Rise and shine

Chapter 5

One of the things that bothered Noel the most when the six met was that most of them took the opportunity to show off their great achievements and vast fortunes by deploying a large number of soldiers who silently and motionlessly watched over the meeting. He sometimes wishes he was as bold as Kaien was, that he shouldn't worry about such boasts as he had never shown them. In addition, it was clear that he considered those meetings as a sovereign waste of time that was useless, since no one else apart from him was really bothered by what happened in the future.

Perhaps in another time, before the war happened, they could have been friends, since they were of similar ages, nor did they have so many adult worries that forced them to be so distrustful of everything around them, just like the children. other bosses. Theirs was a lifetime position, which they could only relinquish when they died or disappeared altogether. All of them lived in constant fear of the backstab someone would most likely try to inflict on them in the future. Why, if not, would they show their equals -and rivals at the same time- the magnitude of their strength, if not to intimidate them and dissuade them from confrontation?

But again, it was Kaien who went against those established rules by always showing up unaccompanied, never showing even a small part of his power. These facts, coupled with his sweet if somewhat cold smile and a brilliant and farsighted mind, were enough to send a shiver down everyone's spine when they saw him arrive, always with a different hair color, which could totally clash with their violet eyes or highlighting their unnatural shine. 

"Hold on, violets?" Noel said to himself. "Kaien's eyes are different colors, one red and one violet." Those eyes that alone could also intimidate most people were hard to forget. "But then why have I thought of them as violets? Haven't I taken a good look?" he wondered.

However, Kaien really had two-tone eyes, as he could see when he returned to the meeting accompanied by a beautiful girl who must have been around ten years old. She walked erect and with her chin high, apparently not intimidated by being among strangers who would be able to crush her with a snap of their fingers. When Mike and Stainsell began to protest her presence together, Kaien apologized with a small smile.

"I am very sorry, but she is the matter I have in hand. It's hard for me to be away from her without worrying" he said by way of excuse.

"Who is she?" Mike asked, in spite of everything dazzled by the beauty of her little girl.

"My niece," Kaien replied, standing up protectively. But then she whispered to him something, so quietly no one else heard her. "Meet the daughter of an old friend of mine, Sylvie. She is my..."

"I am her ward," she interrupted, speaking in a soft voice. Now that my father, the only family I had left, has died, he takes care of me and avoids separating from me; he overwhelms him with concern when he should-she excused her presence at the meeting, while she pretended not to notice the leering looks from Mike and Stainsell, which produced a slight disgust in her.

"Do you consider it safe to live in a small territory with no prospects for the future and with little military power?" She couldn't help but ask the second of these, with incredulity written on her face. That comment slipped over Kaien's mind, but it deeply annoyed Sylvie, who frowned slightly.

"I wouldn't say so much about Kaien's territory. How do you know whether or not she has "military power", as you like to call it? Can you know just by looking at a deserted piece of street the extent of its development? Would you know how to describe the complex trade relations it maintains with neighboring territories?"  Stainsell could not find the words with which to respond to him, while the also two-tone gaze of her nailed him in place. In the same way that all of us present here can know the scope of your military force only because you are showing it, but we do not know anything more than that about your territory- she concluded. Those words seemed like a knife for the six of them, including Kaien, who the other chiefs looked at more closely, reconsidering that, indeed, he owned the territory they knew least about.

That meeting ended soon after, with the other leaders seriously reflecting for the first time since they were in charge about what it meant to have the government of a territory in their hands. Some forgot that when they occupied any house, throwing out all its tenants. Others, however, continued to think about it seriously.

For his part, Kaien returned to the house on loan followed by Sylvie. The lady who ran the place didn't ask anything despite her great curiosity when the girl locked herself in the room with him. Once they were alone, he lay down on the thin wool mattress covered by a white sheet and light blanket, covering his eyes with his hands.

"May I know why I have to be your niece?" Sylvie then protested.

"Have you already forgotten about our eyes? We can pass perfectly as a family" he explained patiently. "Also, what is that story you made up about your father and being my protégé?" he asked in turn.

"If I hadn't intervened, who knows what strange story you would have told them," she snorted. Neither said a word about what followed, when she managed to silence Stainsell. Secretly, Kaien was grateful that she had stepped forward and assured them through words that her territory might be even more developed than theirs.

That night he didn't sleep much, considering the different possibilities and paths that had been opened to him now that he had a contract with Sylvie. Meanwhile, she slept curled up on the mattress, giving her material body the rest it needed.

When morning broke he gently woke her up. She asked him to clean up and eat something while he went to pick up the mare. She shook her head in disbelief; she was a bleesdei, in true form she might not eat for eons, or sleep, or wash herself. On the other hand, she now had a material body and had to take care of it and keep it presentable. How the hell can the kyrie endure this torture for countless lifetimes? she wondered.

But she still did what Kaien had asked her and when she left the house on her loan he was already waiting for her mounted on Coral. For a few seconds he looked at her, expecting something from her. Waiting for her to take a horse and ride with him on the way back, or for her to ride with him. When she understood that, she finally got on Coral behind the human. She held on to her waist, still puzzled by how bothersome the limitations of her body could be, and they began to trot towards Kaien's headquarters and his people under a sky that appeared to be cloudless. It will rain soon, maybe in a few days, Sylvie told herself after glancing up at the sky.