Brightening White Flowers

2. Broken Promises

He has his usual small smile as he approaches us, "I thought you two would be here. Come. You are missing your lessons, Hana, and Urenii needs a partner." Hana sighs as she stands up slowly with her hand holding mine to pull me up with her. Chaise raises his eyebrows at my compliance, "Why bring Karri? She has already had the Title Ceremony and trained today." Hana glares at Chaise and tugs me in the direction of the training courtyard were the lessons are being given.

"We can practice, Chaise. It has been a while since I have fought you. I might be getting rusty against the added power of a Highborn." I share with him a smile to show that I am okay with Hana's demands. Chaise rolls his eyes and follows behind us as Hana pulls me along. As an excuse it is weak, none of them believe for a second that I would let my power get out of control enough for me to lose to anybody but the oldest and most trained of our family. It is one of the reasons that I was allowed to have my Title Ceremony proclaiming me as a Warrior of the Kinza family and able to hold up the law of the Land at the youngest age yet. Since I was only fourteen years old at the time they had me tied to Hana for how long I would be required to practice regularly in the training courtyards for a set amount of time a day, since they believed she would be one of the longest to receive her title.

Chaise following us shows that he does want to practice against me despite his silent complaints. Before we can see the two combined tamped down dirt courtyards, we hear it. We hear the clang of metal on metal, the grunts of male and female origin, and the yells of taunts, greetings, and bets. It is not just our bloodline that practices and trains here, but also the people who are going through the training to be a warrior, those who are warriors already, and everybody else who is in our army. Even those who are mortal born, like Iien, practice here regularly and they can beat vampires and warriors too. The sight of the practice yard is even more appealing to my eyes. Just seeing the swords, knives, and other miscellaneous weapons at work makes me feel more at home and powerful. I even see my father fighting my aunt, Kamina. At first the surprise has me still but then I turn to Chaise smiling as I see him tying his longish hair up with a leather tie into a short ponytail. I tighten the tie in my hair to bind the loose wisps back up and ignore the fact that this fun tussle might ruin my clothes irreparably or that Hana is foregoing wearing a leather tie herself. Not that it matters for her if her hair is bound up or loose. The wind will keep the strands out of her soft, pale face. Her strange eyes look for the familiar shape of our younger cousin. Suddenly pale blue-gray eyes look up at us in the form of a serious face as Urenii pops up out of nowhere, seemingly.

"Urenii." Hana says with just a touch of unwanted acceptance, wanting to avoid the training she has been brought to. The young girl smiles anyway and steps away from us, acknowledging Chaise with a flick of her eyes. I push Hana towards Urenii and she reluctantly follows her newly acquired training partner for the time being.

Chaise and I share no words as we move to a clear spot. Far enough away from Hana and Urenii that we will not be affected by the backlash of Hana's immense power but close enough where I can help her control it if it starts to get dangerous.

There are no starting words for the two of us, just an innumerable amount of time from standing with our swords partly unsheathed to fully drawn out and the deadly blades meeting in a quick kiss. I separate quicker than we joined as Chaise has flames run down the length of his blade to try to burn me. The flames crackle in hunger before they are dosed out by his control. Only a few more hissing of sliding blades or clanging of metal against metal before the both of us use our powers. Chaise in a heat inducing swipe towards me, and I in affecting the blades of light around us. Chaise cringes away from the now multiplied strength of light shining at him and I slice towards him. Planning to use his moment of weakness against him, just as I was taught. He blocks clumsily and stumbles back as slight burns cover his face and unclothed arms and hands. My face is blank as I hit at his sword with all of my strength and ignore the urge to heal. In one quick lucky block the hit is caught by his red tainted hilt, heating with his continuous use of fire. We stand deceptively calm in our locked position as we try to use pure strength to overthrow the other. I do not last long and push his sword to the side as our breaths slightly increase in speed. He grins and his eyes flash red as a complete fire surrounds his beautiful steel blade; grinning back I change the way the light reflects off my own blade, concentrating it and bending it towards him. His light sensitive eyes strain and he grunts as he stalks forward. We clang and clash our swords together. Then, he tries to feint to my left. Seeing the tell tale signs of his body's true goal to slice upwards on my right I move right into my own counterattack. I cannot help but smirk just slightly as I hit his sword out of his hand with a flick of my wrist. He pants as I hold the tip just so from his neck and I beat another person for the day. We smile in good nature as I lower my sword down slowly.