Chapter 33: Her Headpiece

I awoke with a start and immediately sat up to look at my hands. Apart from being bandaged, they appeared to be perfectly normal human hands.

"Thank the mother goddess."

I had just had a terrible dream. Jasmine and I had been arguing. I had gotten angry. The same encompassing fury I had felt the night before had overtook me and I had…

I had…

I flexed my fingers experimentally. I watched my hands carefully. As a tiger, I had retractable claws, but my human fingernails remained short and neatly trimmed as always.

I told myself to calm down. I was human. I had normal human hands. I was alright and Jasmine…

Jasmine!

What time was it? I looked around. The door to the lower study was ajar.

"Princess!" I called out.

"I'm downstairs Ren," her voice responded.

I breathed.

Of course, she was downstairs.

I got up.

Enough of this worrying over dreams, I had a mission tonight: Destroy Jasmine's headpiece.

I made my way down to the lower study. The princess was sitting at the desk reading. She was fine. I felt myself relax fully and I grimaced at my own foolishness.

"Ren?" Jasmine looked up at me. Her eyes were closed, thankfully. I had forgotten to ask her to put on her blindfold or to tell her I was coming down for that matter.

"Good Evening, Princess," I said. "I apologize for not giving you more warning."

"It's very unlike you to forget," she said reaching for her blindfold.

"Again, I apologize. I am a bit…out of sorts tonight."

"Are you?" she asked. There was something in her expression. Before I could interpret it, she said, "Ren, what would you do if I told you that I wanted you to dance with me right now in the study?"

I froze. She wanted to dance. With me? Why?

An image floated into my mind of me teaching Jasmine the steps to a Mujulaai partner dance, Jasmine looking down at me, her eyes sparkling, as I held her up in the air in a lift. I could almost hear her laugh.

But no. I couldn't. I shouldn't. It wouldn't be right. "Princess, I…"

"Or what if I wanted to know how you hurt your hands."

I blinked. What?

My nightmare popped into my head again. The claws. The blood. Her scream. I pushed it away and said, "I'm not sure-"

"What if I told you I wanted to parade around the palace in peasant clothes all week."

I frowned. "Princess, what sort of joke is this?"

She was quiet. Her expression had become oddly intense.

"Princess?" I repeated coming closer to the desk.

"It's Jasmine," she corrected.

"Princess Jasmine then, why are you asking me these things?"

Jasmine got up and silently went over to me.

Like a coward, I took a step back when she got uncomfortably close.

"Ren," she said, "tell me something, anything that you don't like about me."

"Why would-"

"Just tell me," she pressed. Then she finally waited for me to finish a sentence.

"You can be…too impulsive," I finally said disliking the words as they left my mouth. I did not like to criticize her without a cause or reason. "Is that sufficient? Did I pass?" For this had to be some sort of test.

The princess's expression didn't change as she said, "One more question." She stepped closer. She was centimeters away again.

I took a step back.

"Do I look different to you?" she asked.

I looked her over. She was so close. The princess had the same luscious hair, soft-looking skin, full lips begging to be…

"No. Not really. You're still wearing that mosan headpiece. Your blindfold is twisted and your hair is a bit messier than usual, but otherwise you look the same to me."

She nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Jasmine?"

"You pass," she concluded.

"Good. Now can you please explain what that was about?" I asked.

Jasmine's expression softened and I could feel her searching gaze through her blindfold. "My old headpiece didn't have an effect on you, did it?"

Of course! That's what this had been about. "That's correct. Though we established that last night, didn't we?"

Jasmine thankfully took a step back. "Yes, we did, but that was before today happened. Ren, can you tell me why you weren't affected by my headpiece?"

"Probably not."

Jasmine sighed.

"I'm sorry," I would tell her if I could.

"No. It's alright," she said, "Come. Let's sit down." She gestured at the far wall where we had set up some floor cushions a few weeks ago. "I need to talk to you about today."

"Alright," I said. I followed her to the cushions and then we sat down, facing one another.

Jasmine began to describe the day from her perspective and I felt my mouth go dry. She concluded her tale by saying, "It's not that it was a bad day because it wasn't. It was one of the most pleasant days I'd had at court in a long time. Everyone was so nice, but…they were all different. It was…"

"Unnatural?" I suggested.

"And terrifying," she added. The princess was clutching the sides of her floor pillow so tightly that her skin turned pale. "I realized that I know almost nothing about anyone in the palace. I have been living in a nightmare for years without even knowing it."

