The Way We Fall

Chapter 63 (Tigris)

"Wakey wakey prin-"

"I'm already awake. You walk too loud." Tigris groaned into her pillow. Roche parted the curtains with a far too cheerful hum. Tigris flopped over onto her side to glare at the offending maid. Roche had shadows staining under her eyes. Tigris couldn't help but notice that she wore the same rumpled dress from last night. "Did you spend the night in my chambers?!"

"You made a mess last night when I came to wake you, remember?" Roche huffed, looking away.

Tigris vaguely remembered tossing a few objects at Roche's head last night when she'd been awoken in the middle of the night. Surely that wouldn't take all night to clean up.

Roche shrugged when she informed her as much. "You threw three goblets of wine. I don't even know how those got into your room."

"No, that's not it." Tigris rose then, inspecting her room. There, by the curtains. The thick fabric was tangled and askew, something that Roche was desperately trying to fix. "You... slept on my floor."

Roche's cheeks darkened with a blush. "I did not!"

"You did!" Tigris insisted. Roche stamped her foot in frustration.

"Fine," the maid snapped, "If you must know, I just wanted to make sure no one would come in and ruin the floors I scrubbed so thoroughly last night."

A strange bit of warmth filled Tigris then. The maid had been guarding her. It was kind of sweet, like a puppy trying to guard a shark. Tigris chuckled. "I'm honoured, Roche, truly. But you know as well as I do that Sir Harold and Sir Caed are competent knights."

"Whatever." Roche muttered, storming into Tigris' wardrobe. "Get your royal, 'defended' butt out of that bed before you're late for your interviews."

Tigris laughed and trudged to get ready, already feeling less anxious about the attempt on her life.

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The interviews had led to no new trails. All of the knights who'd been on patrol last night had reported nothing suspicious. A few of them had seen a dark cloaked figure running about, but when they went to investigate they found nothing, like the assailant had vanished into thin air.

Roche had been glued to Tigris' side. It was starting to go from endearing to annoying. Tigris took a break from interviews for training. Hopefully the swinging weapons would deter Roche from any more of her concerned looks or glares at the knights.

Finn showed up as well. Kai slid onto the bench beside Roche. Tigris turned her attention to her knights.

"Pair up! We'll be working on hand to hand sparring." Tigris ordered. She turned to Finn, "Brother, you'll be with me."

Together, Tigris demonstrated the restraining hold they'd be practising. It was simple, a good lock around the neck and hips of the victim. The offensive side would be working the move into their takedown while the defensive side would learn how to break free from it. Tigris wished she didn't need to resort to such basics, but they'd lost a lot of knights over the past months. There were many fresh recruits mixed amongst the group that needed the practise. Tigris tried to mix the newer recruits with some of the more seasoned knights before letting them begin.

She walked among them, correcting forms and grapples.

"This is pathetic to watch."

Tigris spun around as Aodh walked up, grimacing at the sparring knights. "They shouldn't even have been knighted yet."

"You know that we're short on recruits. After the incident with the plague, nobles have been hesitant about lending their sons to the royal guard. Besides, they're probably holding back to avoid revealing their strengths before the tourney." Tigris chided gently, even if concern still fluttered in her chest like a trapped butterfly. Her mind unwillingly turned to Ivie. She'd surpassed the skill of most of the knights here. She half wished that the girl had stayed, just to show these new recruits what they could be.