Kairn, Sethan, & a sappy love song
Boysenberry #6. A Soft Place to Land with Hot Fudge
Story : knights & necromancers
Rating : PG
Timeframe : whole canon
Word Count : ~2.4k
My entry for the inappropriate theme songs challenge. Sethan & Kairn have this habit of picking up sappy songs. I blame you guys for that. So they were the obvious choice for this challenge. I feel like it got kind of off target a bit - it's definitely more disjointed than I'd intended - though hopefully it still worked, and right now really I'm just happy to be writing anything.
Bright Lights and Cityscapes - by Sara Bareilles, lyrics are included in the piece.
Hold my breath and I'll count to ten
I'm the paper and you're the pen
You fill me in and you are permanent
And you'll leave me to dry
“You’re not listening, are you?”
“Not listening to what?”
Kairn was flat on his belly in the grass, legs stretched out behind him. He peered over his shoulder at Sethan, who was crouched beside him, intently inking lines on one of his calves. “To anything I’ve had to say for the last five minutes,” said Kairn.
“Well, of course I haven’t.” Sethan shrugged and Kairn shot him a glare. “You’ve been talking about girls.”
“So it’s fine for you to use me for your little experiments, but you can’t even listen to my problems?”
“Now you’re getting it.”
Kairn glowered at Sethan in silence for a minute as he continued to add lines to his work. “Why do I let you do this to me?”
Sethan shrugged. “Beats me,” he said. “But it’s convenient, so I don’t question it.”
“What are you drawing anyway?”
“Camouflage.” Sethan looked up with a grin.
“That seems like a lot of trouble for-” Kairn stopped short as Sethan activated the sigil and his skin took on the mottled green of the grass around it. He rolled himself to a sitting position for a better look. The band of green continued on around his leg, covering it from knee to ankle. “You know, that might actually help me with my problem.”
Sethan frowned at him. “I know I’m no expert, but I fail to see what camouflage has to do with pursuing girls.”
“Not pursuing. Evading. Reida.”
“She’s chased off another one now?” He sounded more pleased about it than he should. Kairn tried to ignore it and focus on the grass patterns on his leg. He swore the image was moving with the breeze.
“It should change to match its surroundings,” Sethan said. He took Kairn’s leg by the ankle and swept it over a bare spot in the lawn. A patch of brown formed among the green.
“That’s quite a spell,” said Kairn. He frowned at the hand still curled around his leg. “It doesn’t solve my other problem though.”
“What’s that?”
“Most of the girls I’m interested in thinking I’m with you.”
“Well,” said Sethan, regarding him thoughtfully. “You are sitting here letting me draw forms on you all morning.”
“I forget,” said Kairn. “Why do I do that again?”
I'm the writer and she's the muse
And the one that you always choose
She will falter and gift her blame
And it starts all over again
Kairn looked from the paper that had been thrust beneath his nose to the face that loomed above it and back.
“Am I supposed to be recognizing something here?” He squinted at the mass of interlocking forms etched on the page.
“You mean you don’t?”
Kairn shook his head slowly, still eyeing the forms with some faint hope of making sense of them.
Sethan whisked the paper away with an exasperated sigh. “They’re energy transfer forms,” he said. “Ephram was right. You can move a soul from one body to another.”
“Until you get stuck and get your head lopped off,” Kairn muttered.
“He was missing one key set of lines though,” Sethan went on, ignoring him.
“And you’re so sure you’ve figured out what, in years of study, he couldn’t?”
Sethan tapped his temple. “Inspiration,” he said with a smirk.
Kairn sniffed.
“She has her uses.”
“You’re not planning on actually trying it, are you?”
“Not on myself. Not on you either,” he added, when it was clear he hadn’t dispelled Kairn’s concern. “I got some rats from Tarek to try it on. I thought you might want to come watch.”
“I thought we were going to the lake today?”
“The lake can wait.”
Kairn sighed. “All right, but it’s only waiting until tomorrow.”
She is bright lights and cityscapes
And white lies and cavalcades
From his vantage on the hill, Sethan focused on a single point amidst the chaos that engulfed the fort, where demon after demon tumbled to the ground. The magic rolled through him, an ever circling wave that roared up his spine and spilled from his fingers. It buzzed in his ears, set his vision swimming, and left every inch of his skin tingling, until it felt as if he must be not standing firmly on the ground as he knew he was, but floating, suspended in magic itself. It was exhilarating; the way the magic filled him and fled him, only to return again, the false sense that he could, if he chose, turn the whole army before him to dust. But every wave took its toll, and soon he was left on his hands and knees, his whole body shaking and buzzing and heaving for breath.
