Chapter 4

Stein whistled, impressed by Kairi’s catching of Seloria’s scythe. Other than his parents, he had not seen anyone else catch the secretary figure’s vicious scythe tosses…until now, that is. Even Phiol, who worked and sparred alongside Seloria ever since she had been taken into the Aitelorn household, could only so much as evade one of the specific attack – but just barely. He gave the younger a quick pat on the shoulder before ducking to avoid the sharp end of said weapon’s blade as Kairi twirled it about.

As Rityu retrieved his sword from Kairi’s hastily-vacated chair, Stein observed said girl as her older sister half-heartedly picked her scythe away from a pouting Kairi. If he remembered right, his parents told him something about Kairi being his mission partner. Just then, a thought occurred to him. Perhaps he should get to know her and her skills better...

With that notion in mind, Stein turned to his parents.

“Is Kairi still going to be my mission partner?” he asked. Kairi, who was on the receiving end of some sort of lecture from her sister about why she was not to play with the elder’s weapon as such, looked up with a bewildered expression on her features. Her countenance alone screamed “what?” to all present. Rityu had burst out laughing at that. Stein however, did not want to know why his brother had deemed the younger Thyride’s expression to be funny; he personally thought it was rather adorable, though would not admit it to save him life.

Nerion nodded in response, rather pleased that Stein took the initiative to ask about it. “We’ll leave you to it,” he said, catching on to his son’s intentions. The patriarch gestured for the others present to follow him out. “Brief her on the situation while you’re at it.”

Stein mock-saluted his father as he watched the others file out of the room. Seloria hugged her sister briefly before joining Phiol at the door. The oldest Aitelorn son then flashed Kairi a quick thumbs-up before he turned and pulled said door shut.

With this, Stein moved to one of the seats in the room, removing his sword holsters from his belt. “Grab a wooden weapon of your choice,” he told the still-confused female. “I’ll tell you what you need to know while you warm up, and then…then we’ll have a quick spar.”

“I don’t have a partner with me though…” Kairi’s protest was soft, but Stein heard it all the same as she hesitantly glanced over at the nearest shelf, eventually grabbing a pair of wooden daggers.

~*~

The group outside the training room stood together as they walked, quietly discussing the events that had just occurred in the training room. Phiol, good-natured as always, began his complaint on the apparent ‘injustice’ of how he could not catch Seloria’s scythe ever, while Rityu had his share of fun teasing his older sibling. Seloria was talking with Nerion, concerned over the well-being of her sister – Stein was a hot-headed individual after all. Yula half-attempted to soothe the older Thyride’s worry. Nerion appeared to be thinking a bit too hard over something.

After a moment, Seloria ‘eep’-d and turned to Phiol, giving him the evil eye as she grabbed the cuff of his shirt to prevent him from running away. She smiled sweetly at the other three. “Sorry, but I just remembered someone-“ here, she glared at the oldest, who winced his response, “-has yet to finalize upcoming meeting arrangements with the Doyle’s.” She bowed lightly. “Excuse us.”

Without waiting for a dismissal, she turned and proceeded to drag Phiol, who hastily waved ‘bye’ to his parents and brother, to the office. Rityu chuckled to himself (something about how much Phiol was whipped) before he too took his leave to his parents in want of a bath.

Nerion nodded in acknowledgement of this and together with Yula, waved their son off before making towards the South Wing. “She is really something, that Kairi,” voiced Yula, laughing a little. “She caught Seloria’s scythe on instinctive movement.”

Her companion ‘hm’-d in thought. They were silent for a moment before he spoke. “And despite that, you said that she appears to doubts her own abilities,” he said. “Something about this doesn’t seem right.”

Yula could not agree more. “I’m hoping Stein will be able to figure something out,” she said softly as they turned a corner. “They are going to be performing the mission as partners after all. It’s best they understand each other and know the other’s skills.”

“Speaking of which,” Nerion said then, his tone a bit dark, “anything on him?” He nodded stiffly to a passing servant as the duo walked into Nerion’s study, the door closing behind them with a soft ‘click’.

The private study was probably one of the biggest rooms in the mansion. The expensive table near the window was littered with papers and folders alongside some pens and paper with an equally expensive-looking leather chair shelving another half of the table’s load. Bookshelves aligned the walls of the room – one wall being a mild exception, a large map being pinned across it. There was also a small corner in the room that had some light refreshments of coffee, tea and biscuits, and next to those were two comfortable-looking dining chairs and a coffee table.

There was a short moment of silence as Yula quickly flipped though some papers. “According to our sources,” she said, picking a few more pieces up, “none whatsoever since the attack on Seloria and Kairi’s hometown. Jajya has become a ghost country ever since then, really.”

The Aitelorn patriarch frowned, turning to face the map. Moving towards it, he picked up a black pin on the table against it and stuck it onto a semi-huge piece of land denoted as the country ‘Jajya’. Nerion chuckled, somewhat dark. “A huge country gone just like that… it happened a week after the Thyride massacre, didn’t it?”

