“Ashen?”
Cessilia gently woke him up. The King groaned, opening one eye slowly. Upon recognizing his lover leaning over him, he smiled and extended his arms, grabbing and pulling Cessilia onto the bed with him before she could resist. She let out a little gasp of surprise, but fell over him with an amused chuckle.
“Good morning,” he smiled, kissing her cheek.
“G-good morning,” Cessilia answered, blushing. “Ashen, you shouldn’t...”
Her resistance was an adorable tease. He kept hugging her, amused, keeping his eyes closed and imagining her embarrassed self, although he wasn’t quite sure why she seemed so shy that morning. He kissed her forehead, but Cessilia put her hands on his torso, and sat on the bed.
“Ashen,” she muttered.
“Hm?”
He opened his eyes, and finally spotted the third person’s tall figure, standing at the end of their bed.
Ashen jumped, sitting straight up in the bed, completely panicked. He had sat up so fast, he felt the injuries both in his back and on his torso painfully stirring in protest. Still, he wouldn’t have dared to lie back down. Lady Kareen was standing right there, in person, facing him with her arms crossed and a haughty expression on. Her dark eyes went down, and Ashen followed her gaze, immediately realizing he was naked. He quickly pulled the blanket over his lower half.
“...Morning, Lady Kareen.”
“Happy to see you too, young man.”
Ashen grimaced, and glanced toward Cessilia, who had a sorry expression on.
“I tried to tell you,” she muttered.
He could easily guess she hadn’t been given much choice. Lady Kareen was a woman who did not take refusals well... Embarrassed, he tried to comb his hair out of his face, and gather as much dignity as he could. Next to him, Cessilia was seated on the bed too, an amused smile on her lips.
“As much as I appreciate the view, you should get dressed, young man. I’ll take brunch outside.”
She then walked to the balcony of the suite, and simply sat on one of the chairs there as if the whole place was hers. Ashen let out a long sigh, and fell back on the bed, rubbing his eyes.
“Really sorry...”
“I forgot how unpredictable that woman could be,” he whispered back. “Anyways... I’ll get dressed.”
“I’ll go try and find us something to eat,” chuckled Cessilia.
Luckily, the triplets had left some food in the Cerulean Suite beforehand. Mostly fresh and dried fruits, biscuits, some tea, and Cessilia managed to find some jam too. Ashen also left quickly to go and find some pants, and most surprisingly, came back with some bread, eggs and dried meat.
“I live here, I know where the kitchens are,” he chuckled at Cessilia’s surprised expression.
In record time, they had managed to gather a half-decent breakfast for the demanding older lady, and place it on the balcony’s table before sitting down with her. Ashen’s nervousness was written all over his face and, amusingly, he was alternating between avoiding Lady Kareen’s eyes and staring at her. Cessilia couldn’t help but smile behind her cup of tea. She rarely got to see him so tense and intimidated by someone... However, for a while, Lady Kareen didn’t say anything. She only drank and ate quietly, graceful as always, very slowly as if she was truly taking her time with the delicacies. For a long while, no one said a thing, until Cessilia put down her cup.
“Did you have a good evening, Grandmother?”
“Oh, I did. That Dorosef girl is incredibly smart and a great entertainer. I learned a lot more from just a few minutes with her than a whole hour with some older man that kept harassing me. She’s a great match for your brother too. I hope they settle down quickly, Darsan needs a kind girl like her to tame him.”
“Right?” Cessilia smiled. “Naptunie became our friend right away, she’s incredible. And very brave too.”
“Her whole tribe is pretty interesting. They offered for me to stay with them, and I might just take them up on their offer. This place you call a castle is no good! There is not enough light, the stone work is terrible, and those long corridors make no sense!”
Cessilia and Ashen exchanged a surprised look, and not because of Kareen’s appraisal of the poor castle.
“Grandmother, you plan to stay here? For how long?”
“As long as it pleases me!” she retorted. “Why not? I’m bored in the Empire, so I might as well take a vacation here. Unless I’m not welcome?”
She asked that last sentence while staring at Ashen, her thin eyebrows dramatically arched. He smiled nervously.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you wish, Lady Kareen,” he said. “I’m just surprised you wish to stay. It will take us weeks to renovate the Capital and clean up the aftermath of the battle...”
“Darling, I’ve seen way worse than this. In fact, if you plan on having my darling granddaughter and at least one of my grandbabies staying here, I have a few things to say about how you should renovate this pigsty you call a castle; even my stables get more light than this!”
Ashen nodded helplessly. Cessilia couldn’t help but be a bit happy about her grandmother staying for a while. Lady Kareen was an incredible support, and if she planned to stay, she would definitely whip the staff into shape and get the Capital back to its former glory in half as much time as it should take!
“...At least this room is decent,” she nodded.
“I gave Cessilia the best suite in the castle.”
“That’s good.”
It almost felt like he was trying to get his in-laws’ approval already. However, Lady Kareen liked to stay an enigmatic woman, sipping her tea with very little expression on.
“Grandmother, you saw Father and Mother then?” Cessilia asked. “Are they alright?”
“Almost half their children crossed the border and didn’t bother to send any news!” Kareen exclaimed. “Of course they are worried! Oh well, it’s not like they don’t trust you. You know that silly father of yours would have come in person if his presence wasn’t needed in the north... With Kassian and Darsan both gone from their positions, it must be chaos up there, and your mother’s got the younger ones to look after. Moreover, we wouldn’t want to cause a diplomatic incident.”
“We plan to reopen the border very soon,” declared Ashen. “I will reopen the negotiations with the Empress as soon as possible–”
