Michellin

Wanderers

When they stopped, Kire turned to face him. “The feud has been going on even before my time. Generations and generations ago, all the way back to the founding of the Empire, as far as I know.” She sighed. “I certainly didn’t make it any better, though.” She glanced back down the stairs, at the beach. “After the Black Storm, and I was crowned, there was a massive campaign to hunt down every single magic-wielding Gemini. Figure out the source of the gate they had tried to open. And we found it, within Gemini territory. We had an agreement prior to that not to cross, but of course we disregarded that. Their whole town had gone mad, along them the mages. There had been a ban on sorcerers on the Wyvern side of the empire, my advisers reasoned. And I was too young, too angry anyway, to see any other solution. Ed tried to dissent, but he was one of few voices, and he was only two decades older than me, after all.”

She glanced at him. “So I had the whole town razed. Put to the sword. I convinced myself there was no other way. The gate was exacting its penalty on them, and I was showing mercy. They were in the middle of the blood magic transformation. There was no way to be sure, though, that they were beyond curing. I was not interested in curing anyone back then. Years later, I’d find out that it might have been reversible. That they might’ve been seeing illusions, and all we had to do was find the rune and destroy it.”

Kire glared out at the ocean, her jaw clenched again, then cleared her throat. "I was--around Gavin's age. Or a bit younger. Not that it's an excuse."

Wanderers

Kire nodded when he asked her to keep it from everybody else. “I understand. I promise.” She paused. “I see a little more clearly now why Envy wanted me to be cautious.” She climbed up beside him, thoughtful. When he asked her about the ring and being empress, she smiled, shaking her head. “I think I would have reached this conclusion at some point, with or without the Ring,” she said, though her expression was somber when she pondered his other question.

“When I was first offered this Ring, I was told I have a chance to atone for something terrible I had done, when I was a young empress. Protect my people with extraordinary means, certainly that’s what I was told I’d be doing. I think I mentioned that before. But the one thing the Seer dangled in front of me that I couldn’t quite resist was that I could use this to cleanse me of my guilt. So. I suppose you could say I wanted it, in a way.”

She remembered Gael’s voice, how he had rubbed that in her face, how the Gemini used it as their motivation for their war with her. She clenched her jaw, then realized what she was doing and took a deep breath to relax it. “Besides, it’s hardly an ‘out’ when it’s given me an even bigger responsibility. A crown gave me one world, this thing gave me two.” She sighed at that. “It has its perks, though.”

Wanderers

Kire listened to him explain what had happened after he ran away. What an ordeal that was, to survive an agonizing withdrawal, in the middle of the desert, and to find refuge under a city you had never seen before. She lowered her hand when he gently pried it from his face. She gave him a small smile. “Fair is fair. The next five are yours.” She had guessed as much when he pointed out that her boots were nowhere to be seen.

She walked back along the beach just as slowly, reluctant to leave it. As much as she wanted to ask him what he thought of her questions, what intentions he had read into them, she let him mull it over. She knew what he had just confessed to her was no easy thing to unburden onto someone else. “Thank you. For telling me.”

Wanderers

Kire hadn’t realized at first that she had stopped walking after he finished talking. A drug. Constantly administered, to keep them collared. Between a slave and an animal. No wonder. “That—that’s terrible,” she breathed. That anybody would subject another living being to this. “Evil. Why?” She felt anger grow in her, the same kind of anger that would bubble up whenever she wondered why men like Ikegai or Itallo existed, why the Gemini would mutilate whole towns, whole cities, for their blood magic. And just like those other times, she knew there was no easy answer to that.

But more than anger, she wondered how he could have borne all this pain alone.
Cautiously, she stepped back closer to him. She raised her scarred hand, gently touching his cheek, close to the scar where he had been poisoned. “You ran away,” she murmured. “Was that when you were alone? Weaning off the poison?”

Wanderers

She drew breath when he finally said it. Between a slave an animal. That’s what Ruli was telling her. She looked at him, remembering the way his body shook, the desperation in his voice while in the hot springs. The fact that it was Envy who had given him a name, an identity beyond that of some nameless thrall, underscored to her how important his bond with the Kartaian was, how he really was practically Ruli’s father. She felt a little guilty, then, knowing Envy had asked her to be careful with him. Be careful with him, she reminded herself. “They—elves, I assume?” she asked, her pace matching his slow one, letting him have time to think. “And the poison, did they give that to you as punishment for something?” She paused, gauging his reaction. “If you don’t feel like answering more questions, just tell me.”

