her senior, Ilona was the Court's chief Healer. She was a very tall woman and very strong. She sincerely thought that Ilona could be a distant relation of Mrs. Beale. The only difference being that Ilona carried the fair coloring of a Glacian and blue, gimlet eyes.
Karla knew she had made a correct choice when appointing her chief Healer. The Blood female was very serious and always capable of taking care of anyone. She rarely even needed Karla's help when she was doing a healing. Even Jaenelle -the best Healer in the entire realm and the Blood could ever produce, approved of the woman. Her friend, sister, and Queen- still agreed that Ilona was a little intimidating. Even Lucivar, a man feared for his warrior skills and the power he wielded, considered Ilona to be intimidating.
Rarely, did Ilona ever visit her to discuss court related matters. Whenever the witch came into her private study, Karla knew she was in some sort of trouble. Purple Dusk was no match for the Gray, but when those eyes settled on her, Karla felt like she wanted to squirm in her seat.
That morning after practice, Karla gulped when she caught the distinct psychic scent of Ilona approaching her study. Knowing there was nowhere she could run off to, Karla mentally prepared for their conversation. It did not help that Ilona looked rather frazzle that particular morning.
"Kiss, kiss, Ilona. To what do I owe the pleasure?" She said, giving the witch her most cheery smile. The Blood female only grunted in reply; not a good sign at all. Karla kept the cheery smile, while her brain worked rapidly to remember anything that she might have forgotten or done to displease the witch. Nothing came to mind.
Once Ilona was in front of her desk, looking down and directly at her, Karla tried to stay unfazed. Ilona crossed her arms in front of her; Karla felt her right eye twitch. That was not a good sign at all.
"Lady, do you trust my advice?" Ilona asked, her question taking Karla by surprise.
"Of course, I do. Why do you ask that, Ilona?" She replied, a bit uneasy. She wondered what had brought that question up. Ilona's tone was too sweet for her taste. Something definitely was amiss.
"That is good to know. As part of your First Circle, it is my duty to offer you some advice and to serve. This is why I advise you to not give Lady Anastasia anymore lessons," Ilona answered, before continuing on, not giving her any time to respond.
"My Queen, I understand that you require this from the court, but I can no longer keep up with the madness that has become my mornings. I fear for the safety of the men, rather than the safety of Lady Anastasia. Just this morning I tended to four guards, none were badly hurt, just bruises and minor cuts. All inflicted by the Lady who seemed to have sparred with them."
Karla wanted to groan. She knew that accidents tended to happen during training sessions, but since Anastasia had joined in, the accidents were becoming more frequent. She never thought they were that frequent, but of course the males would never say anything about them. They did not want to upset or worried the Lady.
"This has not been the first time, nor is it going to be the last if you let her keep taking part of the morning sessions. I might not be a trained warrior, but even I can see that the Lady is not fit for such activities. Even you, must agree that in the short time she has practiced, there has been no progress with her," Ilona continued, making Karla wince.
That was a valid point. Hagen was an amazing warrior, but even his teaching had not help Anastasia with the knife, or the Eyrien Stick. The only thing she had become better at was archery; at least during those lessons she had begun to make the arrow fly closer to the target.
"I do not even think that Prince Yaslana could make that poor girl into a warrior. In healing she does a fine job. Thank the Darkness. Nevertheless, that is my advice, Lady Karla. I understand that there are other means that push you to make the girl train, but I do hope those means do not get in the way of my advice. After all, I do not think you will have the time in your schedule to take over as main healer during the mornings," Ilona finished, an arch blonde eyebrow up.
She gulped, catching the silent threat hidden in Ilona's words. Karla hated waking up early in the mornings. If Ilona were to give up the post of main healer during that time, she would have to take it. She would do anything to prevent that from happening.
Her lips opened, but nothing came out. She cleared her throat and gave the witch a curt nod.
"Very well. I shall take your advice into consideration, Lady Ilona. Is there anything else for us to discuss?" She was too tired to keep up the cheery act with the female.
"No, my Lady. Good day," Ilona offered her a small smile, before turning around and leaving the room. Once the door close, she mumbled an Eyrien curse. She knew she had no choice than to do what Ilona asked; after all she did not want to have a second visit from the witch. Those visits were far worse than the first ones.
