Long Suffer the King

VI

There's nearly a hundred people, Ophelia realizes, living here. The pavilion surprisingly fits all of them, with the exception of kids running around. She looks for a familiar face and sees Klaus standing at the edge of the pavilion drinking from a cup. She walks over and smiles. "Quite a community."

"We tend to get along." he answers, looking at her. "Have you made a decision?"

"I might of. Joan was convincing enough." she leans against the tent pole. Klaus chuckles. "She has a way with convincing others. I fear her persuasive manner sometimes." they both watch as Joan comes through, a path being made for her and children running around her. Ophelia wishes she had the charisma Joan had in that moment, smiling and talking to her people. I need to be a queen like that

"She's a good woman. Her family abandoned her when she was three. Joan wanted to make sure people didn't feel as lost as she was back then. Kind of how this all started, this group of misfits." he sips on whatever is in the cup and Ophelia eyes him warily. "Why did they abandon her?"

"They were being hunted by the king's men. I guess her mother knew they were all going to die and didn't want her daughter to serve the same fate. So with that in mind she left her daughter near a temple and left. Joan was taken in by a group of women who served the moon. She was raised to be nothing but kind." he continues. Ophelia stares at the leader, picturing her as a young girl learning her religion and history. She can see her being scolded when she tries to sneak an extra piece of bread or having to do another hour of labor around the temple because she missed a prayer session.

"She turned eighteen and left the place behind. Tired of living in the same place for too long, I'm assuming. Maybe she grew out of their religious beliefs. Either way she was gone just like that, traversing the country. Had a couple run ins with the law, petty theft. Had to do it to survive she was completely run dry of money. Something I'm sure you court folk don't know anything about.

"Anyways, she was lost for some time on her own, didn't really know what to do, but that's where I come in." he grins. Ophelia glances at him and then back to Joan. She felt conflicted, not knowing how to react to the fact Joan and Klaus had been around one another for a while. Her mouth sets in a thin line as she listens to him carry on.

"We banded together, two kids lost on their own with nothing but a bag to share full of stale bread and nearly rotten apples. I told her about this mage in the kingdom that had been sentenced to die long ago but he somehow escaped and was living in seclusion somewhere. Joan didn't really believe me about the mage part but she was interested in finding this man. So we set out to find him."

"Did you?" Ophelia asks. A mage from the kingdom? Klaus wasn't much older than her, she was assuming, but mages had been banned from the kingdom for decades. Unless her father never told her anything...

"Aye, we did. He was living around his area actually. And was more of a prophet than a mage. Quite honestly thought he was anosognosia the way he talking about prophecies and the future, prophets were from stories. That is until he started telling us what we needed to do when you came around." Klaus hiccups. Ophelia's head has never moved faster to look at someone. "What?"

"He went on babbling about how you were going to seek our help and how we needed to be there for you when the time came. Had Joan in hysterics about it. He told her about this empty area in the woods where people would come to run away from the king. Said that's where we'd find you in a matter of years. Sure enough it's true. She came here not long after we talked to him and found this group of people. Took care of them and started having an order of things. Just sort of happened that she became leader to them. She cares a lot for every single one." he sets his cup down once he's done.