CHAPTER 34 How to Care for Carnivorous Weeds

Keith

Keith broke contact with Henrietta and glowered at the curly-haired blonde woman staring starry-eyed at him from across the table.

"I still can't believe it." Chloe laughed. "You! "

"Shove it, Chloe," Keith ordered, looking down at his desk and the work piling up. It was perfectly manageable, just larger with the war preparations.

He wasn't usually in the office this early; his day started with a leisurely bubble bath, delicious food, a fun jaunt in his workshop to get the creative juices flowing, then lunch, paperwork, an enjoyable walk through the garden, more paperwork, and dinner. He ended the day with a nice cup of tea and a good book. Not one of his godmother's draconic romances, but something educational, like 50 Ways to Disintegrate a Body so It Can't Be Reanimated or How to Care for Carnivorous Weeds, and more recently, Nine Habits for Having a Good Marriage. Rufus was adamant that the Habit books were excellent resources, and Keith was actually enjoying some of the more calculated recommendations.

Things like holding hands once a day builds intimacy. He liked holding hands. With Henrietta, that was. Not his persistent and annoying necromancer who wouldn't leave him alone.

"The Dark Lord of Nilheim," Chloe teased. "In love!"

"Did I give you this much trouble when you started dating Grand Duchess Calisto's heir?" Keith finished processing a request for intercity business licensing from one of his kingdom's largest merchant guilds after the arachne, the Pixie Prim. The lesser fae roaming his lands loved to cultivate beautiful gardens in roving flower fields across the forest, and they were happy to designate a portion for potion materials and rare ingredients.

Again, why did common vernacular refer to the average fae as lesser? He could never understand. He supposed there were fewer greater fae ruling the cosmos from their courts. Perhaps it was also his penchant for confusing the definition of lesser and fewer. Chloe was still chuckling.

"I know you have work to do," Keith said dryly. "Maybe you should go do it?"

"If you mean meeting those healers, then it's done." Chloe sighed. "They are all excellent, but none are powerful enough to resurrect anyone … yet."

"It's your job to fix that."

"I know, I know," Chloe said. " That's why I've sent them through one of the dungeons."

Keith glanced at the smaller kingdom map he'd had commissioned, sitting above one alcove. "Hm …" he hummed, contemplative.

"What?" Chloe followed his gaze. "Is there a specific dungeon Your Viciousness would have me dump them in?"

"Henrietta spent a lot of time dungeon delving," Keith mused. "I wonder if she'd like to see ours?"

Chloe said in mock shock, "You're hopeless. Besides, didn't you say she doesn't like fighting?"

"She doesn't like killing people," Keith corrected.

"Are you saying monsters aren't people?" Chloe teased. "How unlike you."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it. It's entirely different. I have it on good authority that Ria had a wonderful time fighting the Naga Warriors." Keith sighed and finished processing a request for land-resource negotiation renewal between the unicorn hordes and the merfolk. The forest had moved their area north of their usual watering hole from the Kemp River, and they would need to cooperate with the merfolk to use Lake Loria a little longer than planned. "I just think dungeon delving would be a nice distraction … I could use a distraction myself. Maybe I'll go too."

"Only you would think of dungeon delving as a great place for a date." Chloe tossed her hair over her shoulder and checked her perfectly manicured rose-pink nails. It matched the white dress with embroidered roses along the hem that came down to her calves. "Is that what you're doing now? Distracting her?"

"Yes." Keith made no move to deny it. He ran a hand through his hair, careful of his horn. "It's still weeks until the battle, and she was getting restless. Rufus recommended giving her something to do … so easy level ten bandits it was."

"I thought you said she doesn't like killing people?" Chloe countered. "Your mission seems in poor taste."

"She didn't kill them. She captured them and hauled them back to the army. Now she's delivering their cargo to the dwarves," Keith countered back. "She gets to sightsee and feel useful on an important diplomatic mission."

Chloe stared at Keith until he became self-conscious and stopped reading documents to actually look at her. "What?"

"It's just the way you said that." Chloe frowned. "I can't tell if it was meant to sound that insulting."

"Insulting?"

"The way you said ‘she gets to feel useful' like that." Chloe shook her head. "I think you're making a big mistake if you think a Heroine of Justice who has dedicated her entire life to a cause just needs you to give her tasks to ‘feel useful.' She's a grown woman."

"That's not—She's not—" Keith started, then he took a breath. "She's not like you, Chloe. Ria still has a ‘need to be helpful, or she thinks people won't love her' trauma that she's working through. You know that's dumb. I know that's dumb. But if that's what she needs, then I'll follow Rufus's recommendations. Even if I need to make some myself."

"I still think you're making a big mistake." Chloe shrugged. "But you're the boss, and she's your wife."

"Wife?!" Keith choked. "We aren't even engaged yet!"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Yet. You're so far gone, it's only a matter of time."

"I think it's time you actually got back to work." Keith waved a dismissive hand at his friend. "And let me do the same."

"Fine. But Rufus isn't the only person qualified to give you advice," Chloe warned, huffing and turning to walk out of the office. Over her shoulder, she said, "And maybe you should listen to your friend who's already in a happy relationship instead of the forever-alone therianthrope?"

"Goodbye, Chloe."