Chapter Thirty Four
'My first week in the palace couldn't have been more…hectic? Whirlwind? Unpredictable? Restless?
I'm going to go with frenzied. It may not be the right word, but it is very fun to write.
Anyway, my first official week at the palace.
The king and queen barely spoke to me after my first night here and Ferris has returned to his default attitude: the bare minimum of politeness. I can only thank God above that I wasn't engaged to him.
Caitlyn is as friendly as her brother's letters made her sound. Every spare moment I have is filled by her and make no mistake, she is a little chatterbox. She's always telling me some story or about her day, what she wishes to do once she's old enough. I thought I had big dreams, but they are nothing compared to hers. Believe it or not, this little princess wants to be a pirate.
I'm sure that this was made in jest as Caitlyn has already shown that she loves to pull people's legs, but still, I wonder…
My lessons continue at an astounding speed. I didn't realize that there was so much about my own country I didn't know. Apparently we'd had an alliance with Celtica a few decades ago?
The part that surprised me the most though, was my conversations with Halt.
He'd asked to spend some time with me and we ended up just walking through the castle, talking. He says I seem different from before. Almost older, and yet, sadder. I don't think he was criticizing me, but they say grief changes people. Could that simply be what he meant?
I spent most of that afternoon with Halt, but he still feels like a stranger to me. He spent the entire time asking questions or listening to me ramble on. I almost feel bad for his ears. I wish that there was some way to get to know him better. I don't want to be married to someone that I don't really know. Maybe just time will help?
We are due to be married on my 17th birthday, one year and seven months from now. Perhaps we'll learn to get along by then.'
'One month into palace life and not only do I hate it, but it hates me. The lessons, once my safe haven, are now tortuous. My brain cannot possibly hold anymore information.
I had to get a break today, it just felt so stifling. I snuck out instead of going to my dancing lesson, taking a horse from the stables and galloping as hard as I could. Those few hours of freedom were the most amazing thing in the world. I finally felt like I could breathe again, like I was myself for the first time in months.
Until I got back that is.
Apparently when the future queen disappears for a few hours to have some time to herself, but doesn't tell anyone, it can cause a bit of a panic. The king and queen scolded me like a child right there in front of everyone as soon as I got back.
Then Ferris, loathsome man that he is, began laughing at 'my own stupidity.'
To be fair, the king looked like he was about to reprimand his son for his behavior…I just got there first.
Although, seeing Ferris fall backwards, head first, into the moat after I punched him is truly going to become one of my most treasured memories.
The subsequent tanning on my backside and two week house arrest I've been placed on seem well worth the price.
The most surprising part though? Halt. He burst out laughing at what I had done and, dare I say it, looked impressed.
It's the first real expression I've ever seen him have. It's weird.
Even weirder? I like it.'
'Halt has visited me every day of my house arrest for lunch. I've actually begun to look forward to his visits. We've begun talking, actually talking. Apparently punching his brother was the perfect ice breaker.
He's sarcastic and funny, which is another thing I didn't expect. The quiet man I met a few months ago keeps surprising me. He's still quiet and seems to hate being the center of attention. I seem to learn something new every day. He invited me out for a ride once my house arrest ends. Hopefully being escorted by my fiance will stop people from thinking I ran off again.
My mother is pleased that we are spending so much time together, but I think she only cares for the throne. There is still a year and a half before he and I get married.
His visits bring some excitement to my days at least. Most of the time he just sits there while I ramble on and on, occasionally interjecting with the most sarcastically hilarious comments I've ever heard.
He has also been helping me with my studies. His Gallican is absolutely amazing! I have appreciated his help on my political studies the most. I had no clue that the different kings in Hibernia hated each other so much, and over such petty things! Trade agreements should not be this controversial.
I at least have some hope now that we will be able to become friends, even if we never end up falling in love.'
"I put the extra bandages over here. These herbs make a tea that helps relieve pain, but these ones help you fall asleep. This ointment is for disinfecting only, this one over here is for sore muscles." Nellie repeated for the third time, still rifling through the small bag that she was insisting he take with him.
