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What happened to her eyes? What happened to her gorgeous honey-colored eyes? She doesn’t have the king’s eyes anymore.

Valda tried to ignore it and not let it get to her, but she wasn’t getting any better as the days passed, and she was sure that Maris noticed.

At night, when Valda had no other resolve but to sleep, Maris would step in with that cheerful tone of hers and tell her that a new day was upon them, that she would feel better, and that she would regain her sight. As much as Valda wanted to believe her, the answer to those confidence boosts was always a mediocre smile and silence. Yet, Valda couldn’t deny, the woman’s company, other than Cerberus’s, had become the most comforting thing in the entire ordeal. Not only was she always gentle with her, but she also never made Valda feel as if she was being pitied.

She was the one that pitied herself.

If she fell, Maris would pick her up as if nothing had happened. If she spilled anything, she would help clean it up in silence. If Valda asked to be left alone, she never left. She would stand in silence until called upon.

And then, there were her hands. The softness of Maris’s skin was always welcome. As much as Valda wanted to hide it, whenever the young woman helped her change, and ran her fingers through her hair, Valda would lean into her touch, smell her scent.

Maris smelled like sand and ocean. Like the shores of one of the many islands of Agenor back in the Sea Kingdom. Valda hadn’t been there a lot when she was younger, but she could remember how the burning sun felt different on her skin.

She had imagined many times what she looked like. All she knew was that she had blue hair, small, soft hands, and a sweet yet firm voice.

And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she liked having her near. Even if she was throwing a fit, she liked knowing that all she had to do was call Maris and she would come, and calm the raging storm, and for that, Valda was more than grateful.

She would be lying if she didn’t say she wanted to explore Maris, to touch her and feel her, make a picture in her head of what she looked like. But if she did, she would just validate what Maris already knew, that she enjoyed taking the help to bed. She did want to take Maris to bed. Having sex with her would definitely make her think of something other than her blindness, but rolling around in the sheets with Maris, using her as she would use any other chambermaid sounded… wrong.

Her little seashell didn’t deserve to be used and tossed away. For her patience alone, she deserved better. She enjoyed their talks. Maris made her want to get up in the morning, literally obligating her to get up and go about her day.

If it weren’t for Maris, Valda would probably stay in bed all day.

That would’ve been an excellent idea for today, Valda thought as she fell to the ground, ignoring the guards’ snickering and laughing around her. To Maris’s displeasure, Valda had asked the men to train with her. Now, as she lay on the floor, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.

Maris stood far away, watching the “training” unfold.

The only reason she agreed to go out to the training grounds was to see if she managed to come across Arwin. The man was nowhere to be seen since Valda’s incident. Granted, Maris had only had contact with the outside word through Melvian and the guards by Valda’s door, she thought she would find him in the castle’s corridors and halls. Trying to keep her eyes away from Valda proved to be difficult, especially when she was petrified the princess would get hurt…again.

Luckily Cerberus accompanied them when they left the room. Her quiet presence was somehow comforting, as if Maris wasn’t the only one suffering at what was unraveling before her. At first, she told the princess to reconsider, the training was out of the question, but of course she simply got an earful of how she was getting in the way of her wellbeing, and that “she needed to train to get back on her feet”. Whatever that meant. Maris thought she was already on her feet. Tartarus, she was already standing up and getting ready to make a fool of herself.

Maris sighed, rubbed her temples, and closed her eyes. “How can you stand her? Really? She is so hardheaded!”

Cerberus licked her whiskers, then her front paw, and cleaned her ear.

“Used to seeing her act like this?” Maris asked, sitting next to Cerberus and petting her behind the ear. The cat closed her eyes and purred. “Can you go and bite her?”

Another heavy grunt made Maris turn just in time to watch Valda fall on her back. Clouds of dust formed around her while the guard “training” with her laughed and wiped his brow. Maris eyed him sternly. She could so easily grab a rock and smash his head open, but she shouldn’t. Valda was training and she was the audience.

The princess scrambled to her feet again and ran her fingers through her hair. She patted her clothing, as more sandy dust flowed out of her. “I need a weapon!”

Maris sighed again, her head falling. “Your Highness…” Before Maris could voice her discomfort, a male guard grabbed a wooden baton and pressed it to Valda’s open palm.

Valda held the weapon firmly, with her eyes closed, she took a more defensive stance. Slowly, she waved the baton around, as if she was holding a sword and getting the feel of its weight. Within seconds, the expertise Maris had only heard about surfaced as Valda twirled the baton with subtle swiftness of her wrist. The baton spun rapidly, forming circles as Valda rotated her body with remarkable proficiency. Valda was made to hold a sword, she was made for battle, she was made to kill and destroy, and as she turned and spun the baton, she smacked the wooden weapon across an unsuspected guard’s face.

Maris gasped and jumped back in shock. She wasn’t expecting that. She wasn’t expecting Valda to hit anything at all. The guard writhed in pain, holding his face as droplets of blood trickled from between his hands. Another guard pulled him aside and when he moved his hands away, Maris winced at the sight of his broken nose oozing more blood.

Smirking, she rested the baton on her right shoulder. Valda taunted the other guards, with a wave of her hand.

A third guard charged at her, yelling at the top of his lungs. Valda turned her face in his direction, dodging his attack and thrusting her baton into his ribcage. The sound of bone cracking did not affect Valda, but Maris’s hands went to her own chest grimacing.

The guard moved back as a fourth one tiptoed towards Valda. The princess’s defensive stance didn’t falter as she focused on what was happening around her. Maris stared unapologetically. She watched the tall woman’s labored breathing, her chest rising and falling with each breath. Glistening droplets of sweat ran down her temples, neck, the straining muscles of her thighs and arms. Maris was so enthralled that she didn’t notice the fourth guard about to attack the princess.

Four versus one wasn’t fair, and even less so when Valda wasn’t able to see. As the guard lifted his baton to hit Valda, Maris yelled, “Behind you!”

Valda grunted, pushing the baton back and hitting the guard’s crotch with the blunt and round end. Maris chuckled as the man grabbed between his leg, dropped his weapon and fell back. Valda squared her shoulders before throwing the baton to the ground and fixing her hair.

“Don’t get cocky,” Valda said, turning her chin high.