A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 80-81

Jono 12th,3330 A.G

Home- as she looked up at it, she knew what to call this place. What she should have been able to call house Ashhand- were it not for the place being dust.

  As Maude walked through it's streets, she weren't surprised to hear people whisper. She were respected here, so her absence hadn't gone unnoticed- she just wished she'd taken a different entrance. For every time she made eye contact with someone they'd slightly bow their head as a sign of their respect, and it grew tiring after a while.

When she reached the square, she took another few moments to simply look around. Here, there were no mother who'd lied to her all her life. Here, there were no father who'd beat her siblings every chance he got.

  Here.......

  The presence of giants by the front entrance were comforting. Maude smiled for half a moment as she imagined saying that sentence to some ebonian who lived a hundred years ago; how they'd call on a witch to check her head. At times she thought of doing that herself, to make sure this weren't all some fucked up dream- then the more logical part of her brain would take over.

  If it were all a dream, she wouldn't have so quickly realized how stupid she once were.

  You wanted to be a warrior- to be remembered as such at least. She imagined the faces of those she killed with the barrel bomb in Sharean, those she'd struck down with her own hands and the faces of their families. She could not wipe them from her head, no matter how she tried.

  And so she'd stopped trying. Nowadays she just pushed through, no longer pretending to be the emotionless rock a younger Maude had hoped she'd remain. She could only be grateful that her tolerance for the cold and inability to forget things had remained- she thought before making that final step.

  Or rather the final few, towards a conversation she weren't particularly thrilled to have.

  Inside the main home, she were treated nearly the same as outside of it- with the exception of a few servants who insisted they'd fetch her things and prepare a bath. The queen's circle were sharing a meal in the small hall, one told her- so she changed directions and lingered outside of it when she got there.

  In that moment, she heard more laughter than she were accustomed to hearing from those people. Not that she blamed them with some of the things they'd seen- she were simply curious.....

  But curiosity would not tell the queen of her discoveries. At best, curiosity would only make her laugh too- and she weren't in a laughing mood. So she strode right in, taking in the table for only a moment. On it were a simple feast; bread, butter, jam, olives and fruit and sausage, eggs, corn porridge, Jarred pears and lemon cakes and wine. Around it were, as the servant had said- the queen's entire circle.

  Renard sitting to her right, Andre across from him with Ysmen and Andruche on either side of them, even Tuyon and Uwen were beside him- then Eudo and the woodworker who'd crafted Nara and Renard's thrones were across from them.

  The laughter quickly faded as they all saw her, simply from the shock. They hadn't known when to expect her back, and they certainly hadn't expected her that evening- but it were Andre who stood first. Andre, who were the best substitute she had for an older brother in this place. Renard were next in line, then Ysmen and Andruche- Eudo looked like he thought about hugging her but decided against it.

  And she tolerated these hugs with as straight a face as she could manage; all while Nara sensed something from her.

  She didn't leave suddenly with only a very vague note to say where she'd gone for her to have no news upon returning.