Rough Seas

35 - Nerves

Katherine's feet ached. They had been walking for days, no, weeks, now, and she could see the Dianitee capital from here. Inertia. Tomorrow, they would be launching an attack on the damned place. Mostly to send a message to Dianite, but also to find her brother. He was a high ranking person, basically being her second in command, which meant that he did actually have information that Dianite could use. Her hands clenched. She knew that Rupert wouldn't ever give up information about anything serious, but... It had been a few months since her brother had been taken captive. Who knew what kind of hell Furia and Dianite were putting him through? The thought of her brother, trapped alone and hurting, made her heart hurt. Gritting her teeth, she tried to rid herself of those thoughts. It wouldn't do her or anyone else any good if she was distracted when they got to fighting. As much as she hated to say it, Katherine couldn't focus on Rupert, not now.

A hand wrapped around her waist and she jumped, tensing as she whirled around, ready to attack her assailant. Jordan, her would-be attacker, merely blinked at her, a small, but sheepish, smile growing on his face.

"Sorry Kathy." He murmured, trying not to draw more attention to the two of them than he already had. "Just wanted to see how you were doin'." Casually, so not to alarm anyone else, his arm dropped from her waist so that their hands brushed against each other. Taking the bait, Katherine interlocked their fingers, chewing worridley on her lip. How was she doing? That really was a hard question to answer, especially at this moment.

"I'm...." Fine, she wanted to say. But something in the back of her mind told her to tell Jordan the truth. To tell him exactly how sick to her stomach this whole thing made her. " I'm worried. About a lot of things." Rupert being hurt, Tom, Jordan getting hurt or worse, Ianite being attacked. All of those thoughts made her close her eyes and breathe deeply out her mouth. She was alright. Jordan and Tom and Ianite were alright. Everything was fine. They were fine. Good, even.

"Like what?" He asked, a casual tone in his voice. She swallowed, eyes darting around. Ianite's army surrounded them. Well, she guessed that she technically was apart of the army, but still. These men and women had fought and died together, and now they were going to do the same. Against a god. Bleh. She felt more sick than before. Gods, why was it now that she suddenly got so scared? Why couldn't it have been weeks ago? If it had been long ago, she could have dealt with it better, been able to talk to Ianite, and Martha. As pleasant as Jordan was (and really, he was extremely pleasant to be around), he didn't exactly radiate the calm aura that Ianite did, or the confident one that Martha did. Shaking her head slightly, she tried to focus on the moment. She was drifting too deep into her thoughts again. Katherine sighed. Jordan had definitely noticed, and was staring at her with that sad, kicked-puppy look on his face. It made her heart ache, and she felt bad that it was her who had caused Jordan this worry. He should be focusing on other things, like the actual war that they are involved in.

"You're making that face again." Katherine murmured, relaxing slightly when Jordan's face became more passive. It wasn't exactly unknown that the two of them were together. They did make it quite obvious, neither party not trying to hide their affections for each other. Unfortunately, their openness had sent some rumors through the soldiers, mostly revolving around Katherine's reasonings for the relationship. (People could really be nasty, especially when they talked about something none of them knew about.) "It's just.... Rupert's going to be hurt when we get to him." Jordan sighed, his shoulders slumping.

"Yeah. It's been bugging me for weeks now. His condition, I mean." Katherine bit her lip as Jordan spoke, remembering the promise she had forced upon Tom when he had left. Gods, she hoped that he wasn't blaming himself for whatever was happening to Rupert. He wouldn't've been able to control the situation in any way, and Katherine hoped that Tom could see that. She missed him. Maybe they would meet... But hopefully not. That would likely not end well. "The fact is, he's gonna be hurt when we get to him, Kathy. We've gotta give him time, and let him come to us. We've gotta help him heal." Jordan's voice was steady, the words he spoke filling Katherine with a sense of peace. He sounded so sure of himself. Katherine hoped that what he was speaking of could be true. That she hadn't lost a few friends, a potential lover, and her brother, all in one fell swoop. It seemed unlikely that Rupert would get back to normal. But she hoped.

-

Katherine laid in her cot, listening to the sounds of the soldiers chattering as they set up their own tents. Jordan was outside of their, likely speaking with Ianite and Martha about something important. And here she was, mentally preparing herself for tomorrow. If she wasn't in a good state of mind, than the chance that her brother would be alright were slim. She had to be alright, if only for a couple of hours. For Rupert. The flaps to their tent opened, and Jordan's head poked inside, glancing around quickly before focusing on her.

"Kathy. Come on out. Ianite's saying important stuff." His head disappeared after that, and Katherine quickly rose, making her way out of their tent and into the centre of their camp. Most of the soldiers were already in their armour, clearly expecting a fight. But Katherine knew that Ianite was planning otherwise.

"-but we will not be attacking now." Katherine was just able to catch the last part of Ianite's sentence, watching as a couple of younger, newer soldiers, groaned and began taking off their armour. "We attack at dawn."