Make it sound good.

He was talking with Elsie nearby. I grabbed him by the arm, dragging him to the table with the guards. "Now tell this idiot what my name is so he'll leave me alone and let me brush my horse." My words were a bit harsh, but it was hard to help it when surrounded by people that commonly spoke the same way. Of course, I might have also been holding a little bit of a childish grudge for what happened, even if he did mean well.

He stood dumbfounded in the middle of them. "So you're not Gaius' kid?" He asked, apparently having missed the conversation.

I groaned, rolling my eyes as I slowly drug my hand down my face.

Nillous slowly lifted his feet off the table and stood up. "Pater… This is Lady Siyasaveid Aliah Nayanathulu, daughter of Lord Keagan Nayanathulu."

The guards all rose and took a knee where they were. After looking around he dropped to a knee as well, the blood draining from his face. "I beg your forgiveness, my lady."

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously guys, you don't have to be so mean, he's just a kid." 'of course, I guess I am too, but they get what I mean right?'

They laughed again and stood up, Nillous smacked him hard on the back,, "On your feet boy, she doesn't care about her title." He said before sitting down and kicking his feet back up on the table. "What did you do to her anyway? you looked like you were about to wet yourself when you heard her name."

One of the other guards mocked him, repeating his exact words in a taunting manner. I shot my eyes at him though and he quickly shut up. "You don't have to take it so far all the time" 

They continued laughing anyway as he stood in silence. I could practically see him sweating bullets. Is he that worried about getting punished by me? I'll let him off, but this is fun, I'll drag it out a little longer. My head still hurts because of this brat not listening.

Nillous raised a hand to his chin genuinely curious after seeing his reaction. He seemed a little worried. "Siya… What exactly happened?"

I shrugged. "He threw me across the stable floor and knocked my head into the wall."

They gasped. Some of them showed actual concern, while the rest stayed mostly relaxed, likely just due to the way I was talking about the situation. My tone was light, but tension still slowly filled the air.

I put on a cute innocent face and continued. "Then he tried to force me to come here with him. I'm still recovering from everything so I didn't feel like fighting him over it and gave in. I wanted to come here anyway after I brushed Frits, but it would have been nice if he wasn't so rough with me. He even bruised my arm look." I showed them where he had grabbed me. Somehow it had already turned purple all the way around my wrist. I didn't realize it so I didnt think about it too much, but based on appearance alone, it actually looked pretty bad.

"It sounds bad when you say it like that!" He yelled defending himself.

Gaius let out a chuckle trying not to laugh. As I hid my arm behind my back, hoping no one actually saw just how bad the bruising was.

"Is there… really a way to make that sound good?" Nillous said, sighing. He still looked a little worried, but relaxed since I was clearly making a joke about it.

"I was saving her from that crazy horse!" he protested.

Gaius began laughing, not able to hold it back anymore. "Kid, Siya's longest conversations are with that horse, no one needs to save her from it."

"Hey!" I pouted, but no one cared.

He placed his hand on my shoulder. "It's ok Siya." he closed his eyes, looking up towards the sky and dramatically clenching a fist over his heart. "We're just glad you found someone special in your life."

Nillous snorted. He hid his laugh, but was unable to hide a giant grin on his face from just how funny he thought it was. "Your horrible Gaius."

I guess he got me back… The high road would be to just take this right? Honestly I thought it was kind of funny too, and it is good to laugh at yourself every now and then. Gaius's hand was still on my shoulder, he even managed to cry a tear for the performance. Oh the high road… I wonder what it's like up there? "Guys look, it's his first proud father moment." 

I crossed my arms with satisfaction as he took his hand off my shoulder and even retreated a few steps back. "Not… funny." His voice changed from theatrical to deadly serious.

I agreed with him, the joke did make me uncomfortable, even though I was the one who started it. I admit though, it was funny how much more it clearly made him uncomfortable. Of course that must only be because there was a chance he had a kid out there he didn't know about. "Gaius…" I said.

He was hesitant to respond, as if he didn't want to walk into another trap, but he did so anyway, wearing his heart on his sleeve. "Yes?"

"You're a terrible person…"

He slumped back into his chair. It was weird, for some reason coming from me it looked like it hurt way more than coming from Nillous. I had a feeling he would be done with jokes for a while.

"Seriously Gaius, how many women have you been with?" The guard instantly received a dagger-like stare from Nillous who jabbed him in the side. "Hey!" Nillous pointed at me and the guard looked over apologetically, but didn't say a word.

Gaius slumped further into his chair with a sudden sadness covering his face. He grabbed a bottle from under the table and after a long drink slammed it down. "You know… A lot of good people used to be bad people…"

Nillous looked over at me for a second. "Hey guys…" he said quietly.

I raised my hands and backed away. "I gotcha don't worry, you feel awkward talking about this stuff when I'm around I get it. I actually have to talk to Catherine anyway, is she in her room?"

Nillous nodded. I couldn't help but feel bad. Did I go too far? Seeing Gaius like that after he was so thoughtful towards me, really breaks my heart…

I turned around at the staircase leading towards the upper level. "Hey Gaius, you might be a terrible person… But you're a heck of a lot better than half of the jerks around here. Don't beat yourself up too much ok. Besides, if you don't like who you are you can always just change."

It was a sort of joke we would all say to each other, when they said it to me it would always just be. "if you don't like being weak you can always just become strong." Essentially speaking it just meant that even if it feels like you're trying in vain, the goal is clear so you should keep working towards it. That's what I liked to think it meant anyway.

I finished walking up the stairs and waited just out of sight.

Before long I could hear Gaius yelling. "Time to get to work… The fields won't tend to themselves." apparently he had found a sudden burst of motivation. I know it wasn't what I said to him, that's just how he is, unpredictable. I'd like to imagine it was me though…

"Now if we could just get him to wear a shirt he'd almost be like a functioning member of society." A voice yelled from behind him. 

Gaius groaned and walked away.

Our castle was… a little bit odd. Our guards were also our farmers and craftsmen. Essentially, they all had many trades. The area was quite peaceful. The barracks itself wasn't a regular barracks either. Instead of having one room for the men and one for the woman. Each family had their own apartment-like room within the building. There was a main gathering room just inside the front door, of course, but that was the only shared space.

The snow had fallen, and that meant that the winter crops that only grew in the snow would be sprouting soon, they were going to have their hands full before long. It made me happy that all of them were so eager to get to work.