“Archer?” Novia had been watching from her balcony. A part of her was happy when she saw them together. For a second she was sure that Archer wouldn’t go with the scouts, and the romantic in her was thinking of a double wedding. She flew down to her brother’s side when she saw the deep frown on his face. Gently she put his arm on his shoulder and felt bundled up muscles tense up. “It’s just me.”
He wasn’t used to people sneaking up on him. But that one single act from Adalia had numbed his senses. Archer turned around to his little sister and tucked and unusually stray hair behind her ear. “Hey little one. I hadn’t seen you there.”
“You look at her as if you love her.”
Archer took this as his cue to leave. He picked up his swords, bow and arrows and headed towards the palace.
“If you love her why are you leaving?” She didn’t need him to answer. She saw him wince as if a dagger had been driven into his heart when she raised the issue of love. But if he loved her and Adalia clearly had some sort of feeling towards him, why wouldn’t they just take their vows as arranged. “Why not take your vows with Randi and me.”
He turned to look at her. He had a deep concern on his sister’s naive view of love. But he was glad that she would get her chance to love without hurting first. Sucking in a long deep breath, he pulled her into his sweaty arms and put a kiss on top of her head. “It’s because I think I am falling in love with her Novia.”
Archer dropped his arm from his sister’s shoulder and walked past her, leaving her with a perplexed look on her face.
Novia never saw her constant involvement in her brother’s life as meddling. She was concerned. She was doing her sisterly duty by trying to remedy whatever was bothering her brother.
“I will just ask her,” she mumbled to herself a determined look canvassing her usually delicate features.
Adalia was pacing in the grand room assigned to her. She was in a panic. Grasping at the little memories and images dancing in front of her of the moment she had just shared with Archer, she was trying to make sense of it all. She didn’t understand the pita-patter of her heart, the butterflies in her belly and her inability to breathe. That small pocket of time that she shared with Archer, gave her the illusion that they were the only two living beings in all the six realms. She inhaled as she shook her head in an attempt to clear it. But when that didn’t work she buried her head in her bath water.
Novia walked into the room just in time to see Adalia submerge her head in water. Terrified she rushed to her side and pulled her head out by her hair.
“Ow!” Adalia groaned. She felt her head being forcefully being tugged behind by her hair. Sure the roots of her hair had long unplugged from her head, her hand flew to retrain the one causing the baldness. “That hurts.”
“What do you think you are doing?” Novia grabbed a cotton towel from the bed frame and threw it over Adalia’s head. She then went ahead to rub it into her skull, towel drying her head.
Adalia winced as she felt what was left of her jet black hair being pulled into the towel. She was sure; if she hadn’t been bald then she was now. “Novia, I can do it myself,” she pulled away and moved a few paces away from her assailant.
“What do you think you were doing?” Her hands were at akimbo and her foot tapping under her puffy organza dress. The scowl on her face didn’t suit her and for some reason it made Adalia laugh.
“You should wear your face like that more often. It’s hilarious,” she let her hair down and massaged her fingers into her scalp.
“You didn’t answer my question. What were you doing?” she repeated with an exasperated huff.
What was she doing? She didn’t have any answers and if she had she wouldn’t have had her head under water, literally. Figuratively her head of late had been constantly trying to stay above water, but she always seemed to sink a bit deeper after every second she spent with Archer.
“I was trying to wash my hair,” she lied. But the ashy blonde, raised eyebrow told her that she hadn’t sold it. “Do you think I would try to drown myself in a basin?” She tried to laugh the suggestion away hoping Novia would also see how ridiculous the thought was.
“Alright then,” she relaxed her stance and began what she had set out to do in the first place. “What’s going on between you and my brother?”
The questions seemed to be giving her sucker punches one at a time, knocking the wind out of her and every thinking cell in her head out of her ear. Adalia said the first thing that jumped into her battered mind,
“Nothing!”
Technically it was the truth and she wasn’t exactly lying. She was just omitting some truth. But what had prompted the question. “Why do you ask? Did he say something?” she found herself crossing her fingers behind her back. She knocked her heels together and waited for the magic words.
“Actually he did. He loves you-,”
“He loves me!” She exclaimed.
“-yes,” Novia watched Adalia’s expression carefully but she found herself even more confused. “But what I don’t understand is why you two won’t just take your vows.”
“It’s a bit complicated,” Adalia moved towards the window, hoping she would catch a glimpse of Archer. But he wasn’t there.
“Are you going to tell me what it is about?”
“No,” she turned around to face her. Adalia shrugged her shoulder in defeat. How was she to explain something she didn’t understand herself? Less than two days ago all she wanted to be was a warrior princess. She didn’t want to be tied down by the duty of her marriage to Archer. Then she thought that she wanted Xander but now she didn’t know what she wanted anymore. “Do you mind leaving me for a while? I need to get cleaned up.”
Novia bowed her head in acknowledgement and left Adalia to drown alone in her quagmire.