Chapter 42 Chapter 40
Chapter 42 Chapter 40
”What words must be said before you believe? It must come to pass!”
Xanthanius.
“You could try asking him again, but this is all we have been able to get.” Granj said and hands me the book where his conversation with the guard was written down.
“Do you suggest we ask him now or later?” Anthonier asked. Perceptively seeing that I was having second thoughts.
“What do you think?” I threw the question to the both of them. Granj already looked tired of stating his own perspective.
“Let’s go for it. If we get nothing, we can try again tomorrow.” My high adviser replied. Granj on the other hand, walked away because eventually, we came back to his initial opinion.
“Look, you’ve upset Granj.” Anthonier said with an insidious smile.
Absolutely ignoring his comment, because why would I grace it? We walked into his cubicle.
We met the guard seated while one of the clinic assistants spoon fed him with milkthee custard. He still had the same wide eyed expression as the day we first met him awake. The clinic assistant on the other hand, looked a bit terrified. You may assume that she was feeding a wild boar.
“Excuse us for a moment.” I told her and she looked grateful for the request.
Anthonier happened to also take note of her reaction because he leaned towards Granj and whispered a “Does he bite?” question which earned him an eyeroll.
“Trint, can you hear me?” I watched his response to my voice. There was a slight narrowing of his eyes and a delay in response but he finally nodded.
“I want to hear you speak too. Can you hear me?”
Another delay, but I really do not mind. I’ve been patient enough for him to wake up, I’m not about to lose my patience over a few seconds.
“Y…yes.. ss.” his words were breaking, almost like a disjoint between his thought process and speech was playing out.
“Receptive disorder. He knows what to say but has a problem getting what you say in its fullness” Granj tried to explain what we were experiencing but he did not really need to. It was clear.
“What is your name?” I asked another question.
To this, there came no reply. Just a blank stare.
“Do you remember us?” He looked to Anthonier as he asked his question. Stared at him for a while before he responded. “Y… yes… ss.”
I was proud that he remembered we wanted to hear him speak.
“I think we should leave this for another time.” I suggested and Granj was the first to leave the cubicle because he had also told us earlier that it would be better to leave him be.
“He’s starting to get an attitude.” Anthonier said behind me with a chuckle that the chief healer heard loud and clear but chose to ignore it.
“I could understand why.” Came my answer when we were out of the room and resting against the railings.
“I doubt. You seem to be in a good mood today. Does this have anything to do with your mistress I happened to come across last night on my way out of your room?”
I had a feeling that he would have met with her along the way. Their time difference at my door was not enough to put a distance between them.
But it still did not stop me from hoping that they did not cross paths last night because of questions like this from my foolish friend.
“It has nothing to do with it.” I replied.
“Oh… so there’s an it. Indeed.” And there was his smile of mischief.
“Shut up Anthonier, there is no it. Nothing happened. She came to say thank you for the access card.”
“She could not wait till morning?” He was a bit surprised like I was last night.
“Apparently, she said it may skip her memory and she did not want to be ungrateful.” I stopped for a moment and wondered if I should say the next part out loud. “I assumed something was wrong with her outing and she admitted there was.”
“What was that? Did someone try to attack her?”
“I do not know. I did not ask.”
Anthonier’s face of disbelief was a hilarious one to watch. “What do you mean by you did not ask? If she admitted, that should have been the next question.”
“I was not going to force her to speak Anthonier. She had already lied at the beginning by denying something went wrong and I hate lies, you know that. When I was finally able to verify what I had asked, I let her go so she wouldn’t have to lie to me again.”
“That would have been the best moment to extract the truth from her but so be it. She is too delicate in our case to lose. I do not support you granting her access to the general public like that.”
“She wishes to attend the food festival.”
“You have to deny the request. That is enough publicity for now.”
“I have already granted it.”
His mouth fell ajar. “…and what is she doing for you in return?”
“What?”
“You just said she did not make it into your bed last night. So what did she give you in return?”
“Nothing.”
“What happened to, a request for another? A trade? Mutual use?”
“I’m in no mood to be chastised.” He was getting on my nerves with this little game of charades.
“Well you are acting too loose with this one piece to your puzzle. We may not know how she is connected in all of this, but you act like you can risk her loss.”
“That is not it. Marina is not a prisoner. I want us to build a mutual trust if we have to work with each other and I cannot get her to trust me if I continuously refuse her request.”
“You had no problem refusing it before.”
“That was before I learned that her trust would lead to a willingness to divulge whatever information she has. She experienced a trance right in front of me and did not tell me till after she was attacked and had to explain something that led to it. Yet, I was with her. I do not want her withholding any thing relating to our pursuit and if a few events are all it takes, then she can and will attend them.”
After a nod, he changed the subject. “What about the scar? Does it still burn?”
His question caused me to remember that I needed to ask Granj what new formula he had mixed into the balm because it was very effective.
“Not at all. The balm worked like magic last night.”
Later on…
“Is there a reason your mistress is training? Is there a war my family and I should be aware of?” Grindr asked. Overlooking the windows of my office to where Saliel and Marina were sparring softly with swords.
“For her self defense” came my reply.
“Defense against what? Xanthanius, I may have ignored you and your ploys a lot but I am not a fool to believe you when you say nothing is going wrong. Neither is Rodon.”
“Good for you two, unfortunately there is nothing to divulge.”
“Are you worried about the prophecy?” His tone soft as he maintained his gaze on the two below, striking their swords against each other. “You should not be. Though I had no support in such act, your father made sure to eliminate anyone who had a remote chance of fulfilling it.”
When I said nothing again, he continued. “Even Quinestra does not possess the ability needed for it to come to pass. You are too young to worry yourself about such things. By the way, asides from we the selected few who are aware of the prophecy, the rest had met with their gods of the afterlife centuries ago. What is unknown cannot be dangerous.”
I wished to tell him how wrong he was and how dire he needed to prepare his family to defend the throne of Aspena.
But instead, I let him bask in the pool of knowledge he had.
I know he definitely meant well. Grindr was one of the trusted friends of my family, including my father. He always had our best interest at heart. But for this? He was wrong and uninformed.
Going to join him at the large windows, I came just in time to see Marina knock Saliel’s blade off his hands and point hers towards his chest. Saliel raised his hands in a playful surrender that caused her to laugh.
She laughed a lot around him.
“She’s fairly good with the sword.” Grindr commented. I could not add or subtract from that because I had not watched the full show.
“There is nothing to worry about and she is only training for self defense. I would like Rodon to rally up the next recruits before the rains start.” Letting him know that that conversation was over.
For the first time since we began talking about this, he looked to me but said nothing.