Chapter 48: Karen and the King

So here's the next chapter. I'm sorry that I keep jumping back and forth between scenes and characters here, but they're all important to the plot. Thanks to new followers, and old ones as well for being patient with the updating. This chapter may have gotten a little long as well, I hope you won't mind that.

You will notice that I have taken some liberties in re-writing something from season 3, and I think you'll see it very quickly. *grinning…* I think I may re-write parts in the future too, so you should stay focused.

Frederic held the wax stick above a candle beside him to warm it up before he led I above a piece of paper he had just read and let it drip carefully underneath the line where he had put his signature. Then, after a pool of purple wax had gathered up, he found the royal seal and pressed it down above it. Removing it, it revealed the mark of the seven-armed sun of Corona in the middle.

"There! The royal seal on it's place." He smiled satisfied and put the seal away on it's place beside him in a box of his own.

"Oh!" he suddenly said, shutting his eyes up wide. "Seal-Seal! Of course, I get it now…"* Then he chuckled embarrassed. "No wonder Eugene didn't take me seriously…" He shook his head. "Goodness, I think I'm getting old…"

The next second, he heard knocking on the door, bringing him back to the present. He cleared his throat to gather himself and straightened up. "Come in!" he called and put his hands in front of him.

Nigel opened the door and walked in. "It took a while before I found her, Sire, but I have her here."

"Excellent! Now, bring her in." Frederic said.

"Come now, lass." Nigel said, and Karen walked in, slowly and insecure. Nigel closed the door behind her, and she suddenly felt extremely worried.

"A chair, Nigel!" the King said, and the advisor walked past her and went to find a small chair from one of the many corners in the room and placed it in front of the King's desk. The girl stood by the door and twisted her fingers nervously and peeked up with worried eyes, waiting for a command.

"Karen."

The King's voice made her almost jump.

"I am so glad you could take time for this. Please take a seat." Frederic said and pointed towards the chair with his hand.

"Oh...?" Karen got extremely confused and just looked at the chair.

Oh, am I in trouble? She thought to herself as she took slow steps towards His Majesty. Approaching the chair, she first did her courtesy and kneeled and bowed her head. "Y-your Majesty…" she said insecure, not knowing what to do next.

"Come now, there's nothing to be afraid of." The King said with an encouraging smile.

Feeling rather concerned, she sat down and grabbed a nervous hold on her skirts and bit her bottom lip.

"Nigel, prepare a note!" The king said.

"Yes, Sire." The advisor said and went back to his own desk to prepare a paper and his feather pen before he sat down.

This made Karen feel even more uncomfortable, she felt she wasn't able to hold it any longer. Without warning, she opened her mouth. "Look; If this is because I went from my chores, it's just that I promised that I would go and get the medicine for Ludwig, and then Aunt Millicent were in such a bad mood, and then Grandmother..."

The King's reaction to her outburst wasn't at all what she expected. Quite the contrary. Instead of getting mad at her, she got rather confused when he started to laugh.

"Now my dear… you…" Frederic cleared his throat and continued. "You don't have to worry about any of that. That is not at all why we have brought you here."

"Oh..." she said, blinking confused. "So… I'm not in trouble?"

"No no no, not at all. Quite the opposite!" The King ensured and held up his hands. "You can relax, my dear. I only have a few questions. You see, we have a little problem, and it seems like you may be able to help us."

Karen had held her breath while the King spoke, but now she let out a breath of relief and let go of her apron and straightened it out. "Oh… Sure, your Majesty. What can I do to help?" she asked as mature as she could, looking up with a smile, suddenly feeling a bit more confident.

"It's about Varian." the King continued straight forward.

"Oh?" she looked up with huge, questioning eyes. "What about him? Did something happen again?"

"No, it hasn't." Frederic tried to sound calm and gentle when he spoke. "But we want to make sure that what happened yesterday won't repeat itself. And therefore we're going to make a sort of… map about his doing, to figure out what he remembers and… don't remember. And that's what we need you for."

Karen blinked confused. "Uhu…?"

The King seemed to understand her confusion and continued. "Now, it has come to my ear that Varian has been here at the Castle once before, without any of us knowing about it. But he mentioned that you had seen him at that particular time. Is that correct?"

