Chapter 8

Rityu stood in silence as he watched Seloria teleport back to the Aitelorn castle with Kairi in her arms, his hands in tight fists. Had his message to Lord Vermios arrived too late? He had sent the fastest carrier bird to inform the lord too…

As if sensing his internal plight, the aforementioned lord walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You did what you could,” the green-eyed man said in barely above a whisper, giving his shoulder a soft squeeze before he let go and walked alongside his father, discussing matters in hushed tones. Rityu shook his head. ‘If this was the best I could do,’ he thought to himself, gritting his teeth, ‘it’s just not good enough.’

“Rityu?” Stein’s voice shook him out of his thoughts. His younger brother looked concerned – and more than a little confused. “Are you okay?” Rityu held his brother’s gaze for a moment before he reached out and ruffled the younger’s hair, who protested with a frown. He flashed a half-grin and shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Don’t worry about it,” Rityu uttered as they began their trek home. “It’s no big deal.”

~*~

Seloria found herself in the infirmary feeling a little disoriented, realizing why a moment later. Karyme had clung on to the teleportation spell she had used, and she had little to no practice with teleporting three people at once. The younger female gave her an apologetic smile, her face pale, and Seloria decided there was no point telling off the younger girl – it seemed quite obvious to her that Karyme needed rest, and lots of it.

She guessed Yula was alerted to their presence from her spell as the Healer rushed to their side, commanding her to place Kairi on a bed while she directed Karyme onto one beside Kairi’s.

“The Lord and Lady Doyle offered to give me some assistance,” Yula told her after the Aitelorn matriarch gave Karyme a strength-replenishing potion and making sure the girl downed its contents. Seloria moved out of the way as Yula worked, not missing the frown that crossed the Healer’s lips when she noticed the marks on Kairi’s neck. Seloria herself winced at the angry red marks; if the Doyle heiress had not distracted Cain when she had…Kairi would not even be breathing at this moment.

“…I don’t even want to know,” Yula muttered, shaking her head and casting a diagnostic spell. The results proved to be satisfactory, Seloria thought, for the Healer’s lips twitched into a small, relieved smile. “Other than some bruising and exhaustion, she’s perfectly fine,” she informed Seloria, who let out a sigh of relief herself.

“I’ll go and assist the Lord and Lady Doyle with calming the people down, then,” the scythe-wielder said, dismissing herself from the Aitelorn matriarch’s presence – who barely realized it, being so focused on healing the bruise on Kairi’s neck – and turned to the slowly-calming crowd of townsfolk with a hopefully tranquil disposition… just as Stein walked past her and through the infirmary doors.

~*~

Lord Vermios’ interaction with Rityu was odd, thought Stein, but he had other pressing matters on his mind at the moment… one being to check-up on Kairi’s wellbeing. That, he realized belatedly with a start, was entirely the reason why he barged into the infirmary (that had only two occupants on the beds), muscles tense. Karyme glanced over at him from her sitting position on a bed, her expression gave little to deduce but hinted an emotion torn between either amusement or bemusement, while his mother rolled her eyes at him.

“She’s fine,” Yula told him before he could ask, “Her injuries were easy to heal. Kairi’s merely exhausted right now, and I’m not expecting her to wake up anytime soon today.”

Stein nodded, the tension melting out of his muscles as his shoulders relaxed. He turned to the Doyle heiress then, a bit of an apologetic smile on his face for his blatant ignoring her. “How are you, Miss Doyle?”

She waved off his unspoken apology, smiling rather politely instead. “As I’ve informed your mother earlier, I merely need to catch my breath. The potion she offered, however, was much appreciated.” She paused then, as if pondering something. “I’d prefer you call me Karyme.”

Stein blinked at that then grinned a little. “Only if you’d call me Stein,” he responded a little cheekily, pulling a chair towards himself and plopping down onto it. Karyme laughed a little, a hand reaching up to daintily cover her mouth as she did so. “As you wish,” she answered, and his grin grew.

Yula rolled her eyes at him again, and he snapped a mock-salute. “Stein, I trust you to keep an eye on Kairi,” she told him – that suited him just fine, truth be told, though that fact confused him to no end. “I will be heading over to where your father is.”

With that, Yula headed out of the infirmary, its doors shutting behind her with a soft click. With that, Stein and Karyme sat there in some sort of companionable silence, both deep in thought. That silence was broken, though, when Kairi began to stir. The duo shared a glance – Yula said Kairi was not expected to wake so soon – and the youngest amongst the three woke with a start, sitting upright on the bed with orange eyes wide open yet unseeing.

