Johfrit was practically steaming as he followed me through the corridors.  “What have you done to your door?  And what is that, you can’t bring that inside!”

“It’s a badger, it’s injured and I’m helping it,” I informed him, ignoring his ranting as I continued to carry the badger towards my room.  I’d been told about it by some birds at my window and gone to fetch it after the sun had barely risen.  Thankfully, the guards at the entrances to the castle recognized me and knew I was allowed in and out, or I might have had to figure out how to shapeshift and carry the badger at the same time.

Now, though, I was having to deal with an angry steward while carrying the unhappy badger.

“And what do you mean about my door?  It’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with it.”  I’d know if there was.  I wasn’t about to give up privacy in my room.

“One of the servants told me the door was locked, so I went to unlock it, and the key doesn’t work!”  He practically exploded.

I’d have been really angry at this myself if I hadn’t 100% expected it.  “Oh, that’s because I changed the lock,” I told him calmly.  “I went and asked the locksmith how, then made some modifications to it myself.”

His footsteps behind me stopped, so I glanced over my shoulder, a little amused to see him actually stopped in his tracks in pure shock.

It took him a few paces to remember what he was doing, and then he hurried to catch up, spluttering all the way.  “You cannot change the locks on the doors without permission!  And you cannot just bring a badger into the castle!  Think of the damage it could do!”

I rolled my eyes.  “Look, no offense, but I don’t want you or anyone else poking around in my room.  It’s my room.  Meaning in there, it’s my space, no one gets to come in and invade it.  I don’t need the servants to clean it, and I’ll take care of the cat and badger.  And I will not tolerate you or anyone else sticking your nose in just because you don’t approve of how I do things.  Let me guess, it wasn’t really a servant, was it?  Or you asked a servant to remove the plant and when they couldn’t, you had an excuse to break in?  I told you, don’t mess with my stuff.  I won’t forgive and forget.”

I stopped at the door, shifting the badger so I could get the key and unlock it.  Johfrit seemed eager to step inside, but I didn’t let him – however, he got enough of a glimpse to realize I didn’t just have one plant now.

“What do you think you are doing?  You cannot do this, you cannot bring dirt and plants into the castle!  And wild animals!”

I carefully set the badger down on a chair while keeping the door mostly closed with my foot, then turned my full attention to the angry steward and smiled too sweetly at him.

“My room is my territory, and I make the rules in here.  You don’t.  And I won’t tolerate you entering or trying to take my things – or mess with my guests.  As far as your concerns about the badger, don’t worry, it’s too hurt to mess things up, and once it gets better, it’ll far prefer a life in the wild than here, and I’ll make sure it returns there.  The plants aren’t that big of a deal and I don’t know what your problem with greenery is.”  I reached over, though, to pick up a spoon and hand it to him.  “But if you wouldn’t mind returning this for me?  I forgot when I got dirt for the other plants.”  I gave him an innocent smile, well aware that he was yet again rendered speechless and near apoplectic with rage.  I had actually deliberately chosen to use the spoon again just because I knew how much it would infuriate Johfrit.

He started actually yelling, something about decorum and primitive people and who knew what, but I politely – or not – closed the door in his face, locked it, and ignored him, instead focusing on the injured badger.

I’d had some experience fixing up animals that were injured in the forest.  They knew they could come to my mother and then to me for help, so stitching up some injuries or helping with a birth wasn’t unusual.

However, when I took a closer look at the badger, I found myself more concerned.  The badger had a head injury, which I cleaned, but I was fairly certain from the way he was behaving that he had gotten some brain damage in the process.  He was struggling to walk and kept walking into things, which I wasn’t sure whether that was because of the difficulty walking or if his vision was messed up.  I decided to settle him in under the bed in something as close to a den as possible and give him some medicinal herbs and food, hoping that the rest and care would help him heal.  If it turned out the brain damage was permanent, I might have to keep him here, but I could give him as happy a life as possible.

“I’m going to need to name you,” I decided, as Gilly very gingerly sniffed the badger, who looked like he was falling asleep in the “den” I gave him now that he was safe and comfy.  “How about Nettle?”  I paused, watching a second cat follow Gilly to sniff the badger.  Huh, it must have found the magic pathways I made for Gilly to get around the castle.  “And I guess you can be…Breone?  You look like a little fireball.”  Sure enough, the orange cat jumped back when I went to pet him.  I raised an eyebrow, my hand still held towards him, and he reconsidered and came over to sniff me, letting me pet him, before suddenly jumping with surprise when Gilly’s tail brushed against him..

