The Black Witch 9

The walk back to the mansion was silent and uneventful. The sky faded to a darker shade blue over head while the horizon behind us allowed some red to reflect off the buildings. I could not help but feel that I had crossed a cultural line that I should not have. Although in my home world what I said would have been considered crossing the line for a married man. Yet here it felt even more taboo, considering Kuri's connection with the gods for her it was tatamount to treason. The thought that I should have ended it with saying thank you made itself at home in my head. The walk was a painful one, I feared that once we returned to the mansion Kuri would disappear. I racked my head for a way to resolve this but none came to mind. An apology would be perceived as forced at this point. "Should I give her space and let her approach me about it first?" The thought appeared in tandom with desire to apologize right away. I wrestled with the double think in my head, we passed through the gates to the mansion during my internal debate. The door appeared and was opened before I could remove my head from the storm clouds.

"I am going to organize my thoughts on todays expirements, so I will be in my room for the rest of the night. Goodnight Prince Elliot." The brisque sentence hardly held any of Kuri's charm. Her goal was to create distance and I got the message loud and clear. "Hopefully there is something useful. Sleep well Lady Kuriga." I answered in kind. It pained me to affirm the distance but something told me that I should wait. With that kuri's normal confident gait had picked up a subdued nature and she left me alone. I stood in the entryway for a moment wallowing. "Well it looks like things are going rough with your dear friend Prince Elliot. My condolonces." Admist the exchange between Kuri and I the gaurds had changed. Saki spoke up as if to let me know that they had changed. "Yes, sadly it is my fault guard Saki. I am a fool who let my heart run in front of my head the second I felt comfortable." The brief explination recieved a slight sigh from the guard. "Reflect on your wicked ways. Is what I would normally say, but after the whole situation with amelia and what I heard about today. I... I will offer that patience will serve you well. Lady Kuriga seems to see something in you on some basic level, I'm sure a balance can be reached." Saki offered the advice with her normal air of matter-of-factness but the condesencion seemed to less concetrated. "Thank you for the wise counsel. By the way where is amelia? I'm sure she's still up yeah? I got her a little trinket that I think she'll like." My inquiry about amelia was part concern part getting my mind off the situation. "Follow me" Saki said with a sharp about face heading toward the back of the mansion.

For the first time a gaurd was leading me somewhere they were not obligated to lead me. Maybe it was my immagination but the steps of the guards felt a touch more relaxed. If I could put aside my thoughts of Kuri this would be momentous. Yet there was a sense of dread that appeared in the back of my head. It gently placed it's hands on my shoulder and whispered. "This was thanks to Kuri, any half way decent person would get the same reaction if they had the great Black Witch vyeing for them." Before it could drag me any deeper a small sweer voice rang out "Big brother Elliot!" I looked up to see amelia standing in her short sleeved black dress with a tiny white apron hanging off her body. "Hey kiddo" I called back. The maids and guards let out audible gasps at the familiar exchange between the prince of the nation and child maid. Amelia sat down the dirty rag she was scrubbing with and ran to me, jumping into my arms at the end. I held the innocent girl in my arms "Did you work hard today?" I proded "Yessir!" she sounded off "Did you eat your vegetables?" She grimmaced at this but let out a "Yessir!" regardless. "Were you a good girl today?" A toothy grin followed by "Yessir!" answered my final question.

"Alright in that case I got you a present." I sat her down and pulled a matching set of bracelets out. They were a simple roboust string braclet with a gem weaved into it. "If you need my help you can tap the gem three times and say 'I impore you for your help.' When you do that mine will light up and boom I'll hurry over." The girls eye shone bright enough to light the night sky. It was probably the single most expensive gift but that look told me she did not care about the price. "I'll treasure it. Thank you so much big brother Elliot." That gratitude came with a clumsy curtsey that melted any stress I felt just moments before. "This comes with a story. Once there was a shepherd boy who watched the herd animals by himself. One day he got bored and ran toward town yelling 'Wolf!' and sure enough a bunch of villagers came but there was no wolf. The boy realized this would get people to come to him so he started doing it everynight. This made the villagers angry and eventually the stopped coming. One night after the villagers started ignoring the boy a wolf showed up. So he ran to the village yelling wolf but noone came. The boy kept yelling well into the night, so the next day the villagers came to check. There they saw the boy hiding alone in a tree and all the sheep had been eaten." I turned my big brother storyteller voice on as much as I could. Amelia stared at me with wide eyes. "I understand. I will use it only when I feel I truly need you." The wisdom of the child was shocking to say the least. I smiled a soft smile and offered a pat on the head.

I looked up to see the maids half cleaning half listening. "I apologize for taking such a good worker away from you and not bringing enough gifts for everyone. I will talk to Her Higness Lora bout getting the older maids and staff some good alcohol. Don't worry I won't ask you to share with me." I accompained my dad joke with a wink but both fell flat. The maids were flabbergasted that I would apologize to them let alone speak on their behalf for a gift. I expected silence that was what I got until one young maid spoke up. "Your Highnes we appreciate you kind words and offer. However you need not curry favor with us or apologize to us." The twenty something maid mustered a lot of courage to correct a noble. The guards stayed silent at the breach of social protocol and the other maids looked fearful. "I do not need to, but I come from a family of working class. I know how hard it was back home and I'm sure its not easy here, so I want to bring joy or help where I can." The maid kept the same stern look through my explination. Her fair skin, soft features and jet black hair felt contrary to the role she had adopted. The mistrust behind that hard gaze did not soften. "Once again thank you but you need not do so." The exhasperated voice made it clear. They did not want my help, they had assumed if they accepted it would give me grounds to take advantage of them. "Very well. Alright, Amelia finish up your chores. I'll see you tomorrow." I told the child with a pat on her head. "Goodnight big brother elliot, thank you for the gift and coming to see me." She said her farewell with a forced smile and low voice.

I left the maids to their evening chores. The walk back to my room was lead by me with the guards following behind, their steps still closer and relaxed. The brief walk was spent with me feeling pity for Amelia. I know she likes me and she loves the older maids. It must be painful that we can't get along or get close. The stairs came into view as I thought of ameilas struggles. When the enterouage of guards and I made it to my bedroom door saki took a deep breath. "Commoners have on average some of the worst expierences with men that any of us had before coming here." Saki was directly behind me so I couldn't tell if that was said directly to me or an aside that was just meant to reach me. She continued with "You need more time and having that girl on your side will only help." The advice was oddly comforting. Not only did she remind me that there was hope but coming from Saki who was openly against me just a couple days ago they had merit. I turned so saki was in front of me and for the first time I saw the justice driven gaurd. She was one of the taller women at about 5 foot ten inches, with sharp green eyes and stawberry blond hair. Her face was reminscent of an actor that I was unable to remember. "Thank you gurad Saki. I'm going to take a bath so don't settle in too much." The guards nodded at the information. I've been assuaged somewhat on one problem. I still needed to think about what I would say to Kuri when the time came.