Something Peculiar

Consequences

Roseanne stood in the back of the room while the King went over his plan for the attack on the Trylle palace in Förening with the army she'd assembled. The King had launched attacks on the Trylle before, some of them quite successful, and there was no reason for him to think this one wouldn't go the same way. This wasn't his last measure, though. Suzy had convinced him to hold a few things back, namely, himself and Roseanne. The Queen thought sending them into that kind of danger was unnecessary. Oren and Roseanne were the two most powerful Vittra they had, but the army that the King had mounted should be sufficient to take down the Trylle.

The Trylle had grown weak and complacent in recent years, which was part of the reason the King felt such contempt for them. So the King wouldn't give the attack all he had. He didn't think he would need to. He knew enough of Trylle society to know that the girl's coming-out ball would be soon, and he had spies in neighbor camps that could tell him exactly when it would be. The King could go after her before that, when security was more lax at the Trylle palace, but he wanted to make a big show of it. He wanted all the trolls from every tribe to know exactly how powerful he was, so he planned the attack for that night, even though there would be far more Trylle guards on duty.

After the meeting ended, the King went out with his Vittra army to work them on a few training exercises. Since Roseanne wouldn't be going on the mission, she stayed behind, leaning against a bookcase in the back of the King's chambers.

"How are you holding up?" Suzy asked when it was only the two of them in the room.

"Oh, you know, as well as I always do after a good beating." Roseanne smirked at her, and she pursed her lips.

She walked over to her and out her hand on her side, meaning to heal her form where the King had kicked her, but Roseanne squirmed away her touch.

"Rosé, I know how strong the King is. Better than anyone," Suzy said.

Over the years, she'd seen her with her fair share of bruises, probably even more than Roseanne herself had earned from the hands of the King. She glanced over at her bit quickly looked away.

"I'm fine," she insisted, even though she wasn't.

"You should let me heal you." She stepped closer to her, but she just moved away. "You might have a ruptured organ or a broken rib why wont you let me help you?"

"Because." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. " I deserve it."

"Roseanne, you can't mean that. You know you don't deserve it. Oren lashes out over everything, and you can't take it to heart."

"But I should've helped them," she said quietly. "Chanyeol and Jeongyeon. Oren told me to. He said they couldn't handle it. And I knew it. But I didn't help them enough. I knew that she would get away."

"You couldn't have known that," Suzy said, trying to reassure her.

"No, I did." She paused. "I even hoped for it."

Da-hee's jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "Roseanne!"

"Oh, come on, Da-hee!" Roseanne looked at her, exasperated. "I know how much you want that girl, but what good will it do bringing her here? Do you think it will make your life better? Or the King's?"

"We'll both be happier," Suzy said, but she lowered her eyes. "Everything's better when the King is happy."

Roseanne laughed darkly. "You really think she'll make him happy? I've lived under the service of the King my entire life, and in twenty-three years, I've never seen him happy. Nothing makes him happy."

"You don't understand." Suzy shook her head and stepped away from her. "And I can't believe you'd purposely let her get away."

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Roseanne asked. "The King will treat her the same way he does to you or me, and you know it. For once I wanted to see somebody get away. I wanted somebody to escape from the trap you and I are stuck in."

Suzy kept walking away from Roseanne, the train of her long red gown dragging on the floor behind her. Her black hair had been pulled back in severe ponytail, the way she usually wore it. She did everything she could to seem as strong and imposing as her husband, but there was something soft and frail about her.

Sometimes Roseanne was surprised that the King had not broken her, but when she looked back at her, her brown eyes swimming with tears, Roseanne realized that he had. Physically, she may have looked the same, but inside, Suzy wasn't the same woman she'd met fourteen years ago.

"You don't understand," she said emphatically. "The Princess will change things, and not just for me. For all of us. She has that power."

"Susy." Roseanne sighed and stepped over to her. She put her hands on her bare arms, and she stared up at her, her lips quivering. "You've been trying to change things since you married Oren, and I've been trying to for as long as I can remember. But nothing we do makes anything better. He's never going to relinquish his power. And one girl isn't going to change anything for us."

"Maybe you've given up, but I haven't." She wiped at her eyes and pulled away from her. "I will never stop believing that we can be better."

"I'm not . . ." She trailed off. "Never mind."

"But I don't understand. If you think you did the right thing letting her get away, then why did you say you deserved what Oren did to you?"

"Because of all that mess out there." Roseanne motioned vaguely to the door, through which they could hear the grunts and groans from the soldiers. "They're going to war over her. People will get hurt, some even killed, and I could've just brought her back and avoided this whole thing."

"Yes, you could've," Suzy snapped. "You don't ever think anything through.

She groaned and flopped into one of the King's chairs. "I don't need lecture, Suzy. You're not my mother."

"Your mother was a good woman, and she'd give you a lecture much more than this one," Suzy shot back. "You have to stop being so rash. The things you do have consequences."

"I was trying to do the right thing!"

"You thought letting her getting away would be the right thing?" Suzy asked dubiously.

"Kind of, yeah," she admitted.

Suzy rubbed her forehead, as if talking to her gave her a headache. "You're so foolish sometimes."

"I screwed -"

"I don't wanna hear it!" Suzy shouted suddenly and held her hand up to her. "You let her get away! And that's unforgivable."

Roseanne didn't say anything. Her voice trembled with hurt, and she couldn't take that away. Swallowing hard, she stared down at her lap and let her finish.

"This attack on the Trylle should work," Suzy said. "But if it doesn't, you will do whatever the King asks of you to bring her back. No, that's not enough. You will do anything and everything you need to do, even if that means going above and beyond the King's orders. Because so help me, Roseanne, if you let her get away again, I will not stand in the way of his wrath upon you." She took a deep breath. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes," she said quietly, still looking down.

"Roseanne?" Suzy snapped. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes!" She lifted her head, and she could see the conviction in her eyes. She would let the King kill her of she didn't bring back the Princess.

"Good." She smoothed back her hair and looked away from her. "Now get yourself together. They could use you for their training exercises."

Roseanne did as she was told, too afraid to argue with her. The bizzare part was that she'd told her the truth because she thought she'd understand. She thought she'd agree with her that she'd did the right thing by letting the Princess escape from all this, but Suzy was too blinded by her own needs. With no allies, Roseanne had no choice. If the King didn't get the girl with this attack, Roseanne would have to get her later.