Anatia

What did Alonzo mean by old friends? The dread was coiling inside her as she stood behind and to the side of the king's chair at the table. She tried to look bored, even as she surveyed the room for anything amiss. But no one was so suicidal as to try to attack the king, not in his own dining hall, not in this castle. But whenever she tried to tell Ben that he just gave her a weird look, shook his head and continued on with whatever he was saying.

The other guests must have arrived earlier today, they must still be unpacking if they're this late. It was only a few minutes into the dinner but still, who arrives late to dinner with the king? She got her answer a few seconds later when a pale, light blonde haired man strode into the room.

"Nice of you to finally join us, General Caltias." the king boomed. Her eyes locked on the king, this had to be a joke, it had to be. The man was wearing a light blue tailored coat with silver buttons down the front, he was older, taller, broader, but it was the same, he was the same.

"I'm sorry I'm late, your majesty. I was writing a letter to a correspondent of mine." He hadn't noticed her yet but damn it, why was this- why was he here?

She looked at Ben who gave her a questioning look from where he stood guard across the hall. She tried to get the message across that she didn't want to be here but Ben seemed to just think it was because she didn't like coming to these events. So she had to just stand there.

She watched the seam between the wall and the floor across the room the entire time, not daring even a glance at the general. Her hair was done up in a coronet to keep out of her face but she wished she had worn a hood, if only because her bright red hair popped out too much against her dark blue uniform. She hated the stuffy, stiff uniform, she always had, though she almost never had to wear it. Normally fighting leathers and a cloak were just fine but apparently the King wanted her to suffer tonight. The King was talking now but she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, until.

"Cinis!" he barked, he must have said it a few times already, that or his temper was already getting the better of him. She stepped forward up to the king's side.

"Yes your majesty?" She said it blandly and looked anywhere but at the king, anywhere but at the lord sitting a few seats down as well. Her eyes ended up landing on the platter of roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots and stuffing and man was she hungry. She averted her eyes from the food, deciding that this diner would be torture enough on its own.

"General Caltias was asking if you had found the rebels responsible for starting those rumors about the Lythian Ilosyn rumors." she swallowed, hadn't Ben told the king already?

"Yes." The silence that followed her words seemed to indicate she go on, "I dispatched them yesterday, I thought the Captain had informed you."

The king merely gave a nod turning back to the general to say, "I told you Cinis would have it all taken care of, now," the king continued on and she stopped listening again but when she tried to step back to her place in the shadows the king put out a hand, "No, I want you to hear this, I may need you to find some of these people." so she stayed there, eyes staring straight at the wall across the chamber. She let the words pass through her, let herself absorb the information but not really look at it. It seemed to be at the base level that some rebels had broken into a camp of General Caltias' and had known where all the supplies, the weapons, the food, the armor, was. There was a mole, a rat, and now she would have to go in to smoke em out. That is if General Caltias was wrong in his suspicion of a Lieutenantent in his company. She honestly didn't care about this stupid mole, she wanted to get out of here. She shot Ben a pleading look but he just pursed his lips. She would be getting no help from him then, it seemed she would be left to find a way to manage this, this trap, this punishment, whatever it was. She would deal with it and then she would be done with it. So she just nodded and stood there listening. The general looked at her, not like everyone one else, he snuck glances at her, like she wasn't part of the discussion they were having, like he wasn't supposed to see her but he did. But she was here for a reason, she was here because the king wanted people to watch and see the king's beast on the prowl. She was here to scare them. Or most of them. She didn't look back at him, she just stared ahead at the wall, watching in her peripheral vision, like he would have done if he was smart. But the General looked at her like he saw a person, not a beast or blade or weapon. And he didn't look afraid, not of her. And she thought for a moment as she finally glanced at him for an instant and they locked eyes before she looked away, that it might be the most terrifying part.

Cinis retreated to her rooms that night and found Axton waiting for her, sitting in a chair, reading a book she had left on the table the last time she was here. It was a cheesy romance novel that she was reading secretly. When she entered he sat up straight and stared at her. She kept the mask of the King's blade on, though she had been so eager to throw it off a moment ago. When the door closed behind her he stood and walked to her, she walked past him to the book, he had left it on the side table. She picked it up then walked over to the bookcase and pushed it on the nearest shelf before turning around.

"What, pray tell, are you doing in my room Lordling?" She crooned, meeting his gaze with all the iciness and attitude she could muster.

"Ana, what happened, what are you doing here?" His words were breathless and he took another step towards her but she dodged swiftly turning to grab a dagger from his belt and angling at him.

"My name is Cinis Sarnifease, I am the King's blade. And if you don't leave my room within the next 5 seconds I will spill your throat on the floor." She said it with a cold apathy she didn't possess.

"Ana, what are you doing? We have to get you out of here!"

"My name is Cinis, I am the King's blade and I don't know what you are talking about Lordling but for the sake of the maids that would have to wash the blood out of my carpets I suggest you stop talking. Now." She tried to add a little bite to her words but it didn't come out.

"Ana stop I know it's you, whatever he did to you it's over, we can escape."

"My name is Cinis, I am the king's blade-." she recites the phrase as she has a hundred times but Axton interrupts her.

"Ana-" She barrels on anyway.

"But even if I was this Ana you speak of, why would I tell you, just to end up on the butchering block beside you." The dagger was still pointed at his heart.

"Ana-"

"I AM NOT ANA!" she yelled, but she couldn't stop herself as she whispered, "Not anymore." She had not been Anatia Nalcothy in a long time, not since that night. The night when Alonzo had found her drained and half dead in the forests of his residence. Axton just looked at her like he was seeing a ghost.

"Ana," she didn't try to protest, "what have they done to you?" She stared blankly out the window.

"Anatia Nalcothy is dead." the name hurt as it left her mouth, "They killed her, a long time ago." She didn't look back at Axton when she heard his steps leaving the room or when she heard her door close. She just stood there looking out the window, at the distant mountains, the wall that always lay between her and the home she was stolen from a lifetime ago.