Karen suddenly felt a bit more secure and nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. I mean - yes. I have seen Varian here once before."

"Good, good." Frederic said and smiled encouraging. "Do you recall when this was exactly?"

"Uhm… About half a year ago more or less, exactly at the day of the science expo. Or, it wasn't actually at the expo, it was here inside the Castle." She corrected herself.

"Good, that's good." His Majesty replied calmly, smiling to her. "And what exactly was he doing here? I want you to tell whatever you recall of that day! Every little detail is of grave importance to… prevent him from… getting that horrible fit again. I hope you understand that?!"

"Uhm… Okay." Karen puzzled a bit by this but nevertheless drew her breath and begun speaking.

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Varian couldn't recall the last time, besides from the awkward day before, where he had felt more uncomfortable.

Normally, getting down lunch, or a meal at all wouldn't have been that bad. Growing up as a peasant, he was raised to be grateful for his food and had never not finished a meal by his latest years. But this was rather odd.

Not only was it odd to have meals prepared for him, but the Physician and the elder maid were practically observing him while he was eating.

So he tried his best to focus on eating, but he felt dreadfully uncomfortable having both Violet and Phineas watching him doing so. He recalled Violet being determinant the other day, but now she was… Phineas looked just like he wanted to make sure he actually ate it all, while Violet looked like she was practically begging him to eat faster. At the same time, he didn't want to make such a big deal out of it.

"Make sure to chew, lad. I don't want you chocking your food."

"Mumph-uhmuh…" Was all Varian was able to answer when the Phjysician corrected him, and used a half a minute extra on the half slice of bread that he had just pushed inside his mouth, wiping away a dab of the strawberry jam with the back of his hand at the same time using it to cover his full cheeks, and the slight blush on them. He felt like he was five years old and had his father making sure he was eating his vegetables. The thought of his father made him feel uncomfortable and he moved his eyes around the room to distract himself.

He peeked at Ruddiger, who had gone sulking at the foot end of his bed. The critter was insulted, but he noticed his master's frustration and looked at him with odd eyes, and at Phineas and Violet. The animal seemed to be rather aware that it was an odd atmosphere in the room, and that too could be a reason to why he hid from their looks. So the best way was probably to remain out of sight while he kept an eye on his master. And it looked like he had a good reason to be concerned, because he looked indeed like he was troubled.

After what seemed like an eternity, Varian was at last able to swallow the last piece of the third bread slice and finished off the glass of milk before he wiped his mouth again, and suddenly realized that there was a napkin beside the plate for such use, and cursed himself for being so ill-mannered.

"Okay, eh… all done… I guess…" he meant to look at the two grown ups, but found himself flicking his gaze all over instead, still feeling odd.

"Good. Then Violet can get the tray." Phineas said, but looked like he was talking more to her than Varian, as he turned towards her.

Varian didn't know, but it was an order for her to walk up to him and get the tray for then to be allowed to leave again. Varian, who was flicking his eyes, failed to notice the scowl she gave the Physician before she turned towards the beds and walked up to him. Varian almost got startled when he found her right next to him, picking up the tray in the blink of an eye for then to turn around to leave.

"Oh eh-Great meal, by the way!" he hurried to add, and gave Violet a short look and a quick foolish smile before looking away again.

"Hm?" Violet turned to him, rather tense, and eyed him for a moment before she replied rather short. "Good."

But as she was to away from him, she made a rather quick turn, causing the unused napkin to catch the breeze she was creating in her swirl to fall on the floor behind her.

"Eh, Violet! You dropped…" Varian called out behind her.

Violet got rather startled herself and turned around rather quick, barely managing to hide the fear in her eyes. "Oh?"

"Don't worry, I'll get it!" Varian said cheerful and rose from the bed, stepped out and bent down and picked it up before she managed to even react. "Here! Woah..."

But as Varian had rose too quickly, he suddenly became harshly dizzy and fell backwards, crossing his blue eyes. He tried to grab a hold for himself backwards, but in the process he accidentally bumped his elbow rather hard into the table by his bed. The napkin dropped on the floor, and the boy fell on his knees beside it.