[2]
Happiness should have flooded Anastasia the moment she learned that she no longer needed to attend the morning training sessions. Instead, a feeling of sadness settled inside of her. Three weeks had passed since she had started training with the males of the Court and the Queen.
Her body was still painfully getting used to them, but day-by-day she seemed to get better. She was still having problems with the knife and the Eyrien stick, but she blamed it on being a new apprentice. Somehow the training sessions had become very important to her. Through them she had begun to learn new things about self-defense; things that not necessarily needed the aid of Craft. Her father had seemed a bit appalled at first. The idea of his sole daughter learning how to fight with dangerous weapons had made him extremely worried.
In various letters from him, she was reminded on how unsafe that was. That he had sent her to Court to be a lady-in-waiting, not a guard. He even threatened to go and get her, but after some reassurance from her part on how safe the training was, her father decided to let his worry go. Their Queen was a fighter, trained by Lucivar Yaslana himself. He had even commented in recent letters that he was pleased to know she was learning on how to defend herself from any threat. That had made her extremely happy.
That sentiment did not last long. After Prince Armin, the Steward of the Court- informed her the Queen's decision; Anastasia decided that she needed to walk. Knowing that the Queen was going to be busy for the rest of the afternoon and would not have any need of her, she decided to go back to her rooms to get her coat.
Most of Kaeleer was in mid spring, but Glacia had no signs of that. The territory was always cold, some days the weather was refreshing and others, the weather was very biting. That particular day belonged in the former category. She loved days like that, were the wind was cool and small snowflakes fell from the skies.
When she got to her private rooms, she heard two of the servants engage in conversation. Their words were murmurs, but when she pressed herself against the door just a bit, she got to overhear their conversation.
For her eavesdropping was a terrible thing. In Aristo society it was frowned upon for its unladylike behavior. It was a lesson she had taught Della the very day she had found the witchling crying. Of course, she would have tried to ignore it, if she had not heard her name come out in that idle talk.
"Well, supposedly Lady Ilona was the one to request that it stopped," One of the voices commented.
"No!" The other exclaimed.
"Mm. I tell ya that I could not agree more with her. The Queen is a marvelous fighter, but the lady is a tad bad." Anastasia bit her lip. She knew which lady they were referring to.
"A tad? My man says she is terrible," That comment and the soft laughter that followed it, made Anastasia bite her lower lip harder. Tears formed in her eyes and she blinked them away. She took a step back, looking at the door, before turning and hurrying down the hall to get away from there.
Her vision became blurry with unshed tears, as she walked at a brisk pace toward the entrance. She felt humiliated and because of that, anger began to boil inside of her. Her pale blue, silk skirts swish fast as she moved. Her eyes seemed to turn into a darker green that almost seemed predatory like. Her cheeks were flushed pink.
For once, she felt like she wanted to fight somebody or shoot something.
[3]
"How long has she been doing that?" Karla stared, her question directed at Hagen, while her gaze was intent on the curvy form of her lady-in-waiting. On the cold, snow ground many arrows lay near the target. Only three arrows seemed to have hit the outer rings, but none were close to the target point.
"For a while now," Hagen replied, not bothering to look at her. All of the Court watched in wonder as the lady Aristo once more prepared herself to shoot. All work inside the Court and outside had stop. Everyone seemed to be in wonder. Karla did not blame them, after all it was not normal to see the well dress, well manner Glacian lady Aristo pick up a bow- let alone use one without Hagen present.
Anastasia had been training for sometime. The Court had gotten used to that. The one thing that kept the whole Court in wonder was the three-now four times that she had hit the target. Never had the lady Aristo been so lucky to hit it or even get an arrow so close to it before.
"Have you sent someone to bring her inside?" A brush from one of her psychic tendrils let Karla know that something was wrong with the witch. Anger and hurt were the emotions she picked up. That was not good.
She turned to watch Hagen nod in affirmation to her question, his eyes still on Anastasia.
"Yes. I even went myself and she told me that she was not done yet. She snarled at me," Hagen looked concern. That was not normal Anastasia behavior. Her lady-in-waiting was sweet-tempered and polite. Seeing that the glass doors that let to the practice grounds were already frosted due to the change of temperature, Karla decided to step in. She did not want to be responsible for the death of the lady. Aristos turned very touchy when one of their own died by negligence.
