A Keith Interlude

After The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance left, Katarina seemed to put the encounter out of her mind, going back to doing her drills. The speed with which she had completely disregarded The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance's declaration would have hearted him, but—

Ew! Ew, ew, EW, EW!-!-!-!-!

—Keith just felt… empty. As if the world were not worth living in. As if there was no reason for anything.

Ew! Ew, ew, EW, EW!-!-!-!-!

He had excused himself, ostensibly to make sure that The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance did leave. Their cousins were understanding, and he did actually go to do just that. Afterwards, however, he headed for his room, dismissed his servants and closed the door.

Closed the door, not lock. Even with all the decorative axes secured firmly to the walls, he never really locked his doors when he wanted privacy. Once of Katarina battering down his door with an axe was enough. Better to give her a way in…

Also because he was a grown man rather than a child, he didn't sit down on the floor hugging his knees. No, Keith was depressed the way an adult should be! With a bottle of alcohol in hand, no glass, sitting with his collar undone and his jacket discarded. He reeked of sweat from not taking time to refresh himself after the morning's sword drill, but that simply added to the adultness of his depression! The only way it could have been more adult was if it were raining outside, and he was standing out in the balcony brooding while, in the sky, Pilgrim Butterflies and Storm Rays flew and occasionally fought each other.

Unfortunately, Keith wasn't very good at getting to the 'shit-faced drunk' part of being depressed like an adult. For one thing, he'd never really developed a taste for alcohol, and had event gained an aversion to it as he had learned to keep it from Katarina, lest some unscrupulous ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance or Mary-type person take advantage of the ensuing intoxication to do foul things to his sister. So he had discarded the bottle in disgust and simply sat there, feeling sorry for himself.

Katarina… he'd always known that what he hoped for, desired, could not be. After all, they were brother and sister. But a part of him had hoped that she could come to see him as a man. A part of him had hoped she would remember they were not related by blood…

Ew! Ew, ew, EW, EW!-!-!-!-!

Despair filled him anew, a dark despair that made everything just feel so… futile. What was the point of everything? Just… why was he even doing this? All these years, being at her side… for what? For—

There was a knock on his door. "Cousin Keith? Are you there?" Cousin Matthew's voice was easily recognizable, after all these months together.

Vaguely, he felt the urge to tell her to go away, or at least stay silent and pretend he wasn't there. Unfortunately, he had been raised to well, and good manners, guilt, and being well-inclined towards his cousin forced him to his feet. He made his way to his door and opened it a sliver. "Yes?" he replied, trying to appear polite while at the same time radiating a desire for solitude and isolation to make his cousin leave him alone without him actual have to ask him to leave him alone.

"Ah, there you are!" Matthew sighed in relief. "We were waiting for you to come back, but you never returned."

"I'm sorry Matthew," Keith said, "I just… needed a moment alone with my thoughts for a while."

Matthew nodded. " Ah, I see." Her face turned serious. "Is this about what The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance told Cousin Katarina?"

Keith grimaced, but… well, how else was he supposed to respond to that? "Yes," he said simply.

His cousin nodded. "You're not alone, Cousin Keith," she said. "I find them concerning as well, even if Cousin Katarina didn't seem to truly comprehend their significance."

"That's normal," Keith said before he could stop himself.

Matthew let out a fond, exasperated sigh. "So it is." She smiled, even as the rest of her expression turned grim. "So it's up to us to do something about it, right?"

And how could Keith disagree with that sentiment?

Before he could figure out what to say, Matthew's smile brightened and determined, and she took his hand, her heavily callused skin wrapping around him. "Come on, the rest are waiting for us," she said, and began to pull him out of his room.

With stumbled after him, and for a moment, he was eerily reminded of Katarina. She never hesitated to take his hand and pull him along if she wanted him to go with her… "W-wait, the rest?" he said.

"Of course!" Matthew said. Her smile took on a tinge of what might have been… viciousness? "You don't think we're the only ones concerned for Cousin Katarina, do you? We're family, after all."

Keith found himself to pulled to the parlor, where he found all of his cousins seated in the various couches around a central coffee table. There was an empty couch, which Matthew took him to, sitting on it and pulling him down with her.

Watson nodded as they sat down. "Very well," he declared. "I hereby call this meeting of the 'Alliance To Protest Cousin Katarina From A Loveless Engagement' to order."

Keith blinked. What? "What?" he said.

"Ah, I wrote to everyone about the Alliance you and Aunt Mili are part of, especially the name it has for the Third Prince, and it was agreed that it would be best to model our own efforts upon such a clearly successful organization," Matthew said. She sighed. "I wanted to call it a Covenant, but was overruled."

"The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Covenant just doesn't have the same ring to it," Adella said. "Besides, this way both alliances know they're fighting against the depredations of the same being."

"Still, today's revelation changes things," Olga mused. She turned to Keith and explained. "Originally, we thought that Cousin Katarina was involved in a loveless marriage where her fiancé was using her for his own selfish ends. With his pronouncement today, however… " She looked around at everyone. "This is clearly not the case. Quite the opposite in fact, given his vehemence."