Well, he'd agreed to a small bag. The one she packed was not small in the slightest. It looked about ready to burst.
Selethen sighed, strapping his sword to the side of his saddle and taking the bag away from her.
"Habibi, I told you. I'll be fine and Maajid has packed more than enough supplies for everyone on this trip."
"But what if something happens and you get separated from him? What if there are other patients with more concerning injuries? You'll need this!" she protested.
"If there are more pressing injuries for him to take care of, then I'd rather he focus on them anyway."
"And I'd rather be going with you, yet here we are." She said stubbornly, "If I can't come with you, the least I can do is make sure you have what you need in case you get hurt."
"You've given me enough to take care of half my soldiers." he pointed out dryly, raising an eyebrow at her.
"That is nowhere near true." Nel said, grabbing the bag again. However, she seemed to realize at least part of his point as she stopped going through it and simply began affixing it to his saddle.
Selethen rolled his eyes and glanced around. The rest of the soldiers were finishing up their packing as well, saying goodbyes to their family members before heading out. Selethen was honestly surprised that Nellie was here doing the same. They had to leave so early that the sun hadn't even risen yet and he thought that she'd be tucked in bed at this hour, happily dreaming away. Yet she'd insisted on waking up with him and having breakfast together before seeing him off.
Selethen turned back to his wife, "Are you going to do this every time I have to leave somewhere?"
"Only when you don't take me with you."
"So, yes?"
Nel smiled up at him, "Yes."
He snorted, "Did you do this with your family as well?"
Nel blushed at that, "Dad…started sneaking out of the house when he had to leave for a mission."
Selethen burst out laughing.
That just made Nellie blush harder, "It's not funny! Him and Gilan were horrible at packing! They needed help! Will at least listened, but those two were hopeless!"
"What, did you sneak bags of medicine into their packs the night before?"
Nel didn't respond, turning back to his saddle and double checking the straps.
"You did, didn't you?"
"They needed it!" she insisted, face still red.
Selethen just laughed harder.
"I mean it, they did! Dad's idea of medical treatment is using his cloak as a bandage! He has absolutely no care for-"
Nel stopped talking abruptly, gazing wide eyed at something.
"What?" Selethen prompted her, smirking, "No care for what?"
"You have a ribbon on your sword." she whispered, obviously taken off guard.
Selethen nodded, glancing at it. He'd twisted it up and down the hilt pretty tightly. Only someone paying close attention to his sword could tell it was there. "Yes I do."
"You have a ribbon tied around the hilt of your sword." she repeated, staring up at him now, "That doesn't seem at all like you."
He shrugged, avoiding her gaze uncomfortably, "It's not. The ribbon…it's relatively new."
"Relatively new?"
He nodded again.
"Alright, why do you have a ribbon on your sword? I thought swords and weapons were supposed to be practical, not…decorated."
"They are…but I like this ribbon. I wanted to keep it." he answered.
"You wanted to keep it?" Nel looked even more confused.
"I think I'm always going to want to keep that ribbon."
"Why?"
"You don't recognize it?"
She shook her head and he took a deep breath, watching for her reaction carefully. "It's our ribbon. From our wedding."
Nel gasped softly, "Th-the one that-"
"Tied us together."
"You kept it?" she whispered, reaching out to run a finger over the ribbon gently.
"Of course I did. It's ours."
She blinked rapidly at him and for a second he thought that she was about to cry, that he'd upset her again.
Then Nel grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him down so she could kiss him fiercely.
Aloom yelled at them, teasing them.
Selethen just ignored him and kissed her back.
Nellie woke up to a quiet morning, immediately stretching her arm out across the bed before she even realized what she was doing. A frown touched her face when her hand met nothing but an empty bed. It had been two, almost three weeks since Selethen had left with Umar to track down the Tualaghi and it still seems weird to wake up in their bedroom without him.
