Irene's father sized her up for a mont at such a complicated question. It was sothing he didn't quite want to face, but he knew it was bound to happen, considering it felt as if her returning to the Duke's Tower was like sending her into a pit of lions. Never before had he worried that there was soone there noticing that his daughter wasn't a small man but a beautiful woman. Most knights there understood where they were allowed to stand with her.
However, now…
Not only was he certain the Commander loved his daughter, but based on the blush that heated up Irene's cheeks, he now believed that Irene returned at least so of the feelings. How complicated this had just beco.
Arthur cleared his throat before responding, "The only ti I've seen a man looking more in love than the Commander was while dancing with you was when I first saw myself in the mirror after visiting your mother." His words were punctuated with a hearty laugh. "Though, I suppose I should ask, how do you feel about the Duke, my sweet child? I don't think you would be here like this if there wasn't sothing you were figuring out as well."
Irene placed her hands on her cheeks, knowing she had been found out all too easily.
"I don't know, father," she uttered, mortified, and using the na he didn't prefer her use. "I've never felt like this before. I don't like feeling so scattered like this."
Arthur stood up to approach his daughter.
"If you don't know right now, you should be trying to figure it out," Arthur explained, placing his remaining hand on her shoulder. "Don't waste an opportunity."
He was coming to accept that she was an adult and he wouldn't be able to control everything she did—as if he ever could in the first place. It also helped that he held a positive opinion over their new Duke. The man was honorable and eager to do anything it took to be good for Chemois. If he could be so receptive and understanding to Irene, was there more Arthur could ask for?
As Arthur was lost in his thoughts while looking down at his daughter, he was quickly taken out of his head when he saw her expression fall. She then wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest.
"I don't want to leave your side, dad," she uttered. "What if sothing happens?"
He hated that the mont she learned that he was sick, she started treating him so carefully. Now he was what was blocking her from returning to the knighthood, it seed.
He gently pulled her away so that she would look at him.
"I promise you that if sothing changes, I'll find a hawk or a mage to send you a letter," he assured her. "If this illness is what takes from the earth, I want to experience at least one of my children knowing what it feels like to be hopelessly in love the sa way that I am."
Irene stared up at her father with a further reddening face.
"Who says that's what I am!?" she demanded. "That is too far, father!"
However, her insistence only made him more amused as he patted her head, treating her like a small child as if he hadn't just nudged her to return to her duties so that she could see if she and the Commander were an unexpected match.
Shortly after that, Irene was distracted enough from her worry about her father to storm out of his study and busy herself with other tasks.
Thinking she might like to burn off so steam, she stalked out the back entrance and towards the practice yard, but everywhere she looked was mud. It was even worse than when she was out with her brother first thing in the morning since the sun was higher in the sky.
Now that she was feeling quite pent up, of course there wasn't a place she could run to. Instead, she decided to occupy the space in the library and find a different sort of escapism.
A new schedule was ford as Irene occupied the practice yard in the morning when it was still mostly frozen and usable. She would then go to the library with her brother.
For once in their lives, they were able to sit in the sa room together silently without bickering. They were both growing up in the most unexpected of ways, but being forced to by their surrounding circumstances.
However, with each passing day, Irene knew that her ti in the central region was coming to a close.
There was going to be about a week or so between the ground drying up and the spring rains falling from the heavens. She needed to plan her escape perfectly or the trails would be too dangerous to travel.
With that in mind, she approached her brother in the library one day while he was reading up on sothing beyond her understanding. A few books she recognized from the ti when she was also being trained as an heir—before she decided to run off and go to the knighthood.
"Arne," she quietly called to him as she sat down across the table from him.
He regarded her suspiciously but didn't tell her to leave or stay so she continued.
"I just wanted to ask how you're feeling about everything that is going on," she admitted. "When you accused of leaving before I knew about dad, it stuck with ."
"I was only frustrated," he insisted. "Don't hold onto things I didn't an."
"Well…" She sighed. "All I want you to know is that you're not stuck in any one position just because of this burden you're carrying. You will always have a place in the knighthood ready for you. Actually, any knighthood all the way down to the beach in Hydrogia would be honored to have the son of Sir Arthur Litharion in their knighthood. Your talents are not for nothing. We trained under the sa man our entire lives."
Arne let out a sigh. There were things he had to face just because of his father's illness, and he had no choice but to grow up or disappoint his parents and cause them to fear losing all their father had worked to build. If he actually passed away prematurely, he imagined a lot of choices would be taken from him.
"I am envious of the way you escaped this place and the tenseness it carries sotis, but I also grew up seeing how unbelievably worried mother is all the ti because she already has enough knights in her life," Arne confessed. "If I were to ever settle down, and it seems I'll have to as father's heir, I would like a more peaceful ho life than what father and mother had because of their differences in how they believe their lives should be lived."
Irene's reddish eyebrows were knit together as she listened to him speak. He looked exactly like her father nowadays, but he was so different and so thoughtful.
"Each ti you open your mouth these days, I can't believe you're the sa Arne who was so rough around the edges and unrefined," Irene admitted. "There are still pieces of you just the sa, but you've grown up so much."
"Well, if I've grown so much, perhaps you can spread the word that an eligible young heir will need to settle down one day—"
Irene abruptly pushed herself away from the table and stood up.
"You've ruined it," she interrupted. "I don't need to know if you've grown up in that way. I will make myself scarce."
And with a wolfish smile that reminded her of all her brother knights she was missing, Irene left the library with her head shaking in disgust, tossing her wavy hair around as she did.
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