A Katarina Interlude

"Lady Hyetta!" Katarina greeted with a wide smile on her face. "I came to visit! How are you?"

"Lady Katarina?" Hyetta said hesitantly, turning to face towards her as she sat in the sitting room of suite she'd been given. At least, she turned to face where she thought Katarina was, which was about two feet to the left. Katarina politely moved sideways and sat down on the spot on the sofa where her friend was looking so the two of them would be facing each other properly. "Are you well? When I last heard you, you were heading to battle with the men. We were all worried you had been hurt, or worse."

"Ah, sorry for worrying you," Katarina said sheepishly. "Don't worry, I didn't get hurt! Although I feel bad I didn't talk to you sooner, but I was really tired afterwards, and then I needed to help carry things, and then…" She shook her head. "No, that's no excuse. Sorry I haven't been by until now."

"You are very much forgiven, Lady Katarina," Hyetta said. "Would you sit with me? I have heard nothing of how the battle progressed beyond that the La Sablicans were defeated. Is Lord Nicol well? A-and everyone else?"

"Ah, everyone is fine, don't worry," Katarina reassured her. "Nicol is busy helping Uncle Dan with getting everything cleaned up, though. I'll tell him to come visit you later."

"Was he injured? A-and yourself, of course. Are you well? Were you injured?"

"Ah, don't worry, I wasn't hurt, and I don't think Nicol was either. I remember the ones who tried to fight him always stopping suddenly, so he got the chance to hit them before they could."

Hyetta tilted her head. "Truly? That sounds… very strange."

"Not really? It happens all the time when people meet Nicol."

"If you say so, lady Katarina. Then I am glad you are unhurt. Do you know what's happening right now?"

Katarina blinked. "You don't know?"

Hyetta shook her head. "Father told me to stay in my rooms for safety, and Zorayas has been with me all that time, so she has not been able to gather any news."

"Eh? Your friends haven't visited you?"

For a moment, Hyetta was quiet. "Zorayas, Lady Sophia and you are the only friends I have, Lady Katarina."

W-what? That can't be right! "But you're so nice! That's terrible! Ah, and I only visited now, too! I'm so, so sorry! I was tired and asleep, and then I had to go to this thing with mother to let all the other nobles know everything was going to be all right, and then… I am so sorry!"

"It's fine, Lady Katarina," Hyetta said, a small, pained smile on her face. "I'm used to being overlooked. A blind woman such as myself is of little use unless she's striven to git gud and become a deadly swordswoman, after all. "

Eh? Well, she supposed that 'blind swordsman' was a thing but didn't they usually go blind after learning to use a sword? "Don't those kinds of people usually go blind after they learn how to use a sword?"

"Most of the time," Hyetta said, "but a blind person can usually learn by learning from a blind swordsman."

Katarina tried to picture that. "How would that work?" she said, a bit confused. "I mean, how would they know you're holding your sword the right way, or that your feet at the right distance apart and things?"

"I have no idea, Lady Katarina," Hyetta admitted. "It's never been something I was interested in, even before I started losing my sight."

"Ah, well, if you don't know, you don't know," Katarina said, shrugging. "So, is there anything you wanna do? If you want, we can go find Sophia and the three of us can talk about what the next Night Fall book is going to be like. Or we could see if there's an open slot at the castle baths."

Hyetta smiled, but then her face faltered. "Ah… I'm sorry Lady Katarina, but I can't leave me rooms," she said. "Father told me to stay here where it's safe."

"Eh?" Then like a truck coming out of nowhere, it hit her, and her thoughts went flying to be reborn in another topic. "Oh, right! I forgot. That's why I came here… Hyetta, do you feel safe right now?"

Hyetta looked confused for some reason. "I… do not understand what you are asking of me, Lady Katarina."

Oh, she was going about this all wrong, wasn't she? "Well, you see, earlier today mother held a 'don't worry, you're still safe and protected' tea party for everyone, only it wasn't everyone, it was just everyone from around here in Sorcier. I thought that everyone else might need to feel safe and protected, and since I didn't have anything else to do this afternoon, I decided to do that. I came here first because you're my friend and I wanted to see you and to see if you were all right and felt safe and protected.

Hyetta stared at her for a little bit, until Katarina remembered she was blind and couldn't stare, so that was wrong and very silly. "I… think I understand?"

"So, are you all right, Hyetta? Do you feel safe?" Katarina frowned. "Actually, I should have asked sooner. Are you all right? You didn't get hurt, did you? I think I was able to get there in time to stop that man from hurting you, but I might be wrong."

"I… I'm fine, Lady Katarina, thank you for asking…"

Katarina peered at her. While Hyetta's blindfold covered half her face, there was something about the half she could see… "Hyetta, would you like a hug?"

