Dedicated to Truculent for having awesome hair flipping action and an oversized coffee cup. :3

An amazing drawing of Reth by onikagi is located at the bottom! 

4.

Questions

Opening the Leitnant's closed office door was the hardest thing Sianna had to do that day. She would rather face another Magus than face what was in the room. She glanced to her left. Calera was standing by her side, apparently waiting for Sianna to open the door.

She really has no will of her own. What does Lycin do to her?

She grinned at herself. She was stalling meeting her own Rhokin by feeling pity for another.

But I'm meeting him without the Leitnant.

It was something she hadn't counted on doing. She figured Aldermeck would've been there with her to introduce her to...what was his name? Ram? Reck? Instead, it would be Lycin who would be there. The Leitnant had to go into town to issues orders, devise a clean-up unit, and calm the panic that had risen among the villagers. Though Sianna offered her services, Aldermeck told her to retrieve her Rhokin instead .The walk back with the quiet but strange Calera had almost unnerved Sianna, but not as much as the thought of to what the walk was going to lead.

Sianna locked her jaw and opened the door. The fire was blazing and the room seemed too hot for her as she walked in. Lycin was leaning on the heavy table, arms and ankles crossed. His light green eyes darted at them. Sianna caught them, refusing to focus on anything else. She could tell someone else was in the room, but she would not look at him.

"There she is," Lycin said, straightening up to his feet. "Leitnant Sianna Rayoss."

"Where were you, Lycin? There was a Magus threat," she said and walked up to him.

His eyebrows shot up and back down in a scowl. "Why didn't you call me?"

"Deneck was at the scene, but by the way the Leitnant was cursing, she figured you were supposed to be somewhere close enough to have been aware of the situation."

He sighed. "I should have been. I offered to take up patrol in place of these drunken fools, but this other fool arrived early"—he jabbed at the Rhokin by his side but Sianna still refused to look—"and I had to take in him here and lead the accompanying party to the dining area to eat and rest. I came here with him looking for you and Leitnant Aldermeck, but you obviously weren't here, so I sent Calera out to find you."

Sianna eyed him. Lycin wasn't the best man in the world, but he also wasn't a liar or one to ignore his duty or orders.

"Well, the Leitnant wants you to wait for her outside the tavern. She told me to tell you to wait there no matter how long she takes. She's out settling things in the village right now," she said.

He smiled. "Does she look as bad as you?"

"What?"

Lycin fingered a hole in her chainmail where the links had broken. There were other places where the armor had torn from her slide on the ice and probably from the Magus' talons when it kicked her.

"Here too," he said and placed a hand on her hip. His palm slid around her waist and he pulled her closer to him.

She gripped his other hand by the wrist and twisted his arm behind him. "Don't do that."

He chuckled.

Sianna gasped and that was the last she could feel herself breathing. She released Lycin, her hands shooting to her neck to pry off the hand that enclosed her throat, but there was none. The only thing she found was her stole.

"Stop it, Calera," Lycin hissed.

 Oxygen flowed through Sianna. She gulped it in, coughing as her throat expanded.

"What the hell, Lycin?" she growled at him.

Quicker than she had ever seen him move, Lycin glided up to Calera. He slapped her with the back of his hand. The female Rhokin's head snapped to the side.

"You do not attack officers or anyone of our station. Do you understand? Speak!" he roared at her face, grabbing her by the fabric of her uniform.

 "I understand, Lycin, ser," she said, her face stoic. The pale cheek Lycin struck was darkening.

He shoved her. "Come, you worthless girl."

Lycin walked back to Sianna to retrieve his coat and weapon. "I'm sorry about that, Sianna," he told her. His voice was sincere.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

He grinned. "That's a good look for you."

Her lips pursed shut. "Just go, Lycin."

Lycin's eyes darted to the figure behind her. "He didn't do much, now did he?"

She watched him and Calera exit the room. She wasn't ready to face her Rhokin; she never would be ready, but the fact that he was supposed to be her partner and he just stood there and did nothing while she was attacked was enough to make her turn around and face him.

He was tall and muscular like most male Rhokins were. If you can create warriors might as well make them fit the role. His face would've been handsome if it hadn't been for those damn silver eyes.  

"What the hell was that?" she demanded.

His still face stirred but his eyes kept their piercing gaze. "Ser, I don't know what you mean."

His voice took her by surprise. It was smooth and deep unlike Deneck's lighthearted tone. She had expected him to sound like Deneck. Weren't they all made of the same things after all?

