Reunions

Kasinara returns home and reconnects with old friends and family.

The early morning sun beat down on Kasinara in the courtyard of the Citadel as she dodged the blows thrown by her sparring partner Alessia. A sharp blow to her to the ground, Alessia stood smirking before Kasinara swept a foot out and knocked her to the ground. Alessia stared in shock a moment before bursting into laughter, soon after Kasinara joined in.

“Don’t let your pride distract you Alessia!”

“I wouldn’t have to worry about it if you learned to dodge.”

“Fair point,” Kasinara stood and extended a hand down to Alessia, “Again?”

“Again.”

This time Kasinara expected the move and leapt back, Alessia smirked. The two women circled each other, other soldiers and workers gave the two a wide berth. Kasinara jumped forward and jabbed Alessia in the center of her chest. She stumbled back, the breath knocked out of her. Another attempted blow aimed for Kasinara’s side.

“Saerkon! Get over here!” Kasinara turned her head to look and was quickly hit in the side and knocked off her feet.

“Come on,” Alessia extended a hand down and helped to lift Kasinara to her feet, “Oh how the tables have turned, I’ll see you later Kas.”

Kas smiled and turned to walk toward her commander Aztail. She was a tall muscular woman with blonde hair and pale gray eyes. She struck an imposing figure in the doorway to a small stone building. She jerked her head to the large table in the center of the room, a map spread across it.

“I can tell you’ve been getting bored, you don’t normally like to train with Alessia.”

“She’s overconfident.”

“She’s young, and so are you. The both of you still have a while to go. You used to be a lot like her.”

“I guess. What did you call me in here for?”

“There have been reports of a Roklan spy in Katelk. Normally I’d send out someone more experienced, but you lived there for 13 years and know the town and people there.”
Kasinara cocked her head to the side, “Why are we sending anyone out at all? Katelk is near Cikilan, but we don’t have any real information there. It’s a small out of the way town, what’s the point?”

“A body turned up a few days ago, a young man. We think the informant killed him.”

“If it’s such a simple investigation why do I need to go? I know the town, but a simple find and apprehend is simple.”

“The man had burns, from a Wielder.”

Kasinara’s eyes darkened, “Ah, I see. You need me to kill him.”

“You trained for four years, you’ll be fine.”

“I know,” Kasinara snapped, “I know that I’ll be fine, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Aztail leant against the wall and frowned, “Yes, well it doesn’t really matter if you like it or not. Just get results.”

Kasinara’s shoulders slumped forward, “Alright. Fine, I’ll go. When should I leave?”

“Now would be a good time.” Aztail smiled at the glare Kasinara gave her.

The ride to Katelk was only an hour; two if the weather was bad. Kasinara’s horse Mollis cantered calmly down the road toward town. The sun’s light hit the river, making it’s smooth current sparkle. It was deceptively beautiful, the smoothness of the water hid the speed and depth of it. One slip and you’d be pulled under freezing waves and washed out rapidly toward the ocean. Kasinara shivered at the thought; she hated the ocean.

In the distance small farms could be seen on the side of the road. Katelk was near. Kasinara’s heart began to pound as nervousness gnawed at her. The Wielder was worrisome, but the real fear, the one she hadn’t spoken to Aztail about, was how her old friends and family would react to her return.

She rode past the farms quickly, no one outside was interested in her as she rode by. Someone in Caminian armor wasn’t an uncommon sight. She stopped short just outside the town itself, she knew there were stables by the inn, but wasn’t particularly excited to go in and rent a space. Kasinar steeled herself and attached the lead to her horse's halter.

Walking Mollis through town drew more attention, usually when a Caminian troop passes through they don’t dismount. Many of the people were nervous now, wringing their hands or pushing themselves against the walls as she walked by. Kasinara tried to smile and seem as friendly as possible, it wasn’t really working. While she wore the Caminian crest of the North Star, it had a circle behind it, signifying her rank as a Sicarius.

The inn was on the west side of the town square, it had a new name Leaping Fish Inn. Kasinara lead Mollis to the stables and tied his lead to a post inside. Walking up to the door she hesitated a moment before pushing it open and stepping inside. The conversations laughter quieted down considerably, but were not silenced as she walked toward the counter.

The innkeep was a short spindly man with graying hair and sunken eyes. Kasinara worked hard not to squirm under his scrutinous gaze. He looked up at her, his faded brown eyes meeting her blue ones. His eyes fell on the crest over her heart.

“A room, and a stall in the stables please.”

