Asha never met with the king. It was odd, she expected some sort of direction or gesture of congratulations, but the royal couple had retreated with the end of the tournament. Sakina was indifferent to the breach in etiquette, she was too elated from her daughter's success. Of course, she would have preferred that she hadn't flirted with ill fortune by summoning that atrocious eye, but it was easy to forgive in lieu of the outcome. She spent the rest of the event fawning over Asha, turning to those familiar faces in the stands and praising her as loudly as she could. Every boast felt like a knife in the girl's gut. No matter what wondrous scenes played out in the arena below, Asha's fear was always there. It felt like a snake wrapped around her throat, hissing in her ear as it squeezed tighter and tighter. The girl had to stand up and walk away often, it was getting hard to breathe.
When the final act bowed, it was a relief to get up and move with the dissolving crowd. A short ten feet to the exit, and freedom beyond, a smartly dressed man stopped her. He was clad in white and blue, and on his chest he bore the kingdom crest, "Asha, I presume," he spoke with a formal air.
"Yes indeed!" her mother interjected, "This is my daughter, Asha, apprentice to the royal family."
The girl cringed.
"Ah," the man cleared his throat, "Well, I was instructed to give you this," he revealed a small scroll with golden edges, "It's your summons."
Asha accepted the parchment, fighting to keep her hand from shaking as she took it from the attendant's open palm.
"You will have an escort meet you at your residence when the sun resides in the northeast. Is that understood?"
Both mother and daughter shook their heads.
"Magnificent, now I also must issue you a personal apology from the king. He regrets that he cannot meet you this evening as he is busy with other matters. However, he wished me to congratulate you on his behalf and to apologize for any bodily injury that may have occurred in the ring. It was not his desire to harm, only to challenge," the page inclined his head in a slight bow, "Do you accept?"
"Oh...yes...yes of course," Asha's tongue stumbled out.
The attendant gave a quick nod than bid them farewell before marching off to other tasks.
The mother and daughter made their way home. All the while Sakina was jabbering and clapping her way down the street. Asha wished she could match her mother's energy, but between the bull fight and her building anxiety, even smiling was a chore. But she did it anyway, a small part of her happy that she could bring joy to those distant eyes, even if only for a day.
The girl blinked, waving away the thought. Why only a day? Surely, she could bluff her way through for a little while longer? She squared her shoulders, maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe even a year. However long she had, she would make it count. If only to give her family a little happiness. It would have been what Papa would have wanted.
They crossed the threshold of the house one after the other. Entering with the usual rituals. The inside of the house was dim. The fuzzy outline of Sabino could be seen, still sitting in his same stool.
"Baba?!" Sakina scolded as she scurried over to the nearest window and threw back the curtains, "Have you been sitting in the dark all day?"
"Too much sunlight hurts these old eyes," he grumbled. In his hands was a small bit of rope which he'd been worrying the past several hours. His fingers were currently untying the knot he had created only moments before the mother and daughter returned.
Asha went over to the old man and rested her hand over his, stopping his handiwork, "I missed you at the tournament today, Baba."
"Ah mijita, you know how these legs of mine are. Too long of a distance and too many stairs..." he looked upon his granddaughter and paused. Tremoring fingers reached up, his hand patted her cheek, "What a woman you're growing into. I'm sure you were the envy of the event, no matter how poorly it went-"
YOU ARE READING
Of Stardust and Wishes (A Wish Rewrite)
Fanfiction"Salvē!" The golden specter repeated. She was in shock. That had to be it. All that tossing around in the water must have shaken her insides around enough to make her see things. She blinked a few times, but he was still there, looking even more con...
