Though, aside from those considerations, Jenn had a feeling that she'd need to get used to this kind of treatment. She had a feeling it was only going to get more stifling before everything had settled. That she wasn't going to be able to enjoy as much freedom as she had before, regardless of what else happens from this point on.
Especially considering how she'd decided that she was going to accept this mantle, that she wasn't going to continue hoping to find someone to take over for her. That she wasn't going to find someone that her people would accept more than her.
So, she decided to just accept that she wasn't going to be able to do anything about this. That it was likely going to continue occurring no matter what she said, simply because they couldn't be sure that someone else didn't have an intention of doing her harm.
_
Beth was relieved to be admitted to the castle in the early morning light. Part of her thought that somehow the Marquis' guards would be aware of the person who liked to hide in shadows had spoken to her about killing the queen. A point she was quite sure the Marquis would be set against. Not that she'd blame him.
However, everything seemed completely normal. As if that meeting in the middle of the night four days ago hadn't occurred at all.
It made her feel almost like a spy, one that could be killed if discovered. Even though she kept reminding herself that she was being paranoid when she caught her thoughts heading in that direction, she couldn't deny that the essence of that line of thinking wasn't accurate. She certainly would be killed if the Marquis thought that she might actually try to kill the queen. Yet, the more she thought about the request from that woman in the shadows, the more doubts she had about the reasons she'd been given about why she and her friends should help her in killing the queen. Beth just wasn't sure there was a way for her to avoid having to make an attempt without getting killed herself.
Yet, even making an attempt would likely sign her death warrant as well.
She knew she needed to talk with her friends about this, because she couldn't help but wonder if maybe this was what Charlie's dream had been about. How she'd get killed. Even though she was pretty sure that Charlie had been present in her dream, yet she'd been very keen to stay away from them, even to the point where Charlie actively avoided letting them know exactly where she was.
Beth sighed as she made her way towards where she'd be able to sleep. As ever since she'd encountered that woman at night, she'd been travelling mostly at night to keep from getting encounters like that in the middle of the night.
While she doubted she'd encounter that same woman again, she didn't want to experience getting woken up in the middle of the night because bandits were attacking her. There wasn't anything that made her think that it was likely to happen, Beth just didn't feel like dealing with that sort of thing, so she always found a place to hide when she slept partway through the morning and spent most of the nights on the move. It made it for days that were more tiring, but she was at least confident that she wasn't going to wake up with bandits thinking that she was easy prey.
After all, she had her magic alarm spell that kept her from being surprised while she slept, even if it would interrupt her sleep and keep her from being able to get back to sleep if she'd been discovered by anyone.
Shaking her head, Beth was about to enter the room where she knew she had been allowed to sleep in here when Tim called out to her, having come around a corner at that particular moment.
"Did you just get back? We weren't sure when you'd return, but we expected you more in the afternoon rather than the morning. Especially since we thought you'd head directly to the castle if you'd been close when the sun went down."
Beth smiled helplessly at her situation. She'd rather sleep, but she was confident that her friends weren't going to let her do that without at least talking with her. Although, it's not like she was used to going to sleep in the early morning anyway. She usually did that in the mid-morning. Just so she was able to be sure that she was heading in the right direction still and hadn't gotten turned around at night.
"Yeah, I actually started travelling at night," Beth replied, turning to face Tim. "It just felt safer."
Tim nodded as if he understood and Beth was pretty sure that he didn't. At least not for the reasons Beth had made that decision over. Not that she expected him to be aware of her nighttime visitor a few nights back. Not until she told them about it, which she figured might be better to get out of the way before she went to sleep. If only so that they'd be able to maybe discuss what they should do about it.
Beth was now leaning in favor of finding a way to keep the queen from getting killed, as she wouldn't be surprised if that woman in the shadows, as Beth had started thinking of her nighttime visitor, wouldn't have a backup plan that involved using Beth and her friends as scapegoats. Something Beth was determined to not allow to happen. Even if she wasn't quite sure how she'd be able to avoid that just yet.
"Well, Amelia and Hannah are determined to talk with us now that you're back," Tim said, sounding a little annoyed suddenly, making Beth wonder if something had happened and if she was getting caught in the middle of a disagreement or something. Not that she'd be able to avoid it if that was the case. Not when she needed to talk with her friends anyway.
"That's not a bad thing. I need to talk with you guys anyway."
Tim stared at Beth for a minute, looking more like he'd just woken up than he had up to that point. A fact that amused Beth more than a little.