The man hesitated a moment, deciding what to say, before giving a curt nod, “Your room’ll be the one at the end of the hall on the right. You can pick whatever stall you want, but once ya choose you gotta stick with it.”

Kasinara nodded and untied the bag of coins from her belt, counting out the right amount she set them onto the counter and gave another attempted smile. The gave no reply as swiped her coins off the counter and glared at her.

The room was small, a chest at the foot of the bed, a wooden chair, a bed, and a nightstand. The bed and pillow were straw stuffed, covered with a deerskin blanket. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable, but far from the worst. She set down her things and got ready to go back out into town, it was only noon, and the sooner she started looking, the sooner she could leave. She didn’t take much, her armor stayed on and she brought her short sword and elected to leave her daggers in the inn.

There was a soft breeze in the air, and the smell of fresh bread and cooked meat floated around the marketplace. The town hadn’t changed much, shop names and the people running them were different in some places but the layout was familiar. Kasinara began walking before she knew her destination. People still gave her a wide berth, but no one said anything.

A moment later she stopped in front of a wooden house, it looked exactly how she remembered it, the garden out front had the same flowers. The door was still overly large and all the curtains were shut. Should she knock? She’d been gone for 5 years, they probably didn’t live there anymore. But what if they did? Kasinara stepped forward and knocked on the door, rationalising that it was for the investigation, nothing else. That would be unprofessional.

The woman who opened the door was only slightly shorter than Kasinara. She had the same blue eyes and brown hair. She wasn’t old, but had laugh lines and crow's feet. Most obvious was how tired she looked, her eyes slightly unfocused with bags under them, weighing them down.

The woman stared for a moment, squinting at Kasinara, looking her up and down over and over. She looked back up and met her eyes.

“Ka-,” Her voice cracked slightly as tears welled in her eyes, “Kasinara?”

Kasinara didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t this. She stared dumbstruck at her teary eyed mother and nodded slowly. She stumbled slightly when the woman leapt forward and wrapped her in a tight hug. Burying her face in Kasinara’s shoulder as sobs wracked her body. Hesitantly Kasinara hugged her back, unsure of why exactly she was so emotional.

“Are you feeling alright? You aren’t normally so… caring.” The woman held on tighter at Kasinara’s words and continued to cry, “Let’s uh, let’s get you inside.”

Slowly the woman let go and moved for Kasinara to enter first, once she did the woman stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Kasinara scanned the entrance room, everything was the same. It looked like nothing had been touched in 5 years. She was tackled into another hug, this one somewhat calmer.

“Hey, it’s okay,” The woman continued to cry, “I’m home now, okay? I’m back mom, I’m back.”

Kasinara’s mother loosened her grip and sat down heavily on the padded sheepskin bench. Kasinara sat down next to her and eyed her curiously.

“Why were you crying?”

“What do you mean? I missed you.”

“You… missed me? I thought you wanted me to leave.”

Her mother sighed shakily, “I… I was a bad mother. I was cruel and too harsh on you. I didn’t tell you I loved you enough-”

“Or at all.”

“Or, or at all. So when you left I didn’t expect to see you ever again. You said you would join the Caminian troops and then there were all those battles… I thought you were dead.”

“I thought you didn’t care.” Kasinara cringed at her words when her mother’s head fell.

“Why did you come back?”

“Work, I can’t tell you more than that.”

“It’s… that’s alright.”

“Where’s dad?”

Her mother looked up at her, a new sadness in her eyes, “He died 2 years ago.”

“How? Why didn’t you send a courier or something?”

“He got sick, Jaret and I took him to the doctor. They tried to help him but…”

“Why didn’t you send a courier? The outpost is just a few miles from here! I could have seen him before he died!”

“You left!”

“Because of you!” Kasinara got to her feet and turned angrily toward her mother, “By the North Star, why are you so selfish?”

“I’m not the one who abandoned their family!”

“Oh, you abandoned us long before I left! You never spoke to us unless you wanted something! I should’ve tried harder to get dad to come with me!”

“He wouldn’t go, he loved this place!”

“He loved you! And you wanted to stay, he hated it here! But you wouldn’t know that would you? Because you never paid attention to him! He was just a servant to you!”

“Don’t you act like you were a saint! You were the most disrespectful child in this entire town!”

“I was respectful to people who deserved it. You were not on that list! I thought… when you cried and hugged me. I thought maybe you had changed that maybe now you actually cared.”

“I do care!”

“About yourself!”

“You-” Before her mother could continue her sentence Kasinara had moved to the door and opened it, stepping outside, “Kasinara! Get back here, you can’t storm out whenever we have an argument, you’re not a kid anymore!”

