Soul Chains

Chapter 39: Behind Her Smile

For the first two days on the train, I trained some with Ayette in our cabin, explored the train, talked to some strangers, and watched a movie marathon with Reine. I also studied some Iegashyia lore thanks to Mikasa, who summoned one of her codexes, which is an off shade of white with multiple dark grey runes drawn on the cover and has a pretty turquoise bookmark with golden tassels, and let me read it.

As of now, I'm in my cabin flipping through Mikasa's book more and Ciana is sitting next to me on one of the booth seats in her over the knee, black, lace-up boots with coral thigh-high stockings peeking out from underneath, coral colored shorts, and black oversized hoodie with white trim and a white decal on the front. Her hood is up and her head is leaning against the window while her legs are pulled up to her chest, her eyes watching the passing scenery as the cool rain outside slowly turns to snow.

"It's getting colder," Ciana says solemnly, her breath fogging on the glass.

"Yeah," I say, turning my attention from the book to look at her.

Ciana has been in my cabin for the past few hours since everyone from hers left to go get dinner and she didn't feel like being alone, having already ate dinner earlier.

"It's almost funny, actually," Ciana says and places a palm on the glass.

"How so?" I raise a brow.

"The last time I was here, in winter, it was because of Coralyinn. Now, I'm back here again years later because of Coralyinn," Ciana says, turning to look at me with her right palm still splayed on the window.

"Doesn't your family worry about you?" I ask, "I mean...not to pry, but..."

"Nah," Ciana shrugs and turns back to looking out the window as she drops her hand back down to her side, "not really."

Ciana pauses for a moment before she reaches down into her hoodie and pulls her necklace out to look at the stone hanging from it, watching as beams of sunlight glisten off of it from the window as she suspends it in the air by the chain.

"My parents never really worried about me much," Ciana continues, "we're a pretty carefree family, ya know? Almost to the point where we're too carefree. That's the thing I never liked about my family. I love that I can be myself and that I'm encouraged to be understanding and accepting of others and my parents support me in every way, but they don't seem to ever have many concerns. I feel that there's a point where you should worry about things, even if you're carefree and laidback. It shows that you care."

"Yeah, I get that," I nod.

"My mom's an artist. She paints, sketches, has her own workshop and all the works," Ciana says with a reminiscent smile, "and my dad's totally out there. He loves trying to forge new types of weapons and creating new things. They both taught my everything I know about combat, well, so did my older brother, but yeah. I guess I just wish they showed more concern for me. I mean, I told them I wanted to travel the sectors and the realms and fight and they had no issue whatsoever. Maybe it's because they don't doubt me at all, but it's...a little unnerving."

"You have an older brother?"

"I have two brothers," Ciana smiles somewhat sadly, "Branson was my older brother and Saber is my younger brother. Branson was killed when he was seventeen during training by one of his friends who betrayed him and went to fight for the enemy side. He always loved using a broadsword. That's what he used when we trained out in our back yard by our cherry tree. That's...also where we buried him. It was a rainy little funeral, black umbrellas, dark skies, and a wooden coffin with someone who didn't deserve to be dead, dead. It's kinda scary, actually. I'm Branson's age now. It's hard to believe two years went by so quickly."