"Well, brace yourself because Feon got a letter from her sister Embris. Apparently Embris has been living with the people you probably encountered who moved through the gate and set up a community or something over there," Tim said, sounding like he wished the topic would just disappear as if it had never existed.
"Yeah, what about that community?" Beth asked, not seeing the problem that her friends might have with it. "They thought I was one of them when they saw me because they don't think that the gate would be known by others."
Tim blinked. "Really? Amelia was convinced that Charlie was there."
Beth felt her breath catch. Could Charlie have been there? She hadn't seen any sign of her, nor did it seem like there were many places she could have been hiding. Especially since she couldn't have known that Beth had been passing through that small settlement at that particular time. Although, as she thought about it, it was also possible that Charlie had been there, but out on some task or other like Riewis had been doing.
"Well, if she was, I certainly hadn't seen her," Beth admitted. "Not that it means she couldn't be there."
"Who couldn't be where?" Hannah asked, coming out the door that led to the room next to Beth's, sounding like she was still in the process of waking up despite being fully dressed with her hair combed.
"Beth was saying that she didn't see any sign of Charlie on the other side of the gate, but it was possible that she just was elsewhere at that particular time," Tim answered before Beth had a chance to say anything.
"Well, even if she was certain Charlie wasn't there, I'm pretty sure Amelia would still want to talk about that," Hannah yawned. "As she's likely the only one who could have told them about that gate."
"Even if she was, we'd probably have to talk with their leader… uh, I think they called her 'the Blue Rose' or something like that."
Hannah laughed. "Yeah, that certainly sounds like a name Charlie would come up with."
"Even if Charlie wasn't involved with them finding that gate, we probably should look into finding out if Charlie was there or not," Tim commented. "That way we can rule that place out as a possibility for where Charlie might be hiding."
"Well, I also have something to talk with you guys about, something that might be a little more pressing than looking for Charlie," Beth said, wishing she could have delayed talking about this, since she really had a bad feeling about dealing with that woman, regardless of anything else about her.
"Whatever it is, we'll at least need to get Wes and Ralph before we can really discuss it," Tim commented. "Though Ralph has been getting irritable lately if we wake him up before he's ready to get up."
"Probably because of that time Amelia and Hannah woke us up when Feon's letter arrived," Wes remarked as he came around the corner Tim had earlier, looking like he'd recently woken up as well.
"Hey, I still think it was important to get that discussed right then," Amelia replied, sounding rather defensive to Beth, making her wonder if that had been an issue that had gotten discussed off and on since it had happened.
"Well, whatever the reason, I can wait for Ralph to wake up before we discuss what I have to talk about," Beth said, wondering if maybe this would be the excuse she needed to get some sleep before they discussed the issues that apparently had come up while they were separated by different tasks.
"Oh, by the way, how'd it go getting the magic stones?" Hannah interjected, looking like she was trying to change the subject, making Beth wonder if Ralph hadn't been the only one still sore about getting woken up whenever it was that Amellia had wanted to discuss Feon's letter. Not that it really mattered to her. Especially with how she really would rather get some sleep herself right then.
"Take a look for yourself," Beth said, setting her pack down on the ground, letting her friends see just how much she'd collected. "Though, if we want more, I think the Marquis might do well discussing terms with the people settled on the other side of the gate. That way we wouldn't have to keep going back there, with how far away it is."
"Hey, it's not like we haven't walked that far before," Tim remarked, looking bored with the subject already. "Are you sure you're just not itching to try looking elsewhere for something to do?"
Beth shrugged. "If you want to make the next run for these stones, be my guest. We might have found them easily enough when we first arrived on that world, but from when I tried looking for them after passing through the gate, it wasn't so easy to find them. Not with the trees all around. It took me longer than I'd have liked to find them."
"Hey, I didn't say I wanted to go myself," Tim protested, sounding rather good naturedly, but Beth felt like she heard an undercurrent of irritability in her voice, though she couldn't be sure with how tired she was right then.
"Well, we can discuss that as well when we get Ralph up," Amelia said, turning as if she was about to go do that herself.
"Actually, I'd like to get a little sleep myself," Beth said, wondering if Amelia was going to allow that or if she was determined to get these topics discussed. Regardless of the reason, she was pretty sure that if Amelia didn't allow her to get some sleep, she might end up just as irritable as Ralph before this was over.
"Don't be like that," Amelia replied, sounding much more cheerful than even Hannah looked right then. "It won't take too long. Once we come to a decision on what to do about what we learned about in Feon's letter, then we can take a break and you can get some sleep."