"OUTCH!" he cried out, as the sudden pain overwhelmed him, grabbing a hold on his wounded elbow with a rather painful expression on his face. An unexpected sob followed, making him look rather pitiful there at the floor.

Violet noticed and all of a sudden something happened to her. Her inner mother took over the concerned part of her and made her forget a moment who she was dealing with. Suddenly he was back to be the puny little boy she had met yesterday and not the dangerous traitor she had learned he was. She put the tray on the closest bed and was about top rush over to check on him, but Phineas stopped her by grabbing a hold on her arm, suddenly with a deeply concerned look on his face.

Something happened. Both Phineas and Violet saw it.

Ruddiger too had reacted on his master's painful cry and rose up to check if he was alright. But then something made him stop. It was like the whole room changed it's own atmosphere. The critter could feel it. Something was wrong. The critter suddenly took a step back, lowering his ears when he heard Varian's painful grunt suddenly getting a bit more aggressive.

This reminded Ruddiger of a way he had seen his master before, and he wasn't certain that he liked it.

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"I say…" the King mumbled as he listened to Karen's story of how Varian had followed Cassandra all over the Castle doing different duties. Both he and Nigel had been exchanging looks during her tale and even thought Nigel had been busy taking notes, he had sometimes stopped to arch an eyebrow to himself.

"So… He really did all of that?" Frederic asked.

"But the most impressive part was when he used some marbles that sprouted soap all over an entire room, and then made it all vanish! POOF!" she said and used her hands to demonstrate how the effect was. "And then it was all gone!"

"Uhm…?" the King asked, arching an eyebrow. "Oh my!"

"What was gone? The silver?" Nigel dropped, getting curious.

Karen rolled her eyes and gave him small eyes. "No! The soap! He made the soap vanish into thin air, or green fog… I don't know. But it was incredibly clean after that! It was just like magic." Karen couldn't help herself and broke off in a chuckle. "He told me that… that in his village… they called him a wizard. And I kind of understand why. What he did was amazing! Your Majesty should have seen it!"

A little baffled, the King could only cough a little back. "I eh… I believe you, my dear."

Nigel scoffed, but the King gave him a look before turning back to Karen. "And he was with Cassandra all day, you said?"

"Well, not exactly…" Karen continued. "I saw him most of the time alongside Cassandra, but then later on the day I saw him alone, doing the laundry in the guestrooms."

"Alone?" Frederic and Nigel looked at eachother when they both spoke as the same time, and found that they were equally shocked.

"Yes." Karen went on. "He was doing the laundry all by himself. I don't know where Cassandra was at the time... As a matter of fact, I didn't see her the rest of the day… But I wouldn't be surprised if she had just…" she stopped herself at sudden, covering her mouth, at sudden concerned to continue.

But the King was too curious to let her stop. "Had what, child?"

Karen swallowed hard at sudden. "Uhm… I beg Your Majesty, please don't let the Captain know that I've said this. He'll only deny it, and then I'll get trouble!" she was terrified when she spoke and went back to grabbing her apron again.

But the King gave her a calm smile and spoke calmer this time. "I promise you, my dear. We will not let that happen. You can trust me, no one will give you trouble for telling the truth. Right, Nigel?"

"Hm?" Nigel looked at him, and saw his determined look in his ice blue eyes and hurried to nod. "Oh, yes yes eh… My mouth is sealed!"

The King seemed like he meant it, so Karen calmed down and straightened out her apron. "Okay. What I meant to say was… I think Cassandra kind of… left him with all her work."

This was a little more information than both Frederic and Nigel had expected and he took a moment just to swallow it all. He looked at Nigel, who made face expressions revealing that despite his obvious dislike of Varian, he too found this newly discovered fact a little peculiar. "When was this... I mean, do you know what time was?" Frederic asked her.

"Uhm… sometime past noon… I don't know exactly, but it was past our lunchtime at noon. Yes, now I remember. I had just finished lunch with Auntie and Grandma when I was gonna get more bedclothes to the guestrooms. And that's when I saw him."