Wanderers

Kire shook her head. “Eh, they’ll live. They can always just assume I’m away on some Paladin business,” she said, gesturing vaguely. “I have admittedly squirreled my way out of boring meetings using that excuse before,” she added with a grin, standing up to follow him out of the hall. When he asked where they should have their conversation, she paused to think about it, then gestured for the beach. Kire figured they both might need the comfort and distraction of open air and the sea breeze, in case the conversation became too heavy.

She looked around to scan the sand for her boots, albeit rather lazily, not really invested in the task. “So, how is it that someone who bakes great cakes doesn’t like eating them?” she said nonchalantly, before smirking, shaking her head. “Don’t answer that. I’d like a little mystery in my life.” She tugged at her own hair, which had dried in knots. Out with it, Kay. He probably already knows what you’ll ask. “You said you’ve had the poison before,” she said after a long pause. “And—you told me once that you were a half-breed.” She looked at him, her hands clasped behind her. “Do your scars have anything to do with either?”

Wanderers

One question. Kire drew in a deep breath and nodded, before turning to hand him the eggs. She kept quiet as he continued his task, now and then handing him the ingredients he would ask for, also slightly relieved she wasn’t involved in the cooking beyond that. She mulled over the question in silence as she ate breakfast, though she did compliment him on the food. She had so many thinks she wanted to ask about him, but ultimately they all coiled around one thing: his past. She pieced together what she had so far: that he was found by Envy, that he was a half-breed—half-elf, most likely, given his shared abilities with the Shadow Elves and Kartaians. She remembered the shame with which he had admitted this. And his scars… He knew the agony of the poison from some period in his life he wouldn’t name.

At some point, Ed came in looking for her. As expected, he looked like he had a very pleasant evening. “Could you give them my apologies? I won’t make it to the meetings today. If possible, move them all to tomorrow. Or late in the afternoon, if it can’t be helped,” she said when Ed asked her about coming back to the Tower.
He looked curiously at her, then at Ruli, but said nothing else. “I’ll see you later, then,” he said, giving a nod in farewell to Ruli before going back outside.
She returned to her meal. “Mostly well-wishers,” she said in explanation. “The usual kiss-ass-to-the-new-old-Empress,” she added with a chuckle. “They can wait.”

Wanderers

Kire let out a chortle at that. “Ah yes, a woman’s heart is through her stomach, indeed,” she said solemnly, before she chuckled. “That’s just another way of saying ‘useful’—but it doesn’t hurt, I’ll admit,” she said, watching him work, chin rested on her hand. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you’re a stubborn blonde who runs into danger and cares for his family. Sounds vaguely familiar to me.” She smirked briefly at that, before shrugging. “You may not feel the same way. I know you don't want me getting too close. But I just don’t want you to think you’re some tool I mean to discard when it’s become useless.”

Wanderers

Kire listened to his answer and was relieved he at least didn’t get a scolding. She shrugged a shoulder as he glanced at her. “I didn’t mind it. Your place is cozy; I slept well, no complaints. I should thank you. Like you said, I wasn’t going to go back to the house with Ed and Ysaryn in there,” she said, wrinkling her nose at the last. “What did you say? I suppose, the same thing you said Elva?” She hummed in thought as they climbed down the steps. Don’t make assumptions, he had said last night. “Well. The war is over,” she began, pausing to gather her words as she looked ahead towards the sea. “But I don’t like you because you have a use to me, you know,” she said softly, looking sidelong at him and feeling her ears grow warm with the statement.

She cleared her throat. "Anyway, what's for breakfast?" she said, looking away quickly.

Wanderers

Kire had slept deeply, curled up in the warm bed after the busy week and from the wine. When morning came, she stirred, but was slow to wake, sleepily thinking she was at the house she had been given in Uvano. But as her mind woke some more, the familiar scent of cinammon, and the shifting of the mattress, reminded her where she really was. She opened her eyes when he greeted her, and she turned to face him, rubbing her eyes.

"Morning," she greeted, pushing herself to sit up. "Wish it wasn't yet, though." She chuckled a bit at that. "But I won't say no to breakfast," she said, grinning sleepily at him before climbing off the bed. "Did I walk barefoot here? Is this the universe getting back at me for nagging you about your boots?"

Not particularly minding it, she walked with him back down the hall, enjoying the warmth of the morning sun, and glad she didn't have a terrible hangover. "Envy didn't give you a hard time when I left you two alone, did he?" she asked, arms crossed to warm herself against the slight chill of the sea breeze.