2407 Diori 11, Kindreth

Kymalin sat on her haunches on a low, three-legged stool in the armory tent. All around her sat different sizes of blades serving as a reminder of what happened yesterday. Dread twisted her intestines in ribbons. What she had done in that mission was unsatisfactory. She should have listened to Raena more and trained harder. She almost died and it would be perfect reasoning if her comrades left her there.

She was glad to be alive but it drove a painful sting into her gut to think that she just endangered her comrades by giving them another tough choice to make in the battlefield.

A wince twisted her features when her fingers failed to tie the bandage around her arm for the tenth time. It had been at least an hour since she started her attempt and she was getting nowhere. For Pidmena's sake, she needed to be ready before Raena catches her here and accuses her of lazing away.

She tried to tighten the bandage again, looping the ends to form a knot. Her fingers fumbled with the cloth until the end of the bandage slipped free and fell in a limp dangle from her arm. A groan rumbled deep in her throat, rising into a frustrated squeal as she shook her arm to get it to cooperate. As if that would solve anything.

"There you are," Raena's voice bled from the tent's entrance. Kymalin's head swiveled up just as the Magistrate walked towards her and stopped in front of her. Raena had never looked so tall, looming over Kymalin with her hands on her hips. "I've been looking all over for you."

Kymalin averted her gaze, back to the mud caking the tips of her boots. Raena's words were lost to her. Looking all over for her...

In an alternate reality, it would have been music in Kymalin's ears. Now...now, it sounded like wood being subjected to the grating machines.

"Aren't we training today?" Kymalin said, letting the sucky feeling in her gut flare further.

Raena didn't move. Kymalin didn't see it but the Magistrate probably had her eyebrows raised. Then, Raena's face whizzed past Kymalin's periphery when she dropped to the ground next to Kymalin's stool. "You shouldn't be up and about," Raena said with a flat voice. "You're in a pretty bad shape yesterday."

Heat rose to Kymalin's cheeks at the reminder. Before she could say anything, however, Raena's hands clasped around her wounded arm. She felt her muscles being pulled closer to the Magistrate's personal space. The points where their skin made contact burned. Was it the wound's fault?

"Rudik's jaw, what's with this bandage?" Raena clicked her tongue and flashed Kymalin a stern look. "Did you do this?"

Kymalin rolled her eyes. "Obviously."

Raena raised Kymalin's arm and made it shake. "Look at it. It's loose," she yanked at Kymalin's arm again as her fingers unfurled the strip of cloth away from the gaping wound coloring her pale skin pink and red. "You won't stop the blood flow like that. It has to be..." she paused, winding the bandage around the wound in a speed Kymalin wouldn't match. "...tight."

With a flourish, the Magistrate tied the two ends of the bandage together, securing the cloth in place. "There we go," she gave Kymalin's arm a light pat. "That's better, right?"

Kymalin nodded, tucking her arm close to her like. An irrational fear of Raena pulling it clean from the joints flared in her mind. She shook her head to get rid of it.

"What happened yesterday?" Raena's voice was soft, unlike most times Kymalin heard her talk. "Besides getting wounded, of course. I meant, what's up with the green dude?"

"Oh," Kymalin raised her hand adorned with the priestal artifact at the mention of a familiar point of conversation. "I summoned a spirit."

Raena snorted and propped her arm atop her knee, shifting her sitting position to face Kymalin fully. "A banshee, huh?" Enough amusement laced around her voice. "How come I never noticed that?"

Kymalin scoffed. "You could do better than that. I mean, duh," she waved a hand over her head. "Blue hair. Yellow eyes. Crooked teeth. It takes a fool to miss what I am."

"I guess I'm the fool," Raena chuckled. "Is that what you're implying?"

Kymalin's eyes widened. "N-no," she said. "I mean, yes, if it's fine calling a Magistrate one. Because I-I mean, you kinda are."

Raena didn't speak. It took Kymalin a minute to realize she slipped into her regional accent in Drodham, the kind that drawdles and lets the words loose. Oh, gods. If Raena was was perceptive as Kymalin had given her credit, she would pick up on that.

Still, Kymalin drew her eyes up to study Raena seriously. Apart from the bright, gray eyes she sported, Kymalin knew nothing else. Today, Raena wore her hair back in a tight bun. From the mission yesterday, through the hazy memories she could glimpse of, she could swear it curled in pleasant waves when let down. When her gaze dropped to the Magistrate's ears, she froze.

They were round. Not pointed. That could only mean...

"Half-blood," Raena said so suddenly Kymalin ended up flinching in surprise. Then, she chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not reading your mind. More on...your actions. I noticed you looking at my ear. I just thought to clear the air before you ask stupid questions."

"I...yeah," Kymalin rubbed the back of her neck, feeling more heat paint her cheeks. What's up with her today? "Was it hard?"

Raena hummed. "There's the stupid question," she said. A grin was painting her lips, though. By far, it was different than the smug smirks the Magistrate gave. "Of course, it was hard. Being a half-blood is rarely so easy. Those who lived such a life are either wealthy or from the future."