"W-what?"

"If you don't want one, that's fine," Katarina said. "But you look like you could use a hug. Do you want one? I'm a very good hugger."

"I-it wouldn't be appropriate, Lady Katarina!"

"Why not? If you're feeling bad, a hug will make you feel better. And 'The Noble's Proper Etiquette Reference and Manual of Propriety and Action, Seventh edition' doesn't say anything about hugging being inappropriate. I checked. A lot." A thought occurred to her. "Unless whatever rule book you use in Hallig says hugs are bad? I don't remember that in the lectures about propriety, and it's probably the sort of thing I'd remember."

For a moment, Hyetta was silent. Then her head moved a teeny-tiny bit up and down.

That was enough of a nod for Katarina, and she got up and moved around the low table between them. She would have just given Hyetta a hug, but just when she was about swoop in with her arms wide open, Katarina paused as she remembered that Hyetta was, in fact, blind. "I'm going to hug you now!" she announced. "Ready?"

"Y-yes," Hyetta said. For some reason, her cheeks were a little red. Oh, had she put on makeup for Nicol?

Sitting down next to Hyetta, Katarin enfolded her in a hug, remembering just in time to not pull her so hard since she was wearing her formal armor. A part of her wondered why Katarina hadn't had her practice giving hugs in her armor. That was something very important to practice! Still, she had years of experience in hugging people when she wasn't wearing armor, so she knew how to do it just right, and sitting-down hugs was no exception! Katarina held Hyetta gently, letting the other woman rest her head on Katarina's shoulder.

In Katarina's arms, Hyetta started shaking.

"You were really scared back then, weren't you?" Katarina said, gently stroking Hyetta's hair. "Don't worry, it's all right to cry. Zorayas and I won't tell anyone." She looked towards the woman who was standing off to the side, who nodded. "Yup, Zorayas won't tell anyone. Don't worry, Hyetta. You're safe now. I'm here to protect you. And I'm not the only one. Zorayas is here too. And I'm sure Nicol will come by as soon as he has free time. "

Hyetta didn't say anything, though she made sniffling noises. Katarina expected to start feeling her shoulder getting wet, until she realized the blindfold on Hyetta's face was probably absorbing it. Ooh, that was convenient! Instant no-hands hankie!

The two of them sat there for a while as Hyetta continued to shake and quietly cry. Katarina wasn't really sure what to say to try and make her friend feel better, so she just kept repeating, "You're safe now," and "Don't worry, I'm here".

They sat like that for a bit.

"Feeling better?" Katarina said as Hyetta finally pulled back, looking embarrassed. Her blindfold had little wet blotches, making a kind of emoji face.

Hyetta nodded, one hand rising towards the stains and wincing. "Ah, w-would you pardon me a m-moment, Lady Katari-rina?" she said, her voice still stuttering slightly from her recent crying. Katarina knew what that was like. "Z-zorayas, could you help me change m-my blindfold?"

"Of course, Lady Hyetta," Zorayas said, a length of clean brown cloth in her hands. "I have it ready."

It didn't take long to undo the blindfold that Hyetta was wearing and carefully wrap a new one in its place. It also meant that Katarina finally got to see Hyetta's full face without her blindfold. As expected, she was really hot! Katarina would definitely have collected fanart of her on Pixiv! Her eyes were very pretty, even if the middle part was silvery instead of black, which was probably why she was blind.

She and Nicol would have such pretty babies together!

Once Hyetta had a new blindfold in place, she turned towards Katarina. At least, where she thought Katarina was. There wasn't really a chair there, so Katarina just sort of leaned forward until her head was in the path of Hyetta's gaze. "I'm sorry for imposing on you like that, Lady Katarina. It was undignified of me."

"Oh, don't worry about it. After all, what are friends for?" Katarina said cheerfully. "So, do you feel safer and protected now?"

Hyetta let out a weak laugh. "I do, actually. Nothing has actually changed, but… I suppose I feel better. Thank you, Lady Katarina."

"Yatta! Quest completed!" Katarina cheered. "I'm glad I was able to help! Now, I just need to get everyone to feel as safe and protected as you."

"Ah… I don't think it will be so easy, Lady Katarina," Hyetta said. "But then again, I don't know the other ladies of the delegation very well. Perhaps they will listen to you, though."

"Well, why don't I introduce you?" Katarina suggested. "There's a few other people I want to check on, and I'm sure they'll really enjoy meeting you."

"Ah… um… ah…"

"Great!" Katarina continued. "Hey Zorayas, do you know which room is Trina's?"

Zorayas blinked. "Who?"

"Trina. She's a little girl, about this high, her chaperone is Millicent?"