A Brother's Keeper

Kiinrin grew more and more worried as the day wore on and Jiriinii remained unconscious. For the first few hours, he had thought it was simply fatigue and shock. One day of rest might not have been enough to purge all the fear from her system. As time passed, and she still did not awake, he began to grow fearful. He might have stayed at her bedside all day, without food or sleep himself, if Vilkanai had not bluntly shooed him out the door.

“It will do no good for anyone if you linger and destroy your own body.” He had growled as he pushed Kiinrin bodily through the door. “Go train or find someone to work with. Don’t stick around here, where you will only get in the way.”

That was how Kiinrin ended up in the Jod Hole, standing in the Ring with an enormous double-bladed battle axe drooping in his hands. Nyrin stood on the other side of the Ring holding a sword, shouting advice to Kiinrin as they clashed.

“Don’t let it droop.” He ordered. “Hold it firmly, but don’t try to crush it either. Hold it like you would the hand of a lover. Loose enough to let it flex and breathe, but tight enough to not let it go.”

Kiinrin tried to listen to Nyrin’s helpful words, but, after a few minutes of receiving blows and bruises from Nyrin’s blunted sword, he decided that the axe wasn’t the weapon he was best at. It was too brawny, too unwieldy. It didn’t feel right in Kiinrin’s hands.

“Well, what else do you want to try?” Nyrin said, taking the axe in a strong hand and putting it back on the weapons rack. “There’s a lot more here.”

“I don’t know if I can focus enough to train right now, Nyrin.” Kiinrin admitted, sitting on a bench and wiping the sweat off of his brow. “I worry about Jiriinii.”

“Oh, she’ll pull through.” Nyrin said, sitting down next to him and patting him on the back. “Your sister seems like a strong girl. I’m sure she’ll be alright.” He pointed over at the gaggle of girls watching intently from the other side of the Ring. “I think you need to worry more about them.”

Kiinrin winced. “I don’t even know what they want with me.”

Nyrin gave a him a look. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know what they want with me.” Kiinrin said, pointing at the girls. They twittered and giggled between each other at his gesture. “Why are they always staring at me, giggling and whispering?”

Nyrin gave Kiinrin an impish smile. “I think that I’m going to let you figure this situation out for yourself, Kiinrin. It’s far too entertaining for me to spoil it for you.”

“I don’t even know what I’m going to figure out.” Kiinrin sighed. “This is all so confusing to me. I wish the Aether had given me information about this too.”

“Say that again?” Nyrin said, confused. “The Aether gave your information?”

“I forgot.” Kiinrin said with surprise. “I keep forgetting that my predicament wasn’t normal.” Kiinrin proceeded to explain his handicap and the incredible healing from Vilkanai.

“Aia above.” Nyrin said in awe. “That’s some story. So now you know everything?”

“Far from it.” Kiinrin explained. “The Aether seems to have given me some information, but it didn’t give me anything.” He nodded at the girls, who giggled at the gesture. “For example, I still have no idea what they want with me.”

“Well,” Nyrin said, standing and pulling Kiinrin up. “I think that you should go and find out.” Nyrin grabbed Kiinrin’s wrist tightly and began dragging him across the Hole to the flock of twittering young ladies. They quieted themselves as the pair of boys approached, though an occasional whisper could be heard from an overexcited student.

“Hello, ladies.” Nyrin said gallantly, pushing Kiinrin into the throng. “Lord Kiinrin would like to chat with all of you.” The gasp of delight that sounded nearly deafened Kiinrin as the girls crowded around him, shooting questions faster than the swiftest Junarian archer.

“Is it true that Gestarin is your father?”

“Are you as strong as you look?”

“What’s your favorite hair color?”

“Do you get to meet many princesses?”

“Which is better- poetry or art?”

Kiinrin tried desperately to answer the questions as they came, but he soon gave up on that endeavor. There were just too many questions, too many words, to even form one cohesive reply. He took to nodding and laughing at random intervals. Hopefully that would please them.

“I see that your highness is growing bored with the current company.” A quiet voice whispered in his ear. Kiinrin tried to crane his neck to find out who, but the space was too cramped for him to move much.

“Is it really that obvious?” He whispered back through a false smile. “I think I’d rather have Nyrin pound on me with his axe than endure much more of this.”

