Blood Shaper

Book 6: Chapter 3

Kay tapped his fingers against the thin railing that ran underneath the windows of the carriage he and Eleniah were in. The expansion of roads between Avalon’s cities had gone well and continued to progress, letting people move with vehicles and mounts and not being forced to walk between settlements. That meant they could get back to Avalon City from the port at a much quicker pace than it had once taken to walk there. Somewhere along the way the port town had gotten an official name, Breakport, referencing how the pirates that had once lived there had been broken and the port had been rebuilt into something better. Or so Kay had been told. Personally he found the name a bit jarring, but other people had complained about his naming sense so he kept his thoughts to himself.

Eleniah glanced over at him from across the carriage and noticed his impatient fidgeting. “You going to be alright?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m just worried.” He shot her a quick smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “The letters were one thing, but getting even more up to date reports when we got back… It’s not looking good.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand, holding it tight. “Don’t work yourself up. Things don’t look great, but they’re not looking terrible either. Amanda, Cindy, and Meten have managed to hold the fort down and prevent anything from getting worse. Not we just need to work together to make things better.”

Kay took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’re right.” He squeezed her hand. “I just… it feels wrong to not be there when things are going wrong, you know? I could have been helping this entire time.”

“You could have, but what would have been the consequences? It might sound a little selfish of me, but if you hadn’t left to go help the Isles my family would be gone and there would be a threat to the whole world out there gaining power.”

He reached out and grabbed her other hand. “That is not selfish of you. What it is is manipulative because you’re making me look at this in the point of view you want.”

“Oh?” She smiled and cocked a brow at him.

“I left good subordinates here and delegated the jobs that needed doing to them. All the reports we’ve gotten so far say they’ve done a great job, and I was probably the only person that could have cut those nanomachines off at the pass the way we did. I did what I could do where I needed to and the people I trusted did good jobs, proving my trust in them.” He leaned back against the wall of the carriage, still holding her hands. “I can work through the logic and see that I made the right decision, but that doesn’t completely erase the emotions that say I could have been here to help.”

“As long as you’re aware of all that I think you’ll be alright. You know,” She said after a pause, “I can’t help but to think you feeling bad right now is kind of my fault.”

“How?”

“Because if I hadn’t pushed you down this path you wouldn’t be feeling responsible for people.”

“Pfft.” Kay waved her comment away. “That’s the same level of dumb thinking that I’ve had about not being good enough instead of focusing on becoming good enough. You didn’t push me down any paths, you gave me an option and I took it. My feelings are my own responsibility. Plus, we wouldn’t be together if you hadn’t thought this was a good idea, so bonus points to you for that.”

“What do you say that?” Eleniah asked.

“Because if we had kept adventuring around just the two of us with you constantly being my teacher it would have cemented us into those roles so firmly we would never be able to get past it.”

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She looked at him consideringly, “Huh.”

“You see? I think that catalyst that let us push past that was me getting power of my own in a way that couldn’t afford to have you as a perceived authority figure above me. That let us even out as equals, which is important to any healthy relationship.”

She sat back, still looking at him. “I never thought of it like that.”

“So don’t try and feel like my feelings are your fault. Unless you deliberately try and make me feel some kind of way, then it is your fault.”

“You’ve caught me! I’m trying to make you feel lime you’ve failed people by not being there when you needed them by highlighting how you haven’t done that! The powers of my reverse psychology truly are immense!”

Kay grinned and squeezed her hands again before letting go. “I just wish we could rush ahead by ourselves, but the arguments for moving together with everyone are good ones.”

“What are those?”

“Your basic premise about why I shouldn’t be too worried is one, everyone’s doing a good job so we don’t need to be rushing at a breakneck pace and potentially make mistakes. We don’t have every part of this route completely pacified yet even with the road and regular patrols and pulling me out of the caravan means the Blood Guard leaves to, which will decrease the security for everyone else. The last big one was that getting everyone back in a timely manner will let the officials with us get back to work sooner, which means a little less work for Amanda and the rest of her people when these ones are ready to take up their previous jobs.” He scratched at his head. “I get all that, but I still want to be gone.”

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Eleniah pulled back the curtain over the window and peeked through. “Things are moving at a good pace, we should be leaving when we expected to or a little earlier.”

“That’s a small relief.”

The door swung open and someone swung themselves into the carriage, sitting next to Eleniah. Kay glanced over, expecting it to be Lauren and froze in shock when he saw who it actually was. Lauren was there, sitting next to him after the first person had cleared the doorway. After staring at the new occupant and her little smile for an extended period, Kay finally managed to kick start his brain and say something. “… What?”

The young looking human woman who was at minimum a hundred or so years older than him smiled at his confusion. “To be honest, I was hoping for a little more of a reaction than that.”

