Chương 16: Sorry

Ch 16: Sorry Isa eventually came back (after putting on some kind of over-shirt). Felix ate breakfast with the girls (and eventually some servants) in mostly uncomfortable silence. He was hungry, so that helped. He stuffed himself to fill the void.

"After breakfast I'll take you to the student hall," Isa said finally.

"It's in the palace, so it's not far. They'll give you a room. There's usually a roommate but in your case they might make an exception. So you should be alone." The way she said 'alone' made Felix think she meant 'and easy for me to visit'. He was probably inventing that part in his mind. Still, it was a very nice fantasy.

"I can take him, my lady," Cara said. The girls exchanged a meaningful stare.

"There's no reason to trouble yourself."

"It's no trouble, thank you. And my father specifically requested I attend to Felix personally."

"It's very personal to send a man with your Spiritguard, my lady."

"Aren't there…" Isa lowered her voice.

"Aren't there assassins lurking in every shadow? Shouldn't you never leave my side, bodyguard? If you can, maybe you should go check the area for danger. Like right now." The women stared, then continued their battle of wills, whispering too quiet for Felix to hear. He looked between them as he chewed. He was no expert on women, but he sometimes knew when to keep his mouth shut. It was also getting very difficult not to think Isa actually liked him, and just wanted to spend time with him. Isn't that what this was?

His brain still struggled to process that. The only other possibilities were a) that the princess was so good she was also tricking her lifelong friend and bodyguard, or b) that Cara was also in on the ruse. But Cara didn't exactly seem like the 'play along with ruse' type, or the 'easily tricked' type. He definitely wanted to accept it was real. He knew he was in for some future heart break, but he just couldn't help himself. She was so beautiful, and seemed kind, and genuine (or so he hoped).

She smelled and felt so good, and something back in the temple, when his magic had touched her and thought she was some special kind of ward…

"We'll take him together, then," Cara was saying.

"I'm sure your father will want an update. So we shouldn't linger."

"Together, then." Isa looked up like she'd won a victory, then got shy when she met Felix's eyes.

"Do you, um, need anything? I mean, you should probably put on some different clothes. Oh I suppose you wouldn't have any. I can get you some. And then… well. We'll take you." The girls exchanged another inscrutable glance. Felix didn't bother trying to understand. He just waited for Isa to bring him some clothes, changed into the thin island cloth in his still smoky room, then followed to his 'training'. Isa had changed as well.

She was in something like a flowing blue dress, which covered her from neck to knees but also hugged her curves. He couldn't stop stealing glances, though it felt like Cara was watching his eyes like a cat with a mouse. He wondered vaguely how his life had become worrying about a five foot nothing little girl. They walked the beautiful, stone corridors mostly in silence. All were splashed with colorful tapestries or paintings, plush rugs lined in perfect rectangles along the floors.

People wearing what must have been Isa's house symbol were coming and going in different levels of hurry, usually taking a moment to notice the princess and bow or smile. They hardly even glanced at him, despite the fact that he was a foot taller than most everyone else. It made him feel invisible, which was how he liked to feel on land. But he couldn't tell if it made him more or less concerned about some grand conspiracy. Wouldn't regular islanders consider him odd and stare?

Or maybe noticing royal business was a thing one just didn't do. Maybe most islanders thought he was ugly, or looking at foreigners bad luck. Or maybe he was being delivered to his own execution and no one wanted to tip him off… The hallways eventually ended, opening up into outdoor verandas and a kind of square, grass covered courtyard with open air. There were people in uniforms everywhere, laughing and talking and eating meals on the grass.

"I haven't been here in ages," Isa said, eyes shining.

"It feels like going to school again."

"Yes, wonderful. Literally years of watching you read books. How I wish we could do it again." Cara rolled her eyes and gestured at a corner of the square.

"Admittance was over there, I think. I'm sure they know he's coming." Isa gave him a radiant smile. She looked so pleased to be here he couldn't help but smile back. It was hard not to notice he didn't fit in. The people around him were… children. Teens, mostly. Some as young as twelve. Certainly none in their twenties like him. And they probably weren't ex-lifestealers and pirate hunters who'd killed more men than they could count. But he followed Isa and Cara because it wasn't like he had a choice.

A few of the students noticed them and stared, apparently not as cultured or informed as the members of Isa's house. They entered the 'admittance' building, which was mostly a desk and a small warehouse of shelves and boxes. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"We're closed until after mid-day," said some bored looking woman pouring over papers at the desk. When they didn't leave, she looked up and froze in a moment of panic before her expression transformed.

"Lady Amadi, I apologize. How can I…oh. This must be the King's guest."

"This is Felix." Isa smiled, and it even looked genuine.

"Can you please get him situated? I'm not sure what they've told you. But it's obviously an…unusual situation, so I imagine…"

"Oh everything's arranged." The woman looked confused.

"High Wizard Hasha gave specific instructions. He's to be treated like any new student." She took what looked like a uniform and a key from a nearby pile.

"Wing three. Room thirty-five. Then he's to go to the High Wizard as soon as he's ready."

"The High Wizard? Personally?" Isa looked surprised. But she took the cloth and key and bowed her head in thanks, then led Felix and Cara back outside. She glanced at Felix and squinted in obvious thought.

