Chapter 301: A Visit To The Queens.

Chapter 301: Chapter 301: A Visit To The Queens.

Gurdet sighs heavily, and gestures for Lord Vogrid to follow on after them since his daughter seems to have already and quite conveniently forgotten their agreement.

It cheers him up just a little that he looks about as thrilled to be going as Gurdet is that he has to, and he dutifully falls in all the same, an even two paces behind the princess.

And if he notices the mildly strained looks that each Loac and Khobi fling back at him, he pays them no mind.

​The moment they’re gone, Gurdet takes off his glasses and sets them down on his desk with a groan.

Sagging down into his chair in a way his daughter would definitely scold him for, he suddenly feels very old.

​"...Are you all right, Your Majesty?" Bongo remarks dutifully, taking Gurdet’s sudden, uncharacteristic silence for the agitation that it is, "...Shall I send for some tea?"

​" –My daughter is going on her first date," Gurdet laments dryly, expression decidedly grim, "What do you think?"

​"...Wine, then."

​"Wine would be wonderful ."

​"I’m sure she’ll be fine," Bongo assures him, patiently laying a hand on his shoulder.

It helps, but just barely. Bongo’s always been good like that. "She’s got a good head on her shoulders. And Montrel is a good man; he’ll be a gentleman. He has been thus far."

​"Oh, I’m sure he’s a good man," Gurdet snipes back, unconvinced for all his terribly rational assurances, "A gentleman , however? I think not .

This is Montrel we’re talking about, and don’t think I don’t know what young men get up to at his age. Believe it or not I was young too, once."

​"...Of course, Your Majesty," Bongo nods, and Gurdet gets the distinct, somewhat offensive impression that he’s being humoured.

​Darn , she’d been hoping that her father would forget about the chaperone.

...

They barely make it three corridors before Khobi addresses the elephant in the room.

​"So what’s he doing here?" he asks the princess bluntly, jerking a thumb back at Vogrid following the same steady, two paces behind them that he has been since they left the king’s chambers.

He’s been doing his best to ignore him, but there’s always been something about the guy that gets his hackles up, and he doesn’t much like having him at his back.

​"Oh, he’s my chaperone," she replies simply, popping the last piece of her bread in her mouth with a pleased hum.

She had looked delighted to have been offered one in the first place, and to Khobi’s chagrin had been more than thrilled to split it with Loac. "Father insisted ."

​" Chaperone ?" Khobi echoes hollowly, brow furrowing, "I thought you said you were coming down for archery practice?"

​" –Montrel is courting Her Highness," Vogrid interjects smoothly, giving him a dry look from those steady two paces behind, "It would hardly be appropriate for them to be alone together."

​For some reason Khobi gets the strangest urge to slap a hand over the fading marks on his throat.

​" Right ," he says instead, because he’s pretty sure that it’s impossible to be alone in the training grounds, but whatever.

The rules the nobles seem to have to follow here never make much sense to him.

​And neither does the fucking castle, for that matter.

Honestly, it’s a good thing the princess is leading because he has no fucking clue where he is at the moment.

It’s a common feeling; for as long as he’s been here now, the castle just seems to get more enormous by the day.

After wandering across it from above, he’s pretty sure there are still entire corridors he’s never so much as glanced down.

And this one in particular that they’ve just turned down he can’t quite place. It looks kind of familiar, but then again, so do a lot of these halls.

They’re all giant and tall and made of stone, so go figure.

​They’ll get to the training grounds eventually, he supposes, as the princess strides forwards with purpose, half a pace ahead of her cousin.

Hopefully before the bread gets too cold.

The detour had been necessary, though, because even though it’s not like he counts Bongo amongst his friends, this was about gratitude, and he figures he’s got some things to be grateful to Bongo for.

​For someone so tiny, the princess is doing a seriously impressive job of dragging Loac along with her.

She must be stronger than she looks.

​(Oh, Khobi is pretty sure he has been here before. But not in a while. Not in ages, it feels like.

​The tournament feels so long ago, now.)

​"Hey, Xena –" Loac grumbles, and then almost trips on her as she abruptly draws to a halt in front of one of the paintings hanging in pride of place. Khobi very nearly crashes straight into them, too. "What are we doing here?"

​"Just saying hello," the princess insists, although what exactly she means by that Khobi doesn’t quite understand.

Apart from the four of them, the corridor is empty.

​Although for some reason it doesn’t quite feel empty. It doesn’t make him feel unsettled, exactly.

it’s just...strange.

​He looks up towards the painting that the princess has stopped in front of, and while he’s never really been one for art, there’s something oddly transfixing about this particular piece.

He’s not really sure why; in a castle full of tacky, over the top decorations, it’s pretty simple.

Just a portrait of two women, side by side.

Sisters, probably; they both have the same hair and eyes, although one looks all serious and proper and the other has an air of the kind of person that wouldn’t be above smacking someone she didn’t like.

​(He’s not sure how it’s possible to tell that from a painting, but somehow, he can.)

​They look so real.

So familiar.

​And it’s impossible, because they’re just paint and canvas but as Khobi stares up at them, trying to place their faces, he feels the back of his neck start to prickle, like somehow they’re gazing right back at him.