She lay there for a few minutes longer, enjoying the haze of sleep that still clung to her and the memories that came with it, before deciding it was time to get out of bed. As it turned out, breakfast had already been brought up while she slept, her stomach growling in appreciation, but she wasn't surprised. Seeing anyone else in the khadif had become a rarity since Selethen had left. She knew they were there, but they went out of the way to avoid her. She was still the Araluen and without the Wakir around, there was no reason to pretend to trust her.
She was ok with it though. She preferred to not be waited on hand and foot. Nel had been raised by a Ranger in a forest, she wasn't afraid of being alone or taking care of herself. Most days she actually preferred it. If she got truly lonely, she went to see Maajid or Zahra, the latter having become an unexpected friend in the last few weeks. After the first dinner with the girls, she and Zahra had started spending more time together and Nel felt more welcomed and at home than she had in weeks.
Even better, she had been working hard on her encyclopedia, having started the 'p's. She knew that Malcolm would say she was burying herself in her work, but Nel didn't care. It was something she enjoyed and, mostly thanks to the medical texts borrowed from Maajid, she'd made a lot of progress. Cross referencing the Arridi books with her own took a lot of time, but she accepted the challenge eagerly. She'd done her best to keep up her language lessons with Selethen gone, Maajid and Zahra helping her. Every day she got better at it, able to hold full conversations now without too much issue.
It was actually one of those books that Nel grabbed now to read over breakfast. The current one was about anatomy and physiology, what happened inside the human body itself. Araluen had few books on the subject as most of their studies were on the usage of herbs, medicines, and their creation.
She was so caught up with the book and taking notes that she didn't even notice the knocking on the door until someone's muffled voice broke through her thoughts.
"Nel? Nellie?!"
"It's us! Open up!"
The doctor glanced up from her book in confusion.
"Please?!"
The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it right away. She made her way to the door, opening it to see a resigned and embarrassed Zahra with her excited daughters, Mesi practically jumping in place.
"Well this is a surprise." Nel said by way of greeting.
"Yep!" Mesi yelled, launching herself towards Nellie and wrapping her arms around her waist. Nel just laughed and hugged her back. She'd seen them a couple times since their dinner and gotten used to the three year old's enthusiasm by now, but her smile was always contagious.
"What's going on?"
"I got asked to come into work today, there are some orders that got backed up." Zahra sighed, "My neighbor that normally watches the girls is sick, so I was hoping-"
"Say no more." Nel smiled, knowing exactly where she was going, "I'm more than happy to look after them."
Zahra's shoulders sagged in relief, "Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it."
"It's no problem, really." Nel assured her.
Zahra knelt down to give them a quick hug goodbye, shouting another 'thank you' over her shoulder before running off to work.
"Mama seems busy." Samura said quietly, watching her mom run down the stairs.
"Mamas often are."
"Can we play with your hair again?" Mesi looked up at her with pleading eyes.
Nel grimaced to herself at the thought of her hair getting that tangled up, "...Maybe later. How about we play a game instead?"
"Mama likes it when we work on our studies when she's gone." Samura told her.
"I'm sure she does, but I don't know what you're studying."
"I'm learning my numbers!" Mesi declared proudly, holding up her fingers. "See, one, two, three, four-"
Nel laughed, "Ok, good job, you can stop counting. You know, I use a lot of numbers when I measure out my herbs. How about you help me with that?"
Mesi's eyes grew wide, "I get to help make medicine?!"
"I would love the help."
"Samura, I get to make medicine! I'm a doctor now!" Mesi bolted for Nel's office and she couldn't help but snort, following her in and watching her try to put on Nel's gloves. "Wait for me before you start."
Turning to Samura, Nel asked, "What about you? What are you learning?"
"Mama's teaching me to read."
"Hmm, I just learned to read Arridan myself, but I guess I can try to help with that." Nel hummed, moving to browse her shelves with Samura right behind her. After a few moments she found what she was looking for, grabbing it with a satisfied smile. It was a simple children's book that Selethen had given her to practice her own reading. Simple, but effective, and now it was perfect for Samura.
"What do you say you read to us while Mesi and I measure out my herbs? Then we can play after lunch."