And she'll take all you ever have
But I'm gonna love you
You say maybe it'll last this time
But I'm gonna love you
Humming softly, Kairn rocked the baby close against his chest.
Shamino opened his tiny mouth in a wide, toothless yawn before settling back to study him quietly with those big blue eyes of his.
“I wonder sometimes,” Kairn murmured, “just what he would think of you.”
The boy just gurgled.
“This world has plans for you, you know,” he went on, in that sing-song tone babies somehow elicit. “Big, horrible plans. Your father has plans for you too, or you wouldn’t be here.”
Kairn shifted the baby in his arms with a sigh.
“I wish he could see you. So small and helpless. So beautiful. Who could look at you and not just fall in love?”
Shamino let out another great big yawn and nuzzled closer to him still, and Kairn gave him a gentle squeeze.
“Gods, how I hope he knows what he’s doing.”
You never have to ask
I'm gonna love you
'Til you start looking back
Back braced against the chimney, feet planted firmly among the roof tiles, and eyes trained on the street below, Sethan was growing stiff and tired of watch duty. His gaze kept drifting back to the second story window and Kairn’s kitchen.
There was a pot of soup on the stove, and Kairn kept coming back to stir it. Sethan’s stomach grumbled. He eyed the pair of places set at the battered kitchen table. There was easily room for a third.
He pictured himself knocking on the door, sitting down to dinner. What an awkward sort of family they’d make. He laughed to himself at the absurdity of such a thought. The last place he wanted to be was some dingy apartment with a kid to mind.
Kairn came in to stir the soup again, this time with Sham at his heels. With dinner tended to, he turned and scooped the boy into his arms and twirled him about the room while they both laughed.
Sethan turned back to the empty street outside their door with a scowl. Spying on the two of them was a job he’d be happy to let Reida keep.
I'm gonna love you
So right, I wouldn't need a second chance
Sethan stepped into the lab and did a double take. The floor and walls were clean - or at least as clean as one could expect to get them; some of the remnants of previous experiments were clearly permanent. The vials and flasks of various colorful substances that typically littered the tables were neatly lined up on the shelves. The assortment of notes had been swept into neat stacks. And most notably, Kairn was bent over a table, a wet rag in hand, scrubbing the last bit of pink goo from a crack in its surface.
“You know,” said Kairn, not looking up, “between the two of you, I’m not sure how you’ve managed not to burn the place down yet. I’m never sure which is the worse slob, you or Reida.”
“Without question, Reida,” said Sethan, crossing his arms defensively.
Kairn laughed as he righted himself and stepped back to admire his work. “Almost like I never left. So,” he turned to Sethan, “now that we’ve got room, what are we working on today?”
Sethan quirked a brow. “You’ll be staying, then?”
Kairn nodded, though his eyes took on that sad, distant look they always had when someone mentioned the boy and his hands tightened around the cloth he was still holding. “Sham’s safe with Lyssa for the moment. You’re the one that needs me right now.”
Shield your eyes from the truth at hand
Tell me why it'll be good again
All those demons are closing in
And I don't want you to burn
The walls were plastered, floor to ceiling, in haphazard notes and sketches, enough sheets and scraps of paper tacked to every accessible surface to fill a book or two. Sethan sat, hunched over the desk, which had been pulled from the wall out into the room to make more space for the flood of notes, and he scrawled still more forms onto even more bits of paper at a fevered pace.
Kairn lingered in the doorway, debating drawing a few sleep inducing spells on the sandwich in his hand before giving it to Sethan. Deciding that doing so would lead to the future snubbing of his offers, he set the plate down at the corner of the desk and a steaming mug beside it.
Sethan didn’t so much as blink, so Kairn cleared his throat.
Still drawing with one hand, Sethan absently retrieved the sandwich with the other.
Kairn peered over his shoulder. Heavily intertwined sigils of all the elements filled the pages, scratched out here and there and redrawn again and again with the slightest of variations.
“What are you working on?”
“Lungs.” Sethan still didn’t look up.
“Is she…?” Kairn circled the desk angling for a glimpse of Sethan’s face as if he’d be able to read the answer in his expression.
“No.” Sethan dodged his gaze.
“Then get some rest.” He plucked the pen out of Sethan’s grasp.
Unperturbed, Sethan simply slid the sheet he’d been working on from the desk and made his way to the wall. “I will,” he said, pulling the pin from one of the pages tacked to the wall. It fluttered to the floor among the other discarded pieces, and he put the new one in its place. “When I get this to work.”