Teasing Kay was one of the best ways to get his brain working, even if it was just for a comeback and he managed to put together an actual sentence. “Miri, what the hell are you doing here!?”

“Why, I’m here to place myself into your service you majesty.” Miri, the maid and member of Clan Selthoran that he’d met back in the Seramist Isles replied evenly. “I thought you would have figured that out by now.”

“You’re here to… How was I supposed to figure anything out when you and everyone else that knew something were working together to keep me guessing. What do you mean ‘place yourself in my service’?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. You need a personal servant of some kind, someone to handle the smaller details of your life so you can focus on the big ones. My life back home was getting stagnant and becoming your aide or whatever title you wish to apply to me seemed like the perfect job for me. I have all the necessary qualifications, I’m loyal to a fault, and I’m embarking on this new life path seems like an excellent way to resume my progression with my Classes and Skills.”

Kay gaped at her, caught completely off guard.

“Do you remember the conversation we had during that dance, your majesty? The one about my goals?”

He thought back to what she was talking about and nodded to her once he remembered.

“I want to be known. Not for any silly things like scandals or heroic deeds, but for being absolutely fantastic at what I set myself to. What better spot is there for me than beside you? Not only will I get to do exactly what I want to and show everyone around how good I am at my job, I’ll be able to do that in service to someone I respect and think of as a good leader. It’s a very big win for me, and I think you get a win out of it too, especially since you won’t have to spend any of your time or anyone else’s looking for someone to take the position, since it will already be filled.”

Kay looked to Lauren who was sitting quietly next to him. “Did you know about this?”

“I figured out her goal while we were still in the Isles,” She replied. “I assumed she was going to ask for the position before we left and I thought she had a good chance of you saying yes. When she didn’t say anything and then we left I assumed that Queen Alahna had convinced her to stay or that she was going to follow after us later when recovery and repairs were done on Sel. I didn’t know she was on our ship until a week into our journey back, and I was convinced not to say anything about it until now.” She gave Eleniah some side eye when she shared that.

“You were, were you?” Kay shot his girlfriend a look. “I wonder why?”

“Because it was funny.” She smiled at him and shrugged. “I also expected Miri to ask you to let her into your service before we left, although I predicted that she was going to spring it to you on the gangplank before we departed. I also didn’t find out that she’d snuck on board until after we’d left, although she revealed herself to me on day three. At that point we weren’t going to be turning around so I thought I might as well run with it.”

“The two of you let someone sneak onto our ship and just hang out for the entire journey?”

“Of course not.” Eleniah scoffed. “Lauren and I both made her swear multiple oaths of loyalty and good behavior before either of us let her move a single inch out of striking distance. She made all the oaths without a problem and was completely honest about wanting to serve you so,” She shrugged.

“I…” Kay closed his eyes and let the emotions seep out of him. The main one was surprise, but the one after that was annoyance. Some of it was at Miri for doing this and Eleniah for enabling it, but most of it was at himself. Miri’s goal had been obvious, he’d just been too preoccupied in not wanting to see it that he hadn’t seen it. The thought of having a personal servant was still weird to him, among a number of other “perks” that came with being a king. He’d promised that he’d work past those issues and do what needed to be done though, so was any of this that bad? The prank was a little bit in bad taste with how stressed he was over what had been going on at home without him, but that wasn’t Miri’s fault since she’d had no way of knowing what they were going to find when they arrived.

Besides being mischievous and springing this on him at an inopportune moment though, Miri really was the best candidate they’d found so far, and the level of dedication necessary to uproot her entire life to enter his service was one of the qualities his people, Amanda chief among them, had been looking for.

“Fine.” Kay told her after thinking it all through. “You’re right on all counts, although I’m annoyed at how you went about this.” As he said that, he realized that that was probably the point. Miri had been quite demeaning toward those she thought weren’t worth serving, and reacting too over the top at something that was an annoyance at best, I only because of the oaths she’d sworn, would probably be a black mark in her estimation of him. Being tested by someone that was supposed to be serving him felt a little backwards, but Kay wasn’t interested in surrounding himself with simpering yes-men who would do what they were told, including stupid things.

“Alright, Miri, you’re in. You can use whatever total you want for your job, but just be warned that you’ll have to do all those oaths over again in front of Amanda and the rest of my Ministers before they’ll trust you.”

“It will assuredly take more than just oaths before they really trust me, your majesty, but I will make sure to show them that they can.” She bowed as deeply as she could to him in the confines of the carriage. “I will serve you dutifully for the rest of my days, your majesty.”

Kay couldn’t think of anything to say that would be appropriate, especially in the face of the gravitas she’d just used, so he just nodded.

“As my first official duty, allow me to report that all luggage has been loaded and the last person we were waiting for has boarded their vehicle.” Miri told him. “We will depart for Avalon City shortly.”