It took a long time for Kymalin to process what she said. She looked at the Magistrate and acceidentally locked gazes with her. "Do you really believe half-bloods will have it easy in the future?" Kymalin massaged her knees with her hands to get rid of the bouncy feeling in her muscles. "That's so optimistic of you."

"You could say that," Raena leaned back, planting her weight on her palms against the ground. "I'm optimistic to a fault. That's why I joined Cardovia in the first place."

Kymalin blinked. "Really?"

Raena's face brightened. "Yeah," she said. "I wanted to help make the island a better place. When the Heiress found me..." she stopped, lost in the memory of the Heiress, or Perederia, as they called her in person. "She asked me if I wanted to be part of a great change. I figured I should lobby for my kind while I'm at it."

Kymalin pursed her lips. She didn't know what to say to that, in all honesty. It sounded noble. Good. It looked like it was the right motivation to have. Perhaps it was the right thing to do.

"What about you?" Raena turned to Kymalin, putting the spotlight back to her. "Why did you join? And, from what I heard from Magistrate Ventora, a bit loudly and crass."

Memories of Kymalin shouting at the top of her lungs, shattering the professional air of Carcalet, flashed in her mind. It took a whole lot of head shakes to get rid of them. "It sounds so silly compared to what you're trying to do," she said. "I don't want to ruin the atmosphere."

"Come on," Raena nudged Kymalin's shoulder, igniting a new kind of blaze in Kymalin's skin where they touched. The smile in the Magistrate's face looked so inviting. Raena might as well ask Kymalin about her life story and she would spill it against better judgemet. "What is it? Was it a friend? A lover?"

Kymalin snorted. "It's my brother," she blurted. The air around the tent dropped several notches colder as she was reminded for the first time in years of why she was far away from home. "I bartered with the Heiress for a cure."

When she drew her head up to meet Raena's eyes again, she found the gray filled with concern. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah. All the healers told us it's incurable," Kymalin edged off the stool as it was getting awkward talking to Raena who was inches shorter than her because of it. She plopped on the tent's soil beside the Magistrate, the sacks of leather and metal scraps behind them. "But I haven't given up."

"If it makes you feel better," Raena said. "I hope you succeed."

Kymalin didn't stop the grin from spreading on her lips. "I hope so too," she said. After a period of comfortable silence, she turned to Raena once more. "What are you really doing out here? Were you really looking for me?"

Raena bobbed her head. "Yeah," she said. "You weren't in the infirmary when I visited. Figured I'd find you here. Looks like I was right."

"Why didn't you leave me yesterday?" Kymalin blurted. Her hands around her knees tightened enough to make the wound on her arm throb. "I was dead weight, literally and figuratively. I made a mistake I shouldn't have."

To her surprise, Raena threw her head back and laughed, almost hitting her head against the sacks. "Nobody comes back from their first mission unscathed," she said as soon as she calmed down. "Others have it far worse than you. Thank the gods you only have a busted arm. Some don't even come back here with it."

A shiver ran down Kymalin's spine at the mere thought. "And I would never leave you," Raena said, earning another dumbfounded look from Kymalin. The Magistrate really could say the cheesiest things at random times. "I mean, who could summon a loony green man in the middle of a fight? I need to integrate it into my combat strategies the next time we go out."

Kymalin harrumphed. "Is that the only reason?" she crossed her arms even though it physically hurt. "I'm offended. And it's not a loony green man. It's a spirit out of control. It could have dragged you to the Land of Wonders with it if you're not careful."

"Oh," Raena's face turned serious. Delight blossomed in Kymalin's gut at having been able to shut the Magistrate down with a quip of her own. "I see. But that's just one of the reasons, don't worry."

"What are the others?"

Raena let herself fall against the sacks. "You're a good soldier, Kym," she said. "You always have been. It wouldn't be too long before you surpass me."

It was Kymalin's turn to burst out laughing. The sound of it shocked her as much as it shocked Raena who pushed herself off the sack to gape at her. "I mean," Kymalin righted herself and wiped the tears forming at the corner of her eyes. "Have you seen me fight yesterday? I could barely handle my own against a red coat. But you...you took down soldiers bigger than you with a single swipe."

"So you were watching me," Raena's voice was nothing but a quiet whisper but to Kymalin, it was loud enough.

"Yeah," Kymalin answered, matching the volume of the Magistrate's tone. "Yeah, I am."

Raena slapped her legs and pushed herself up. Kymalin tamped down the disappointment crawling up her throat at the prospect of their conversation ending. Was Raena going back to her snappy, authoritative Magistrate self? "Well, keep watching," she said, throwing one last look at Kymalin. "Keep watching and don't look away."

Without waiting for Kymalin's answer, Raena trudged out of the tent, leaving Kymalin alone in the tent amidst all the mess. Her heart thundered in her chest and pulsed in her temples. Was it that hot here? The last time she was here, she found it more tolerable than the heat in Carcalet. What's changed?

Kymalin followed the direction she saw Raena disappeared in. Then, she shook her head, tearing her gaze away. Whatever this was, she wanted nothing of it. It wasn't what she came here for.

What in Pidmena's name were you thinking, Kymalin Iaro?