Chapter Thirty Two

As I marched towards the kingdom’s clinic, I wondered if what I was doing was right. It was quite rude to conclude that going straight to the kingdom’s clinic was the immediate action to take after speaking to Kareem. What he had said about Masoma had stayed with me, very few people had been nice to me since I got to the Berg kingdom and I was also quick to realize that Masoma was part of them.

I vividly remembered the day my former roommates had beaten me after they had starved me till I had fainted. I remembered her words at the clinic that day as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I also remembered wondering what her words would mean, if it meant that she was on my side or not or if she was just waving me away. But now, I knew she was on my side and I’m suddenly realizing that she might have even spoken like that so intentionally so that Jonathan would take action but it was a speculation, she also didn’t somehow speculate that Jonathan would ask me to move to the palace, did she?

My feet soon brought me to the door of the clinic and I stared at the door wondering if I was going to go in or not and a moment of random clarity rushed into my head and every reason why I had come in the first place vanished away. I almost turned on my heel and scampered away. If not for one of the clinic assistants that walked out of the clinic, I recognized her on the spot, it was the girl who had attended to me the day i had fainted.

She stared at me in surprise and I swallowed, forcing a smile on my lips, “What are you doing here?” she asked as she moved closer to me, “Is everything alright with you?” she continued as she furrowed her brows, “Is everything alright at the palace?” she added and I quickly chuckled, shaking my head.

“Everything is fine, I want to see Masoma” I replied and the girl looked taken aback, her eyes seemed to scrutinize me for a few seconds before she nodded.

“Alright, let’s go” she said as she turned and walked back into the clinic. I swallowed as I walked in after her all f my hopes of going back dashed, I tried to rehearse the words I had planned to say in my head but they were scattered but I didn’t stop trying to piece them together till she brought me into a room and there were about four clinic assistants surrounding something I could.

“Masoma, someone wants to see you” the girl said and one of the assistants was the first to raise his head.

“Alya, what are you taking ? We are…” he didn’t get to finish his words as soon as he saw me standing there. I quickly offered him a polite smile, his unfinished words had made everyone turn to me. I noticed that there was, I don't know, maybe a rat or a rabbit on the table and Masoma was probably teaching them surgery.

Masoma finally raised her head and the moment our eyes met, I didn’t escape the look of apprehension that crossed her eyes but she just turned to the assistants, “You guys should finish this” she said as she walked towards the basin, removing the nylon covering her hands. She washed her hands and turned towards me, ‘Come with me” she said softly and I nodded walking after her until we came to a clearing of several potted plants, some of had flowers and some didn’t and it was a beautiful sight even though I knew that most of them were drugs that the clinic were growing themselves.

“Did the king send you?” Masoma asked and I immediately shook my head, “No one did, I came by myself.” I replied, meeting her eyes. All of a sudden, all the words I had rehearsed had disappeared.

Seconds of silence passed through us and I finally spoke up, “Thank you” Masoma stared at me taken aback.

“Thank you?” she repeatedly and I nodded.

“I have been helping the king bandage his wounds for over two weeks now” I started by revealing and Masoma looked surprised, “The first day i was supposed to clean the rom, he was obviously struggling so I decided to help out even though I still absolutely hated him but you wouldn’t believe that he said thank you” I continued and Masoma chuckled. I wasn’t scared to express my hatred for Jonathan, I was sure she knew already, there was no need to be insincere in front of her.

“I was stunned, he actually called me Princess without his sarcastic, spiteful tone, it was new and refreshing so I took it and I have helped ever since. I never ran into you after the war and I was beginning to wonder what was going on well until I ran into Commander Kareem today who told me what had happened” I continued and Masoma sighed.

“I…” I didn’t let her finish her words before I cut i, “It’s one of the nicest things anyone has done for me ever since I got here” 

“Huh?” she said and I nodded, a smile spreading across my lips, “I’ve never heard of anyone fighting the king on behalf of a slave before, especially not a slave like me. But you did and you were even embarrassed to see me” I replied and Masoma shook her head.

“It wasn’t a nice thing, I was the one who had asked for your help and it had at the end of the day turned out like that, of course I was embarrassed to face you that’s why I got so angry and fought with him” Masoma said and I smiled.

“What the king did to you was uncalled for and it wasn’t fair. He didn’t even listen to any explanations and I was just mad” she added.

“It made me feel warm whether you believe it or not, that’s why I came to see you to tell you that it’s okay and I’m totally fine. I was going to let go but now I’m definitely getting my apology from the king, he owes me a big one” I said with a chuckle and Masoma laughed lightly nodding her head.

“He does” She replied and there was another few seconds of silence but this time around, it was a relieving silence.

“Do you want to learn about basic treating procedures and herbs?” Masoma suggested, “You did so well at the war issue, it’s going to happen often” she said and I pursed my lips, apart from cleaning the palace, I had nothing and medicine was something I was already learning slowly back at home. I nodded my head.

“I’ll have to get permission from Aurora and the king” I said and nodded, “But I’ll love to” I replied to her and Masoma almost rolled her eyes.

“You don’t need to do that, I’ll inform the both of them” Masoma said and a smile broke on my lips.

“O wow, thank you so much then” I replied as I nodded my head, ‘Thank you so much Masoma” i added.

“I hate so much to be the one to tell you this but it didn’t matter how mad I was, if the king hadn’t realized his mistake he wouldn’t allow me to act like that. I am directly in charge of his well being, acting like this, the council of elders must not find out, they have already thrown tantrums about you” Masoma said and my eyes widened in realization.

As I walked out of the clinic,  I laughed at myself. I had almost moved forward to hug Serena the moment I told her thank you and I realized that it was the first time I had felt like hugging someone that wasn’t Juniper or Serena.

A smile hung on my lips as I walked back to the palace. It felt so good to be friends with Masoma, she was obviously older but it was so easy to relate with her. Her words filtered into my mind and I chuckled.

If Jonathan was sorry, what exactly was stopping him from apologizing. Was thank you easier to say than saying sorry? What was harder? Saying thank you to the daughter of the man who killed your father or saying sorry to her?

Even for me, none of them sounded or looked easy to do but since he had done one of them, doing the other wasn’t a big deal yet in two weeks he hadn’t said anything, I wondered if he had forgotten that he was supposed to apologise to me but I knew that clearly he hadn’t.

I decided to address it the next day. I tried to imagine his face when I told him that he owes me an apology and I immediately laughed at the thought. I was literally taking my chances with him just because of a few moments of closeness.

I decided not to think too much of it and just wait till the next day, there would surely be an opportunity to talk to him about it. My mind drifted towards the locked room I had to clean the next day but when I opened the door of the room, there was a bright smiling face of Serena waiting for me.