"I don't understand what's happening. I'm sorry, but you'll just have to do what they say for now. I need to talk to my father." Whatever Isa was confused about didn't seem so different to him. He'd been 'doing what they said' pretty much since the moment he got tossed off his ship. But he was a patient man. He had to be. And if he had to smile and nod and learn a few new things before he escaped, then that's just what he'd do. Isa and Cara took him across the square and through another round of prying eyes.

The next building was larger, or at least higher, with several obvious floors. They took him up to the third, past several more gaping students, stopping at a door with symbols he couldn't read. The princess stopped at the top of the stairs, and turned to her bodyguard.

"Please watch the entrance. I'll just be a moment." The women exchanged more meaningful glares, then Cara gave Felix a somewhat similar look before clomping back down.

"Just a moment," she echoed before she disappeared. Then Isa and Felix were alone in the hall. Isa took him to a particular door and stopped, looking suddenly shy again. There was none of the sexual tension charged up from dangerous magic. They were just two people standing in a corridor, at least one of them with no idea what to say. Should he invite her to come look at a room he'd never stepped inside? That seemed… strange, bordering on stupid, even if she wasn't a princess.

Should he say something about the night before? How much he'd enjoyed it, or… no, that sounded bad. How glad he was he'd met her, and that…

"This is your room," Isa said Apparently neither of them knew what to say. Felix was finding the whole situation kind of ridiculous. He'd sailed through storms and fought a dozen men and monstrous creatures with nothing but a blade. He'd bluffed his way out of death half a dozen times, gambling everything without regret or fear. So why in the name of every God was his heart pounding in his chest for a girl he couldn't have?

"Fish with two dots," he said, pointing at the symbol to try and remember it. Isa looked at the door.

"Oh. I forget you don't know our symbols." She grinned.

"It does kind of look like a fish." When neither of them seemed able to come up with something else, Felix leaned forward for the key. Isa looked a bit panicked. When he took the key from her hand she blinked and relaxed. Felix smiled a little as he looked away and went for the lock.

"Sorry, were you wanting to kiss me again?" he said, glancing up to see her blush before looking around the hall." You kissed me. I was just surprised. And being…polite." He just about snorted as the key clicked in. He turned and met her eyes.

"Really? You stuck your tongue in my mouth. Admit it, princess, you want me. Just like I want you. I don't imagine either of us gets to have what we want very often, but that doesn't mean we can't be honest." Isa looked somewhere between very offended, a little angry, and glad to be done playing games. Felix didn't know if she was going to slap him, or walk away. Or maybe shrivel up and pout. He regretted the tone, but he was angry at circumstance, not to mention horny, and he hated all this tip toeing around.

All he wanted to do was pull the girl into the room and onto a bed and explore her like a virgin sea. He didn't even care what they did.

"I'm sorry," he said, tone softer.

"The truth is, all I really want is to touch you, and for you to come inside. I know that's not possible. Or at least not smart." Isa reacted a lot better to that. She glanced back at the stairs, seemingly on the edge of deciding what to do. Finally she came forward, not quite touching him, looking at the key. He felt like there was a kind of invisible tether pulling him towards her. A magnetic draw he could just barely resist. His heart was doing a jig.

He clicked open the lock and stepped inside, seeing a dimly lit room with two desks and two small beds, and not a hell of a lot else. It was perfect. Isa stepped in, and he closed the door behind her, pushing her against it.

"I don't know what I'm doing in here," she said, looking up at him with her lips just barely apart. Were her hands trembling on his arms? Was she afraid? He didn't know what she was doing there, either. But he knew it could be disastrous for her to be caught. He started to realize how stupid this was, how selfish. Isa couldn't have been more than eighteen. She was innocent, completely inexperienced, and here he was abusing some kind of crush. If he cared about her at all, he knew he had to stop.

She was a princess, and he was nothing. She was taking all the risk and it wasn't fair.

"Maybe…we shouldn't," he said.

"Cara's waiting. And she's right. I don't have any… you're not for men like me." Isa looked kind of angry again, and he cursed himself for not knowing what to say or do. He was just trying to protect her! But he also couldn't seem to fight that magnetic pull, and if she didn't reach for the door or push him or tell him to fuck off soon he was pretty sure he was about to… She closed the gap and kissed him again. Her soft lips sent a bolt of lightning down his gut.

She pressed against him like before, breasts squishing against his chest. Her arms wrapped around him as they kissed, and for a moment he kept his hands to himself, but soon lowered them down her back. By the time he gripped her ass with both hands he was hard as a rock. With the thin fabric of the island clothes, his erection was also absolutely pressed into her stomach. She finally pulled back and licked her lips, looking down as if to figure out why she was getting jabbed.

"I…" Felix had no idea what to say.

'My little friend is just saying hello?'

'Do you think you could help me with that?'

"Did I, um, do that?" Isa reached down with one hand, her fingers just barely touching the outline before pulling away like it was a snake. Felix groaned. But he also reminded himself that just because he'd let out a little mana in a stone temple, didn't mean he could do this safely. It helped sober him up, pull him back from the brink. For all he knew he could really hurt Isa if they went too far. Or he could burn down their very nice student building.

He was about to try and explain himself, to say they could just lie on the bed and kiss. That just doing that would be enough for him, to hold her a little while, to smell her and look at her and talk about anything.

"I'm, um. Sorry." A young male voice came from the dark and cracked.

"Really sorry. But…who are you? And why are you in my room?" Isa thumped into the door as if she'd tried to escape but forgot it was closed. Felix winced and tried to hide her behind his body. He opened the door and gave her an apologetic look, mouthing 'sorry' before closing the thing in her face.