Yula’s laughter was humourless. “Seloria did not take too well to the knowledge that she and her sister are the only survivors.” She walked over and stuck a yellow pin onto a small country beside Jajya denoted as I’yn. “Neutral I’yn is slowly building up with our help, but Shimaron,” here she placed a red pin onto a country slightly bigger than Jajya that was situated below both Jajya and I’yn, “is in league with him.”

Nerion picked up several white pins, placing those onto several other plots of land. Seeing as Jajya, I’yn and Shimaron took up most of the West, his attention had moved over to the North and East where relatively smaller and less prominent countries resided. “Lyma, the capital city Destila, and Freen in the North are with us, as well as all countries in the east.”

Yula had pinned the entire entity of the south in red. “And all countries in the South have allied themselves with him,” she said. “The remaining countries claim to be neutral.” The woman sighed, leaning against the wall. “To think the leaders for each side are twins with far too contradicting beliefs.”

~*~

Stein had to snap Kairi out of her stupor upon the girl’s realizing that she and her sister were the last ones alive from Jajya. It was heavy news, he knew, but still, Stein did not like the impassive gaze of the younger’s eyes at that information. Kairi told him to continue, somehow not really believing she missed out that much during the years she has spent kidnapped. When he did finish, the younger Thyride had taken to staring at him in pure disbelief, horror even. And that was nearly an hour since now.

At present, they had been sparring for only a little over twenty minutes; the girl having taken a while to actually agree to the idea of sparring. Stein frowned, frustrated – he could count on one hand how many times Kairi had actually muscled up and attacked, and he did not need to lift a finger (or thumb) to count. The teen leapt forward, wooden swords spinning as he attacked with furious rapidity. Stein actually heard Kairi go ‘eep!’ as she back flipped out of harms’ way, bringing her daggers up in defence. Her movements had turned into a pattern: the agile stepping and twisting away from his attacks before she would flip over his head, landing with a soft ‘tap’ on the ground before zero-ing in for an attack, only to pull back abruptly.

If Kairi’s expression was anything to go by, she was feeling just as bewildered as he was as to why she was not attacking when she could have. This was the ninth time already. Having enough of being toyed with, Stein called a halt to the spar then, dropping his blades. The purple-hair ran a hand callously through his wet hair – all the chasing after her he had been made to go along with was absurd. “Why aren’t you attacking?” he asked. “You are a good, far more agile fighter than I am as proven by all the times you made your own openings to attack me, but why didn’t you?”

The younger looked at him with a bit of guilt before casting her gaze downwards, preferring to fiddle around with the wooden daggers in her grasp. Seeing as she was not about to answer him, Stein pursued, closing the distance between them. “You could’ve gotten the upper hand a decent number of times just then. But you didn’t attack. You never truly attacked. Why?” Kairi winced. Stein sounded cross.

Well, he was too frustrated to care anyway. He wanted answers from the girl in front of him, and he wanted them now.

~*~

Rityu poked his head out of the door of the mansion. No one. Good. He stepped out and dashed towards a nearby shop; cursing the fact that he was late – the maids had taken forever to prepare his bath. Darting inside the shop, he smiled charmingly at the waitress who opened the door for him and directed himself to a table in the corner of the small, homey shop.

“Sorry I’m late. I was not about to leave the house smelling like rotten fish, you see,” he informed the person already seated at the table who shook his head in amusement. The green-eyed man before Rityu gestured for him to sit, which he did readily.

“So… what was it you wanted to see me for?” Rityu asked, thanking the waiter who brought him a glass of water and declining the menu. “It must have been important for you to call for me without letting my parents know.”

“We are entering war, Rityu,” his companion phrased. “And I need help.” He ignored Rityu’s soft ‘I figured as much’ as he pulled out a picture. He set it on the table, and Rityu’s eyes widened ever-so-slowly.

“Don’t tell me you…”

“Ah, so you do have a brain,” the other said sarcastically while Rityu inclined his head with a flourish. “I need you for some espionage work for our side to gain the upper hand. I won’t guarantee your safety, and I cannot guarantee you anything, really, but do you accept this job?”

Rityu held the other’s eyes for a moment, his own silver ones gleaming in thought and his features unnaturally hard. Abruptly, he grinned, a slight maniacal gleam in his eyes. “I doubt you asked the wrong person for this job, Lord Vermios,” he said, “though you do realize we both have to act like enemies when we meet from whenever I begin, yes?”

The addressed lord smiled grimly. “I did not wish to put you in such circumstances with your family, but there was no one else whom I can trust in more, not for this. Praise be to you, Rityu, for accepting.”

Rityu left some notes and a tip on the table, standing up. He smiled. “Anything to keep them safe, Lord Vermios. Even if it means playing the bad guy.”