The Widower

Katrina made it all the way home before falling apart. She shed her cloak, tossed the

bloodied dagger aside, and leaned back against the door, struggling to breathe.

Slowly she fell to the floor, then brought her knees up to her chest and buried

her face in them and started sobbing. Her aunt eventually grew tired of it and

came by to help her to the bathroom and clean her up.

Meradith sat her down at the table and asked her, in a stern tone, "What happened

to you? Did you get the job done?"

She dropped her kind facade when she knew no one else was around.

After taking a moment to gather herself, Katrina said, "Yes, he's, he's

dead."

"Than what's the problem, why are you such a mess?"

She couldn't help but cry again, talking about it made it real, but if she didn't

talk Meradith would punish her severely. "William, he was there too."

Meradith hissed, "The Beast take you child; when did you become so sloppy? Did he

see you?"

"I didn't mean to do it; I-I-I couldn't even control myself."

"Out with it child!" Meradith demanded, losing all patience with her.

"William, I killed him."

Out of angered reflex, she slapped Katrina hard across the face. Katrina hardly

felt it. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!" Meradith screamed

at her.

"I ran and he chased me, and after he caught me, I don't know. Something possessed

me, I couldn't move of my own will, and my hand and wrist felt like I was tied

and being pulled by a puppet on a string. My dagger, I grabbed it and."

She broke into tears again.

Meradith grabbed her wrists and pulled her sleeve down, she winced in pain. The left

wrist was unharmed, but the right one, including the fingers, had a dark purple

sore on them, mix of bruising and something else. The other something faded

away fast, though, and all that was left was some light bruising.

"This can't be possible. He should be dead." Meradith left in a hurry, looking

spooked and leaving Katrina all alone to cry in peace.

They buried William in a field of tombstones, resting half a day’s ride outside the

city, next to his father’s grave. The graves of the guards were marked with

small stone slabs with the name of the guard, and nothing more. The stone slabs

were lined in long rows spread evenly across expansive flat grass fields. They

only buried the Captains and Commanders out here, but even then the stone slabs

stretched out everywhere it seemed.

Only a handful of the city guardsmen came out to his funeral, the rest couldn't be

spared. Of those men Katrina only recognized Derren, and the old commander

William spoke of, the other men were dressed in blue. The only other person

there was that tavern friend of his, Neil; and of course, a Sage to perform the

burial ceremony.

The stout curly haired man had dug William's grave with his own hands, insisting it

was tradition, and that William requested it of him should he fall in the line

of duty. She didn't complain, though, as he did a great job and was three times

as fast as any grave digger she had seen. Neil also helped the guards lowering

William's casket into the ground.

"On this day we bury the body of William Royce," The Grey Sage said, with

volume and clarity. Though seemingly young, she had a strange authority to her

voice. "And while his body returns to the ground, and the cycle of life,

we pray that the Outlander take his soul and guide him to the next world."

They got his casket in the ground and Neil grabbed, but a handful of dirt, and

sprinkled it over his casket slowly while muttering his own prayers.

The Sage continued, "And that the Sage help us remember him for the man he

was. And may the Judge bring his killer to Justice."

Katrina almost collapsed after that, she didn't need a reminder of her guilt from a

preacher. Perhaps worst of all there was no one there to hold her and make it

alright; like William would when she broke apart. If the Judge wanted to

smite someone it shouldn't be her, it should be Meradith.

After his prayer Neil pushed the dirt into the grave; it was compact together and

didn't take him long to fill the hole. When he finished, he got on his hands

and knees, and packed the dirt down with his hands; smoothing the area over

with his palms. The Sage took her leave afterward and when Neil got up, his

clothes covered in dirt, the commander approached the headstone.

Jorden pulled an iron dagger from his belt and stabbed it into the ground in front of

the headstone. And then he and the other guards took their leave. Neil put a

small vial, half buried, next to the dagger, and then he too left. Katrina was

alone now and eventually wrapped the Violet Bloom vines around the headstone.

The flower had light green vines with small, six pedaled, violet flowers

blooming out from them every few inches.

When she finished, her strength left her and she cried. She regretted it all; from

the very first moment she met him, to the task Meradith had given her. She kept

repeating to herself that he was just her target, and to not get attached, but

even the night of the Queen's Ball she found it hard to go through with giving

him the love potion.

She had the goblet; they were out on the balcony. She could have easily lost her

footing and dropped the poisoned wine over the edge. But she knew the price of

failure, and back then William was nothing to her. And despite herself, she had

fallen for him.

His coarse looks had a strange appeal to her eyes, and his strong will was always a

challenge for her. He resisted the effects of the potion so much that instead

of once a month, she had to give it to him once a week, to keep him enthralled.

And even then he still sought out that other woman, it shouldn't make her

jealous, but it filled her with rage thinking even though William was hers, he

fiercely loved another.

But despite that he stayed by her side, they were engaged, but could never be married

until he became Lord Commander; otherwise, he was useless to them. So they

delayed their marriage, and she rejected his advances, he could have forced

her. It would be within his right, after all, they were to be married some day

and that was part of a woman's duty, but he gave her space whenever she wanted

it.

She always thought that when he went off to that whore, he got what she wasn't

giving him from another, but once more William surprised her. He had not lain

with another woman, not even that one, since being with her. In all the years

she rejected him from getting closer to her in bed, he laid with no other to

satisfy his needs.

When the clouds in the sky darkened Katrina took her leave of the grave.

It was only a week after William's death that Meradith had begun her plans on how

to use Katrina next. Though Katrina expected she had begun planning things

since the funeral. As Katrina prepared their breakfast Meradith spoke of her

plans. "Well I know Kara wanted the commander of the City Watch, but I

doubt the lifespan of that old coot, and I don't know who they will replace him

with after he dies."