With their wide smiles, Nellie felt like they really liked that idea.
Nellie groaned, crawling out from under the bed and silently cursing the tiny monster children she'd agreed to watch. They had lured her in with their sweet angel faces and now she was paying the price.
Hide and seek? Yeah, right. Those two were Rangers, hiding so they were invisible. How was she supposed to tell Zahra she lost her children?!
She knew they were somewhere in her home, but so far she'd come up empty handed. They weren't in her bedroom, office, or the dining room. Nel sincerely hoped that they were in the living room, mainly because that was the last room she'd spent any amount of time in. The entire second floor of the khadif was their home, but there were so many extra bedrooms and storage rooms that Nel couldn't keep them all straight. Having the entire second floor of a building that took up the entire side of the main square in town meant a lot of extra space. And, as she quickly searched behind the furniture in the living room, that meant two girls had plenty of places to hide.
Nel groaned again, taking a look at the long hallway before moving to the first door.
The room was completely empty, as was the second. Crossing her fingers, Nel opened the third to a room full of boxes, a few of them looked big enough for the girls to hide in, so she went in gently and started opening them. Most of them held clothes, which Nel made sure to look through just in case the kids were underneath them. A lot of the things were covered in dust, floating through the air as Nel rifled through everything. She couldn't help it, sneezing as she opened another box.
A giggle came from the other end of the room, followed by a "Shhhh!"
Nel smirked, 'Gotcha!'
Making her way over as quietly as she could, Nel peeked around a tall stack of boxes, finding both girls sitting on the floor with wide smiles.
"Found you!"
"I told you not to giggle!" Samura said to Mesi who just started laughing again.
Nel rolled her eyes, "Come on, back to the living room."
"What is all this stuff?" Mesi asked, climbing over a box to get out of their hiding spot.
"Things that the old Wakirs owned. When Selethen took over, all of their stuff was just put in storage." Nel explained. She had no clue if it was true, but considering the previous Wakir had died and Selethen was appointed, it seemed like a safe assumption.
"The old Wakir had a picture of the new Wakir?" Samura asked, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Over there," Mesi pointed to the far corner of the room, "We found it when we were hiding."
Gingerly, Nel picked her way over to where she was pointing. There, behind a tall stack of boxes, was the portrait.
There were three people in the painting, a man, woman, and child. Nel could see the girls' confusion right off the bat, the man in the painting was nearly identical to Selethen. The same determined look in his eyes, matching facial expressions, even the way he held himself. Nellie had seen her husband with that exact posturing more times than she could count. The main differences were that this man had wider shoulders, hair that was starting to gray, and somehow looked even taller than Selethen. There was also the fact that his nose was incredibly normal sized, as opposed to the woman's. Her nose seemed to take up half her face, but she stood proudly, looking incredibly self assured. There was something else about her too and it took a long moment for Nel to figure out what.
Her smile. Selethen had gotten his mother's smile. It wasn't obvious, especially at first, but it was there.
Nel almost started laughing when she finally looked at him. He couldn't have been more than five years old, a wide smile stretched across his face and a nose that was far, far too big for him. His mother's hands were folded over his chest, holding him close, and his father had looped an arm around her waist. Looking at the portrait, she couldn't imagine a more perfect family.
"Who is she?" Mesi asked, having followed Nel over.
"Selethen's mother. It's a family portrait."
"I wish we had one of those." Samura whispered, "Then we could still see daddy."
Nel sighed, kneeling down and putting an arm around them both, "I know it's hard when someone you love dies. I still miss my mom everyday, but they wouldn't want us to just sit around and miss them. They'd want us to be happy and spend lots of time with the other people we love."
"Like Mama?" Mesi asked.
Nel smiled, "Like Mama. Or your Uncle Aloom. Or any of your friends."
"Who do you spend time with?"
"My family and friends."
"Like who?" Mesi prompted, "Do you still have a daddy?"
"Yes I do." Nel smiled, thinking of her family, "And an uncle and two brothers. I love spending time with all of them."
