Story of Kings

Chapter 29

The others looked at her with hesitation and confusion, but Kane was shocked. "How could you know such a thing?" He asked as he looked at the small girl with renewed interest.

With all eyes on her, Amelia began to stammer again. "Uh- I- um. You- I could tell because, I mean, you're hurt," was all she managed to say.

"Bound? What does that even mean?" Marcus asked. "And who exactly are you to know all this?" He directed towards Amelia.

Amelia looked like she had been caught in a trap, but Kane let out a loud sigh to steal the attention in the room. "Marcus, do we really need to go through this again?"

Evelyn stifled a laugh while Marcus glanced around the room. "No," he said after looking around, all eyes on him. "I know. I know," he repeated when he saw disbelief and suspicion on everyone's features. "She's an angel, right? That's it. Amelia is an angelic healer. I knew that, she just- she has a lot of random knowledge, like what does being 'bound' mean? Why does she know all these things that are being brought up for the first time?" Marcus then sat down, looking more than a little defeated. "It seems a little too convenient is all."

"Don't sweat it, Marcus, you're just easy to tease," Evelyn said, a grin on her face from ear to ear. She then glanced over to Amelia and couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. The poor girl was looking at everyone with wide, fear-filled eyes. Things weren't going like Evelyn thought they would so Amelia would be utterly lost and afraid, it would be the least she could do if she smoothed things over.

"Anyway, yeah, Amelia is an angel," she said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile to the younger girl. "Last night I went into the angel compound as a Valkyrie when the commotion went down, the distraction was too good to pass up. I went in there to find Kane's wife but as it turns out, she was never there. Amelia, here, found me though. She noticed my wound and as the resident healer, came to help. To say the least, I noticed her, uh, disdain for the other angels and pressed her a little. Realized she needed saving, more or less. Sorry for making the decision on my own to bring her in but it was do or die, and as an angel myself I knew what she felt." She then tilted her head to Azmal. "He knew about it, though. I talked with Azmal before heading out, he didn't mention Amelia was at the barracks, but he figured what happened was what was going to happen."

The attention of the room then shifted to Azmal. "You knew she was going topside, and you didn't tell me?" Ruhden asked, searching for an answer from his old friend to understand.

Azmal gave a slight bow of his head. "You had already headed to the surface with Marcus," he said with a wave of his hand to the younger man before raising his cup of tea to take a drink.

"And you didn't feel the need to tell me they were already on a mission up there? Would have saved us a lot of trouble." Evelyn asked next, her cold stare and tone fixed upon the old man.

Azmal paused his cup just before his lips, frozen for a moment before looking to the Valkyrie. "I assumed you knew of the mission, that you would be meeting up with the other three before going your own way." His eyes flicked to Ruhden before returning to Evelyn. "I'll admit the part I had to play in the events of the night, but the point of this meeting was to discuss all of our miscommunications. We each didn't mention one small detail, all based on the assumptions that the others would know or otherwise it could be shared later. I may know a lot more than I let on, I am the spymaster, but I would not let my trusted allies jeopardize themselves and our organization to retain my mystique."

"Ruhden and Marcus planned a mission without communicating to Evelyn because they couldn't find her, Azmal thought Evelyn knew, and Evelyn never knew anyone was up on the surface," Kane cut in with an annoyed expression on his face, his tone becoming hostile. "And for my part, none of you really know me and I've kept it that way. So, does everyone know where to direct their frustrations at, now?" He then directed his focus back to the small angel, letting out a deep breath to try to release his tension. "Amelia, was it? How can you know that?"