Andromeda felt guilty, she felt guilty for the new feelings she started having for Rhax after the time she saw him truly vulnerable. Rhax wanted comfort and she instead used this opportunity and developed some kind of attachment to him.

She also felt guilty because she loves Sybal, but she was thinking about another man. A man who she honestly knew better than her husband-to-be. The reason for that is that Sybal spends all of his time in his lab or in his room cultivating. So, she only sees him once every two days and even days on end goes by and she never sees her betrothed for a second.

So, it was only normal for her to feel such emotions to the man who was always by her side for the last weeks and never left her side, right?

She was just lonely and when a person is lonely, they do a lot of questionable things.

She used this argument for days on end to justify the new emotion she felt whenever Rhax was there, she doesn’t know when it started to develop but when he was in her room sobbing and looked absolutely broken, she wanted to hold him tight and kiss all his pain away. That’s when she discovered that she was developing feelings for her blonde and cocky bodyguard. She fortunately escaped facing Rhax and talking with him, because she reckoned that it would be hard to hide the emotions she shows when she is with him. Rhax told her that he wanted to take some days off to go around the city and just live. She accepted because she reckoned it was his way of mourning and he needed some rest both mentally and physically.

So, she watched him the next day depart from the palace with his horse, sword, and a sack with his clothes and money. He wore the clothes he came with; he didn’t take any of the clothes she gave him, and didn’t take the armor. It was like he was leaving for good, which made Andromeda’s heart squeeze in pain. That in turn made her angry at herself. She felt like she was dirty. She felt dirty for lying to Sybal when he asked her if she felt anything toward Rhax, and felt dirty because she clearly saw that Rhax looks at her like his sister and not a woman.

‘Why couldn’t I just see him as a brother? Why? Is it because of the way he treats me? Is it because he is the only one to treat me like that since father died?’ No one treated her the same after her father died, because she was the lady now and not the next in line. So, she was treated like the lady of the house and even her uncle and cousins became distant to her.

But Rhax came and he was treating her not like a lady, but a normal woman. He joked, poked and even sometimes insulted her. And when she told him that it was disrespectful to say such things to a lady, he told her: “Lady? I see no lady here, only a friend I’m talking to. Do you see a lady around?”

There was of course one, it was her. But she didn’t say that, because she knew that it was a test to see if she wanted him to be her friend or not. And if she said that she was a lady then that would mean that she still saw herself higher than him and him not worthy of her friendship. So, she answered: “I can’t see any here, maybe I drank too much.”

He smiled and that made something inside her stir, at the moment she thought it was only because she just got a new friend. But now she knows better.

The days to her wedding were nearing, it was only a week from today that she will get married to Sybal and become officially married to a magus apprentice. She, for some reason, didn't feel the same amount of excitement that she felt for the first time she thought about the possibility. Thinking about it, she didn’t feel the excitement when she thought of marriage to Sybal since…Rhax entered her household.

‘Ah, for fuck's sake. What is wrong with me? I’m marrying a good man, with great power, and loved by all. But I still think about my shady mercenary bodyguard.’ She screamed at herself in her mind.

The days were boring, with no Rhax there she was alone most of the day. The death of Jeyne brought a dark cloud to the palace. The servants were clearly shaken from the experience of one of their friends being killed.

It was an understandable feeling, after all, not everyone had experienced the feeling of a friend or a family member being killed.

It was a new feeling, you are sad for their passing, angry at the person who did it and at the same time afraid that it maybe you who dies next.

She was working in her solar when a servant boy came to her door and knocked. She told him to enter, he stood there awkwardly until she was done with her writing and then looked at him. Clearly bidding him to speak, he started. “My lady, Ser Rhax was,” the boy stopped to take a breath. But at that time Andromeda felt dread rise in her stomach. ‘What happened to Rhax? Is he dead? Oh, gods above please don’t pull something like that.’

“He was seen heading toward the palace, he should be here in approximately 15 minutes. Also, he was seen getting out of a house, and was waved off by a pretty woman who was holding a baby.”

That made Andromeda’s heart crumble, baby? Could it be that Rhax had a family and he brought them here after he got the job as her bodyguard? Did she fall for a married man?

She banished these thoughts from her mind. “Tell my handmaidens to draw me a bath, and fast.” She ordered. She doesn’t want to meet Rhax again after 5 days of not meeting him while not looking presentable. The boy understood and, in a few minutes, she was bathing and wearing her clothes. She wore a yellow dress with red lions. She let her hair loose. She looked very beautiful. It would puzzle the people to why she was this dressed to meet a knight in her service, but to hell with them. Rhax was her friend, and kind of her crush.

So, she went out and waited in the courtyard waiting for Rhax, she saw him approach the gate. Dismount and give her the smile she missed so much.

‘Yes, I’m definitely falling for this man, and I don’t regret it anymore.’