"I can't believe she let him be alone on his own in the Castle!" Nigel said in disbelief, forgetting his manners for a moment and what they were really taking notes for.

"Eh, Karen… Do you mean to imply that Cassandra put him to do her work?" The king asked.

Karen looked away. "Eh, honestly I heard him… offering himself to do so."

"Oh?" the King said, frowning curiously. "Why would he do that?"

"Well, he said it was because they were friends, but… I think that… Well…" Karen looked away, flicking with her ice blue eyes, looking uncomfortable. "I think he did it because… he had a crush on her." The thought of this fact made her look down, suddenly feeling like she had gotten a stone in her stomach without realizing why.

"A crush?" Both His Majesty and Nigel said in unison again.

"Yeah. I mean… the way he was looking at her…" She rolled her eyes as her tune became more sarcastic and made a short pout with her tongue. "Honestly, he was practically drooling at her.

"And you think he did her chores because of that?" the King said, still having a little trouble believing this.

"Mhm." She replied and shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time!"

"What, first time that what? Has he been here before that?" Nigel suddenly dropped, looking up with a twisted face.

"What?" Karen looked at him, then shaking her head. "No! I mean that it's not the first time Cassandra has made someone else do her work for her." Karen explained. "I remember Pete had such a crush on her many years ago that he would do whatever she asked of him. She even made him hang up the laundry for her once!"

"Pete?" both men said in unison and peeked at eachother again.

"Yeah, you know? Pete the guard?" Karen answered, arching an eyebrow that they wondered at all which Pete she meant. "Pete-and-Stan-Pete?"

"Yes, we know who Pete is!" Nigel replied dryly.

Karen gave him a pout with her eyes.

"A guard who helps out with the laundry?" King Frederic asked out in the air, having awful lot of trouble imagine one of his guards doing housework. That was a picture that didn't fit in his head, and he shook his head to remove it from his mind. "Why would he do that?"

"Like I said, because he was in love with her. And I think Varian was sort of… the same thing…" She suddenly became thoughtful and looked away. "Maybe it's better that he doesn't remember her…"

"Hm?" the King said looking at her.

"Oh, eh… Nothing. But, Your Majesty…" Karen looked back up at the King, hesitating to ask. "Varian isn't gonna get in trouble, is he? Because of all this? Because…" she thought for a moment, then added. "…because even Old Lady Crowley said that the Castle had never been so clean before!"

The King stopped pondering at this new information when she looked at him, and he smiled calmly back. "No, my dear. He won't get in trouble for just… cleaning the Castle. I can't punish him for that!" Frederic found himself suddenly chuckling. "Especially not if he did such a good job with it."

Karen let out a sigh in sudden relief but looked curious at him. "Then,,, why was this to important?"

"Well…" Frederic went on. "It still seems like this particular day somehow had a special effect on his lost memory. And we got instructions from Phineas of being very careful to expose too much of things that can overwhelm his mind. That is why we need to figure out what he had been doing that particular day, and now, thanks to you, we have what we need!"

"Oh, well…" Karen smiled sincerely back. "I'm glad I could help."

He met her eyes and smiled wider. "I am very grateful for this, Karen. We appreciate it more than you can imagine. And if you don't have more to add…"

Karen wanted to use this as an excuse to avoid seeing her aunt, but at the same time she knew it wasn't going to help no matter how long she spent here, so she shrugged and looked up as she rose from the chair. "Ehm, no not really. If Your Majesty don't mind… I kind of have to get back to my chores."

King Frederic smiled and nodded. "Of course. We have kept you long enough. And you can tell your aunt and grandmother that it was me keeping you. She'll have nothing to say on that!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Karen said and kneeled down with a sincere smile when she turned around to leave, not seeing the King or the advicor exchange looks. But as she reached the door, she suddenly recalled something end turned around. "Oh, just one more thing!"

"Hm?" The King and Nigel looked up at her.

"If Your Majesty wanna know more about what Varian was doing that day, then ask Elfrid."

"Elfrid?" Both men said in unison, equally surprised and looked at eachother with the same rather startled, shocked, confused look.

"Yes." Karen replied. "Because she saw him too!"

*Okay, who found it? I guess I made the addition/change rather obvious.