Under the Wood

Jiriinii awoke when the alarms stopped. She had begun to get used to the shrill ringing and had went back to sleep only a few minutes after it started. She had been so tired that she had not cared what the alarms were ringing for; all she cared about and thought about was returning to the blissful sleep that had enveloped her in Ventoros’s chambers.

“Took you long enough.” Kiinrin said sardonically. “We had started to think that you were dead.” Jiriinii looked over to see Kiinrin, dressed in a flowing white tunic, sitting on a bed beside her. Excited as she was to see him again, she did not think he needed to see her filled with emotion again. It would be best if she stayed calm.

“I was tired.” She said simply, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She and Kiinrin were alone in the room.

“So were we.” Kiinrin replied, arching his eyebrow. “But none of us slept for a whole day.” Jiriinii froze.

A whole day? She thought. That can’t be right. How long were those alarms blaring?

“What were those alarms for?” She asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “They made it rather hard for a girl to get in a nap.”

Kiinrin shrugged. “They wouldn’t tell us. We’ve just been in our quarters and in the training center.”

“Training center? What do you do in there?” Jiriinii replied. Kiinrin gave her strange look.

“I believe we use it to train.” He said slowly, cocking his head. “Are you sure you got enough sleep?”

“Shut up.” Jiriinii said with a smile. “I’ve been sleeping all day. I don’t really know anything.”

“Well,” Kiinrin said. “We don’t really do much at all yet. The alarms have been going all day and through the night, and the Jods were gone the entire time. We just sort of play around with the equipment in it.”

“Can you show me?” Jiriinii asked. In spite of her frustration and desire to return home, she was genuinely curious about the training center. If she was going to be stuck here, she might as well do something different while she waited to be released.

“Of course I can.” Kiinrin said with a smile. “I was only waiting for you to ask.” Jiriinii excitedly threw off the covers and jumped off the bed, the floorboards creaking as she thrust her weight upon them. Her normal clothes had been removed and replaced with a soft white tunic and loose pants that whispered as she walked. The material was incredibly soft.

“What are these made of?” Jiriinii asked as she and Kiinrin left the room. She pulled at the cloth, rubbed her fingers over it, smelled it. It was the finest clothing she had ever wore, which was surprising given its simplicity.

“I’m not sure.” Kiinrin said, walking briskly down a crimson hallway. “The Jods tell us it’s very much like silk, but gathered from a different source.”

“Strange.” Jiriinii said, massaging her face with her sleeve. “I didn’t think silkworms lived anywhere except Junar.” Kiinrin shrugged, and they walked in silence for moment, light from the swinging lanterns playing across the blank walls.

“Is everything alright?” Kiinrin asked after a moment. “You seem… pensive.”

Jiriinii sighed. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“What was Lord Vilkanai talking about when he referred to your mental ailment? It made no sense.”

“Of course it didn’t.” Kiinrin said quietly. “You were too small to know, for a long time.”

“What are you talking about?” Jiriinii pressed, perplexed.

“Jiriinii,” Kiinrin said, stopping and turning toward his sister. “Do you remember anything at all about me? From a few years ago?” Jiriinii lowered her head, thinking hard.

“I remember you were easy to talk to.” She said slowly, closing her eyes and thinking hard. “You always responded the way I would respond, and you talked about things the same way I would.”

“And nothing about that seems wrong to you?” Kiinrin probed, nodding.

“Well…” Jiriinii said. Her eyes flew open. “How old were you when I was doing this?”

“I was eighteen.” Kiinrin said softly. “The last time we talked like that was four years ago.” Jiriinii’s eyes went wide, and she involuntarily backed up a step.

“That can’t be.” She stuttered, looking at her older brother like he was a completely different person. Indeed, he might have been. “You were so childlike, so much like me. Eighteen? No. It isn’t possible.”

“But it was and is.” Kiinrin said gently. “You never noticed anything wrong because, as a child yourself, I fit in perfectly with your childlike view of the world.”

“What was wrong?” Jiriinii asked quietly.

“Something happened when I was born.” Kiinrin explained, beginning to walk forward with a slow, shuffling gait. “Something when I came into the world. When I arrived, I wasn’t screaming like babies do. I wasn’t even breathing.”

“If you weren’t breathing…” Jiriinii said quietly, her voice trailing off.

