Calathus

Chapter 4 - Questions

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.