Sun was woken in the morning to a persistent tapping on her glass doors. Cracking her eyes open, she caught sight of Emily nestled in the blankets nearby, undisturbed by the sound. Sun got up, heading to the door. The sound was a familiar one by now, and she opened it up to take the message from the raven before letting him fly back to the aviary to rest.
"Why is your smile so wide?" Sun looked over to where Emily was peeking out of the fort they'd rebuilt last night. They'd forgone any other rituals last night and kept to eating and talking.
Sun lost her smile; she hadn't even realised she had been doing it.
"Is your letter from an admirer?" Emily asked, perking up with excitement.
Sun laughed then; what a ridiculous notion. "No, it's just from Kalys."
Emily got a look then, one Sun couldn't decipher.
"What?" She asked.
"You and your brother are close?"
"I wouldn't say close, but we're better than we were. Why?"
"It's just... and I tell you this as your friend, and I feel I should warn you," she said, sitting up on her knees. "The rumour mill is churning."
Sun rolled her eyes. "Really? And what is it churning out these days?"
"Well, it didn't go unnoticed that the only dance partner he had was you, that he barely left your side, and that every marriage or courting proposal has been rejected."
"He's not ready to get married, I suppose," Sun shrugged.
"They weren't to him; they were for you."
"There haven't been any marriage or courting proposals," Sun scoffed.
Emily's brow furrowed. "He hasn't even told you? I've spoken to people who have put in offers, Sun; the notion – not even of a relaxed courtship – hasn't even been entertained or considered, just straight rejected. And he did it without even consulting you?"
"He probably didn't because he knew I'd say no," Sun shrugged.
He had already agreed not to marry her off and that she would make a terrible wife anyway.
"It doesn't bother you?"
"Not as long as he's rejecting every one of them. But everything you've said so far aren't rumours; that's all true."
"No, it's all fuel for the rumours. The rumours themselves say that your relationship is... more than brother and sister. I mean, it's not a bad thing, necessarily. All our families have done it, even if it has fallen out of favour the last couple of generations... It's just, if it's not going to culminate in marriage, it won't go well for you."
Sun felt her stomach sink but showed no outward sign of it. Instead, she tried to shrug it off.
"Those rumours aren't new; we've been getting them awhile."
Emily's eyes widened almost comically. "They don't bother you?"
"They do a little, but there isn't much I can do about them. Surely they'll die out eventually."
"Not when he fuels them the way he does."
"Because he chose not to dance with anyone? It's not an activity he particularly enjoys. And he stayed by my side most of the time? Of course he did; it was my first public event in the capital, and he needed to make sure I didn't fuck up. I wasn't groomed for this like you were; I couldn't have navigated it on my own, not without offending someone, no doubt."
Emily conceded that point. "Well, I don't believe the rumours, of course, but I thought you should know it's what people are saying."
"People are going to say what they're going to say." She gave another one-shouldered shrug, like it meant nothing to her.
"Yes, but these rumours could ruin your prospects."
"Marriage prospects?"
Emily nodded. "But also business ones, allies, friends..."
"Will you stop being my friend over them?"
"No."
"Well then. And I have Nick and Zen. I'm making friends in my division. I think I'll be fine."
"What if you decide to get married one day?"
"I'll marry for love or not at all, and if someone loves me, he won't care about the rumours."
"Your brother would truly let you marry for love?"
"He's already agreed not to marry me off for any other reason. It helps that I'm a bastard; it really lowers the sale price."
Emily grinned then; at least she could make light of it.
Sun held up the letter. "I need to reply to this, then I need to get ready for work. What time is your train leaving?"
"Noon," Emily replied.
"I'll come back to see you off," Sun said.
"Bring your handsome friends," Emily grinned.
Emily had waxed poetic about her best friend's most eye-pleasing attributes. While she agreed they were attractive, objectively, she didn't need to hear about it. It felt wrong, probably how it should feel with her brother.
"I'll try, but they're in different divisions; I don't know if they'll be able to," Sun replied, taking a seat at her desk to write back to Kalys.
He answered her question about whether or not he had painted before, and like her, Jinn had roped him into it. What he had produced he considered one of his few failures. She asked if he still had it; she would love to see it. Surely it can't be that bad. Or what he considered failure might not actually be the same as normal people. His standards were higher than most, though she kept that from her letter.
She also informed him of the arrival and imminent departure of the Intrieri siblings. The sleepover and their attempt to divine the future were mentioned; she wondered if he might know more about it. She didn't tell him what she had seen; it didn't seem relevant. When she had gone to sleep, she had found no lost ancestors wandering the Traverse. What she had seen in the wine must have been the future, or maybe a trick of her own reflection.
At the end of her letter, feeling a little bold, she asked that he please come home soon before bidding him goodbye and take care.
Then she popped down to the aviary to send it off and got ready for work.
-
Kalys oversaw the loading of the prisoners onto the train. He had already had it swept for explosive devices, a lesson all commanders had learned after the death of his father so long ago. It had become part of procedure.
Their assault on the foundry was successful but long and drawn out. The death toll of their opponents was higher than he would have liked. They had managed to secure and imprison a few of their leaders, those that didn't commit suicide. Kalys had not been expecting it; two of them had bitten off their own tongues, drowning in their own blood. The move had clearly been one their own companions hadn't expected either. They were taking no risks with the others, putting them to sleep for their return to Perdition. There were questions that needed to be answered.
After capturing them, they had lingered two more days to begin setting things to rights. Kalys would also leave a large contingent to continue to help and to also ensure there were no more enemies waiting in the wings. His lieutenant would oversee them. Kalys would leave with the rebel leaders to ensure there were no more mishaps on the journey.
And, though he would never admit it out loud, he was eager to get home. He wouldn't quite call it a plea, but Suns desire he return home soon stirred something in him, and he was eager to fulfil it.
He'd not known the Intrieri siblings would be paying them a visit; that had come as a surprise to him, and it was regrettable he had not been there to receive them. But he was gladdened the Intrieri girl was someone Sun considered friend enough to be happy with the sudden visit. He hoped the Intrieris had not been too put off by Sun's boorish friends at their dinner.
With a few quiet orders to Lieutenant Reeves, Kalys wished him well and stepped onto the train, taking a seat in his private booth alone. He had reports to write, which would keep him occupied for most of the trip. And periodic visits to the prisoners to ensure everything was going smoothly. They were under constant guard, and he was confident that should something go wrong, he would be alerted almost immediately, but one could never be too careful.
From the questioning he had done, he got the feeling there was more going on behind the scenes. And he suspected it had something to do with the two that had killed themselves; they knew something they couldn't allow to come to light. He doubted it was fear of imprisonment that had driven them to do what they did. And given their actions, he certainly didn't think it was a fear of execution; the Crown would have been far more humane. They had chosen a grisly way to go.
Well, once they arrived at Perdition, they would no longer be his problem; the Tenth would take over. Kalys had done what he was supposed to do. And he'd been away long enough.
His gaze drifted to the window, watching the farmlands pass by. Hopefully the city could get things back on track enough that their food supplies wouldn't be affected too much.
Even if it were, Kalys didn't think it would be to the point the nation would risk starvation, though there may be a shortage of grains and everything requiring them.
He turned back to his work but found focusing on it required more effort than it usually did. He was tired; there had not been much time to sleep. And there was the buzzing sense of anticipation. It stemmed from the inevitable reunion with his sister.
She had been far more open in her letters than in person, and he found himself hoping it would continue. He did realise he would have to live up to that as well if he expected her to. Likely she would be looking to him to set the tone upon his return; whether consciously or not, he couldn't know. This new openness was something he wanted to keep.