Game of Prythian

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Kana's POV: 

Boredom had truck midday. After asking Dione if she could set me up lessons with Eden, I hadn't heard anything. Other than the roaring silence. Father, Xer, and Theo teamed up and locked me in my room. Banning me from 'pushing myself too far' claiming that I'd only be allowed to leave once the dark circles under my eyes disappeared.

I wanted to scream at them, to yell, to kick and fight. It was worthless energy. The dark circles wouldn't go away, I woke up every night, not from horrors of the past but of the future.

Darwyn entered with a plate of fruit, biscuits, butter, and jam. He glared att my unmoving form stretched out across the entire bed. Legs parted in a V shape and arms cast out to the side.

He winnowed some history books to my bed-side table. He murmured, "I talked to them about it, they aren't lifting their ban."

Glaring at the ceiling I suddenly wished I was stronger. If I was more brave then I would have spoken up, shouted and roared until they understood. I shook my head, "The ban will never be lifted Darwyn."

"They will bend." Darwyn argued. I snarled and snapped back. "They'll break before they bend."

Darwyn grumbled something under his breath, but flopped down beside me on the bed. He ran his fingers through my dull starlight hair. He claimed, "It's dull, which means it's connected to your emotions. So now we just have to look at your hair to understand."

"They will never understand." I repeated as he massaged my scalp. Darwyn shook his head and shoved a strawberry into my mouth. He grumbled, "The Head Psychiatrist and The Head Phycologist even sided with me and they won't lift the ban!"

"Territorial fae bastards." I muttered, leaning into my brother's soothing hand. He snorted, "Am I not one too?"

"You definitely are." I amended, then quickly added. "However, you know where to place your efforts. Like now, comforting me and just letting me know I'm not alone in worrying."

Darwyn nodded, continuing to play with my hair. He brought over a book from the table. He opened it explaining, "I caught you reading the Elvish Queen legend yesterday, but you were so zoned out you completely ignored me. So I got a family tree book, it's magic so no matter who lies about rape and stuff like that we will always know the truth."

"I've gotten good at that." I muttered softly, he pointed at where we were. Darwyn smiled softly, and pointed to a face in the book. "There's you,"

I traced my finger over my face, I looked older, more adult and happier in this photo. Darwyn added, "Some guess the book can see into the future, so maybe this is you in a few years." We flipped through the pages and i pointed tracing the line back down to the second page. I grinned, "Lady Olivia is our twenty seventh over cousin."

"Her brother is off the charts for marriage then." Darwyn noted and we burst out laughing. He set his arm around my shoulder while I leaned into his side. I muttered, "You're by far my favorite brother, don't let the others know."

Darwyn asked, "Mother told me about the twins wanting you to pick the name. Have you come up with anything?"

"If it's a girl," I muttered, then paused before setting the child's fate in stone. "If it's a girl than her name will be Essa Aethra-Thea Branwen."

Darwyn snorted, and teased. "She'll have the longest name." I slapped him, really hard. Enough so that he hissed and hit me right back. I explained, "Essa means protection or salvation. Aethra means blue sky, while Thea means seeing and divine inspiration."

Darwyn nodded and asked, "Where did you get Essa from?" I smiled and continued flipping through the pages, "It's short for Euryphaessa, which was the Golden Queen, and her name meant wide-shining."