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🌸 A N E E L A 🌸
It rained the next day. They had planned an intimate celebration with everybody on the grounds of the Little Palace but they postponed it due to the bad weather. The Grande Palace was slowly settling itself back into its new normal after the royal wedding. Decorations were taken down, chair and tables set back and guests returned back home.
After her first official day in office as the Princess of Ravka, Aneela was gladly putting down the pen just before dinner when Genya announced to her that the urgent things were settled. With anticipation, she strolled to her best friend's room to ask her if she was up for a round of cards but found her chambers empty.
The evident act of her leave tomorrow was weighing down on Aneela. Although the shu delegation hadn't attended the wedding due to 'the royal household feeling not well', Ximen had sent the royal carriage to take Kheru back to Shu Han.
The zemini found Kheru in their salon with Shancai curled up on her lap, sleeping tightly. "Are you hiding?"
Kheru looked up from her needle work and smiled. "No, I just knew that I would get some peace here."
"Then I'll leave you to it." Aneela gave her a warm nod and wanted to close the door again.
"No, actually–" Aneela stopped in her motion and looked back at the shu Princess who gave her an excusing smile. "Could you ... sit with me for a while? We haven't done our 'alone-together-time' in ages. And I'm going to miss them a lot."
"You won't miss them because they are not going to stop."
Aneela smiled at her, closed the door and sat down next to her to watch her stitch a pattern with cats. Kheru had started working on it right after finishing Aneela's and Nikolai's wedding clothes and she had refused to tell what it was; it looked awfully a lot like a little blanket and Aneela could only wonder what exactly it was for.
"I'm sorry, I've been so busy with the whole wedding that I neglected our time together – but I will make up for it. How about we take a walk around the lake tomorrow? Well, if the weather gets better." She chuckled. "I hope we won't keep the wait; I was looking forward to the celebration in the Little Palace. The Grisha-"
"Aneela, I'm not staying."
The Princess of Ravka paused and shook her head with a worried look on her face. "Aren't you happy here? Is that why you want to leave? Did we do something to-"
"No, I am happy here. Very happy, actually. And all of you have been nothing but wonderful." Kheru put her work onto the table and pushed it away. I know that look, she is serious about it. "But I am going to leave tomorrow, just like I wrote Makhi. The carriage is here, and the horses are rested for the journey."