Nevermind what I said before
I don't want any less anymore
You are carbon and I am flame
I will rise and you will remain
Arms folded across his chest, Kairn leveled a glare at Sethan. “You could say something to him.”
“I’ve explained the procedure,” said Sethan, pacing the temple’s perimeter. “It’s not as if his part in things is particularly elaborate.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Kairn snapped.
“And what would you have me say?”
“Something that shows you give a damn.”
Sethan stopped short, opening his mouth to protest, but Kairn cut him off.
“About him.”
Sethan turned away with a shrug and Kairn hurried after him.
“You know, I’ve never spoken ill of you to Sham.”
Sethan said nothing, just kept walking towards the door.
“Not once. No matter how much I wanted to. I figured if he ever met you he could decide for himself what to think.” He reached past Sethan, grabbing the door before he could, blocking him from entering the temple. “Just…give him a chance, will you?”
For bright lights and cityscapes
And landslides and masquerades
The green glow faded from the lines on the floor and the roar quieted to a hum and then to silence. The three of them held their breath as the construct began to take hers. Kairn looked at Sham and Sham looked at Kairn and, their well-being confirmed, they both looked at Sethan. There was a light in his eyes as the doll opened hers, one that Kairn hadn’t seen in years and a broad grin split his lips.
Cheva lifted one delicate pink hand and slowly splayed its thin fingers before her face, and Sethan let out a laugh that sent a chill down Kairn’s spine.
And she'll take all you ever have
But I'm gonna love you
You say, "Maybe it'll last this time"
But I'm gonna love you
If the way Sethan swept into the room wasn’t enough to get Reida’s attention, the nervous look he gave the door as he pressed it shut behind him was.
“You have another body, don’t you?” he said, a harried look still in his eyes. “Another two or three even. You’ve been hedging your bets from the start.”
Reida rocked back in her chair and sniffed. “I bet you’re wishing you were half so practical now, aren’t you?”
Sethan glared at her.
She propped her feet on the table’s edge, making as much of a show of taking his intrusion casually as she could, reveling in his growing agitation. “I have to say, I’m surprised that you’re the one that came around first, though.” “I always thought it would be Tristan, what with that ridiculous sense of honor he has. Just as well. I never was terribly fond of earth magic.”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
Reida shrugged. “What’s in it for me? Do I get to keep her?”
“Yes.” Sethan snapped. “You can do whatever you want with her. Just get her out of me.”
“And what about your girlfriend?” When Sethan flinched at that, it was all Reida could do not to jump out of her seat. Something was clearly wrong. “Will she be tagging along with us?” she finished smoothly instead.
“Kairn’s…” He eyed the door again. “He left. He doesn’t have anything to say about what I do anymore.”
You never have to ask
I'm gonna love you
'Til you start looking back
“Kairn!” Sethan yelled over the edge of the crater.
His voice reverberated off the rubble below and the cliffs beyond.
Tristan caught him by the arm. “Seth,” he said, solemnly. “No one could survive that.”
“How many people said the same of you?” He jerked his arm free and started down the slope.
“I’m telling you, Seth. You’re not going to find him down there.”
Ignoring him, Sethan pressed on, picking his way as quickly as he could over the broken ground.
“He’s right.”
Both men spun round, Sethan scrabbling to keep a foothold, as Kairn came striding into view from the empty plain behind them.
I wouldn't need a second chance
Sethan gave the cottage door a couple of short, swift raps with his knuckles and held his breath as he ran silently through lines once again in his head.
It was a woman with long red braids that answered. As the door swung open and she took him in, her eyes narrowed and every carefully crafted phrase left him, and he considered, if only for the briefest of moments, turning away.
“Is Kairn here?” he asked.
The words hung in the air as she studied him thoughtfully, still without a word. The hands braced against the doorframe, barring passage spoke well enough.
“Lyssa?” came a voice from inside. It was soon followed by the appearance of the boy, who stopped short as he spied him as well.
“Shamino.” It was like looking into a mirror and twenty years back.
The boy regarded him with the same critical silence over the woman’s shoulder for a moment. “Uncle Kairn’s out back,” he said, with a nod towards the yard, and as Sethan began to open his mouth, uncertain how to respond, he added, “You should come inside. I’ll go get him.”
The woman shot him a glare, but the boy met it with a pleading look and reluctantly, she stepped back from the door.
