Adventures of Jessa

16

"Jessa? Are you up yet?" Kallen calls up to her.

Jessa grabs her pack and weapons and leaves the room. "Of course. I don't think I've ever slept in."

"Well you were pretty restless last night. Did things not go well?" Kallen asks worriedly. He wasn't very thrilled to find that Dhiren had requested Jessa as his partner. He doesn't want her hurt.

Jessa smiles dreamily in remembrance of the dance. "It was so incredible, Kallen. The music was so magical and Dhiren just matched me step for step so perfectly. He kept his eyes on mine the whole time. It was so," Jessa stops unable to find the words to describe how it felt last night.

"Arousing?" Sorid says in amusement as she brings food in for an early breakfast.

Jessa looks down, her face as red as the flowers that Lady Zira prefers in her temple.

Kallen looks at her, his eyebrow raised. The only other time he's heard about something like this happening was when he dances with Sorid. It happened the first time they danced together and every time since.

"Yeah, it was the first time he's ever heard her music." Jessa looks up to her mother, "She came last night."

Both Sorid and Kallen stop, Kallen with his spoon raised with food ready to eat. 

Sorid is the first to come out of her frozen trance. "She came to you?"

"Yeah, she stopped us from doing the rites after telling us that she hates to do it since she loved the dancing, that it was the best she's ever seen."

Sorid looks at Jessa in shock and asks in a choked voice. "Jessa, tell me everything starting from the time I left you and the prince."

"Well, the prince took me over to the dinner he had prepared. It was a courting meal."

Kallen interjects at that point. "What did you say?" He can hardly believe it.

"I told him that if he could hear the music that we not only would finish the rites but that I would accept him courting me."

Kallen starts breathing once more, but it's more like pants. "He also told me about Illiana and a bit about what she was like. He apologized about hating the humans because he thinks that they saved him from a marriage from hell."

With that Kallen drops his spoon onto the table. If it had been metal it would have made a loud noise. As it was the food splattered everywhere. "He talked to you about Illiana? He refuses to allow her name to be spoken by anyone in the palace."

Jessa shrugs, "Probably because she was a cheating bitch."

Both her parents are staring at her in shock. "What? It wasn't known that she cheated on him and was carrying her lovers baby when she died?" When her parents shake their heads unable to speak Jessa looks appalled that she said anything. "Shit, he's going to kill me."

Jessa stops eating and looks sick at what she's done. She hadn't realized that others didn't know.

"It's alright, Jessa, I figured that Kallen and Sorid would require an accounting of our night. I know that you tell them pretty much everything other than the bullying you suffered. I never told you not to tell them." Dhiren says coming inside. "Forgive me, I knocked but no one heard me. I thought you might all still be asleep and didn't want to wake you."

"Please have a seat, prince." Sorid breaks out of her shock and falls back into being a proper hostess.

"Thank you, Sorid," Dhiren says smiling as he takes a seat. 

"Do you hear the music all the time, Sorid?" Dhiren asks after silence falls for some time. Jessa eats as fast as she can knowing that she will need to leave soon.