Comforting A Rose In Tears

When Lady Karina came to, it was dark as night had already fallen. She was lying on her belly, slowly opening her eyes to see flickering flames against the wall like dancing shadows. It took her a few minutes to orientate herself, realising she was in her own bed and that the sun had set.

The strange events of the day came crashing down on her and she stirred, grunting, when a bolt of pain shot through her left shoulder.

"Have you awakened, darling?" A soft voice greeted her.

Lady Drosera's sweet face and light hazel eyes were suddenly in her line of sight.

Confused and slightly startled, Lady Karina blinked as if contemplating whether the woman was an apparition or not.

"Rose?" Lady Karina murmured, hardly believing that the lady was still alive and well since the last she could remember was Lyall intending to cut her down without mercy. "How…what are you doing here?"

Lady Drosera held a cool cloth in her hand, using it to wipe down the portion of Lady Karina's face that wasn't pressed down into the mattress.

"I am tending to you, darling," Lady Drosera said with a smile before she looked off to her right, into the darkness of the chamber. "Kairie, bring me the broth, dear. Perhaps Lady Rina is able to eat something now."

Lady Karina grunted again as she shifted her body, trying to gain a look at her surroundings.

"What happened?" She muttered, still struggling to regain her senses. "My…my shoulder. Is it…?"

Lady Drosera spoke again, "Van Merikh's surgeon tended to it." She received the broth from the petite servant. "It was not deep enough to warrant stitches, but it will undoubtedly leave a scar."

Lady Karina frowned.

She had clearly warned Van Merikh that she didn't want his surgeon to lay a finger on her.

"His surgeon?" Lady Karina repeated, her tone gaining strength. "I clearly told him I did not want anyone touching me."

How dare he go against her wishes?

Lady Drosera sighed heavily when Lady Karina shook her head at the bowl of broth, refusing to eat.

"Van Merikh would not listen to you, Rina," she said. "He was forced to kick down your door when you bolted it and afterwards he brought me up here after the surgeon had treated your wound. He ordered me to tend to you while you recovered."

How very noble of him, but Lady Karina did not think he was owed even an ounce of gratitude.

Lady Karina forced herself to sit up but wasn't entirely successful at doing so.

"I do not need to be taken care of." She managed to roll over onto her right elbow. "Rose, where had they taken you after I was wounded? Tell me what happened."

Lady Drosera set the bowl aside on a wooden table next to the bed, tears springing to her eyes that were already sore and red from weeping too much.

"Kairie and the servants brought me to the kitchens." She closed her eyes tightly, letting the tears slip. "They gave me wine to calm me down somewhat. At least…at least I had stopped screaming."

Lady Karina reached out to touch her arm. "Rose, I am so terribly sorry," she apologised, now verging on tears of her own. "What Van Merikh and his knights have done... it is unthinkable. I had tried to speak with them but... they simply told me that this was the way of war. Their way of war."

Lady Karina did not understand how someone could be so ruthless and unforgiving. It was almost unnatural how Van Merikh did not bat an eye at spilling blood, nor did he show mercy if asked.

What man could be so heartless?

Something did not sit right with Lady Karina.

There had to be something more to Van Merikh that would explain his brutality. Not something to justify it, but something to explain it.

Lady Drosera's tears filled her eyes and spilt over her round cheeks again. "They took my son." She choked out. "I have not seen him since. And Dane…"

She weeped softly.

Lady Karina struggled into a sitting position and wrapped her uninjured arm around her friend, the one that wasn't hampered by a painful wound.

Like Van Merikh, she was at a loss as to what else she should have done.

"I am so sorry, my dear friend." Lady Karina wept along with her, offering as much sympathy as she could. "I did not know that such atrocities had even existed. All our lives we had only ever known peace... I never stopped to think that horrors like this existed."

No one could have prepared Lady Karina for such dark times.

Although her father had been cautious due to the secrets their bloodline held, she did not think that anyone would seek out those myths.

Lady Drosera sobbed into her shoulder. "If only we could bury my sweet Dane. He does not deserve to be strung up on a pole for all to look upon. My darling Dane... he was a magnificent knight."

Something churned in Lady Karina's chest. She too remembered the days of old when she had only seen nothing but love between Sir Dane and his beloved Drosera.

She never believed the two would come to bear such a fate.

"Aye, he was a great knight," Lady Karina agreed, struggling to dry her tears; they weren't doing any good for Lady Drosera.

What she needed was to formulate a plan—something to release them all from their suffering.

"And we will indeed bury him; have no fear," Lady Karina affirmed, finding her bearings on her mind. "We will bury them all."

Lady Drosera lifted her head to look at her courageous friend, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "But how, Rina? How can we accomplish that when the devil himself has control over us?"

Lay Karina's emerald eyes were intense with thought. She was the chatelaine of Moonveil, after all. And it was her sacred duty to aid her vassals and friends, to right the wrongs, and do the best she could to champion them.

Van Merikh had created hell when he commandeered her beloved castle and brought her people to complete despair.

Something had to be done.

She had to do something.

"Do not fear or worry, dear friend." Lady Karina assured her friend softly. "I will do what needs to be done."

Lady Drosera did not seem entirely convinced, but she knew her old friend to be quite the persistent lady.

Perhaps there was some hope.

"Rina, what will we do about the...the magical beasts below the keep?"

Lady Karina's expression dimmed under the flickering candlelight.

"We must find a way to relocate them, Rose," she stated with conviction, her right hand clenching into a fist as she looked down. "Come what may, we must conceal those beasts and our abilities at all costs."

Lady Drosera looked at her old friend as if she spoke madness.

"Relocate them? This keep is crawling with Van Merikh's knights," the petite brunette whispered, fearing that one of the enemy knights might have been lurking around outside to eavesdrop. "They are at every turn and corner."

"We will find a way," Lady Karina reassurred, inhaling a deep breath. "I will not rest until all is well."