Sin: Path of Poison

Chapter 7 Part 2

General Bai was a true military man, everything had a right and wrong. Every action had a just and outwardly way of behaving, he couldn't lose even a fraction of face. We were indeed from very different worlds. The upright outward appearance of Lei slammed into place in my mind, his father would never accept anything less from his son. My eyes unconsciously went to his hair, every strand was held up and secured perfectly in place. I smiled warmly at fleeting memories.

"Can you do me a favor and pretend we talked about Nomi's childhood? How tragic it was? How you tried to cheer me up by talking about the palace after?" I asked.

"I can do that. I already know about her story so that's fine." He agreed. His eyes gleamed like a young boy receiving his first perfect marks on a test, even though he was probably around twenty two. I smiled softly while looking into his eyes, he faltered as his thoughts were plucked forward. Odd, first he could tell I was injured when nobody else could, now he could tell when I was being sincere or not. He was able to see me clearly all along, why?

I took a step in his direction, but not directly towards him, the sudden movement startled him as he nimbly took a step backwards. I closed my eyes momentarily and winced at his reaction. Even after reassuring him that I wouldn't harm him, he was still like this.

I'd never put myself in a situation where I was trying to do a job while exposing my intentions to someone not involved in my business. How was I supposed to reassure this person that I wasn't currently a threat? In some ways it would be considered lucky that he didn't know who I was. The wolf with a long trail of blood walking among the sheep, it was truly terrifying. This person in front of me shouldn't be aware of any of this though. I sighed, unable to find a solution. I felt no impulse to kill him, could I find a reason to send him away?

He brought his arm up, as if he wanted to voice his frustrations with himself as well. Slowly he relaxed his arm, dropping it back to his side. Our eyes met before he searched my face and looked down at my blank expression. His body momentarily swayed, probably picking up on my line of thought. I still couldn't explain his connection to me, how he was capable of seeing through me. His eyes hardened as he resigned himself to some new idea.

"Can I call you little sister?" He asked, throwing me slightly off guard. In my eyes I was obviously the senior, but I had to remind myself that even though I wasn't trying to appear younger, without my normal demeanor I would look like any other young woman.

"Mm" I agreed.

He turned so that we both faced the people waiting anxiously above us. Slowly, as if his hand were pushing against immense pressure, he reached behind me. Gently placing his open palm between the middle of my shoulder blades, oh so gently, he pushed me towards the group. He let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and smiled. Now if he could only make it look more natural it would save me the trouble.

We walked slowly up the hill through the flowers, halfway up the hill he dropped his hand, letting his arm sway naturally with his body. Still, he was trying, it was the best I could hope for from him. I looked up at him, my brow slightly furrowed as I wondered how long he could keep it up.

At that very moment he looked over at me, meeting my gaze. He missed a step and began to fall towards the side of the hill. This caused a great deal of laughter up ahead. Acting worried about the fall, I hurriedly turned my body beside him. My hands reached out towards his hands, pulling him slightly, which broke the fall.

With his hands in mine, I turned them over lightly to make sure he wasn't hurt. The laughter from above abruptly came to a stop. Our faces were so close together, it reminded me of our ride back when I was covered in dirt and leaves. He stared at me, breathing heavier than normal but frozen in place.

"How is your ankle?" I asked. Not receiving an immediate reply, I let go of one of his hands. Using the free hand I touched his forehead.

Unhappy with the way things were unraveling, Pierce and the Crown Prince made their way down the hill to meet us. We weren't too far away, it wouldn't take long for them to make it to us. Worried he'd still be frozen like this, I slid the hand touching his forehead down quickly, so they wouldn't be able to see from their angle. I quickly touched an acupoint just above his lip and near his collar bone. His eyes tried to refocus as his body shifted.

"Not my sister.." He mumbled so quietly I barely caught it even this close.

"They're coming." I murmured quietly under my breath so he was aware of the situation at hand. "Big brother, your ankle? Is it hurt?" I asked in a worried voice, the question carried up to the people approaching.

"I'm okay." He replied, suddenly coming back to life, looking more confused over his lapse in thought than I was.

"Take care of yourself more, I'll be depending on you to look after me in the palace." I added.

"Come back, we're all ready to go." the Crown Prince stood nearby with a dark expression on his face, unhappy with whatever exchange he saw taking place in front of him.

Lei gathered himself together, I leaned away from him. He stood offering his hand to help me up. I took it, lightly pulling myself to my feet. Pierce let out a choked sound while watching the action. I smiled slightly, relieved Lei was able to rebound so quickly.

Letting go of his hand, we finally started moving back up the hill. Lei stepped around the Princes and I started to follow. Suddenly the Crown Princes' hand reached out quickly, grabbing my arm. I stopped in my tracks, relaxing the arm he held. We all stood still for a moment staring at his hand that held me tightly. I looked up at him, rearranging my face to show my confusion.

"You'll be serving as one of my personal maids. If you have any issues in the palace you should tell me about them first." He said, releasing my arm and turning abruptly to walk up the hill. Once again Pierce let out a choked sound. Lei didn't reply, simply facing forward, he continued uphill following the Crown Prince.

I quickly got inside the carriage when we arrived at the top, avoiding further contact with Lei. I could hear Nomi quietly asking him what had happened. "Nothing." he replied, probably doing his best to look confused by the question. I wondered, what did happen though? He obviously saw something.

Nomi gave up and quickly got into the carriage, glancing at me briefly as she entered. She quickly averted her eyes and looked off at the corner. Probably replaying the scene in her head, looking for clues. Outside I could feel the head guard closing in on Lei.

"Big brother?" He questioned. "I thought you were going down there to question her motives? Instead she seduced you?" Blake looked stunned. "Weren't you the one agreeing that she could overpower you?" Blake continued. Lei shook his head softly.

"She didn't seduce me. Nomi told her a story about her childhood. Ryn was overthinking it, she looked sad. I didn't want to see her like that. I tried cheering her up, I told her about places I could show her when we returned to the capital. I felt like I wasn't myself. I couldn't think of the right things to say. I asked if I could call her little sister, thinking if I treated her differently maybe I'd calm down." He trailed off. While the story wasn't completely true, it was essentially what I'd asked him to say. The feeling of not feeling like himself or knowing what to say, at least that was in part true. Blake put his hand to his forehead as a sign of defeat.

"No experience." Blake muttered as he turned his horse away to ride beside the Crown Prince. Obviously he was referring to Lei's lack of experience when dealing with the overall situation. Given General Bai's temperament it was likely Lei wasn't allowed to associate casually with the opposite gender. The procession moved forward once again. In the back of the carriage my thoughts drifted off, recalling Lei as he tripped and fell to the ground.