Flower of Bulann

Chapter 5

Kinna took a deep breath, the night air suddenly feeling cool against her skin as she wrapped her shawl around her tightly and retook her seat, feeling her heart pounding at a rate she had never felt. Kinna touched her lips, remembering how she had been only a fraction away from having her first kiss with Vior only moments ago. Her face reddened again at the thought, trying to cool her cheeks with her palms and kicking her feet in frustration.

"Please, my lady. Even if there is no one around. I implore you to act in a manner more befitting of a lady" Jaefan said in his usual haughty tone, his hands tucked neatly within his long sleeves.

Kinna brought her hands down, touching her shoulders as she turned away. She really hated it when her former swordmaster had one over on her, and tonight most certainly had given him at least one.

"He seems a nice boy, this, Vior Faden. He would be a most exceptional addition to our Hyenta clan" he started, but she knew he had more to say.

Kinna stood up, trying to exude elegance in an effort to shut up her chaperone.

"You know, I will not stop my lecture until you have heard it. You would be far more comfortable sitting, I feel" Jaefan chided her, clicking his tongue as she petulantly turned her head away from him.

"What would your good father say, were I to explain this evening to him?" he said in his calm, gentle voice, but the threat was obvious.

Kinna sat down upon the edge of the bench and pouted, she'd wanted to feel Vior's warmth more than anything at that moment... so what if it was technically breaking the rules, didn't she deserve a little happiness?

Jaefan sat down near her, his long robes rustling gently in the slight breeze that now came in from the north, gently rattling the tree branches and bushes around them.

"Since you are now being more, amiable. Perhaps you can tell me why you told young lord Vior I was a deaf-mute?" Jaefan asked, for once sounding irritable at the slight.

Kinna giggled to herself, her shawl slipping down to her elbows. Jaefan's face betraying his annoyance at her baring her shoulders to a man.

"He seemed so nervous and guarded. I wanted him to open up to me... to know if Vior was still the boy my father said I loved with all my heart" she told her old master, wiping a new tear from her eye. "I was so overwhelmed by him that I fell in love all over again... such a thing must seem silly to you I suppose?"

Jaefan laughed, a deep hearty noise she couldn't ever remember hearing before, it was quite peculiar to her ears. Eventually, he stopped laughing, unfolding his arms and placing a gnarled hand upon her shoulder with the tenderness her father used with her.

"Are you aware that your mother is his first wife, your lord father's I mean?" Jaefan asked her, returning his hand to within the sleeves once more.

Kinna shook her head, only aware that she was the last born child. Her father had always hidden her away for almost her whole life. She had simply believed he bore a grudge against her for some unknown slight against him.

"For years, your mother could not conceive a child, and your lord father refused to take another wife, nor a concubine. It was hard for them. But your mother convinced him to do so for the good of the clan" Jaefan explained, looking back to the moon before smiling at her sadly. 

"After six years, they finally had you, Kinna. And with your birth, he felt the burden of his perceived betrayal. He had taken many concubines and sired many children by this time, and though you are the only child born of passionate love, you are also a constant reminder that he betrayed the woman he loves. It is also why he cares for you most of all."

Kinna could certainly understand her father's feelings, were Vior to have admitted he'd had past lovers she would've been considerably upset.

"Does mother bear a grudge against him?" she asked, knowing in her own mind that she would bear such a grudge.

"I do not think so, but... I think your lord father may have finally forgiven himself, for your sake. Had he not, you may have lived your whole life in this palace alone" Jaefan joked... she was sure he was joking anyway.

Kinna stood once more, raising her shawl to her shoulders, then turning to look directly at Jaefan for the first time tonight.

"Thank you, master Jaefan. For allowing me to find both Vior's and my father's true feelings... and for allowing my own frustrations to be aired freely" she told him, placing a hand upon his forearm and squeezing it gently.

"You need not thank me, young Kinna. I can never have children, but if I could... I would have been proud had they become even half the woman you are now" he told her, his stern face softening momentarily.

"Now! away to bed, young lady. I will not be held responsible for you falling asleep during the tournament come tomorrow" he chided her, somehow shooing her along without moving his hands.

Kinna bid him goodnight before leaving the tranquillity of the garden, though she noticed Jaefan took a seat as she entered her residence a short distance away, one of her maiden guard greeting her as she entered.

"Is lord Jaefan well, he seemed... different this evening?" she asked, though the guard said she had heard nothing.

Kinna still worried as her handmaidens dressed her for bed, asking questions about Vior that she answered vaguely, knowing full well the reactions they'd have should the truth of the night come out. Ovinna stayed with her tonight, gently stroking her hair until she fell asleep, to dreams of Vior and his victory.