“He’s running toward the quarters!” The voice, now loud and piercing, screamed, and the response was much like a flock of birds spotting a tasty morsel a mile away. “Follow me.” A soft hand grabbed his. The girls surged away from Kiinrin in one roiling mass, rushing toward the doors in hope of finding the fleeing prince.  Not one girl looked back, and they therefore did not see Kiinrin rushing in the opposite direction, pulled by a slender brunette. They ran to the far side of the Ring, where Nyrin stood amused. He nodded at Kiinrin and the brunette before purposefully turning his back.

“In here.” The girl whispered, letting go of Kiinrin’s hand to lift up several loose floorboards to reveal a dark passage. She clambered in, waving Kiinrin to follow. Intrigued, he dropped down into the passageway behind the girl.

Darkness enveloped him for a moment, and, despite himself, Kiinrin grew afraid. What was he doing? Following strange girls into dark passageways did not seem like the normal thing to do. Or, at least, that’s what Kiinrin thought. He realized he couldn’t be sure.

The sound of a lantern flaring to life quieted the fear in his heart. He looked to see the girl holding a lantern a few feet down the dusty passageway, a few cobwebs burning up in the heat.

“This way.” She said, and she ducked into a room on the side of the passageway. Kiinrin walked toward it, brushing away cobwebs and putting a hand on the rocky walls to steady himself. For some reason, the tunnel made him feel uncomfortable. He could almost feel the walls closing in towards him, only moments away from crushing away his life. After a moment, he safely reached the room.

He found himself in a room that seemed to be a child’s representation of a palace. It was a strange juxtaposition of the rough rock of the tunnel and the smooth, polished wallboards of the compound above them. Boards were placed haphazardly wherever there was a level surface, which was not often. The ground was the same way, though a little more smooth. A few of the sharper lumps in the ground appeared to have been worn down. Whether by time or tool, Kiinrin couldn’t say. A bed lay in a corner, the covers neatly folded and pressed.

“Welcome to my private quarters.” The girl said as she put the lantern on a red table. It looked to be the same table as the ones in the boys dormitory.

“What is this place?” Kiinrin said after a moment, marveling at the eccentric beauty of the room.

“This is where I live.” The girl said, sitting down on the bed.

“Why?” Kiinrin said, confused.

The girl snorted in a very un-ladylike manner. “Because, in case you couldn’t tell, I don’t get along very well with those fragile little butterflies out there.” She looked intently at Kiinrin. “You going to sit down, or do I have to make it an order?” Kiinrin obediently sat down. “What’s your name, other than the Prince?”

“My name’s Kiinrin.” He said, holding out a hand. “What’s yours?”

“Ilyira.” She said, grabbing his hand and shaking it firmly. “Pardon me for sounding like one of them,” She said like this as she would the word mutt or wart. “But are you really a prince?”

“Yes.” Kiinrin laughed. “I’m the son of Gestarin Galarin, King of Glausiania.”

“You don’t look it.” She said with a completely straight face. “You just look like a normal, albeit very handsome, young man.” Her voice had a hint of irony in it, and Kiinrin laughed again.

“I don’t know if normal is the right word.” He said. “But I thank you for the compliment.” He looked around. “So, you come down here often?”

“I live here, stupid.” She said, snorting again. “Apparently being a prince doesn’t mean you’re the smartest kid in school.”

“I didn’t even know anything until about five days ago.” Kiinrin admitted softly, looking down.

“What do you mean?” Ilyira said, looking confused.

“I wasn’t right in the head until almost a week ago.” Kiinrin explained for the second time that day. “Vilkanai healed me with the Aether when I was chosen.” He looked up to see Ilyira gaping at him. “What?”

“You said that in almost the same way you’d say ‘I tied my boots’.” She blurted in astonishment. They both fell silent for a moment. “What kind of not right in the head?”

“I was like a big baby.” Kiinrin said. “A child trapped in a man’s body.”

“I know someone like that.” Ilyira said, nodding. “There was a man in our village who always played with the little children. Old Mirtia, I think he was called. He liked find-the-hiders the best.”

“That was my favorite, too!” Kiinrin said, a little loudly. Ilyira smiled despite the volume.

“I guess it’s just something about the ailment that makes children like the game.” Ilyira said. “Well, allow me to compliment you on your seemingly mature countenance.”

“I appreciate the sentiment.” Kiinrin said with a grin. “Now, with the assumption that I’m an ignorant git out in the open, why do you live down here?”

