Chapter 8: Apologies
“Yes father!” I called, “I’m sorry, father!”
I lifted my head. And I looked down at where Amy lay on the bed, her uniform a little more rumpled than it should have been. I pulled myself from atop her and stood up, smoothing my dress as I did.
“Wow,” Amy whispered as I checked my hair in the mirror. “How is it possible? I've fallen in love at first sight with somebody I’ve known for three years. “
“I don’t know. But I appreciate the second chance.”
I turned to look back at Amy. I got an eyeful of her black lace panties. This was due to the ridiculous short skirt the maid outfit included. That and the crinoline that gave it bounce. I watched as she struggled to escape the enormous bed with difficulty. Her naked thighs rubbed together as she shuffled to the edge of the bed. Her naked legs set my cheeks on fire, and I felt something wonderful stirring from within my own panties. God, she looked good.
I shook my head to clear it.
“I’d better go before my father becomes irate.” I said as Amy made it off the bed and began fixing her uniform.
“Stay safe then, Ren. I will make your bed and join the family shortly.”
I stopped. That felt wrong. I couldn’t imagine a relationship working if she had to labor like that on my behalf. I considered what to do. I didn’t have time to address the issue with Amy now. I would have to remember to bring it up later.
I mulled my situation over as I walked. I’d utterly failed at being the best friend. And I’d failed by acting in Lynn’s best interest. So now what? I needed to repair the damage I’d done, or there was no way that Lynn would listen to me. And then she’d marry Wulfric, and I didn’t want to think beyond that point.
I found Lynn in the grand hall with the three suitors who weren’t vile abusive monsters. It sounded as though Leon and Vincent were trying to comfort Lynn. The men had not changed, I noticed. Typical. Lynn now wore a pastel blue butterfly sleeve A-line dress; with the same shoes she’d worn earlier. Fiona had changed to an A-line dress as well. The dress was a Mardi Gras purple with modern cap sleeves. Fiona also wore a pair of fire engine red stilettos. This dress also had a plunging neckline and I tried not to stare again.
I failed.
"Remember Lynn," Leon was saying as I approached, "Wulfric isn't the ambassador. He doesn't have the authority to declare war on Ys. Only King Hardrada or the Hyperborean Ambassador can do that. And the ambassador isn't a complete villain like- that is, he- never mind."
"We know who and what you meant," I said.
Manfred appeared beside us with a tray of appetizers and drinks. I grabbed a glass of red wine and some sort of soft cheese on a cracker.
Vincent nodded to me, "Yes we do know who he meant. But more important than that, Leon is right. Wulfric can't declare war himself. He would have to make the ambassador declare war. And then Agartha would take any hostile actions against Ys as an attack on Agartha herself."
I saw a chance to show my contrition. I could apologize and hopefully heal the rift I’d created. "Which is all well and good," I said, "But I still screwed that up. And I’m sorry, because Wulfric is going to make our lives miserable because of my mistake."
Manfred turned to look at me in surprise, "Lady Karen, did you apologize?"
I sighed and smiled, then nodded to Manfred, "I'm turning over a new leaf. And actually, let me take a moment to apologize to you."
"Whatever for?" Manfred asked.
"Everything," I answered, "My general treatment of you. Too many things, large and small, for me to name them all. I expect I'll be doing a lot of apologizing in the future. But I am sorry."
"Well, thank you Lady Karen. An apology is, of course, unnecessary. But I accept it in the spirit in which you gave it."
"And please, not Lady Karen. Call me Lady Ren." I said.
Manfred cocked his head in surprise, then nodded.
"You're right though," Leon said, "This will complicate relations with Hyperborea. Even if they don't do something extreme, like declare war. The Hyperboreans can strike back at us in a myriad of petty ways. I am glad you apologized, Ren, that was a serious misstep."
"Indeed," Fiona said.
Vincent nodded, "Yes, Agartha will support Ys. But we don't look forward to conflict with Hyperborea. And you've brought that possibility much closer to becoming a reality."
I flinched under their gazes, "I know. I apologize. I hadn't meant to do it, but it's still my fault. I couldn't restrain myself."
Leon put a hand on my shoulder, "I'll be honest. I am obligated to reprimand you, but I should be thanking you."
I blinked twice, "What? I'm missing something here."
"I was about two seconds away from fracturing his jaw," Leon admitted. "The way he spoke to Lynn was unacceptable."
Lynn blushed, "Thank you Leon. That is very flattering. Or it would be, if all this wasn't causing a diplomatic nightmare."
She stepped forward and gave Leon a gentle kiss on the cheek. I watched as Leon blushed like a sunburn victim.
Fiona nodded. "Diplomatic nightmare or not, this is at least allowing us to become familiar with each other. One of us four will likely become your betrothed. Now only one of us three. And at least this way you have a chance to get to know us better."