Kasinara whipped around and glared, “I’m not your daughter anymore either.”

The wind had picked up and the skies were graying, it would rain soon. Kasinara thought of returning to the inn, but shook the thought from her mind, it was late afternoon and she still had time left. She had a job to do. As she continued to walk down the gravel path from her old house she saw another familiar one.

Her old friends, Amaya and Ikal had lived there with their father Jaret, maybe they still did. The house was larger than her old one, but was in the same style. She wanted to walk up and check in on them. She hadn’t managed to really say goodbye. They had exchanged quick hugs and promises of future adventures together. She was about to leave when she heard someone crying. Stepping carefully through the grass and twigs Kasinara came to the low fence around their backyard. Sitting on his hands and knees was Jaret, crying in front of a stone tombstone.

Worry twisted at Kasinara’s heart, she knew that his wife wasn’t buried there. It had to have been one of the twins. Unless he found someone new, but he hadn’t found anyone in the 16 years since her death. Possibilities raced through Kasinara’s head, she had been terrified to see the twins again. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to, but she was certain she didn’t want either of them dead. After a few more minutes Jaret stood and turned to go back into the house.

Kassinara ducked behind the wall of the house and waited until she heard the sound of the heavy wooden door closing. She stood there, the wind whipping around her, the skies were still darkening. Eventually she stepped over the low fence and crept toward the tombstone, fear desperately trying to pull her back, to turn around, to just not look.

She reached the tombstone, but couldn’t bare to read it. It was beautifully carved, Jaret probably made it himself. Flowers had been planted around it and carved wooden figures of dragons and soldiers sat in front of it. One of the dragons had a distinct scratch across it’s left eye, and had been painted red with golden eyes. Flowers that hadn’t been planted; ones picked from people's gardens or the forest lay in bushels by the grave. It wasn’t surprising, everyone loved the twins.

Kasinara took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. She let her eyes fall onto the carved words, tried to focus her vision. Ikal Gerent Kasinara’s breath caught in her throat and she stumbled back from the grave. Ikal was dead, Ikal was dead. Recently too, things started falling into place in her mind. The informant was the suspected killer of a young man.

Anger bubbled up inside Kasinara forcing the grief down further and further until it was only a dull ache. She got to her feet and turned, just as she stepped over the fence she heard the door open and turned around.

Stepping halfway out the door was Amaya, her dark brown eyes were apprehensive, as she looked at the frozen Kasinara. Amaya was still a good few inches shorter than Kasinara as she walked up to her, the short fence separating them. Kasinara couldn’t read the emotion swirling in Amaya’s eyes. Her black hair was tied back into a ponytail, loose strands casting shadows across her dark skin.

A hand reached up and traced a scar on Kasinara’s left eyebrow, one she’d had since she was 8 years old. Amaya moved her hand to trace over a new scar, this one went from Kasinara’s right cheek down past her ear. Another scar, one that went from her chin to her bottom lip. Amaya hesitated before tracing that one all the way.

Amaya looked up at Kasinara’s eyes her hand still on her face, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too… I’m sorry about Ikal.”

Amaya shook her head, “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I should have visited.”

“You were busy training and working, he knew that.”

“Were you going to tell me?”

Amaya nodded, “I was going to send someone tomorrow morning, but here you are.”

“Here I am.”

“Where… where are you staying?”

“Leaping Fish.”

Amaya’s nose crinkled, “The owner is a dick.”

“He isn’t the friendliest person I’ve met.”

“You should,” Amaya worried her bottom lip between her teeth, “You should stay with us.”

“Would Jaret be okay with that? I don’t want to impose.”

“I think it’d do him some good to have someone else around.”

“Does he think that?”

Amaya grinned and grabbed Kasinara’s hand, she pulled her over to the door almost tripping her over the fence. Kasinara stopped before the reached the door, pulling Amaya back. Amaya turned at the feeling of Kasinara stopping, the pulling motion taking her by surprise. She tripped and Kasinara caught her.

Amaya looked at Kasinara for a moment before leaning forward and hugging her, resting her head in the crook of Kasinara’s neck, “I really did miss you.”

Kasinara tilted her head and looked down at Amaya, “I know, I really missed you too.”

“I cried when you left.”

“I’m sorry.”

Amaya shook her head and looked up, “It’s okay, you’re back now.” Kasinara didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t permanent.

Author's Note

Please review it and give me your feedback! I want to improve my writing as much as possible and I need your help to do that!