Apologies and Guilt

Tyr went to the designated meeting place early. He finished up his task and decided to take an early dinner break. He missed Macha and wanted to see her costume. Tyr's day had been full of breaking up drunken fights and making sure no one entered the palace. It bored him and seemed like a waste of his skills. The whole day he contemplated if he should kiss Macha first or confess first, then kiss her. As Tyr sat down to wait for Macha, he reviewed the points he wanted to tell her. He felt it was important to let Macha know that he loved the effort she gave life, how beautiful and cute she was, her intelligence, and most of all that he trusted her.

Luna had warned Tyr earlier that day that Macha looked extremely cute tonight. He gave a lopsided grin when he thought about how his sister teased him. He wanted his sister to find someone so he could do the same to her.

Time passed and Tyr looked at the people drinking and talking. Many couples were kissing and sounds of lovemaking could be heard from the bushes. Tyr looked at a large clock tower in the distance. Its ivory hands stood out against its dark face. Macha was late.

A half-hour passed and Macha still had not shown up. Tyr was positive he had explained the meeting spot to her in detail. Macha usually understood and followed his directions without fail. Worried that Macha waited for him at one of the other fountains, he briskly walked to the other areas. If he did not find her soon, he would not have enough time to tell her his feelings properly.

As he made his way to the fountain in the South, one of his guards ran up to him. "Captain Tyr! Captain Tyr!" The man's mask was askew, and he panted, "Captain, the king had an accident." He was ordered to run around the gardens to look for the captain who had just gone on his dinner break.

Tyr's mood shifted and his face froze. Tyr's face lost its earlier warmth, and he demanded, "What? Where is he?" Freyr hired him to help with security, so if Freyr was hurt in an accident, Tyr thought he was at fault. Tyr followed the guard up to Freyr's personal bedroom.

Tyr opened the large double doors and found Macha sitting on Freyr's bed, holding Freyr's hand. She had taken off her mask and tears streaked down her face. Macha did not cry loudly, but Tyr could hear her small sniffles in the quiet room. Tyr tried to rip his eyes away from Macha so he could inspect his cousin, but this was the first time he ever witnessed Macha crying. A well of pain opened in his heart and he wanted to console her.

Getting past the effect Macha had on him, Tyr had mixed feelings seeing Macha holding Freyr's hand. He admired how she would have looked beautiful if she were not crying, but he felt jealousy stirring because Macha worried so much about his cousin. Concern and guilt for what happened to Freyr hit him as well.

Tyr rushed to his cousin's bedside and stood behind one of the castle medics. His muscles tensed when he asked, "Freyr, what happened?" Coming closer, Tyr saw that his cousin's eyelids appeared swollen and red. The skin looked burned in some places and Freyr laid in bed with his eyes closed.

Freyr turned his head to face the direction of Tyr's voice. He tried to sound jovial, "I just got into a small altercation. Everything will be fine. I should get my dashing good looks back by tomorrow." Freyr gave a bright smile and winced. He did not want Macha to worry any longer. He loved that she held his hand, but hearing her sniffles broke his heart.

A medic turned Freyr's head back, so he faced forward. The medics worried that if they did not hurry, the king would have scars or a slight loss of vision. The potion not only hit his skin, but it also splashed onto his eyes. They were thankful that Freyr had washed it off before coming to them or there could have been permanent damage. Now that King Freyr was talking, they tried to cast their spells in hushed tones.

Macha's lower lip quivered. She looked at Tyr and choked out, "He got hurt protecting me... We don't know who did it." She apologized again to Freyr and squeezed his hand. The guilt ate away at her and she did not want to leave his side.

Freyr patted Macha's hand. "Do not cry," he murmured gently, "it makes me feel like I failed to protect you. My efforts feel cheapened." He tried to give her a smile, but raising his cheeks caused his eyelids to sting. Freyr chose to give Macha's hand a light squeeze instead.

Tyr's heart turned to ice when he heard that Macha needed protecting. He did not expect anything bad to happen to her today and felt like he failed her and his cousin. It was his carelessness that put them all in this situation. "It's my fault. I didn't do my job properly. I apologize."

Freyr leaned his head against his headboard. With a sigh, he explained, "No. It is not your fault. I should have been more careful. We got lucky. If he had another weapon, he could have killed Macha and me. I was careless." Freyr paused and asked, "Do you know anyone who wants to harm either one of you? The man used magic to disguise himself as you. I was taking his disguise off and saw that he had light-blonde hair." The thought of how his carelessness could have caused Macha to die bothered Freyr. He was too confident in his fighting capabilities that he approached the attacker without worry. Freyr would never have guessed that the man had a potion on him.

Tyr thought about the question. Many people did not like him. "I would need more to go on. There are a lot of people who don't like me. As for Macha, she has a few enemies, but most of them are females. The only male that might want to do her harm is Ivan Mikhailov." After Tyr said this, his eyes narrowed. Now he felt certain that Ivan was the one who tried to hurt Macha and kill his cousin.

Freyr knew his Captain of the Guard stood in the room, so he called out, "Sierra, I want you to look into Ivan Mikhailov. Find out where he was tonight." He did not know if Ivan had been responsible for the attack, but if the man wanted to harm Macha, he wanted to find out more about him.

Sierra saluted, "King Freyr, your wish is my command. I shall look into it personally," she responded, then turned and walked out of the room. Sierra was furious that this happened. She warned the king about the dangers of walking around alone, but he ordered her to relax. Sierra swore she would find who did this and take care of the assailant herself.

Tyr ordered Macha to stay with Freyr and he followed Sierra. He berated himself for not getting around to dealing with Ivan sooner.

****

Ivan stood in his house. A small black-haired boy was strapped to a table, and he cut the boy's trembling leg. The lack of surprise and fear in the boy's face disappointed him. Ivan stuck the small scalpel into the boy's side and slowly widened the hole. He heard the child cry out in pain and beg for him to stop.

Ivan twisted the scalpel and remembered the look in Macha's eyes as he choked her. He closed his cold blue eyes and remembered how the blood in her neck pulsed in his hands. He licked his lips excited for their next meeting. She had looked betrayed and helpless. It was better than he imagined it would be. His idea of disguising himself as Tyr worked perfectly. Macha followed him with no complaints.

Ivan's thoughts of Macha in pain left him sexually frustrated, and he looked at the bleeding hole in the boy's side. He regretted not being able to get Macha alone with him tonight. "You'll have to do," he said and unbuckled his belt.