"It hasn't changed anything," her sister Marie countered. "Cousin Katarina clearly doesn't love him romantically, from what she said, but he kept insisting she do so. If this engagement were forced to continue, it would result in a loveless marriage, at least on Cousin Katarina's part. I don't see how being forced to marry someone she doesn't love is any different from being forced to marry someone who doesn't love her."

"Some would say that as nobles, especially the daughter of a duke, has a duty to marry no matter what if it was for the good of the kingdom," Watson said mildly.

"Well, those fools can have a loveless marriage if they want," Iosefka said. "We're Adeths. We marry for love."

"Technically, Katarina's a Claes," some idiot said. Oh, wait, that had been Keith.

"Eh, she's half an Adeth. Good enough," Iosefka said dismissively.

"Ah, of course," Keith said.

"So, the reason to oppose The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance hasn't changed," Matthew said from beside him. "The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance himself hasn't changed. We need to protect Katarina from him, keep him from being alone with her, or better yet keep Katarina from being alone at all."

"Did you hear him talking?" Marie said, the normally sweet girl sounding disgusted. "As if he expected Katarina to suddenly just fall in love with him because he told her he loved her?"

"Yes, it was foul," Adella agreed.

Next to him, Matthew nudged him gently with her elbow, and he turned to look towards her. "Are you all right now?" she said quietly.

Keith blinked. Hesitated. "Yes," he said, just as quietly.

Matthew nodded, turning back to pay attention to her siblings and cousins. "Don't worry Keith. You're not alone. First thing you learn when you deploy: you can bring down anything with jolly cooperation. Even the gods themselves."

That… sounded like a quote? Keith thought he'd heard it before.

Still, as he looked around at all his cousins, he realized something.

NONE of them probably had designs towards Katarina.

His eyes widened.

They adjourned just before lunch to freshen up, and Keith tried not to feel embarrassed at how everyone deliberately didn't look his way, despite the fact he could clearly smell his own sweaty self. Watson and Matthew had clearly refreshed themselves after that morning's training, while he…'

Well, his cousins were wonderful people, and he was quite ready to perform great dirt doll-based violence on their behalf should it ever be necessary.

He refreshed himself with haste, putting on one of his suits and consciously putting away the bottle of wine he'd left in his room. He wasn't completely recovered, not really. The sting, the pain, the ache of what Katarina had said tore at him, seemed to scrape at his insides… but it wasn't something he couldn't endure anymore. Keith stood before his ow door and took a deep breath, let it out. What had changed, really? His beloved sister still saw him as her brother and not as a man. She trusted him absolutely, loved him as a sibling, held him close as a friend. If she didn't see herself marrying him… well, that was to be expected, right? They were sibling, after all.

Keith sighed. It hurt. It still hurt. But it was a familiar pain…

Taking another deep breath, he squared his shoulders and opened his door, intent on joining his sister and cousins for lunch.

On the other side of his door, cousin Marie waited. "Hello, cousin Keith," she greeted. "May I speak to you for a moment? In private?"

Keith blinked at this unexpected turn of events. "Um, of course, Cousin Marie. Do you want to come in?"

Marie shook her head. "No, out here in the hall will be fine. What I have to say will be quick." She stepped back to let him exit his room.

"What did you want to talk about, Marie?" Keith asked as he closed the door behind him.

For a moment, Marie tilted her head, her gaze evaluating. Then she leaned forward and whispered into his ear, "Cousin Keith… you love Cousin Katarina, don't you? Not as a brother loves a sister… but as a man loves a woman."

Keith stiffened.

"If you don't," Marie said, still whispering, "and I am wrong, then I apologize and ask you keep my shameful mistake secret. But if I'm right… then cousin. I offer you an accord. Make this pact with me, and I will be your ally in winning the heart of Cousin Katarina, to woo her into seeing you as a man, until she refuses… or you stray from this path."

For a moment, Keith just stood there, his heart beating frantically. He suddenly became very aware of the servants he'd left in his room, and the lack thereof in the hallway. He could lie. He should lie. He wasn't Sophia after all, who declared proudly the fetishes she learned of in her books (how did Katarina know about cuckolding and fetishes?-!).

Perhaps he was silent too long, for Marie sighed. "Ah. I'm sorry cousin. It seems I am mistaken." She turned to walk away.

"What do you get out of it?"

Marie paused mid-step and turned towards him. "Hope, perhaps," she said quietly. "Hope that it can happen, if not for me, than for someone else. Perhaps I'm a coward, pushing you forward to what I can't do myself… But… when I saw your eyes this morning… I knew that you were like me. Selfish as it, it made me happy that I wasn't alone in my twistedness." She gave him a sad smile.

Keith sighed and put his hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Come on, Marie. Let's head to lunch before Katarina eats everything."

Marie glanced at his hand and nodded. The two began to walk to the dining room together. Keith thought of Sophia.

"Marie," he said.

She glanced at him.

"You're not alone," he said. "I'm not alone. So…" He took a deep breath. "I wouldn't be adverse to working together with you."

The surprised look on Marie's face was replaced by a warm smile so reminiscent of Katarina is hurt. "Oh! Well then… let's engage in jolly cooperation together then, cousin!"


Achivement Unlocked: A Twisted Accord
Keith and Marie form an accord. So begins the rise of Marie, Lord of Blood, and the Olga Marie Dynasty.