Arrival

t.i.t had been a couple of weeks since Kysael"s departure, but I still felt the ache of her absence in my chest. Time continued to flow by, ever so slowly. I tried to busy myself with work to ignore the sting of her leaving in my heart.

tMy health clinic had been built and I had several a.s.sistants working under me, now.

tThings were proceeding well, despite my emotional, downtrodden state. I wanted to help people, and so we had built this clinic to do so, as I had intended to.

tWe were on the very edge of Lykra"s borders.

tAnd since we were open day and night, we had more patients than ever.

tMy old a.s.sistants from Havengrove city had come to combine the old clinic with the new, and to expand this new clinic into a large-scale facility. The Wraith people were very cooperative and compliant, surprisingly, and several even began trying to study under me to become healers.

t.i.t was something that I had not dreamed of, but it was amazing.

tSince Kysael had left, Kirinae had doubled in size and intelligence. She was ever growing, smarter and stronger and it worried me.

tKysael was missing so much.

tKirinae was growing into a beautiful young lady.

tShe had Kysael"s light skin tone, with her bright white hair and her blood red eyes that were so striking.

tHer nose was thick, curved upward and certainly didn"t look like her mother"s. Her cheekbones were higher, her face longer and chin narrower.

tShe looked like an amazon, almost. She didn"t look like the dainty Woodelf-Wraith hybrid that Kysael was, she looked wild and untamable.

tShe was much more exotic, her temper greater and her body language less graceful. The scarlet Wraith markings on her face always reminded me that she was truly Kysael"s and Mafrien"s child.

tMafrien....Kirinae had informed me that he had captured Kysael again, but she had not told me anything since.

tJust that she had made it safely to Barrenwilds, and that strangely enough, she was unharmed.

tI wondered idly if Kysael was still there, with him. Or, if he had already released her and she was back on her journey of self-reflection and acceptance.

tKirinae began to grow bolder, asking me questions about her mother. She began to ask for me to train her to fight, as I had helped to train Kysael.

tShe began studying my medical books, and learning basic weaponry. She also began learning to hunt under Moserre"s steady watch.

tAs she grew, she finally was the size of a teenager. And she acted like one, as well. She was defiant, arrogant. She was stubborn. She had a hard time listening and following direction.

t.i.t wasn"t until she brought a young Wraith man to meet me that I began to understand just how much she had truly grown up.

tFor her to be showing interest in men, that was frightening development for someone who had only been born months ago.

tKirinae had grown quite popular in the underground city, and had many friends among the young Wraith teenagers.

tShe reminded me of when Kysael was younger, before her ident.i.ty was discovered.

tAs Kirinae continued in her training, I saw that she lacked the commitment and determination, the motivation, to excel in the martial arts.

tShe was not completely dedicated, as her mother had been.

tShe was so like her mother in many ways....and in some ways, completely different, such as this matter.

t"What is wrong, Dragon?" She asked me in her light, airy voice one day when I was training her.

t"You may share your mother"s stubborn will and her defiant att.i.tude, but you lack her determination. You only want to learn to fight to have something to fill your boredom. Its not a lifestyle for you. You claim to want to be able to defend yourself, but with your lack of fighting spirit, a strong opponent would be able to defeat you with ease."

t"Like my father defeated my mother?"

tI gaped. "I-"

t"Do you think that I have been a fool? I know that my father forced my mother to have relations with him, to have me. I know that my father forced her into many things. I know that my mother didn"t willingly have me. I know that I was unwanted."

t"You don"t know what you are talking about." My anger was rising, my heart and mind rushing to defend Kysael.

t"Don"t I? I don"t see my mother here, do you?"

t"Your mother needed to have some time to herself, to do something for herself for a change. Don"t be so childish."

t"Kysael is the one who is childish!" She shouted angrily, her eyes flashing black dangerously.

tI stood my ground, meeting her eyes. "Your mother always, from the moment that she discovered the pregnancy, wanted and loved you. She wanted to protect you."

t"Then why isn"t she here with me?"

t"Your mother is still young, Kirinae. She never had a real family, and I am the one who raised her. And according to Mafrien, it"s only a matter of time before he retrieves you. I am sure that she is simply afraid to get attached to you, with the prospect of your father coming to take you and have you be his heir to Barrenwilds"s throne."

t"She....she"s an orphan?"

t"Her mother was executed shortly after she was born, and Moserre didn"t know of her existence until a short time ago."

tHer eyes lit up with the new information, and I could see her intrigue. "What was my mother like as a child?" She asked.