"What about the Wakir?" Samura asked, "Do you like spending time with him?"
"Of course I do, he's my husband."
"Mama says that we have to have husbands someday, but she won't tell us who or why!" Mesi grumbled, crossing her arms.
"She does?" Nel asked nervously.
Samura nodded, "Mama said that she can't wait till we get married, cause then we get to drive our husband crazy instead!"
Glancing at Mesi, the young girl nodded in agreement with her sister, "I think it's some sort of secret game. Mama won't say what else husbands do, just that we get to drive them crazy. That has to be a game, right?"
"You know, this is really something your mom should be telling you." Nel said uncomfortably.
"You have a husband. Can you tell us, please?" Mesi asked, looking up with her big brown eyes, practically begging. "We'll keep it a secret and won't tell Mama, I promise!"
Nel groaned to herself, unsure how a simple game of hide and seek had turned into this.
"Ok," she sighed, knowing that she was going to regret this, "The best way to explain it, is that a husband is the man that you marry and is someone that loves you very much and then the two of you spend your life together, taking care of each other. A husband is a member of your family, usually the one you are closest to."
"Like Uncle 'Loom?"
"Uncle Aloom is gonna be our husband?!" Samura yelled.
"No! No, no, no!" Nel said quickly, "Not your Uncle Aloom! I promise, he will not be your husband!"
"Then who will be?"
"I don't know, you probably haven't met him yet." she groaned again, "Look, neither of you will be getting married for a very long time, so you don't have to worry about it right now. However, how you feel about your husband is much different than how you feel about the rest of your family. He's the one you fall in love with, who you share everything with, and, if you're really lucky, he'll be your best friend. That's what a husband is."
"Then why did Mama not tell us that?" Mesi asked.
"Well, that's something you'd have to ask her about, ok?"
The girls were quiet for a long moment before nodding.
"Good."
"Nellie?" Samura asked, a mischievous looking smile on her face as she stood in front of the kneeling woman, "Do you like having a husband?" she repeated.
Nel furrowed her eyebrows, thinking about it, about her life in Arrida with Selethen, "Surprisingly, yes I do. I didn't think I would, but I do."
"What do you mean?"
"We didn't know each other very well when we met, so I was very nervous, but we're friends now. It just took some time." Nel looked at her, confused, "Why do you ask?"
"Are you in love with him?"
"W-W-What?!" Nel sputtered, Mesi laughing at her expression. Nel swore if a child could smirk, Samura was.
"You just said that you and your husband were supposed to love each other, so do you?"
"Th-That is none of your business!"
"Mama says when someone doesn't answer, that means it's true."
This child was much smarter than Nel gave her credit for.
"We can just ask him then!" Mesi said, dashing around Nel to the door, "Hey, do you love Nellie?!"
Nel spun around in shock, seeing Selethen standing at the door, laughing as he watched them. The smile fell off his face though as Mesi turned the question on him.
"Mesi, she was about to answer!" Samura complained.
"Did you know he was there this whole time?!" Nel turned to her.
Samura laughed, running after her sister.
"Hey, you didn't answer, do you love her?" Mesi asked again, tugging on Selethen's sleeve to get his attention.
He knelt down to Mesi's level, silent for a long moment before turning to Nellie, "I-"
Professor: Hi everyone! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I just wanted to let you all know that is doing something really weird with the email updates, so if you want updates on the story, you have to make sure that your email notifications are turned on. Even if the setting says they are turned on, you have to resave the setting. It is automatically turning off after a couple of months, no matter what it says on your account, and then doesn't send out the email notifications!
Random Arasel Tidbit:
If they lived in our time period/our world, Nel's guilty pleasure would be romance novels. She loves them, but hides them. Gilan found one once and it remains to this day as the only time Nellie has ever blackmailed anyone into silence. Then Selethen found out and let's just say, she's been blushing ever since.
Selethen's guilty pleasure is rom-com movies. His current favorite is '50 First Dates' and he hates 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' with a burning passion. He also has a Hallmark Movie Subscription that only Aloom and Nellie know about.