I was seized with a desire to embrace her and truly comfort her. I settled for placing a hand on top of one of hers and saying with as much compassion as I could muster, "I'm sorry, Jasmine." I couldn't imagine how scary and isolating today had been for her.

It was unforgivable.

I felt some of my earlier anger rise up in me. I clamped down on it. I did not need that right now. Instead, I remembered my mission for the night. I told her, "I've been thinking. I know we agreed to a week of data gathering, but perhaps we ought to destroy your headpiece tonight."

"I already did."

I blinked.

She slipped out of my grip so that she could gesture at the lab table behind her. There was a conspicuous beaker full of green liquid with a bubbling piece of gold at the bottom.

As I studied the beaker, the princess said, "I came here after dinner and looked up destruction methods and when I found one that I thought would work. I just went for it. I know I should have waited for you. I know you would have waited for me but I," Her voice was as brittle as ice. "I needed to destroy it. As soon as possible. I hope you understand."

"I do." And I did. "It was your right, of course, and it needed to be done."

"So, you're not upset with me?"

I was upset, but not with her. It wasn't her fault that I had failed her. It wasn't her fault that I was still failing her. That was my fault and…

"Ren?"

I sighed. "I am not upset with you, Princess. I am just…" What word to use? Angry? Furious? Frustrated? "disappointed that I could not be of more assistance to you." To put it mildly.

Jasmine went very still. Then she covered her mouth with one of her hands. The other gripped the floor cushion tightly as her shoulders began to shake and she started to laugh.

I felt my face flush as I watched her. This had to be the first time in months that I wasn't happy to see her laugh.

After what felt like forever, she gasped out, "I'm sorry. Now I really have upset you."

"Not at all," I said tersely.

The princess started to laugh all over again.

I rolled my eyes.

Really now.

"I'm sorry," she said again once she had finally regained her composure. "I really am. It's just. Ren, you are one of the most helpful people I know. I find the idea of you needing to provide more assistance utterly ridiculous and I got carried away."

As she often did.

"I understand," I said, almost managing to take the bite out of my words.

She shook her head. "Somehow I doubt that." The princess reached out and touched my arm.

The sudden contact made my heart stutter.

"Ren." Jasmine said my name softly, like a caress.

I swallowed.

Her voice remained warm and gentle as she said, "I cannot express how grateful I am to you. I am so thankful for all the help you have given me over the past few months and I sincerely hope that one day I'll be able to return the favor."

Return the favor? Was she saying what I thought she was saying? But no, she couldn't mean that. Could she?

"But that might take a while, so in the meantime." She removed her hand from my arm and sat up straight. "There's something else I need your help with."

"Of course," I said. I was relieved to be on familiar ground again and not at all sad to lose the warmth of her touch. "I am at your service. What is it?"

"Jafar."

I bristled as a wave of rage overtook me. I forced myself to breathe in and then out. With effort, I pushed the feeling back down and did my best to focus on my princess's words.

She said, "It's possible that he has set up other spells in the palace. We have to figure out how to undo them and now more than ever we have to find out what Jafar was up to. He could even now be controlling the court from afar."

"You're right," I managed to say. A man who was able to curse an innocent 11-year-old girl, was capable of many things. If I wasn't so sure he hadn't been around for my drowning, I would have placed my own curse at his feet as well.

"Then let's get started," Jasmine said, standing up. "I filled the upper desk with more scrolls on gemstones and I'm going to take another look at the unarchive scrolls down here. Now that I know what to look for, I think they will be a lot more informative. After that, I guess we'll have to cover the rest of the study."

I stood up as well, surveying the tall shelves around us. There were a lot of scrolls to go through. "Alright," I said, "I'll be upstairs if you need me."

I left the princess in the lower study and climbed the stairs back up to the other room. As I settled down at the small desk and looked at the scrolls Jasmine had placed there, I felt a sense of loss. Somehow our fun distraction had morphed into a kingdom-wide conspiracy which meant the princess and I had yet another crisis to solve.

A/N: Hey everyone.

The last few weeks have been busy. I've gotten Sue's Curse off the ground. And I finished Tiger's Circus! After 3 years, I got to say, I was stunned at the accomplishment. Now though, I'm happy to finally return to Rajah's Curse and this version of Dhiren. Look forward to more soon.