“No one knows how I started.” Kiinrin said. “No one knows when. They had left me wrapped in a blanket on the tablet to die while they worked with mother to prevent her from dying. Sometime during that, I started breathing. Father and rejoiced, as they should have. It was only later that they began to notice something was wrong.”

“How do you know all this?” Jiriinii accused, looking at her brother intently. “If you had trouble with your mind, how do you know what was wrong? For that matter, how do you know much of anything?”

“A quirk of Vilkanai’s healing.” Kiinrin said simply. “Or at least, that’s my guess. I haven’t really had much time to talk to Jods about it.

“Anyway, around my seventh year, mother and father began noticing that I was not maturing very well. I didn’t take interest in the same things that the other children did. While they went and learned about things in school, I sat and looked at the clouds and sang songs to myself. While the other boys went and learned about swords and weapons, I liked to marvel and squeal at the birds. None of my actions made any sense to mother and father. Especially when I began to lose control of my body.”

“Lose control of your body?” Jiriinii whispered.

“Indeed.” Kiinrin nodded. “Around that time, I started to become… sluggish. Tired. Slow. I couldn’t walk as fast as the others, couldn’t hold things in my hand as strong. Soon, I couldn’t walk at all.”

Jiriinii looked down, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “I had no idea.”

“It’s alright.” Kiinrin said warmly, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You were young, a child. I wouldn’t expect you to have worried for me. Mother and Father did enough of that on their own.”

“So, you couldn’t learn and couldn’t control your body until you were healed?” Jiriinii said, assembling the tidbits of information in her head.

“Correct.” Kiinrin nodded. “It’s strange, really. I can barely remember my time as an overgrown child. It’s almost as if… I were watching a moving painting. I recognize who it is and what they’re doing, but I can’t really internalize the fact that it’s me. Does that make any sense?”

“Perfectly.” Jiriinii said, wiping away a tear and smiling. “For now, I’m just glad that I have someone to talk to in this place.”

“Oh, I’m sure you will find others.” Kiinrin said with a wink. “I’ve met a few of the other children. There’s one you’ll like in particular.” They rounded a corner and found themselves looking at a simple wooden door, blank and unassuming.

“Is this it?” Jiriinii asked, looking at the door skeptically.

“What’s wrong with it?” Kiinrin said as he walked forward and put his hand on the doorknob.

“I don’t know.” Jiriinii said with a shake of her head. “I guess I just expected it to be… more ostentatious. The other doors were.”

“This is the door to the training center.” Kiinrin said. “I doubt that they would make it as glorious as the door to the throne room.” He twisted the knob. “But the center itself may be just as spectacular.” He opened the door and gestured for Jiriinii to enter. She did, apprehensively and slowly.

The inside amazed her.

It was an enormous room, much larger than Ventoros’s hall. There was a large depression in the center, taking up perhaps three quarters of the center of the room with flights of stairs leading down into it. It was filled with many implements of training, with practice dummies for melee weapons, shooting ranges for archery, and other fixtures that Jiriinii could not even identify. Children frolicked between the stations, looking more than practicing. It was unlikely they had ever seen many of these things before, much less been allowed to practice with them. In the center of the depression stood a raised platform with an enormous red ring in the center and ropes along the side. Two children were fighting with quarterstaffs in the middle of it, spinning and ducking as they tried to overcome the other.

“Welcome to the Initiatory Training Center.” Kiinrin said with a flourish. “Or, as we like to call it, the Jod Hole.”

“What is all this?” Jiriinii exclaimed, unable to restrain her excitement. She was surprised at herself; none of the training rooms back home had excited her like this.

“This how we are going to learn to fight.” Kiinrin said, taking her hand and beginning to lead down into the pit. Jiriinii allowed herself to be led down the steps, her eyes still flitting about to try and drink all her surroundings in.

“Hey, it’s the Royal Boy!” Someone cheered as they neared the bottom, and children’s eyes began to turn toward Jiriinii and Kiinrin. Kiinrin smiled and let go of Jiriinii’s hand to wave at a throng of adoring fans. A few girls closer to his age ran over and began obnoxiously flirting with him, much to Jiriinii’s disgust. Kiinrin said something to them that Jiriinii did not hear, and, all of the sudden, silence engulfed the room. The only sound that could be heard was the thwack of a quarterstaff from the two fighters in the ring, unaware of the commotion of Kiinrin’s arrival.