“I don’t get along with the other girls, right?” Ilyira said, gesturing toward the ceiling. “They’re all too stupid, too ignorant for me to have a good conversation with them. I hate being in the same room as them, let alone sleep near them. So, one day, I was stomping angrily around the Ring, annoyed that I would have to go back to the dorms and put up with their dumb twittering. Well, lo and behold, I accidentally broke through a couple of the floorboards and nearly killed myself from the splinters.”

“Is that how you found the tunnel?” Kiinrin asked.

“No, I just fell into a giant cavern and got impaled by sharp rocks.” Ilyira replied in a voice dripping with sarcasm. “Of course that’s how I found the tunnel!” Kiinrin found that, surprisingly, he enjoyed the brusque, rough personality of Ilyira. It was much more enjoyable than the empty-headed twittering of the other girls.

“I found this room as I was trying to figure out where the tunnel led.” Ilyira continued, gesturing to the strangely decorated wallboards. “It was almost exactly like this when I walked in for the first.”

“Really?” Kiinrin asked. “You didn’t do this?”

“Nope.” Ilyira replied. “Somebody else did.”

“Who?”

“I’m not sure,” Ilyira said wistfully. “But I think it was the man who I found in here.”

“A man?” Kiinrin asked, intrigued and extremely curious.

“Yes.” A new, masculine voice said from the entryway. Kiinrin and Ilyira both jumped up from the bed and away from each other. Kiinrin wasn’t sure why; it was involuntary, like his leg kicking if someone hit his knee.

They both stood even straighter as Lord Valanal, the Seat of Jod, strode into the room. His white armor and crown refracted the light from the lantern in many different shapes that bounced off the walls. It was an intense kaleidoscope of light and color, and Kiinrin narrowed his eyes to avoid being blinded.

“I made this room, when I was around your age.” Lord Valanal said, laying a hand fondly on one the skewed wallboards. “Much for the same reasons Ilyira sought it out.”

“My lord.” She said, curtsying. Valanal bowed deeply in response as Kiinrin looked on, confused as to his place. Valanal rose and stared at Kiinrin.

“Your highness.” He said with another bow, and Kiinrin fell to one knee in response.

“Lord Valanal-” He began, but he was cut off by the Seat of Jod pulling him up gruffly by the shoulders.

“I once told you that you would be required to pay homage to no man.” Valanal said, quietly but intensely. “That holds true now. Only a respectful bow is required, nothing else.”

Kiinrin nodded and bowed deeply in respect. “I apologize, Lord Valanal. I meant no disrespect.”

Valanal smiled. “Of course you didn’t. I’m sure,” he laid a hand on Kiinrin’s arm, “you meant a great deal of respect. I simply wish for you to realize your own worth.”

“My lord.” Ilyira said questioningly. “He found your old room. Don’t you think it is alright if he knows the truth?”

“The truth?” Kiinrin said, puzzled. His eyes flitted between the Seat of Jod and Ilyira.

“I don’t see why not.” Valanal said, slightly amused.

“Your highness.” Ilyira said fondly. “Allow me to introduce Ventoros Yrinsson, the man behind the Seat of Jod.

Kiinrin eyed the man with incomprehension. “I… I don’t understand.”

“It’s very hard for most people to understand.” Ventoros admitted. “I told your sister much the same thing. You see, I may be the Seat of Jod, but at heart I am a simple noble farmer who loves to go unnoticed.”

“Why?” Kiinrin blurted. “Why would you want to be invisible and unimportant?”

“That’s the way I was raised.” Ventoros said with a shrug. “And it’s also the exact reason that I was chosen to be the leader of the Jods.”

“What reason is that?”

“Because I didn’t want to.”

“But-” Kiinrin started, but Ventoros held up a hand.

“I came down here to congratulate on finding my old haunts, yes.” He said with a smile. “But I also came to tell you that your sister has awoken.”

Kiinrin’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes.”

In an instant, Kiinrin was running through the passageway and up into the Jod Hole. He didn’t notice running into other initiates and even Master Vilvaga. He only became aware of what he was doing when he rounded the corner and saw Jiriinii sitting up in her bed.

“Kiinrin!” She cried happily, and he ran up to fling his arms around her.

“Jiriinii!” He exclaimed joyfully, grasping her tight. After a moment, he pulled away. “What happened?”

“I can explain that.” Mistress Vulirnia said. She walked up to Kiinrin and put her hand on his shoulder. “It appears the Aether is trying to kill her.”