Sethan muttered a stiff “thank you,” nearly too softly to be heard, as he followed them inside.
Story : knights & necromancers
Rating : PG
Timeframe : whole canon
Word Count : ~2.4k
My entry for the inappropriate theme songs challenge. Sethan & Kairn have this habit of picking up sappy songs. I blame you guys for that. So they were the obvious choice for this challenge. I feel like it got kind of off target a bit - it's definitely more disjointed than I'd intended - though hopefully it still worked, and right now really I'm just happy to be writing anything.
Bright Lights and Cityscapes - by Sara Bareilles, lyrics are included in the piece.
Hold my breath and I'll count to ten
I'm the paper and you're the pen
You fill me in and you are permanent
And you'll leave me to dry
“You’re not listening, are you?”
“Not listening to what?”
Kairn was flat on his belly in the grass, legs stretched out behind him. He peered over his shoulder at Sethan, who was crouched beside him, intently inking lines on one of his calves. “To anything I’ve had to say for the last five minutes,” said Kairn.
“Well, of course I haven’t.” Sethan shrugged and Kairn shot him a glare. “You’ve been talking about girls.”
“So it’s fine for you to use me for your little experiments, but you can’t even listen to my problems?”
“Now you’re getting it.”
Kairn glowered at Sethan in silence for a minute as he continued to add lines to his work. “Why do I let you do this to me?”
Sethan shrugged. “Beats me,” he said. “But it’s convenient, so I don’t question it.”
“What are you drawing anyway?”
“Camouflage.” Sethan looked up with a grin.
“That seems like a lot of trouble for-” Kairn stopped short as Sethan activated the sigil and his skin took on the mottled green of the grass around it. He rolled himself to a sitting position for a better look. The band of green continued on around his leg, covering it from knee to ankle. “You know, that might actually help me with my problem.”
Sethan frowned at him. “I know I’m no expert, but I fail to see what camouflage has to do with pursuing girls.”
“Not pursuing. Evading. Reida.”
“She’s chased off another one now?” He sounded more pleased about it than he should. Kairn tried to ignore it and focus on the grass patterns on his leg. He swore the image was moving with the breeze.
“It should change to match its surroundings,” Sethan said. He took Kairn’s leg by the ankle and swept it over a bare spot in the lawn. A patch of brown formed among the green.
“That’s quite a spell,” said Kairn. He frowned at the hand still curled around his leg. “It doesn’t solve my other problem though.”
“What’s that?”
“Most of the girls I’m interested in thinking I’m with you.”
“Well,” said Sethan, regarding him thoughtfully. “You are sitting here letting me draw forms on you all morning.”
“I forget,” said Kairn. “Why do I do that again?”
I'm the writer and she's the muse
And the one that you always choose
She will falter and gift her blame
And it starts all over again
Kairn looked from the paper that had been thrust beneath his nose to the face that loomed above it and back.
“Am I supposed to be recognizing something here?” He squinted at the mass of interlocking forms etched on the page.
“You mean you don’t?”
Kairn shook his head slowly, still eyeing the forms with some faint hope of making sense of them.
Sethan whisked the paper away with an exasperated sigh. “They’re energy transfer forms,” he said. “Ephram was right. You can move a soul from one body to another.”
“Until you get stuck and get your head lopped off,” Kairn muttered.
“He was missing one key set of lines though,” Sethan went on, ignoring him.
“And you’re so sure you’ve figured out what, in years of study, he couldn’t?”
Sethan tapped his temple. “Inspiration,” he said with a smirk.
Kairn sniffed.
“She has her uses.”
“You’re not planning on actually trying it, are you?”
“Not on myself. Not on you either,” he added, when it was clear he hadn’t dispelled Kairn’s concern. “I got some rats from Tarek to try it on. I thought you might want to come watch.”
“I thought we were going to the lake today?”
“The lake can wait.”
Kairn sighed. “All right, but it’s only waiting until tomorrow.”
She is bright lights and cityscapes
And white lies and cavalcades
From his vantage on the hill, Sethan focused on a single point amidst the chaos that engulfed the fort, where demon after demon tumbled to the ground. The magic rolled through him, an ever circling wave that roared up his spine and spilled from his fingers. It buzzed in his ears, set his vision swimming, and left every inch of his skin tingling, until it felt as if he must be not standing firmly on the ground as he knew he was, but floating, suspended in magic itself. It was exhilarating; the way the magic filled him and fled him, only to return again, the false sense that he could, if he chose, turn the whole army before him to dust. But every wave took its toll, and soon he was left on his hands and knees, his whole body shaking and buzzing and heaving for breath.
