Inheritance

Chapter 39: Waiting

King Laurence propped his elbow up on the arm of his throne and leaned his cheek on his fist as he kept his eyes glued on Eory and Pollyanna.

His ring finger seemed to twitch nervously and incessantly.

He was praying to the human gods that they would behave and harm no one.

He was glad Kori listened to his wishes and decided to sit next to his wife, who she barely said a word to even though Queen Harriet was being incredibly polite and trying to make conversation with the waif.

Where she decided to stay during the ball informed him that she was still more loyal to him than Eory which relieved him of much stress.

No matter what, I need her in my life.

In truth, Laurence loved Kori. He loved Harriet as well, but not to the extent he did Kori. He wished he could have married the waif, but he knew the people of Maribel wouldn't have wanted her as a queen. Foreigners had ruled over the human kingdom for hundreds of years and the last thing they wanted was to have a foreign waif on the throne.

And Kori didn't have the right personality to be queen, whereas Harriet did.

The sudden gasping of nobles brought something unexpected to his attention.

Laurence straightened his posture in surprise when he saw Pollyanna shove her charge on the dance floor.

The king's fingers tensed on his sheath, but in a moment, he saw the two make up and Pollyanna retreated further away from Eory to where she could still intervene if something went wrong, but where she wouldn't have to be apart of any conversations the fairy had with the nobles.

Laurence's heart beat a little faster after seeing the interaction.

He tried to calm himself down by thinking of comforting thoughts, and they led him back to his conversation to Kori earlier—and the soothing feeling of her fingers running through his hair.

"Why have you called me here, Laurence? Are you going to tell me what you plan to do at the ball?" Kori asked. She noticed his red eyes and she clasped her hands in front of her with a thoughtful frown. "Or is this about Shirley again?"

Laurence cleared his throat and shook his head. "She's always on my mind, but I... I am just overly worried about tonight. I'm afraid I will lose the kingdom to these monsters all over again. I need you to soothe my soul."

Laurence threw himself to his knees before her, and Kori looked down on him with her fingers tensed. She had an expression on her face that was something akin to sympathy mixed with disgust.

She never knew whether to shove him away or throw her arms around him, but she would usually end up doing the latter. This time, however, she didn't take kindly to what he said. "Eory is not a monster! You must give him a chance! It's Pollyanna who's the problem! Eory... Eory doesn't have an evil bone in his body!"

Laurence closed his eyes and fell deep into thought, then. If he were to trust Kori's word, and if Eory was a good person who could be relied upon, then perhaps the solution to all of this was simpler than he thought.

Laurence opened his eyes as Kori ran her hands through his hair.

"How certain are you that he is not a monster? Please be completely honest, Kori." Laurence said quietly.

Kori took a moment to answer. She wanted to give him an honest answer—but sometimes, it was hard to recognize what her true feelings were abut the situation because they were so difficult to process. "I can't lie to you, Laurence. I am closer to Eory than I have ever been to any criminal I have redeemed in the past, and I can't view him as objectively as I can them. I can't promise you that his evil ancestry won't take hold, but I can judge on what I see. And what I see in front of me is a sweet and harmless young man who is risking his life to prove to you and everyone else in the kingdom that he is deserving of their respect and that he is harmless. He has had his stormy days in the past, but every child does, and his stormy days were few and far between considering he was locked in a tiny room. He deserves this chance; a fair chance."

Laurence looked into her eyes and saw no lie. He nodded silently.

"Would you care if anything happened to Pollyanna, Kori?" Laurence asked with his voice barely above a whisper.

There was a long silence, but she answered, "no."

And his heart was gladdened as Kori sat on the floor and he lay his head in her lap for comfort.

"What am I feeling right now?" He asked her.

Kori replied emotionlessly, "peace."

"It's all thanks to you, as always."

Laurence came back to reality and his posture relaxed as time ticked by and he waited for his opportunity. Slowly, nobles began to leave the ball.