‘Uh-oh,’ Stein decided, recognizing that look – that look was frequent on Kairi’s face in the first three weeks she was rescued. These ‘attacks’ (as Seloria called them) came at random; some psychological thing that he never bothered to figure out the name to, only knowing it was linked to whatever happened to her in the years she spent kidnapped.

Among all of them, his mother and Seloria were the ones who could best calm the younger down, though Phiol did a pretty good job at it himself (he was not surprised at this fact, however – his eldest brother was the one him and Rityu had often turned to when they had nightmares and were younger). He barely gave Karyme any such inkling as he stood from his chair and sat on Kairi’s bed, his hands gently settling on her trembling ones.

“Kairi. It’s me, Stein. You’re all right. We got you.”

~*~

Karyme was not particularly certain of what happened, but that blank yet scared and haunted look in Kairi’s eyes was a little… upsetting. It did not really fit the mental image she had of the younger girl – one of an always-smiling, always-upbeat teenager who wouldn’t stay down, despite the fact she only knew the younger girl for less than a day.

Goes to show that not everything can be categorized, Karyme, a deep voice chided her at the back of her head, light humour in its tone – there was that unmistakable hint of curiosity about Kairi in that voice, though. The strawberry-blonde resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that, instead shifting on the bed so her legs could dangle off the side.

Stein was still quietly calling Kairi’s name, his tone awkwardly gentle; as if he’d never done something like this before. Kairi remained unresponsive, though her shaking had lessened down a notch – a good thing, Karyme decided, considering the amount of relief running through Stein’s expression.

Encouraged by the improvement, Stein continued whatever it was he had been whispering to the younger; daring to shift closer and bring the younger female into a hug (his position would hurt his back, however). As minutes passed, the blank look in the youngest Thyride’s eyes faded a tad bit, replaced by the usual light of life that shone – albeit dimly right now – in those orange orbs. Kairi blinked once, then twice as Stein pulled away – his hands never left hers, Karyme noted.

“Kairi?” he ventured softly. The cocoa-haired teen looked around the room slowly, as if not remembering where she was. Her eyes landed on Karyme, staring at her almost inquisitively -- Karyme herself meeting the younger’s still-blank gaze with a somewhat still one of her own -- before her eyes moved on, taking in the room before stopping on Stein.

With a sigh, Kairi fell forwards, her head landing softly on Stein’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I thought this was done and over with by now. It’s just… been so long since I last had one.” Stein sighed as well, his hand reaching up to pat the back of Kairi’s head.

“It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it,” he assured. Karyme slid off the bed then, her soft footsteps surprisingly loud in the quiet infirmary. Kairi, head still on Stein’s shoulder, turned to look at her, bangs falling in a rather haphazard fashion over her eyes as the older female stood beside the bed. Cordially, Karyme reached out and placed a hand over Kairi’s, procuring a lithe smile at the cocoa-haired teen in a reassuring manner.

“I know not much of what happened in your past,” she offered sensibly, “but whatever it was, was not your fault.” The Doyle heiress decided that whatever she said was what Kairi needed to hear, for orange eyes widened a little before that blank look in them faded away completely. A small smile graced the younger’s features then.

“Thank you.”

~*~

Nerion sighed, feeling the beginnings of a headache. Phiol was back in town with several of the town’s builders, assessing the damage done and the cost of restoring the town to its former glory. Rityu and Seloria were nearby, but found themselves in the almost constant company of some distressed town folk. Even his guests, Patricius and Beyza Doyle, found themselves helping out in the after-effects of the attack, with their only daughter stuck somewhere in its midst when the attack began.

‘I’m getting too old for this,’ he decided as Lord Vermios – or rather, just Abel to him and Yula – walked up to him, his green eyes troubled. “Lord Aitelorn-“

“Just Nerion, Abel,” he interjected. He allowed himself an amused smile when the younger male stopped in mid-sentence, jaw hanging. Nerion raised an eyebrow. “What? I, for one, have had enough of the formalities between us when you are Yula’s half-brother.”

Abel let out a quiet chuckle after a moment’s silence. “I suppose so,” he said lightly. “Right now, however, something rather… confusing… came to my attention earlier while I was working on breaking the Draining Barrier. It’s that girl,” he said, pausing a while to recall a name that Nerion already knew, “Kairi Thyride.”