"I'm afraid that is now unnecessary," Lynn said. "I will be sending a messenger to Prince Wulfric. It will be to inform him that I accept his proposal and will marry him if he will still have me."
Fiona shook her head, "That seems ill advised. He will take his fury out on you for his damaged ego."
"It doesn't matter. I don't matter. What matters is Ys."
Leon took a slow step forward, "Ys does matter. But you also matter."
"No. I don't. I never have. But I can do something here that does matter.” She turned to Leon, “I'm sorry to have to disappoint Your Grace. But I have decided my path."
Vincent shook his head, "Assuming that would work. And I want to be clear, I doubt that it will. But assuming it would work, we have no idea where Prince Wulfric went when he stormed off."
Lynn nodded, "I am confident that the Hyperborean embassy will be able to send him a message. Ren, can I ask you a favor.”
I nodded, “Anything.”
“Will you deliver my acceptance to the Hyperborean Ambassador?”
“Anything by that.” I said, flinching back.
“Ren, you wanted to apologize?" Lynn met my eyes and stared without blinking.
I slumped, I could see what was coming, "Yes. I did. And I do."
"You can do so to the Hyperborean ambassador when you deliver my message."Fine. Break my arm, why don’t you. I'll do this for you."
Fiona spoke, "Wait. That could be dangerous. She was the one who insulted the prince. They might not take kindly to Lady Ren's presence in the embassy."
"Lynn has asked me to do this. I'll do this." I said.
"Indeed," Fiona said. "And I respect your loyalty. I shall accompany you."
Leon held a hand out to stop Fiona, "You can't. Neither of you can. It’s too dangerous."
"Leon, your grace," Fiona answered, "We are the only ones who can. Your rank would escalate things, even if you went to apologize. Vincent can't apologize on behalf of Ys, as he is Agarthan. Ren and I are high enough rank for the apology to be meaningful. But we are of low enough rank that our apology will not weaken the position of Ys as a whole. And I can protect Lady Ren, if the situation turns ugly."
Leon stiffened, "I could protect her. And an apology from me would carry more weight."
"Indeed, an apology from you would carry more weight. And an apology from you would weaken our diplomatic position with Hyperborea. And, to frank your grace, you are a skilled naval commander, but I am an experienced hand to hand combatant.”
“I am competent in combat on land,” Leon said. And then, with a flourish, he produced a palm sized derringer pistol from up his sleeve. He spun the derringer, and it disappeared back into his sleeve.
Fiona nodded, “Practical. I approve. But you have a single shot before you must reload by hand Whereas I am a monster hunter par excellence. Lady Ren will be safe in my care."
I felt myself blushing, “Thank you. I’ll leave myself in your care then. Um. That is, I’ll trust you. Now I suppose it’s my turn to ask that Lynn and I have some privacy for a quick chat.”
“Is this going to become a thing now?” Vincent asked as Lynn and I headed for the same pillar as last time.
“Alright, what now?” Lynn asked.
“We need to talk about this.” I said.
“Talk about what? You agreed to deliver the message and apologize. That’s all we can do at the moment.”
“Not that this. Us this. Here this.” I paused and enunciated: “We are in another world.”
“I know that,” Lynn said.
“I don’t think you do. This is the full Narnia here. All Isekai, all the time. And we’ve been going with it like we are these people.”
“What else are we to do?” Lynn asked, “We have no way home. No idea how we got here. Neither of us has much of a life to go back to, even if we wanted to do so. Your family is dead. And I have no contact with what’s left of mine. What else can we do, but play our roles?”
“Our roles? You’re the heroine. I’m the rival. The bloody rival! I’m your best friend, and I’m the god damned rival! You play your role, and you get happily ever after. I play my role, and I get exiled and disinherited! And even leaving that aside, I still can’t do it. My role is to ruin your life! And I refuse to do that!” I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I spoke.
“You are doing that!” Lynn said, her voice rising to a yell.
“No, I’m not!” I yelled back, “I’m trying to save you from your own martyr complex!”
I caught myself and lowered my voice to a whisper, “We had lives.”
Lynn turned away. I kept talking.
“I was going to be a fashion designer,” I said. I was properly crying now. “You were going to be a nurse. Now we will never be those things.”
“And so, we have to do the right thing here!” Lynn said
“No, you don’t understand,” I said as tears streamed down my face, “I’ve lost everything from my old life. I’ve lost everything, but you. I don’t want to lose you as well.”
