On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Forty-Two: No One of Consequence

                  She didn't stay to watch the matches. Usually, Lady Yuina Kimsura delivered her son to the sparring rooms as if she were a trembling apprentice bringing a prisoner's food. Retrieved him like she would a body- wordlessly, gravely, as quickly as she could without falling on her face. She said as little as possible. As little as she could.

But today demanded more.

Slippers lined with fur didn't belong on mats woven with sweat as well as rushes. But the second they met, they couldn't be parted. Her upper lip shunned her lower one.

Ten. Dai had promised he wouldn't pit him against anyone older than ten. Anyone but his peers, his tutors, his trainers, himself. But then again... a year ago, he'd promised Ryuu wouldn't be fighting at all.

They'd promised each other many things.

But she stood in the doorway, lips tight like her heart.

She didn't usually watch the matches. This time, she couldn't look away.

The floor was like a ballroom- orderly and practiced, but at the same time frenzied and chaotic and out of control. Limbs flailed in and out and everywhere all at once like a storm. Like a gods-given temper that carved fissures through the earth. Horrible. Beautiful. Deadly. She couldn't decide.

She'd seen Dai slice men in two with less precision.

And she'd seen eagles look at mice with more pity.

"Now," instructed her husband cooly, and the storm uprooted the tree.

The older boy fell, but did not hit the ground. Before Yuina's eyes closed, Ryuu had him twisted on his knees. Had his throat bared and his head up- a pose she'd seen in the Arena.

Jia.

Just as she'd warned, Dai had made another Jia.

"Yield," said her little boy, impassive and unsympathetic. He rolled his eyes when his opponent's flicked to his Circle General trainer.

Gōruden nodded.

Then, and only then, was he allowed to drop to the floor. With him went Ryuu's steeling. Fake. Falsified. Artificial just like hers- or so Yuina hoped.

They'd made a lot of promises.

Dai had broken nearly every one.

"Aavaa! What time was that, aav? Was it good? Was I good, aav? Was it-"

But her husband didn't smile, didn't budge. He watched Ryuu's enthusiasm melt into nothing. Cocked his head to the side when it disappeared.

"Did you note her coming in?" Dai asked as wide eyes latched onto Yuina, draining colour from his skin. "Did you sense her, Ryuu."

"...No."

"Then it wasn't good. If she was an enemy soldier..."

Shoulders sunk. "...I'd be dead."

Dai frowned and Yuina watched their son wither beneath his disapproval. She saw Dai shrink back that same way when she fed him that same medicine in a double dose.

One moment. Two passed without him saying something, challenging her, doing anything. On the third, he turned his back on both of them and crossed to Gōruden instead.

Hikarishi first. Generals first. Always.

"Come on, Ryuu."

"Did you see?"

She turned around, lifted a brow.

"Did you see that, makka?" he asked, tugging at the leather strip tangled in his hair.