Winter Wildflowers

Chapter 18

Day 160

The palace felt odd without Knightley. Ofelia felt odd. This was his Kingdom, with his people, his culture, and yet he was nowhere nearby. It was like icing and no cake. Though Ofelia had felt unsettled initially, she slowly gathered that she was near indestructible without Knightley. It was a humorous, and rather ego inflating truth. Each guard, though she had never spoken a word to them, nor had any impact on their lives, would bow to her and stand by her if she was to exit the palace walls, an arrangement seemingly set in place with Knightley's vacancy. Ofelia couldn't complain. Without the worry of him springing up on her, Ofelia had begun to thrive. Each morning she would endure a language class with Paulina, a class she hated to admit was very well taught and very informative, before tea and a stroll.
In the afternoons, under the unwanted supervision of her guards, she found her way to the practice rooms and picked up a sword.

Knightley had shown her what to do, Ofelia knew what to fix, it only took picking up the weapon to remember. There were other men, Knights, in the training room and Ofelia having not spoken to let alone train in front of others in nearly three weeks, grew conscious of their inquisitive gazes. But, pushing herself past her hesitation, she found it wasn't long until she warmed up, in fact, she had filled out a little since arriving at her palace, the fact obvious as she swung her sword around. No longer could she see gaunt looking muscles, or spindly limbs, instead she looked stronger, it was easier to carry her weight and she could throw herself into each blow.
It was comforting to feel a sword in her hands again, though this one was blunt to protect the striking bags. It was also apparent to Ofelia how natural the sword felt in her hands. Of course, she was still an amateur; she had only learnt to wield the weapon a few months prior, but she had practiced near every day under the critical eye of Sir Knightley and the benefits were apparent. With a mighty heave, Ofelia struck the training bag. Of course, a blunt sword to fabric did not exhilarate her like metal to metal, but it passed for the time being.
For the afternoon she toyed with the training bags, trying, and failing intricate moves, twirling her sword around her in ways she'd seen Knightley do before. It was relieving to speak a language she understood.

A week passed, every day Ofelia would eat breakfast, do her language lesson, eat lunch, train. She had to continually ask for a bigger portion of food, the young maidens seemed conscious that she would lose her figure. The more Ofelia learnt of the language, the more she understood around her. What she had mistaken as a working hum before, she now recognised as the young maidens gossiping around her. They discussed trivial things constantly, the gossip of the kingdom, talk of foreign princes, lovers, and rivals. It was only when they dressed Ofelia in her nightgown late into one sundown did she finally hear her first piece of somewhat valuable information.

"Did you hear what the jester told?", One of the girls quietly sang. Ofelia hid her excitement. It was thrilling to hear things one wasn't supposed to.
"No.", another responded, clearing her throat to hide her voice.
They silenced for a little while, they were playing it natural. Ofelia was impressed at their antics. After a little while they spoke again, but Ofelia couldn't understand them.
Little sounds, little hums, all beyond what Ofelia could translate until the little brown girl popped in.
"His Majesty will be angry.", she muttered, looking sheepish as she removed Ofelia's rings, all except her marriage band.
The women nodded, "Yes.", one responded, retrieving Ofelia's previous gown, and placing it over her arm, "Songs rarely lie about such threats."
The women solemnly nodded, each gathering their thoughts for a minute. Ofelia watched them, each woman cleaning up the scene before silently leaving the room. They left and Ofelia watched the door. It was then a big smile grew on her face. She had understood them! She chuckled and clapped her hands together, sighing in content. Yes, their message was morbid, but it seemed valuable. In fact, though Ofelia did not know most aspects to the story, it occurred to her that she knew more than Knightley. She grinned. A warning from a jester. She moved to shut the blinds before slipping under her quilt. She stared to where Knightley would sleep if he were in her company and devilishly grinned. She would ask Paulina about the information tomorrow. Yes, she would probably dismiss her question, but Ofelia hoped that she would determine the severity of the threat via Paulina's reaction. She burrowed deeper into her reaction.
"Goodnight, then.", she whispered, satisfied.