Sianna regained her composure. "I was attacked. Would you not defend me?"

"I awaited orders for me to defend you, ser."

She gaped at him. "Orders? I couldn't breathe, much less talk!"

His face didn't change. "I was awaiting orders, ser."

"Well then this is your first order. If you see me being attacked by someone or something, defend me, understand?"

"Yes, ser."

"Good."

They stood in silence.

"Ser, if I may speak?" he said.

Sianna flinched at his voice. It was going to take a while to get used to the vast difference. "Yes, and you don't have to ask for permission to talk all the time."

Saints forbid I become like Lycin. She shivered at the thought.

 "I have your cloak, ser, and was ordered to present it to you." He handed the red and gold cloth tucked under his arm with gloved hands.

She accepted it and unfolded it by its corners. Though more vibrant in color, it looked the same like the Leitnant's. The Dracarr seal of the joined arms was at the lower corner of it.

"Thank you, um...what is your name again?" Sianna asked.

His jaw shot up in the air. "I was named Reth, ser."

"Reth," she repeated as she folded the cloth. Sianna stared at it, remembering her earlier conversation with Aldermeck.  

"Sianna, do you know how Rhokins came to be?" she had asked her.

Sianna's head snapped up to him. "You were named Reth when you were born?"

His eyebrows furrowed a bit. "Born, ser? I was created."

"Created? Why do you say that?"

His chin shot in the air again, ruffling his blonde locks. "It is what we were told. We are creations. We are not men."

Sianna gave him a helpless look. Was this what Aldermeck had to deal with when she first got her Rhokin? Were they all like this?

Reth looked down at her. "Have I upset you, ser?"

She sighed. "No. I was just thinking. Tell me of your creation, Reth. What do you remember about yourself? Your first memories?"

The questions seemed to deter him. His face fell, and it was the first genuine reaction she had seen in him.

"I remember standing in darkness, ser," he said, composure returned, "but there was warmth. There was always warmth. It was the warmth that shaped me, ser. I felt it surround me and give me my arms and legs and body."

Sianna narrowed her eyes at his words but even more at his indifferent face as he continued to tell his tale.

"When I could see, I was as I am," Reth said and lifted a hand. "I was never smaller, never bigger. Never different than you see me, ser. I was taught by those that don't have silver eyes. I was taught to fight and to speak. I was taught to follow every order and answer every demand of yours to the best of my ability, ser."

The cloak in her hands ruffled as she ran her thumb on it, lost in thought. It wasn't that he had given her such a straight forward answer, and it also wasn't that throughout his entire existence he held the same mindset and physical appearance. It was that even after all that, Sianna still felt like gouging his disgusting silver eyes out.

A sane person would've at least offered comfort, maybe? A sane person would've been sympathetic. Sianna sighed. Aldermeck had told her there were emotions within the Rhokins—that they bled, laughed, cried, and felt like human. Reth must have questions about his existence, especially with a life like that. Anyone with a rational mind and life to go with it would.

Sianna tried to search his face for anything that seemed like a recognizable emotion but she only found her own growing urge to pluck the silver out of his irises.

 "Well, Reth," she instead said, "we were ordered by Leitnant Aldermeck to wait for her in the barracks, but I rather not wait here alone with you. I feel if I do, I may end up bashing your head in."

She again searched for any emotional indication her statement may have inflicted on him. He only met her eyes as if waiting for orders. Might as well go for the direct route.

"Did my words hurt your feelings, Reth?" she asked him.

"Only slightly, ser," he answered.

She lifted an eyebrow, more surprised he answered her at all over the actual answer. "Why only slightly?"

"Your words did hurt for I only wish to serve you, but while you said them, I was able to stare at your adorable face, ser."

Sianna reddened and fell deeper into her blush when she saw the corner of his lips twitching like he was fighting back a smile.

"Just come!" Sianna whirled away from him and began walking to the door. "We can eat while we wait for the Leitnant to arrive. I do remember you need to eat."

And you eating means I don't have to talk to you.

"Thank you, ser."

His words made her halt and face him.

"Why did you thank me?" she asked.

"I was hungry."

"You do know you could've gone with the party you arrived with and eaten with them? No. Don't answer that. It was because you weren't order to, right?"

He opened his mouth to answer but Sianna held her hand up.

"Just don't say anything anymore and follow me," she said and headed for the door.

"Yes, ser," he said.

She sighed. He's like a child.