Nerion nodded. “First,” he said, “how do you know Kairi’s name? Cain certainly did not tell you her name during the skirmish earlier.”

The younger male scratched the side of his cheek. “Well… I have my sources,” he answered vaguely, though the fact that Abel’s eyes flickered over to Rityu for a split second did not escape Nerion’s notice. So his middle son was involved. Nerion made a mental note to keep an eye on Rityu as he nodded for Abel to continue with his concerns.

“When I was getting about to breaking the Draining Barrier,” Abel said, his voice low, “I noticed in a quick lapse of attention that the younger Thyride had seals drawn on her right arm, and she didn’t seem to realize they were there. I’ve heard of the Thyrides needing rituals to control the demonic qualities present in their blood, but I have not heard of any one Thyride – up until their unfortunate massacre – to have the seals originally drawn on their dominant arm still showing up.”

Nerion’s eyes narrowed – this bit of information was new. Having sparred against the cocoa-haired teen alongside his youngest son, he was sure he would’ve noticed if anything out of the ordinary showed up on either one of them. The fact that he didn’t, alongside that Kairi herself didn’t notice anything odd was that bit worrying.

“Perhaps,” Nerion muttered after a moment’s thought, “it would be best for us to consult the archives. If we fail to find any information on this,” his silver eyes flickered over to Seloria for a brief moment, “Seloria might be able to help.”

Abel nodded, trusting the elder’s judgement on this matter. “There is another thing that worries me,” he confessed. “My source tells me that Cain has plans to attack another country some time within the three weeks.”

That was not at all comforting. “If we gather our people and send them there within a week, we would have a good chance of making sure that country still stands,” Nerion responded. “Which country is it?”

“Neutral country I’yn.”

Nerion resisted the urge to massage his temples. I’yn was at least two weeks away. If they didn’t deploy troops within a few days, they wouldn’t make it to I’yn on time. Yula, who had overheard what Abel said, had turned to him with wide eyes.

‘I’m really getting too old for this.’

~*~

Karyme’s easy acceptance of her attack without knowing the story behind it was confusing, Kairi thought as she ignored the older duo’s (Stein and Karyme herself) calls for her to return to the infirmary. Instead, she had jumped out of bed within minutes of recovering from said attack and ran out the door, prompting them to chase after her.

‘I need to get stronger,’ she thought, her hands tightening into fists. ‘I will not allow myself to be a burden in this war.’ Kairi pushed the doors to the training room she and Stein normally used open, marching up to the centre of the room without bothering to close the door.

Stein ran up to her and grabbed her arm, turning her around to face him. “Kairi, you need to rest,” he snapped. “You can train after resting.”

“I need to get stronger,” she reiterated her earlier thought, orange eyes narrowed slightly. “I have to. With how I am right now, I can’t be sent out to missions without making anyone worry if the mission will succeed! I cannot allow myself to be a burden to my mission partner – to you. I…” Kairi trailed off, feeling the drive that powered her sudden rant die out as she hung her head, refusing to meet their eyes, “I… can’t.”

She didn’t have to look up to see the look Stein and Karyme exchanged. She heard Karyme’s soft footsteps again and the door closing, and then she heard Stein sigh. “Okay,” he said simply, letting go of her arm. “Well first you have to get your weapons back. Think you could summon them?”

Well that was certainly not the reaction she expected. Kairi looked up only to see Stein looking at her inquiringly, arms crossed, while Karyme… Karyme had closed the door and was walking in their direction.

“Well… it’s been a long time since I did,” Kairi concurred after a moment. “I’m not sure if Mystics would answer my call.” Stein hummed in thought, and Karyme looked thoughtful.

“I don’t know if your Mystics are the same as Aydan,” Karyme started, holding a hand out and having her claymore appear in a rush of flames before she grasped its hilt, “but Aydan normally answers my calls, no matter the time period of summoning him in between.” She paused for a moment, pondering as she de-summoned her weapon. “It takes a while to summon him after a particularly long time, though.”

“So you mean to say,” Stein said, his tone questioning, “that the longer the time period between summoning your weapon, the longer it takes to actually summon it and vice versa.”

Karyme nodded. “Precisely,” she agreed, before both turned to look at Kairi, who had taken a few steps back. She smiled at them.

“Only one way to find out, don’t you think?”