Beth glanced at the others and she had to admit that Hannah trying to change the subject had been probably because they were tired of Ameila's insistence on what to do about whatever it was that they'd learned in that letter. Beth wasn't sure what it was, but she had a feeling that her friends were tired of the subject, even though they weren't showing it as blatantly as Amelia was showing her enthusiasm for that very subject.
"Well, if you don't let me get some sleep, I can't say I won't start falling asleep on the discussion," Beth warned suspecting that the discussion might last longer than Amelia is aware of. Especially given the tension she can feel in the air. Tension that Amelia seemed oblivious to.
"If it has to do with wanting to get away from the Marquis, discussing this before I get some sleep won't make whatever we decide happen any sooner," Beth commented, noticing how stiff Amelia's back suddenly got, making her feel like she touched on either a nerve or if that was the real reason Amelia was wanting to get this discussion underway. That she'd probably insist on leaving herself while Beth was asleep if they did manage to come to a decision before she fell asleep on them.
Regardless of which it was, Amelia suddenly fell silent, looking like she wasn't sure what to say, though Beth couldn't help but notice that her other friends that were present hadn't noticed. Either because they just weren't that perceptive or because they were still tired from waking up recently.
Beth was willing to bet on that they were just in the process of waking up, given how they typically were more perceptive than they seemed to be right now. Assuming they hadn't come to the conclusion that Beth had with Amelia's reaction just then. She didn't know what had happened while she was gone, but she had a feeling that more had happened than had been mentioned, even if it hadn't been discussed openly.
"Well, if you're not going to say anything else, I'll just get some shut-eye," Beth continued after a minute of silence. She wasn't going to wait until Amelia came up with a response to cover for her reaction nor was she interested in whatever excuse Amelia would come up with. She was just interested in finding a way to delay whatever discussions or meeting or whatever until after she'd at least gotten an hour of sleep. At least.
"No, it's fine," Amelia said suddenly, sounding like she was more afraid of Beth actually entering her room, as if that would prevent Amelia from breaking the door down and dragging Beth out of it just to start the discussions right then if she was that determined to start them. "I'm ready to start discussing it right now, or at least once we get Ralph up."
"I really don't think that's a good idea," Wes remarked, sounding a little hesitant. "Let's let Beth get some sleep and we can discuss all the topics one at a time once we're all ready to talk about them."
"I agree," Tim yawned, lending his support to Wes. "Let's hold off on discussing everything until Beth gets some sleep." He paused for a moment as he scratched the back of his head for a moment. "And actually, getting some breakfast sounds good too. We probably all could stand to get something to eat before we start talking. Otherwise we might have a hard time concentrating."
Amelia looked at Tim and Wes as if they had betrayed her somehow. As if they were supposed to give her their unconditional support in this matter. Which Beth probably figured was because they hadn't objected so openly to her demands on this subject since the whole issue had come up. Though, Beth was only speculating, as it could as easily be that she expected everyone to support her in this instance, no matter what other interests they had at the present.
"Amelia, unless there's an immediate need, we probably should delay starting the discussions until later," Hannah offered gently, putting an arm around Amelia's shoulders. "It's not like we'd be able to do anything about whatever we decide to do right away anyway."
Amelia turned her hurt gaze towards Hannah, as if Hannah had betrayed her too, making Beth sigh. She didn't need this drama right before she got some sleep. It was clear that the votes were in favor of delaying the discussion for a time, and she even suspected that Ralph would have cast his vote on delaying the whole issue as well if he had been present. Not that she expected Ralph to show up right then and there to add his voice to this discussion on whether to discuss other matters.
"Ameila," Beth said gently as she opened the door to her room. "I won't be going anywhere. We can discuss everything when I get up and we can make sure that you get to leave this castle afterwards, regardless of whatever we decide on doing. You won't need to stay here if you'd rather travel around more of this world."
Amelia looked at Beth as if she hadn't a clue as to what she was getting at, but didn't deny it either. "I still say we should discuss it now. While it's fresh on everyone's minds."
Beth couldn't help but laugh at Amelia's words. The subject hadn't been fresh on anyone's but hers for a while and Beth couldn't say that she even knew enough about the letter to even say that it was fresh on her mind even. All she knew about the letter was that it existed and couldn't say what the contents were. Other than a vague notion about it being about where Charlie could potentially be.
Which didn't really help them out any in the search for her.