“Not the brightest one, are you?”  I murmured with a bit of a laugh.  “But we have place for all types here, don’t worry.”

I was curious whether other cats were using the pathways, so I turned my attention to Gilly.  “Have the others found the pathways, then?”

She turned back towards me, coming over to rub against me while she responded.  Non-magic animals didn’t have formal word thoughts, so it was usually a series of images they could transmit to me, and sometimes translating them was a challenge.

I took a moment to think through the series of images she sent me.  “You…want more of them?”
She had a particular image in mind, and kept repeating it.

“You want a pathway to a specific room.”

She eagerly rubbed her head against me, now giving me images of a man.  One of the nobles, one of the older ones, and I was pretty sure I knew which one.

“Lord Lludd?”  I’d heard him mentioned by the servants, never favorably, and even Genevieve had put on a long-suffering face when he was mentioned.

Gilly, however, immediately responded with her ears pinned back and her back arched.  Breone, who had been batting at Gilly’s tail, practically fell over himself in his concern over the mention of the name.

A series of images flashed from her mind, all very angry ones.

My brows furrowed, this time my own anger rising.  “Oh, he kicks the animals, does he?  Deliberate steps on dogs’ and cats’ tails just to hurt you?”  I knew he wasn’t popular amongst the humans, but I didn’t realize he was outright cruel even to the king’s own dogs.  “Why do you want a pathway to his room?”

Gilly eagerly presented her planned revenge, and I almost had to laugh.

Never get on the wrong side of cats.

“You and the other cats want to hide half-eaten prey in his shoes and anywhere else you can find in his room?  And live prey, too?  Fine, I’ll make you some pathways to his room, but make sure you and the other cats know that they have to be extremely alert and careful when you’re in there!  I don’t want him to catch you and hurt you while you’re taking your revenge.”

She solemnly agreed but was also so fiendishly delighted about the possibility of being able to have their revenge on Lord Lludd that she zoomed around the room, tail fluffed out, totally freaking Breone out in the process.

I laughed a bit, amused at the antics, then switched to my own black cat form to set out and find Lord Lludd’s room so I could create the pathway.  I needed to know exactly where his room was if I was going to create magical passages within the shadows for cats to come and go freely.

Gilly tried to show me, but got distracted when she spotted a mouse, so I left her to do her formal cat job while I kept wandering around on my own, largely unnoticed as I headed through the other nobles’ quarters to find Lord Lludd.

I paused as I jumped from one window to the next, my perch at the current window offering me a clear view of Arthur and Genevieve talking, Olwen at the far edge of the room working on needlecraft or something.

“To be honest,” Genevieve said slowly, “I understand wanting to give Lucan a second chance because he has been here so long, but…I wouldn’t do it.  He thought nothing of saying such things in front of me, his future queen.  It shows already what he thinks of me.  He’s going to fight the idea every time you appoint a woman as an advisor, or send a woman knight or scholar to work with him.  Frankly, I now suspect that the reason you haven’t had women succeed in becoming court scholars isn’t because they’re unqualified as he claims, but because he simply doesn’t want them there.  His entire attitude is against everything we’re hoping to change and achieve.”  She watched him, almost nervously, like she was afraid he was going to side with Lucan despite his beliefs.

Arthur, however, had been listening with a frown.  “It’s not surprising, really.  I assumed when I took the throne that there would probably be several people that would have to be removed – people who were used to my father’s way of doing things and believed in his policies, not ours.  I’ve been keeping an eye out for any conerns, but of course, they don’t always come up in front of me.  As bad as it is that he was willing to say that in front of you, at the same time I’m glad he did – this way we know.  We’ll let him retire,” he decided, “so he can maintain his dignity, but I’ll make it clear that he’s no longer welcome as the head of my scholars.  And I’d like you to be there to help reinforce it.  Would you actually prefer to give the order yourself?  Make it clear that your authority applies here?”

I was kind of impressed that he was talking about “their” policies and asking for her input on how to handle the issue.

They talked it over, ultimately deciding that Genevieve would run the show and Arthur would back her up if necessary, but would also add a few lines at the end to make sure Lucan understood his position on the whole situation.  Genevieve seemed a bit nervous but also determined about the plan, likely hoping this would mean she would have her first confrontation but with backup, so basically a practice situation for what she might face later once she was officially queen.