Chapter 17 — Playing Politics
At dawn, Idalia had been dragged to Madam Fion, who for some reason was in the garden at the crack of the first light.
"Madam Fion!" Rosabel called out, and Madam Fion turned to her.
Now that Idalia wasn't presently having any issue, she could notice her fully.
A tall dark-skinned woman with a low cut with specks of grey. She always wore this green ankle-length robe, and her face was like that of a marketer who could sell you anything and everything, for any price, as long as they were set on it. But it was one she could easily pull into a terrifying frown.
"You." She turned in their direction. "The one who caught the mad one."
The mad one? How ironic.
"Oh, there she is with you."
Idalia fell to her knees quickly and the rehearsed apology flowed, along with the compliments at the end. All something that Rosabel had taught her to say. At least, this time she was throwing her under the bus, she had taught her how to roll properly under it.
A smile cracked on Madam Fion's face. "You taught her how to do this."
"I only taught her to recognise how powerful your authority is and how she is nothing here if you decide that she is, how she is only something when you decide so. It is her apology. She is begging you because it is only your mercy that she needs and because you are the only one who can grant it. She is on her knees where she should be before you. She now knows her place and will respect it."
Wow. So this was how the game was played. Idalia had seen it being played so many times. As much as she hadn't and as much as her handmaidens had not done this, her parents had played this game with others.
She had foolishly thought she was above it then.
Now, look at her. Playing politics. It wasn't at the forefront but the fact that she was playing it at all felt jarring.
How quickly people could change when situations demanded it.
"Oh, I remember you." A bemused smile took over Madam Fion's lips. "You are Rosabel, one of my best girls."
Rosabel smiled bashfully.
"I have always liked you. You know your place."
"That is all because you taught me well, Madam Fion."
"Of course. Of course." She nodded and looked down at Julie, who quickly kept her gaze to the ground. "Good start, I guess. You'll teach her better in time. Suddenly, I am no longer angry. In fact," she paused and Idalia could hear her crossing something out in the hardcover book she had in her hand. "She can stay in the mansion. She is promising. Others will learn from her now that she behaves."
Rosabel thanked Madam Fion and Idalia joined in too, before they went their separate ways.
Finally, the doors were thrown open to them, and they were allowed into the mansion again.
Interesting.
"Stay in the mansion?" She asked Rosabel, as they walked through the hallway.
"Did you think all the rescued would stay in the mansion forever? This place is already getting suffocating. They are getting dispatched to different homes based on the selection. Loads of paperwork and so on. But Madam Fion isn't mad at you anymore. So you can stay here."
So if Rosabel hadn't crafted that apology for her and made her execute it, she would have had it move? Would the Silver Hunter have agreed to that? They did have a contract, after all. Or would it have been something they would clash upon?
What was the politics of this place? How did it work?
She didn't know, but she was learning. And she was glad that she didn't have to move out of the mansion. A new place where she would have to learn new things, know new people and all that.
She didn't know all she had to here, and there were more questions than answers, but at least she knew something.
Also, it was here that she could keep an eye on the Silver Hunter to execute any plans against him.
She heard a car rush into the driveway before screeching to a halt.
Idalia didn't know much about cars but the way the black paint glimmered under the sun, and its mighty, stable presence made her believe that it was expensive.
The door flung open and out stepped Theon. From the other side, she caught a glimpse of the silver hair in the sun before she saw him fully. Black jacket and a phone pressed to his ear.
Something about seeing him right now made her freeze.
From up here, she could hear his words faintly. "We will speak after the holidays, Mr Adams." He went quiet for a moment as he began heading towards the mansion. Theon followed. "Then," his voice heightened with anger, still cold and measured. "You should have told me about it while I was seated in front of you in my office, yesterday."
Her brows crinkled with a frown at his words.
That couldn't be.
He hung up the call and pushed his phone into his pocket as Theon rushed to him and said something to him.
This, she did not catch.
But whatever it was, it made him turn around and go right back to the car. Just as he pressed the door open, he stopped. His back, rigid.
Then he looked up. At her. Her breath caught in her throat. She searched his eyes for any sought if remembrance of what had happened yesterday. The world blurred around her and she fell deeper into his green eyes behind frameless glasses.
But that was as far as it had gone before his look of hatred hit her, surviving to the surface the one in her. She looked again, her blood beating with fury.
She heard the door of the car slam shut and when she looked back, his car was already speeding out of the driveway.
Hot air of anger pushed out through her nose and fanned her upper lip. Her thirst to kill him was all she could feel.
"I told you, he wasn't in Echelon yesterday." She heard Rosabel say behind her.
Idalia instinctively began to pick out the differences between whatever it was she had seen yesterday and the Silver Hunter she had seen moments ago.
One by one they stacked.
She wasn't about to doubt herself so she did not permit it. But she admitted to herself that whatever she had seen might not have been him. There were different magical creatures in the forest beyond the werewolf packs. Idalia had learnt of them, of as many as she could.
Some had hosts whom they killed eventually, some didn't,
And whatever it was in that mansion was none of her business. Whether it was killing him or not. It was even better if it was killing him. After all, all she truly wanted for the Silver Hunter, was for him to die.
If some magical creature turned out to be the murderer instead of her, it didn't matter.
All that mattered was for the chic to be done.
True or not, she didn't care.
Her heart beat once. Twice. Three times.
"I don't care." She didn't know why but something in her voice didn't sound very sincere.