And she'll take all you ever have
But I'm gonna love you
You say maybe it'll last this time
But I'm gonna love you
Humming softly, Kairn rocked the baby close against his chest.
Shamino opened his tiny mouth in a wide, toothless yawn before settling back to study him quietly with those big blue eyes of his.
“I wonder sometimes,” Kairn murmured, “just what he would think of you.”
The boy just gurgled.
“This world has plans for you, you know,” he went on, in that sing-song tone babies somehow elicit. “Big, horrible plans. Your father has plans for you too, or you wouldn’t be here.”
Kairn shifted the baby in his arms with a sigh.
“I wish he could see you. So small and helpless. So beautiful. Who could look at you and not just fall in love?”
Shamino let out another great big yawn and nuzzled closer to him still, and Kairn gave him a gentle squeeze.
“Gods, how I hope he knows what he’s doing.”
You never have to ask
I'm gonna love you
'Til you start looking back
Back braced against the chimney, feet planted firmly among the roof tiles, and eyes trained on the street below, Sethan was growing stiff and tired of watch duty. His gaze kept drifting back to the second story window and Kairn’s kitchen.
There was a pot of soup on the stove, and Kairn kept coming back to stir it. Sethan’s stomach grumbled. He eyed the pair of places set at the battered kitchen table. There was easily room for a third.
He pictured himself knocking on the door, sitting down to dinner. What an awkward sort of family they’d make. He laughed to himself at the absurdity of such a thought. The last place he wanted to be was some dingy apartment with a kid to mind.
Kairn came in to stir the soup again, this time with Sham at his heels. With dinner tended to, he turned and scooped the boy into his arms and twirled him about the room while they both laughed.
Sethan turned back to the empty street outside their door with a scowl. Spying on the two of them was a job he’d be happy to let Reida keep.
I'm gonna love you
So right, I wouldn't need a second chance
Sethan stepped into the lab and did a double take. The floor and walls were clean - or at least as clean as one could expect to get them; some of the remnants of previous experiments were clearly permanent. The vials and flasks of various colorful substances that typically littered the tables were neatly lined up on the shelves. The assortment of notes had been swept into neat stacks. And most notably, Kairn was bent over a table, a wet rag in hand, scrubbing the last bit of pink goo from a crack in its surface.
“You know,” said Kairn, not looking up, “between the two of you, I’m not sure how you’ve managed not to burn the place down yet. I’m never sure which is the worse slob, you or Reida.”
“Without question, Reida,” said Sethan, crossing his arms defensively.
Kairn laughed as he righted himself and stepped back to admire his work. “Almost like I never left. So,” he turned to Sethan, “now that we’ve got room, what are we working on today?”
Sethan quirked a brow. “You’ll be staying, then?”
Kairn nodded, though his eyes took on that sad, distant look they always had when someone mentioned the boy and his hands tightened around the cloth he was still holding. “Sham’s safe with Lyssa for the moment. You’re the one that needs me right now.”
Shield your eyes from the truth at hand
Tell me why it'll be good again
All those demons are closing in
And I don't want you to burn
The walls were plastered, floor to ceiling, in haphazard notes and sketches, enough sheets and scraps of paper tacked to every accessible surface to fill a book or two. Sethan sat, hunched over the desk, which had been pulled from the wall out into the room to make more space for the flood of notes, and he scrawled still more forms onto even more bits of paper at a fevered pace.
Kairn lingered in the doorway, debating drawing a few sleep inducing spells on the sandwich in his hand before giving it to Sethan. Deciding that doing so would lead to the future snubbing of his offers, he set the plate down at the corner of the desk and a steaming mug beside it.
Sethan didn’t so much as blink, so Kairn cleared his throat.
Still drawing with one hand, Sethan absently retrieved the sandwich with the other.
Kairn peered over his shoulder. Heavily intertwined sigils of all the elements filled the pages, scratched out here and there and redrawn again and again with the slightest of variations.
“What are you working on?”
“Lungs.” Sethan still didn’t look up.
“Is she…?” Kairn circled the desk angling for a glimpse of Sethan’s face as if he’d be able to read the answer in his expression.
“No.” Sethan dodged his gaze.
“Then get some rest.” He plucked the pen out of Sethan’s grasp.
Unperturbed, Sethan simply slid the sheet he’d been working on from the desk and made his way to the wall. “I will,” he said, pulling the pin from one of the pages tacked to the wall. It fluttered to the floor among the other discarded pieces, and he put the new one in its place. “When I get this to work.”
