A Kingdom of Bloodshed

*¬*Chapter Eleven*¬*

"Idiot. That High Lord is an idiot and he's a royal piece of shit!" Rosemary paces inside my bedroom, her face contorted into anger after I've rencountered what happened. When I landed, I bid Augustus goodbye then walked into my house, immediately greeted by my parents and Rosemary who were worried sick about me. Seeing the fading bruises, cuts, and other injuries they immediately sent for a healer but I shook my head, saying that I was fine.

I ate then went to my room needing to be alone for a bit. Rosemary, being her usual self, burst into my room after five minutes and demanded answers. So I gave them.

Now she's pacing in my room, fuming. "What a moron, he sent you home with barely an explanation and expected you to be okay with that?" I've never seen her this mad before. If ever.

"I wouldn't say that he expected me to be ok with it, but more like he thought he was doing the right thing and I should have been more reasonable about it." She snorts and rolls her eyes, coming over and sitting on my bed. Rosemary throws her arm over my shoulder and leans her head against mine, "His loss. I'm just glad you're home and alive. Now we can go back to normal and forget about this little blip." Her words make me pause because that's all my time there was.

A blip. A small fraction of time. Meaningless.

Kissing my cheek, Rosemary rises and skips to the door, "I'm going to have the cook prepare your favourite meal and I'll bring it to your room later. Seems like you need some time to absorb everything and rest."
"Thank you." I say. She nods briskly, then leaves the room. After Rosemary has gone I sit and stare at the wall. I remember when I first got to the court that I felt my room lacked colour, now looking at mine with all the shades of lavender, peony and cream; with the smells of flowers and spring, it's almost overwhelming. I actually find myself sort of missing the dark blues and silver. The tones of grey and black.

I miss Arrow.

Sighing, I put my things away and reach for my sketchbook, when I'm this unsettled I tend to draw. That's exactly what I do. I draw and draw and draw, purging my soul of these feelings until I feel empty. I draw until my chest feels lighter and freed of the burden of my emotions.

Knock. Knock.

"Come in." My mother enters the room, her violet-blue eyes sparkling when she see's me. "Thea, baby, how are you?" I smile softly, "As good as can be expected." She laughs tenderly, "I understand, did you want to talk about it? Tell me what happened?" She grabs the hair brush and sits beside me on the bed, motioning for me to turn around. As soon as she starts to comb my hair, I'm taken back to the night that Kazimir did this; to his fingers running through it and running peony oil on my neck. It makes my heart hurt.

"Thea? Baby, what's wrong?" I shake my head, "It's nothing mom. I'm ok. Just adjusting to things again is all. It's been quite the eventful month." She hums, "Yes it has." We sit in silence for a moment, the movement of the brush is soothing but also painful. When she's done, mother rises and puts the brush away then kisses my forehead and meets my eyes, "Welcome home my sweet girl. Your father and I were so worried about you." I give her a soft smile, "Thanks. It's nice to be back." Nice. You'd think I'd be ecstatic to be back here, to be with my family again. But I'm not.

My mother doesn't seem to notice the inner turmoil as she strides about my room before heading for the door.

"I'm going to be out for the rest of the evening, your father and I have some courtly matters to attend to. But if you need anything, Rosemary will be here." I nod, "I know. I'm also twenty years old mom, I can take care of myself." She chuckles, "I know. Sometimes I forget you're all grown up."

Then she leaves, sweeping out of the door and down the hallway her footsteps fading until they're gone. Sighing, I head for the shower. Maybe that will help settle me. At least I hope it will.