“Who is that?” One of the girls said suspiciously. All eyes turned toward Jiriinii, and she froze from the attention.

“She looks like him.” Another whispered.

“She looks like a hound.” Came a third. Jiriinii’s cheeks flamed at that, but another voice quickly hushed the girl who said. Jiriinii looked around and saw that there were several looks of admiration on the children’s faces, mixed with some expressions of pure astonishment.

Kiinrin cleared his throat. “Everyone, this is my sister. Jiriinii Galarin. Princess of Glausiania.”

Jiriinii did not think it possible, but the looks of adoration and astonishment both intensified. She was surprised that the children’s eyes did not burst out of their sockets.

“You mean, she’s your sister?” One of the girls next to Kiinrin said, and all of their eyes brightened. Apparently, they were glad that they did not have more competition for Kiinrin’s affections. Jiriinii snorted quietly. None of the girls would ever receive Kiinrin’s attention. They were far beneath his notice.

“Ah. Amazing. It’s almost as if these children had never seen a girl before.” An amused voice said behind Jiriinii, and she spun around. A boy stood behind her, and her breath caught in her throat.

He was the most attractive boy she had ever seen.

He was incredibly tall, towering over the other boys in the entire room. He wore the loose pants that the Jods had given every child, but he chose to leave the shirt back in his room. Jiriinii appreciated that- it let her look at his intensely toned muscles and incredible physique. His sandy hair fell down past his ears slightly, and it waved as he shook his head at the sycophantic girls. A strange necklace hung around his neck. It looked to be some sort of bone encased in a prism and spun around a leather strap.

“Ah, Jiriinii,” Kiinrin said with an embarrassed cough as Jiriinii gaped at the perfection that stood before her. “This is Nyrin, one of the other boys from our group.”

“It’s an honor.” He said in a Reledanian accent, his vowels emphasized and consonants sharp. He extended a hand in greeting. “I have rarely met a princess as stunning as you.” Jiriinii blinked as she was brought out of her reverie. She took his hand hesitantly, noting the firmness in his grip juxtaposed with the soft callouses along his palm.

Strange. She thought to herself. I didn’t think that callouses could be soft.

“I thank you for your manners, Nyrin.” She said formally, shooting a glare at the other girls. Their eyes collectively narrowed, and Jiriinii had to suppress a laugh. They all looked like cats who had their toys taken away. “It is rare to find one so polite.”

Nyrin smiled and released her hand. “Please, Jiriinii, we are all initiates here. No need to be so formal.”

“Very well, Nyrin.” Jiriinii said, cheeks flushing. Aia’s blood, how shy was she? She had talked to boys before. Why was she getting flustered in front of this one? Just because he was attractive and polite…

“Will you allow me to show you around?” Nyrin asked, gesturing to the many activities that surrounded them. “It would do no good for you to hurt yourself because you were ignorant and unsupervised.” Jiriinii bobbed her head, perhaps a bit too eagerly.

Nyrin commenced his tour, leading Jiriinii around to the different ranges and practice stations. She learned that there was a special weapon operated by blowing air through a long tube that shot a poisoned dart out through the other end. She noted that it would not be best to inhale the dart instead, and Nyrin laughed.

“Perhaps it would be best if the enemy inhaled it, no?” He replied with a grin. He looked behind them to see a group of children following closely behind, trying very hard to make it seem as though they were doing the exact opposite.

“Don’t think about them.” Nyrin said contemptuously as Jiriinii looked back at them with annoyance. “They are only jealous.”

“Jealous of what?” Jiriinii said, a little more bitterly than she had hoped. “There’s nothing to be jealous about.” Nyrin looked at her with perplexed expression.

“Is your head attached to your shoulders quite right?” He said slowly, eying her up and down. “There is indeed much to be jealous about.” When Jiriinii didn’t reply, he shrugged and continued on, pointing out different weapons and techniques.

As they walked, Jiriinii thought she could hear the people behind her whisper and gossip about her. She turned her head back frequently, but, every time, they were too far away to be heard. It was almost like a buzzing noise that vibrated down the back of her neck and made the hair raise up.

