Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Twenty Six

A/N -- Check out the song if you please!

Iris found Hench's room with relative ease. The rogue had sped down the hallway, heart pounding and head spinning from the news she'd just received. She had a sister --a sister! Somewhere in the world, there was someone --or at least, had once been someone-- who shared her blood.

Iris was impatient. Without thinking, she'd all but stormed into her mentor's bedchambers completely unannounced --she didn't even knock on the door. So, naturally, when Iris still heard Hench shuffling around in her bathing room, she was heavily disappointed. There was so much she wanted to know right at that moment.

But she had to wait.

Iris paced around Hench's room a few times, doing her best to settle her nerves. When that didn't work? She just sat down on Hench's bed and stared at the painting in her palms. The more that Iris stared, she saw that Cricket looked so much like her father. Iris broke her gaze after a second and fidgeted a little, placing the frame in her inner robe pocket.

For a moment, the rogue just took in the room around her. Kayde's room had been decorated a bit; he had various knick-knacks and plants, a few paintings of his family members, and other bits of memorabilia here and there. But Hench's? Hench's room had none of that. Her room was spotless and devoid of anything unique --almost to the point where it looked as if no one truly lived there. There were no sketches, no books, no games, no evidence of family or friends. Nothing.

Iris just sighed, giving up on the halfhearted search. But then, her eye finally caught something --a single, silver chain glinted from the top corner of Hench's mirror. Iris narrowed her eyes at it for a moment and stopped breathing for a moment so she could listen out for her mentor, who still moved about in the washroom.

While the coast was seemingly clear, Iris got up to inspect the chain closer. She walked up to it and swiped it from the corner to get a better look at its charm. And when she did, Iris realized just how little she truly knew about her mentor. Hanging on the chain was a beautiful, gem-encrusted pendant --and set right in the middle was a symbol of two interlocking circles. This was an amulet of matrimony.

Hench was married?

Iris didn't have time to digest that revelation before she heard the washroom door open to her right --and with Hench's marriage symbol still hanging from her hand? Oh, Iris couldn't help but feel entirely like she was the cat that had just gotten caught in the cream.

Slowly, Iris turned on a heel to face Hench directly, visibly cringing at the situation at hand.

If Iris had startled the woman at all, she did not show it. She simply crossed her large arms and raised a pierced brow at Iris. "Something I can help you find, girl, or are you just browsing?" The question wasn't one that was meant to be answered.

Iris stared awkwardly in Hench's direction for a long while. And finally, "I don't know what you want me to say."

Hench exhaled through her nose. "How about this? Put that back on my mirror, and then you can tell me why you're in my room." The words weren't unkind.

"Fair enough," Iris said, quickly sticking the amulet back where it belonged. After doing so, she turned back to Hench, who still stood there with her arms crossed. "I didn't actually come in here to snoop around," she admitted. "I came to ask you about something. And before you say it, I know you don't like questions, but this one's really important to me. I just... saw your necklace while I was waiting on you to come out of your bath." Iris sheepishly shrugged. "It's possible I got a little nosy."