Katrina said nothing, only focused on the breakfast, and the tea.

"It's not like house Redthorn couldn't just bribe the next lord commander, they have

ten times the gold for it and so much more. You, on the other hand, you're too

fine of a crafted jewel to be wasted on such a trivial conquest. No, what would

really impress them is if I can marry you off to a kingsguard.

"Imagine dear, our own knight that close to the king and queen. I hear ser Erquin is

unmarried, a man of his age should take a wife, it's not against their code and

several older kingsguards had taken wives while still in service. It's not like

any man can refuse you, though, not when we're done with them."

Katrina bit her lip, struggling to hold back her rage. Just a little longer, she

thought.

She finished the tea first and set down Meradith's cup down in front of her, taking

a couple steps back.

"It's about time," Meradith grunted.

She let it cool a minute, "Well, at least, you're also great in the kitchen.

If the seduction thing doesn't turn out, we can always put you in the kitchens,

there's a lot we could do from in there. Which reminds me," She turned to

look at Katrina.

"Has your late fiancé ever fucked you?"

She had a vulgar look of lust in her eyes that made Katrina lose what little

appetite she had. "No, I kept him waiting until we were married, and he

respected that."

"That's a shame," she teased. "He had a strange handsomeness to him, like

something between rugged and fierce. I would have let him give me a poke or two

when he got bored of you."

Katrina rolled her eyes and went back to the kitchen, speaking as she went. "Your

tea is getting cold."

Meradith looked at her skeptically before she disappeared behind her. Then she picked up

her tea and took a deep drink from it. She smirked, and then gulped the rest

down. "Dear niece, poison doesn't work on me. You ought to know that by

now, but you hid it well this time; your aggressive attitude to get me to drink

the tea gave you away, however."

"That was just the distraction," Katrina said, grabbing Meradith suddenly by the

hair. She then put the sharp of the blade to her throat and ran it across.

Blood sprayed over the table and chairs, Katrina dropped the knife, she was

free at long last.

All along it was that easy, she couldn't believe it. She didn't need some grand

scheme to get rid of her aunt, didn't need some heroic knight to come rescue

her either. All she needed was a sharp blade, and the courage to go through

with it. She lost her heroic knight, but somehow that gave her the courage to

move forward, to do things she only dreamed about before, as idle fantasies to

pass the time.

After setting Meradith down on the floor Katrina stared at her. Her glamour spell was

gone and her unsightly true face appeared. Her teeth were crooked; her nose was

three times too big for anyone and had warts on it. The rest of her face had

bad acne scars all over it from her younger years. She was truly as hideous as

her heart, Katrina always knew Meradith resented her for her beauty.

She went to her bedroom and sat at the end with her back resting against the bed

frame, her knees tucked up under her chin. Now what? She wondered. She

couldn't go home, her parents were dead. And her real Aunt would use her as a

pawn, again, while Meradith was really her cousin, but crueler and more cunning

than her mother.

Her aunt Hildra, Meradith's mother, became her godmother when her parents died when

she was five. She couldn't even remember them. Hildra had sent Meradith away to

some warlock when she was young. She saw Meradith only once before she returned

to take her away after she turned eleven.

Though Meradith was worse, Hildra wouldn't be much better, at 15 and escaped her

cousin and went back home. Hildra tried marrying her off to some oaf lord in

the Greenlands, regardless of her feelings.

Fortunately for her, the oaf had died in a jousting match before they could get engaged.

She then ran away from there too, when Hildra set out to engage her to someone

else after that unfortunate accident with the first nobleman. This new one was

worse, though, he was smarter, but more aggressive and tried to put his hands

all over her when no one was looking. She grabbed a serving tray and smacked

him away with it, and then ran.

Meradith found her again not long after that, brought her back home long enough for

Hildra to scold her, and then gave Meradith custody of her. Of course, by then

she was legally a woman, and could do whatever she wanted, and go wherever. But

that didn't stop Meradith from enslaving her, and torturing her with her dark

magics.

She didn't know where she would go just yet but she was free now and decided she

needed some rest, just a little. She closed her eyes for a few moments.

It was dark when Katrina woke, she must have been asleep all day. There was a light, so dim she didn't

notice at first, at the end of the room, it brightened a little more when she

started moving. She could see a dark silhouette outline of a person, holding

something that seemed to gleam when it moved, but nothing more.

"Don't move," The silhouette called out to her.

"Who are you? Katrina asked, squinting her eyes trying to see better. She went to

get out of bed when the snap of wire sounded, and an arrow pierced the frame

right next to her head.

At least, she thought it was an arrow. She touched it to make sure, could feel the

shaft and the feathers, it was indeed an arrow. Meanwhile, the silhouetted

person reloaded the crossbow and aimed it at her, "I told you not to

move," She said more aggressively.

Katrina couldn't make out the figure, but now that she was awake, she recognized the

voice to be female. "Who are you, and what the hell do you want!?"

She shouted enraged and confused.

"I'll be asking the questions around here. William Royce, you murdered him,

why?"

Katrina's anger grew, "I did not murder him." She snarled.

"You were engaged, he loved you. No, he didn't love you, how could he, you're a

stranger in his life. You gave him a love potion to ensnare him, but he didn't

love you. Is that why you murdered him? Because you knew he could never, would

never, love you?"

What does she know? What the hell does she know!? I did love him!

"What the hell do you know?" Katrina bellowed in rage, tears streaming down her

face. "I loved him, more than I had the right to. But gods be damned if

I'm a liar, for I did love him."

"Is that why you murdered him?" The stranger in the dark taunted.

Katrina rose to her feet, "I did not murder him!"

The bowstring snapped and the arrow flew straight into its intended target.