“Can you hear that, Nyrin?” She said, interrupting him in a speech about axe safety. He stopped and cocked his head, listening intently.

“I cannot.” He confessed, looking back at Jiriinii. “What is it?”

Jiriinii sighed. “It must be nothing. I guess I’m still fatigued from the stress of the journey.”

“Did something occur?” Nyrin replied, stepping away from the rack of different axes. They started walking slowly toward the platform in the center, allowing themselves time to talk.

“Not really.” Jiriinii said. “I just made it especially stressful because I fought the Jods every step of the way.” Nyrin gaped at her.

“You must be exceptionally brave to fight the Jods after being chosen.” He said incredulously. After a moment, he added “And especially dense to not want to come here.”

“Careful, Nyrin.” Jiriinii said warningly. “Don’t make me revise my opinion of your manners.”

“My apologies, Jiriinii.” Nyrin said, not apologetic at all. “I merely do not comprehend why anyone would not want to come here.”

“Why?” Jiriinii snapped, frustration suddenly bursting out her in an explosive word. She immediately regretted it when a flash of pain went through Nyrin’s eyes.

“Because it is so much better than anything else I have ever seen.” Nyrin said softly, stopping in his tracks. “Never have I felt at peace as I have here.” Jiriinii stopped as well, contemplating the young man’s words. Surprisingly, she found herself agreeing with him. She had been happier here, and certainly more at peace than she felt in the palace.

“I’m sorry, Nyrin.” She said quietly, putting her hand on his muscular shoulder. He took his hand and put it on hers, making her stomach flutter. “I shouldn’t have spoken harshly.”

“It’s alright.” Nyrin said with a warm smile. “I expected it would be difficult for you to understand.”

“Why?” Jiriinii said once more, this time much calmer and curious.

“Because of your birth, your childhood.” Nyrin said, looking her in the eyes. Jiriinii’s knees threatened to buckle as she stared into his deep hazel eyes. “You were raised in a palace, never wanting for anything.”

“Not exactly true.” Jiriinii murmured. “But go on.”

“I was raised in a slum on the streets in Nadelik, my home city.” Nyrin said, raising his eyes to the ceiling in memory. “My mother was Bedseller, my father a lord. I never knew him. He abandoned my mother shortly after my birth.”

“Oh.” Jiriinii said softly, but Nyrin did not hear her exclamation.

“I grew up like the other children: scavenging for food in the gutters.” Nyrin continued. “We ate whatever we could find. Stale bread, rotten fruit, the occasional bit of meat that came from animal carcasses. Market days were the best. The vendors shooed the dogs away, true, but so much food fell on the ground, it was easy for us to sneak away some. Most of it was even fresh.”

“How did you survive?” Jiriinii asked, looking earnestly at the haunted boy.

“My father must have been a strong man, because I was far bigger than the other children.” Nyrin said without emotion. “I could fight my way to a bit of food, true, but I could also endure going hungry far more than the others. I would live, waiting, while they starved in the gutters. When they were dead, it was easier for me to fight for food to make up for my deprivation.” He smiled. “I didn’t need to once I found a new father.”

Jiriinii said nothing and did nothing; she was too shocked. Nyrin continued on to the ring without noticing Jiriinii’s hesitation.

“This is the Ring.” He said, looking intently at the two boys fighting. “It’s where we pit ourselves against the others in our group. To see who will rise, and who will fall.” Jiriinii again did not respond, instead watching the two boys swing their quarterstaffs at blinding speed.

One boy dropped his quarterstaff as the other slammed his into the boy’s arm, and he howled in pain. The perpetrator stopped, lowering his arms and breathing heavily. Jiriinii could see a triumphant smile gleam on his face. Suddenly, the victim kicked the quarterstaff up with his foot, slamming it into the other boy’s face. It was his turn to howl now, and he did, clutching his mouth as blood oozed between his fingers.

At that moment, the whispers that had followed Jiriinii around through the room suddenly rose in a brilliant crescendo, deafening her and shattering any thoughts. Jiriinii fell to her knees, clutching her head and screaming. She did not notice the other children look at her in alarm. She did not notice Nyrin and Kiinrin both rush to her and try to comfort her. All she could think of, all she could hear, was the whispers and murmurings of something different.

Something nestled deep below her feet.