Yuragwyn: Yours

---Chapter 3

∞Kaitra∞

A soft knock at the door brings me back to the dreadful reality my dreams were allowing me to escape. Begrudgingly, I push the fond memories of home and my mother's corn casserole back from before my eyes. I trace the tear stains in the embroidered bedspread and quickly wipe my face to rid it of tell-tale track marks. The last thing I need is for Traugott to see me weak.

I command all my strength and call out, "Come in."

Instead of thick boots and forest green pants, an embroidered, rose gold colored dress swishes in. Lady Carys nods her head to me, and I can't help but nod back. Her beauty is stunning: her blonde-- almost whitened by the sun-- hair sways down behind her in a braid similar to my own. Her eyes are painted with both green and gray, warmth and wisdom. She reminds me a bit of someone, someone from a dream.

"Kaitra," she whispers softly. Her voice is sweet, delicate, nearly a whisper but commanding my most rapt and respectful attention with its kindness. "I've missed you for so long."

I shift uncomfortably as she perches on my bed. She can't have missed me. She's never known me. "You must have mistaken me for someone else, Lady Carys. I'm not from here. I've never been here."

"Yes, Kaitra, you were born here, just down the hall." Lady Carys smiles softly, "I remember your pink cheeks, the way you would coo when your father held you. We all loved you; we all love you."

"If I was born here, how did I leave; how did I get here again?"

"Not everything can be shared now, dear one. You were taken to safety by your aunt and uncle, my sister and her husband. The dagger brought you back here."

My heart drops like a stone: she thinks she's my mother.

I close my eyes to hold back the frustrated tears. There's no way, no way any of this happened. This has to be a dream. I hate this place and the lies it holds. Surely, surely, there has been some great mistake and they will send me on my way very soon.

I want to go home.

₰Traugott₰

Lady Carys walks down the hall towards me but doesn't appear to see me. Her eyes are burdened, and they hold a hurt that I haven't seen in many years, since the war with Granziar ended. She must have gone to see Kaitra.

"My lady?" I ask, reaching out to steady her.

She turns her eyes to me for the first time, "She doesn't understand. She doesn't know."

I nod. "She will, soon. Today is a peaceful day. The noonday meal is being served, my lady. I will go retrieve her and be down shortly."

Lady Carys toddles past me, one hand on her head, the other around her waist as she walks down the stairs. I bite my lip and walk to Kaitra's door. I cannot promise my lady anything really. Kaitra is so unlike anything we expected. For Lady Carys's sake, though, I will continue to pursue peace with her daughter. I knock hesitantly against the thick door.

A long pause later, her cold voice bites through the wood, "Come in."

I open the door only a crack, "Kaitra, the noonday meal is being served in the great hall. Lord Cadfael has requested your attendance. I've come to escort you."

She pulls the door away so quickly I stumble towards her. "I don't need an escort."

I shrug my shoulders. "Alright then, there are thirty-seven rooms in this manor. By the time you located the great hall, your victuals would be cold. I'm going that direction anyway, so you might as well join me."