tI laughed. "Oh, before her true ident.i.ty was revealed, your mother was just as well liked as anyone else. She didn"t know hatred. She was mischievous, though. Always pranking her friends. And she was always a dare-devil, letting her friends dare her to do some of the most dangerous stunts. Kysael was always lonely, however, because her brother lived somewhere else, and I was often working. And I informed her right away that I wasn"t her father. She missed having real parents.

t"I tried to give her a good childhood when she was going through those moments, and sometimes I wonder if it helped." I sighed. "But then.... she met someone.....and he changed her life. Though, things...didn"t work out with him." I looked away. "And she was always mistreated by the people after her ident.i.ty was revealed."

t"Did people try to hurt her?"

t"Sometimes. But she stayed strong through it, and was determined to become a huntress for the city and be respected and looked up to. She kept pushing to be the best that she could be."

t"Why did she choose to fight?"

t"Well....your mother didn"t have a choice. Once her ident.i.ty was revealed, the King turned her into his own personal weapon, and she was extorted for her expertise in hunting and her proficiency and power." I sighed. "The man who loved her, though...they were close, before things ended horribly."

tKirinae"s eyes were wide, her expression one of awe and wonder. "Who was my mother with.... before you?"

tI met her eyes. "Kelose of the h.e.l.lebore clan." She startled. Yes, she remembered the clan of the child whom she had murdered. "He loved her despite her heritage. They were.... a....very pa.s.sionate couple." I sighed. I could already see the questions forming in her eyes, and this wasn"t a subject that I liked to dwell on for very long. "He was ordered by the king to marry the king"s niece. He had no choice in the matter. He had originally left her because of me, because I chose to fix their mistakes so that they wouldn"t lose their lives. Kysael, however, had still continued to pursue him well after that, up until the day that he got married."

t"Why?"

t"In elven culture, there is a special kind of bond that you can go through with your partner, a sacred bond that is only supposed to be performed after marriage.....however, Kysael and Kelose started this bond before they were married....and because they broke the holy creed of our people, they lost one another."

t"Elven culture is very strict."

t"Yes. The survival and purity of each elven race depends on those strict laws, to maintain order. Your mother broke many laws, many sacred elven laws....and so, she was banished."

t"I see." She stood and met my gaze. "I want to be more like her. I want to be stronger. As a superior being, I misjudged her and underestimated her. But to go through all that she has and still come out of it relatively alright, she must be very formidable indeed."

t"She is strong." I stood, also. "We can start at first light, before I go in to the clinic."

t"Good." She sighed. "So....my mother didn"t want to be bound to my father, then?"

t"No. But that doesn"t mean that she doesn"t love and want you. And there is only one person that could ever break that mating mark that your father placed on her and set her free."

t"And who is that?" She asked.

tI hesitated. "Kelose."

tHer eyes got wide. "And he can"t.... because he is married.... And she is married...to you."

tI nodded. "That is the never-ending conundrum that we seem to be stuck in."

*

tThe next morning came, and Kirinae and I went out at sunrise and began training in earnest.

tShe strove to do her best, though she had to take a few short breaks because of her lack of stamina.

tShe did not, however, slack off. She began pushing herself, much like how Kysael had before her.

tAnd she vastly improved. Her punches and kicks grew stronger. Her defense improved. She pushed herself to learn.

tAs she began to get serious about her training, even more Wraiths respected her, and one began to try to swoon her.

tThey began courting after a few days.

tMore people began to admire her, whether for her determination to get stronger or her lineage, I didn"t know.

tTime continued to pa.s.s, and we were well into the month of October, now. It had been two months since Kysael had left.

t.i.t was conflicting, that so much time had pa.s.sed, yet it felt as if it had only been a few days and several years, all in the same instant.

tI began to grow concerned for Kysael. I had thought that surely, she should have returned by now. I felt as if something were wrong. I could...just....feel it.

tA bad feeling had clawed its way into my mind and heart, and I knew that wasn"t a good sign.

tMy gut feelings were usually spot on.

tI worried. What if Mafrien still had her?

tKirinae was even beginning to get concerned.

tShe informed me that Mafrien had released her, and that she was choosing not to return on her own for some reason. So that meant that she had been away from Mafrien for a while, but had still not returned.

tI knew that she could defend herself, and that she wanted time for herself. But it had been so long...

tToo long.

tI could sense something amiss.

tSomething wasn"t right.

tSomething really, really wasn"t right.