Nevermind what I said before
I don't want any less anymore
You are carbon and I am flame
I will rise and you will remain
Arms folded across his chest, Kairn leveled a glare at Sethan. “You could say something to him.”
“I’ve explained the procedure,” said Sethan, pacing the temple’s perimeter. “It’s not as if his part in things is particularly elaborate.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Kairn snapped.
“And what would you have me say?”
“Something that shows you give a damn.”
Sethan stopped short, opening his mouth to protest, but Kairn cut him off.
“About him.”
Sethan turned away with a shrug and Kairn hurried after him.
“You know, I’ve never spoken ill of you to Sham.”
Sethan said nothing, just kept walking towards the door.
“Not once. No matter how much I wanted to. I figured if he ever met you he could decide for himself what to think.” He reached past Sethan, grabbing the door before he could, blocking him from entering the temple. “Just…give him a chance, will you?”
For bright lights and cityscapes
And landslides and masquerades
The green glow faded from the lines on the floor and the roar quieted to a hum and then to silence. The three of them held their breath as the construct began to take hers. Kairn looked at Sham and Sham looked at Kairn and, their well-being confirmed, they both looked at Sethan. There was a light in his eyes as the doll opened hers, one that Kairn hadn’t seen in years and a broad grin split his lips.
Cheva lifted one delicate pink hand and slowly splayed its thin fingers before her face, and Sethan let out a laugh that sent a chill down Kairn’s spine.
And she'll take all you ever have
But I'm gonna love you
You say, "Maybe it'll last this time"
But I'm gonna love you
If the way Sethan swept into the room wasn’t enough to get Reida’s attention, the nervous look he gave the door as he pressed it shut behind him was.
“You have another body, don’t you?” he said, a harried look still in his eyes. “Another two or three even. You’ve been hedging your bets from the start.”
Reida rocked back in her chair and sniffed. “I bet you’re wishing you were half so practical now, aren’t you?”
Sethan glared at her.
She propped her feet on the table’s edge, making as much of a show of taking his intrusion casually as she could, reveling in his growing agitation. “I have to say, I’m surprised that you’re the one that came around first, though.” “I always thought it would be Tristan, what with that ridiculous sense of honor he has. Just as well. I never was terribly fond of earth magic.”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
Reida shrugged. “What’s in it for me? Do I get to keep her?”
“Yes.” Sethan snapped. “You can do whatever you want with her. Just get her out of me.”
“And what about your girlfriend?” When Sethan flinched at that, it was all Reida could do not to jump out of her seat. Something was clearly wrong. “Will she be tagging along with us?” she finished smoothly instead.
“Kairn’s…” He eyed the door again. “He left. He doesn’t have anything to say about what I do anymore.”
You never have to ask
I'm gonna love you
'Til you start looking back
“Kairn!” Sethan yelled over the edge of the crater.
His voice reverberated off the rubble below and the cliffs beyond.
Tristan caught him by the arm. “Seth,” he said, solemnly. “No one could survive that.”
“How many people said the same of you?” He jerked his arm free and started down the slope.
“I’m telling you, Seth. You’re not going to find him down there.”
Ignoring him, Sethan pressed on, picking his way as quickly as he could over the broken ground.
“He’s right.”
Both men spun round, Sethan scrabbling to keep a foothold, as Kairn came striding into view from the empty plain behind them.
I wouldn't need a second chance
Sethan gave the cottage door a couple of short, swift raps with his knuckles and held his breath as he ran silently through lines once again in his head.
It was a woman with long red braids that answered. As the door swung open and she took him in, her eyes narrowed and every carefully crafted phrase left him, and he considered, if only for the briefest of moments, turning away.
“Is Kairn here?” he asked.
The words hung in the air as she studied him thoughtfully, still without a word. The hands braced against the doorframe, barring passage spoke well enough.
“Lyssa?” came a voice from inside. It was soon followed by the appearance of the boy, who stopped short as he spied him as well.
“Shamino.” It was like looking into a mirror and twenty years back.
The boy regarded him with the same critical silence over the woman’s shoulder for a moment. “Uncle Kairn’s out back,” he said, with a nod towards the yard, and as Sethan began to open his mouth, uncertain how to respond, he added, “You should come inside. I’ll go get him.”
The woman shot him a glare, but the boy met it with a pleading look and reluctantly, she stepped back from the door.
Sethan muttered a stiff “thank you,” nearly too softly to be heard, as he followed them inside.