"Hell's fire! I'm going to get her! One simple witch and none of the males dare to get her to come inside," She declared, too exasperated. Opening one of the doors, she went outside, Hagen behind her. She approached Anastasia very slowly; the psychic scent of hurt and anger becoming stronger as she got closer.
The Blood were dangerous went mad, especially the dark jeweled Blood. That was one of the many reasons why she put around her a Gray shield. She doubted that Anastasia would hurt her, but it was reflex. When she finally reached the lady, she waited for her to shoot. The arrow pierced the third ring in the target.
"Good shot," Karla commented, breaking the silence.
"Not good enough," Anastasia responded, not bothering to look at her.
"True…Still good for an apprentice," That finally got her a glance from the witch. Karla took in the tear-stained cheeks that were flushed by anger or the cold. She took in the glazed eyes that looked like a darker green.
"An apprentice? I'm not even that. Forgive me, my Lady, but I know," Anastasia did not bother to hide the hurt in her tone. Karla closed her eyes, for a moment relief that she did not know of the bet. A sigh escaped her lips as she once more looked at Anastasia.
"I thought eavesdropping was frown upon by the Aristos," Karla said dryly. That made Anastasia turned a more bright pink.
"It is, but sometimes it can be necessary," Anastasia grumped. That made Karla snort.
"Of course it is, especially when it benefits any of you. Since you seemed to know the reason behind my decision for not letting you continue to train, can we please go back inside?" She aimed to make her tone very condescending. That made her lady-in-waiting frown. Her eyes were no longer glazed, but very bright with anger.
"No. I do not know the reason, my Lady, but…" She let out an exasperated breath, before continuing on. "I have developed a liking for the training. I want to learn. I want to proof to you that I am not a weak lady Aristo. That I can keep up with you. That is my duty. If I cannot serve fully in my position then, what is the point of me being here?" Karla was very wise, but for the first time in her life, she did not know what to say.
This is your chance to win, Karla thought to herself. She had the perfect chance to not only get rid of the lady, but to win the bet. It did not feel right at all, not one bit. For once, she was taking great measure on how to respond to someone without hurting any feelings.
"Lady Verruil, I do not think you are weak. You told me that the truth hurt more than a lie, but I believe that right now the truth is very necessary. You are a disaster with the Eyrien stick as well as with the knife. Many of the men won't admit to this, but they have received cuts and bruises when sparring with you. They are afraid that they might hurt your feelings, so they stay quiet. Ilona, the chief Healer, has been over flooded with so many healings since you have started the training," When Anastasia was about to open her mouth to speak, Karla lifted her left hand up to silence her.
"Please, let me finish, Lady. I understand that you did not do it on purpose. Those daft males deserved getting hurt for not shielding correctly. Either way, I decided to stop your participation in the training exercises, because I got the impression you did not like them. I guess that my impression was wrong. I am not good with apologies, but what I am trying to say is that if you want to continue joining me in practice you may. I just think it is best you stay with archery. For the men's sake," Karla finished.
Her hand raked through her spiky blonde hair as she looked at Anastasia. She was never good with apologies, but she hope that the lady would understand what she meant. After all, Ilona only advise her on the knife and Eyrien stick.
Karla thanked the Darkness that her lady-in-waiting had not hit anybody with an arrow just yet.
Anastasia took a step forward and then another, before her arms went around Karla to hugged her. That took Karla by surprised. Her free hand went up to pat Anastasia's back. She could not help but notice the enticing lilac scent that the lady wore.
"Thank you, my Lady," Anastasia whispered.
"Yes, yes, can we go back inside now? I am freezing," Karla replied. That instantly got the lady away from her. The lady apologize many times to her, but all she could think about was how amazing it felt to be embrace by her. Her body instantly reacted to the welcoming warmth.
That night, she dreamed of the lady once more.
Hello Fellow Readers!
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoy this chapter!
I need your help on deciding which character from the originals should I first introduce to Anastasia. I have a pretty basic idea on who, but I would like to know your suggestions first!
Please comment and let me know what you think.
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I hope you are safe and sound!
-Kaerih