Lynn stopped, and turned to stare at me, “Ren. Don’t. I can’t. I don’t deserve your loyalty. I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do.” I was still crying, and it was threatening to become an ugly cry. “You’ve had my back since you kicked Jimmy Finegold into the mud for making me cry in first grade. You told me when Lindsay Acres was planning to go full Carrie with the cow’s blood on me. You stopped that creep at The Wednesday Bar from putting that stuff in my drink. You’ve held my hair at the end of so many bar crawls. You were there with a shoulder for me to cry on when my dad died. You have been my friend for as long as I’ve had friends. How many times have you been my only friend? Because I’ve never known how to do the friend thing. And you’ve never minded that. And if saving you means that you hate me, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay. Because you are worth more to me than my own happiness!”
Lynn leaned against the pillar and slid to the floor, her dress bunching as she went. She was crying now as well. And so, we sat there, crying. I don’t know how long we sat there. But, at some point, I heard a tapping on the stone pillar. I looked up. Fiona was standing beside the pillar. She tapped the pillar with the golden cylinder that held her dagger.
“Am I interrupting? Or have you finished?” She asked in a gentle voice.
“I don’t know.” I said, wiping my eyes with a handkerchief.
Lynn pulled herself up, “I’m done. I’ve been done for years. I don’t think I’ve ever begun in the first place.”
And, with that, Lynn walked away.
“Do you need assistance getting back to your room?” Fiona asked.
“I can get my lady back to her room.” I heard Amy’s voice, and I repressed another sob. “Come on my lady, let’s get you back to your room.”
“This is going to be a thing now, isn’t it?” I managed between sobs.
“I will be here for you if it is,” Amy whispered.
“I tried that with Lynn,” I answered, hiccupping, “And look where I am.”
* * *
I stayed out of the way until dinner. Lynn and I both remained polite. But I felt awkward. I didn’t hate her. I wasn’t angry at her. And I don’t think she was angry at me either. I was confident she felt hurt. But what to say to each other? The suitors had left by the time dinner rolled around. My father and my uncle, the baron, were likewise not in attendance. Aunt Theresa indicated that they were working on something important. Something secret. And so dinner consisted of the ladies. That meant myself and Lynn, Catherine and Katarina, and finally Aunt Theresa and my mother.
“Ladies, I need your attention. We had a scandal today. I don’t need to repeat it, we all know what happened.”
I simmered in shame as she spoke.
“But ladies, I don’t want to see anything else in the broadsheets tomorrow. I want to see nothing beyond gossip about shoes and necklines. We can’t escape the damage we’ve done here. But we can avoid causing more.”
“Where’s father?” Catherine asked, “Is he pulling damage control on Ren’s shenanigans?”
“The baron and your father are working on logistics related to Lynn’s suitors.”
“Logistics?” Katarina said, “She only has four suitors. Maybe only three now.”
“Indeed,” Aunt Theresa said. “Karen, I understand you not wanting Prince Wulfric to become Lynn’s husband. But there were subtler ways to handle that.”
“I got mad. He was treating Lynn worse than dirt. I didn’t plan to slap him.” I said. “But Katarina’s right. Why would four suitors need special planning?”
"The family only approved four suitors from those who sent notice, you mean," My mother said.
Theresa nodded, "We aren't marrying our eldest daughter to just anyone. She won't be the wife of some lesser Lord of Tech-Duinn with no holdings after all."
“Well, it's not like she doesn’t have time, you know.” Catherine said, “She’s only twenty-one, that's the earliest you can start courting. She can take her time in courting.”
“Like you two have?” my mother said, acid on her tongue, “You two haven’t courted in serious fashion since you became of age.”
“Karen isn’t courting either.” Katarina objected.
Mother nodded, “And she should be courting. We could arrange something like that to keep you busy so you can stop worrying about your cousin?”
“I’ll think about it mother,” I paused, “You can put the word out if you like. I can always turn down those who send their interest if I change my mind.”
“Don’t play at this like you play with men’s hearts, Karen.” My mother said and frowned. “This is not a frivolous game. It is a very serious game.”
“I treat all my games as serious matters, mother.”
“Then control your temper going forward. Serious and also serene.”
I cringed, “Of course mother.”
* * *
After dinner, as I was walking back to my bedchamber, Katarina managed to corner me.
"Don't fuck up Lynn's engagement. I don't want to have to court. I prefer flirting to courting. I don't want to be a wife. Not yet. I haven't lived yet."
“I wasn’t trying to fuck it up, big sister. I lost my temper.”
“Oh, come on. You manipulate everyone. Boys dance at your pleasure. And you want me to believe that this time, you lost your temper. I don’t want to be under the magnifying glass like Lynn. If Lynn stops courting, then all eyes will turn to Catherine and myself.”
“I understand why you don’t believe me. But my goal here is to help Lynn get married to somebody who will keep her safe and make her happy.”
“You hate her.” Katarina said.
“She’s family.” I answered.
“That’s it?”
“Even if it is, isn’t it enough?”
“Either way. Don’t scare away the other suitors.”
“I’ll be good.”
Katarina shook her head, “You’re never good, little sister.”
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