CHP49

Kael stretched out to greet the morning sun, grumbling as he thought about her reaction to the tatsuli. He’d have to be careful with her, or she’d play too much with the ink.

Seneya stirred from his noises and turned her head to focus bleary eyes on Kael. Sael turned to his side, and Seneya gently pulled his head off of her.

“Where’s Dee?” She asked with a yawn.

“Asleep in your bed. I carried her in.” Kael beckoned her over and patted the ground next to him.

“Oh good,” Seneya sighed and moved to sit next to Kael. He patted her head.

“Storytime?” he asked, and she nodded gently.

“Only if you want.” Her voice went small and quiet. He continued the affectionate pat, stroking over her head for his own comfort as he spoke.

“Well, a long time ago, my father played a cruel game with my heart,” He started.

When I was little, he introduced me to a girl of my own age from another kingdom. Our kind are powerful, both in mana and strength, but we also love harder than anyone else. This girl captivated me, and my father knew that if he kept her around, I’d fall for her, that we’d become ‘chosen’ in time. To spite the king of another land, he pushed us two together until my heart sang for her when we were so young, and hers sang back. He planned for me to ruin her, take her away from her kingdom, to end their line.

And in time, we got older, and our fires came, and so did our curiosity, and we melded, our fires swam to one another, and there we were, two different creatures in the same kind of love. We fought it for so long, years and years, until they forced Erythmia, my sister, on me as a ‘mate.’ I didn’t touch her, couldn’t, and she soon bore me a child from another man. I raised that child as my own. Sael.

My true love turned her back on me, and I felt so grateful that she could move on, to find someone before we bound, and I ruined her, but her heart ached in a different way than mine, and through my window one night, she slipped in. She found the truth of it and bound me right then and there. We vowed to run away together, to start our own family, and it worked for a time, our secret trysts, waiting for Sael to be old enough to seat the throne when her father found out. One of her handmaidens saw my sigil on her. Then she came here, and she treated Sael as her own, mothered him, and raised him with me. When we finally conceived our own child… Erythmia struck out and had my love murdered in cold blood, with my child still in her belly. I held her corpse as it smoldered into dust, and Sael had to stop me from killing every man and woman in my courts. Sael did something horrific to stop me, and now he bears a mark on him that he will die with.

Her name was N-Niala.

Kael bit his tongue after he said it and winced the pain away. Seneya reached up to his head and cupped the side of his face, staring into his eyes. “It’s alright. Thank you, Kael.” Seneya squeaked as Kael’s thick arms grasped for her and pulled her into a shaking hug.

“That was over sixteen years ago, and every time I see your little halfbreed self flitting about, I just can’t not see it, can’t not imagine it.”

“I don’t mean to hurt you.”

“You don’t. You heal, only heal, little starling. Your fires are healing ones, and your presence is balm to my heart.”

“Kael?” She spoke, a muffle from within his clutched arms.

“Hmm?” Kael swallowed a knot in his throat.

“I’ve never had a father before, ….” Seneya shuddered as she buried deeper against his chest… “Can I call you father?”

“You mean ada’na, a father of heart?”

“It’d be ok for me to call you that?” she gazed up at him hopefully.

“I’d like nothing more, little starling.” He squeezed harder, and she squeaked once more, delighting him into a deep chuckle.

“Are you hungover?” Seneya asked.

Kael laughed. “Are you?”

“No.” She shook her head.

“Good, that’s hard for us. Unfortunately, Dee is the one here at risk, but thankfully, you’re a healer.” Kael teased and let her go with a sigh.

“Now, there’s something I’ve been putting off with you, but I think you need it now. Come on. Feeling a little prickly? Too much mana?” He asked.

She shrugged.

“Last night, after the tatsuli, did you really want to meld fires with Sael? Just to rid yourself of them?” he leered.

Seneya’s cheeks went pink, and the memory that flashed before her eyes yesterday came in yet another flash that she shook free of her eyes again. Her cheeks went scarlet. She paused and thought again, trying to remember the face from the memory, and now that she thought, it didn’t seem like Kael at all, maybe Sael? They looked similar. “It’s not like that.” She muttered.

“Yeah, I thought so. Come on,” Kael stood and stretched, waving her after him.

At the edge of the glade, stood a few old stumps worn soft. One of them, in particular, had been well-worn and singed at the edges, a little sliced up in spots where Kael’s fire had unleashed.

“Take a seat on that one,” He said, pointing to one of the stumps near his worn one. He sat tailor fashioned on his stump and adjusted his legs before letting his wings and tail slowly slide free. Seneya mimicked him and waited expectantly as he took a deep breath and began to release his flames slowly over his skin in a prickling wash of black fire.

“Alright, now bring your fires up, let it all loose,” Kael ordered, and Seneya carefully let her green fires slide up and over her arms.

“Good, now let it spread, shoulders, back, wings, everything. If skin is showing, let it flame,” Kael told her, and Seneya carefully let it spread, and the pleasant prickle of it hummed under her skin.

“Now, close your mind off, close your eyes and don’t just sleep, but let your mind unfocus.”

“That’s the hard part.” She closed her eyes and tried to unfocus, to drop her guards, close her mind off, and surprisingly she found it easy enough to just lose herself in the gentle roiling sensation of her fires teasing over her own skin. Then, dimly, she heard his praise and even that silenced away as she rode the waves of gentle green light in her thought.