June 10th 2013, 4:?? PM
There was a hole in her father’s head.
It wasn’t a very large hole. A third of an inch? A quarter?
His face was covered in blood and… and goop from the hole.
He was dead.
Those were the facts. He didn’t seem to be saying anything; there were no last words. Insofar as his expression could be made out, it was relaxed. She supposed that made sense, since he wasn’t thinking anything any more.
There were people running around. Some of them were their siblings. The new Palatine was going towards them.
Elgolian was moving towards her.
“Princess, you must go.”
She stared at him. It was just words.
“Now,” he said.
“My father is dead,” she said. It was the Important Fact. Every other fact in the world was a subset of it.
“Yes,” said Elgolian. “But you still live, and I would you did tomorrow, and all other days afterwards.” He reached out to take the Tyrant’s body from her, and she let him lower it to the ground with his usual grace, before taking her by the hand.
She followed, stumbling, not quite comprehending, as he made his way through the crowd, pulling her along with him. Yes, there was a crowd. She supposed. But her father was dead.
He led her to the car. She stared at it. It was larger than she was, but not enormously. She was in armor. She wasn’t very tall, but the armor still added a foot onto her height.
It took them some minutes to get her packed into the back seat, with Elgolian driving. Even then, she couldn’t get her seatbelt on. You were supposed to wear a seatbelt when you were in the car.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
There was an itch in her brain. It said this was silly. But that was all. Her father was dead.
The itch got worse as they drove, but it didn’t matter.
Her father was dead. Both of her parents were dead.
There was something really, really important she was missing. Her siblings. They’d run off. Before her father died, they were killing each other. Thoughts gradually coalesced. They were going to go back to killing each other.
This was obviously a very, very bad thing. But -
- - -
I, Catherine Balog, swear to yield all my claims to the throne of Novapest, desiring no role in governance nor politics, which I here forfeit -
- - -
She had sworn to her father not to interfere in politics, and he was dead. She couldn’t break her word. She’d just interfered, and it had gone very badly, and now she couldn’t do it again.
She continued staring off into space.
She was in her room, staring at the wall. She was out of her armor, which was up against her wall, looking like a dead body peeled open and stripped of its innards. How had that happened?
There was a call on her cell phone. She ignored it. Her father was dead. She looked down at the cover of the book she’d been reading, a year or a day ago. There was a picture of a man walking through a mirror on it, but it was otherwise very spare. Back through the mirror she wanted to go.
Out. Away. Leaving -
Wait.
The call.
There was something very important she’d been missing.
Her siblings were going to go back to war. This was inevitable. There was nothing at all she could do about it, and she wasn’t allowed to even if she could because she’d given her word.
The call.
Mercy. Junia. Had she had the sense to -
It was like being hit in the face with cold water, and she fumbled to get her phone out of her pocket. The call wasn’t from Mercy, it had been from Jay. But Jay wasn’t in any real danger; he wasn’t a fighter, he wasn’t a threat, he knew how to stay out of trouble.
But Mercy had been going to talk to Junia because they’d been friends ever since Junia got an Idealist awakening, and Junia was a fighter and a threat and had no idea how to stay out of trouble and was dating Julius and Lizzy would kill her just to see her die even if she weren’t his Captain of the Guard and her death would weaken him and this wasn’t meddling in politics this was saving her friend.
She dialed Mercy’s cell number. Straight to voicemail.
“Mercy, watch out, my father’s dead, Lizzy’s coming for you -”
Then she hung up and dialed the home phone.
Patience caught it after two rings.
“Universal solvent corporation container research division, this is Patience speaking, how may I help you?”
“Patience, this is important, is Mercy at home?”
“No, she went off to some meeting with Junia -”
“I need to find her, fast. Do you know where?”
“Uh, some county. The eighth.”
“Thanks,” Catherine said as she hung up.
She looked at the armor. Did she have time?