Post by rainstormamaya on Feb 16, 2010 7:15:15 GMT 10
Title: Old Promises
Rating: G
Length: 398 words
Competitor: Vania
Round/Fight: 1/F
Summary: The promises Nia makes Kally; the promises Nia remembers; the promises Vania fulfils.
*****
When Vania is really little she catches her beautiful big sister watching the pages with her white teeth firmly fastened in her bottom lip and something like longing in her eyes. Vania tugs on her sister’s skirt. “Nia up,” she demands, and Kally leans down and picks her up, balancing her sister’s solid weight on one hip.
“Kally wotsit?” Vania asks after a moment, when Kally doesn’t look noticeably cheered by her presence, as she absolutely should be.
Kally sighs, and points at one of the pages; one of the tallest, with brown hair cut to neat earlobes, and a steady, calm demeanour. “Nia, do you see that page?”
“Nia sees,” Vania agrees. “Nia sees Page Kel. Auntie Lanna cross. Servants happy. Servants like Page Kel.”
Kally directs her sister a startled look, and chooses not to ask why Vania knows about the argument between their father and their Aunt Alanna over Page Keladry, or the servants’ views on said page. “Good Nia. Well, when I was little- like you!-“ she tickles Vania, who giggles and clutches her- “I wanted to be like Page Keladry.”
“Oh,” Vania says, and falls silent, thumb popping into her mouth.
An idea occurs to Kally. “When you’re all grown-up and I’m in Carthak, Nia-“
“Kally not go!” Vania bawls, and clings, vice-like, to Kally. This is a common reaction to any discussion of Kally’s eventual departure.
“-when I’m in Carthak,” Kally repeats, “I’m sorry, sweetie, but it will happen- will you look after Page Keladry for me? She’ll be a knight by then but she’ll still need help.”
“Nia will,” Vania promises. Kally doesn’t think very much of it, but Nia does.
Fifteen years later, there is a knock on Lady Knight Keladry’s door, and Kel gets up and hobbles to it, where she finds Princess Vania, carrying a tray of food in her hands, three volumes of Emry of Haryse’s memoirs trapped under one arm, a jar of soothing balm in her pocket, and an unshakably cheerful expression on her face.
“My sister said you’d need help,” Vania explains, and Kel is so thankful that someone was thinking of her in the semi-deserted capital with this cursed painful ripped muscle that she doesn’t ask what Princess Lianne has to do with anything.
She doesn’t even remember Princess Kalasin, and while Vania is smiling at her, she does not need to.
Rating: G
Length: 398 words
Competitor: Vania
Round/Fight: 1/F
Summary: The promises Nia makes Kally; the promises Nia remembers; the promises Vania fulfils.
*****
When Vania is really little she catches her beautiful big sister watching the pages with her white teeth firmly fastened in her bottom lip and something like longing in her eyes. Vania tugs on her sister’s skirt. “Nia up,” she demands, and Kally leans down and picks her up, balancing her sister’s solid weight on one hip.
“Kally wotsit?” Vania asks after a moment, when Kally doesn’t look noticeably cheered by her presence, as she absolutely should be.
Kally sighs, and points at one of the pages; one of the tallest, with brown hair cut to neat earlobes, and a steady, calm demeanour. “Nia, do you see that page?”
“Nia sees,” Vania agrees. “Nia sees Page Kel. Auntie Lanna cross. Servants happy. Servants like Page Kel.”
Kally directs her sister a startled look, and chooses not to ask why Vania knows about the argument between their father and their Aunt Alanna over Page Keladry, or the servants’ views on said page. “Good Nia. Well, when I was little- like you!-“ she tickles Vania, who giggles and clutches her- “I wanted to be like Page Keladry.”
“Oh,” Vania says, and falls silent, thumb popping into her mouth.
An idea occurs to Kally. “When you’re all grown-up and I’m in Carthak, Nia-“
“Kally not go!” Vania bawls, and clings, vice-like, to Kally. This is a common reaction to any discussion of Kally’s eventual departure.
“-when I’m in Carthak,” Kally repeats, “I’m sorry, sweetie, but it will happen- will you look after Page Keladry for me? She’ll be a knight by then but she’ll still need help.”
“Nia will,” Vania promises. Kally doesn’t think very much of it, but Nia does.
***
Fifteen years later, there is a knock on Lady Knight Keladry’s door, and Kel gets up and hobbles to it, where she finds Princess Vania, carrying a tray of food in her hands, three volumes of Emry of Haryse’s memoirs trapped under one arm, a jar of soothing balm in her pocket, and an unshakably cheerful expression on her face.
“My sister said you’d need help,” Vania explains, and Kel is so thankful that someone was thinking of her in the semi-deserted capital with this cursed painful ripped muscle that she doesn’t ask what Princess Lianne has to do with anything.
She doesn’t even remember Princess Kalasin, and while Vania is smiling at her, she does not need to.