Post by Tamari on Apr 9, 2013 7:27:57 GMT 10
Title: Through Her Eyes
Rating: G
Word Count: 522
Pairing: Kaddar/Kalasin
Round/Fight: 1/A
Summary: Ready or not, things are going to change for Kalasin. And soon. With the prompt "beginning."
Kally felt, as she was escorted to the rooms she’d be staying in for only a week, like she was woefully unprepared for what was to come. She wasn’t, of course. She had been preparing for this her whole life, giving up her dreams and her friends and everything she’d ever known just to secure an alliance already made.
She was maybe a touch bitter about it.
But she had put on a brave front, hadn’t she? She had kissed her brothers and sisters good-bye and curtsied to her parents. Most impressively of all she had gotten on the boat, and not run away to Tyra like Jasson had half-heartedly suggested. And that night she had met the blank-faced man she was to marry. He was attractive, certainly, but his utter lack of visible emotion disconcerted her. It was utterly alien.
Now she was walking through the corridors, struggling even in the late evening to keep from flushing abominably in the thick dry heat of a Carthaki summer. Whoever planned her trousseau had not taken the weather into account and she was boiling in her high-necked overdress. The servant -- not a slave, she had asked -- kept glancing back at her, probably wondering at her sluggish pace.
When she finally reached her rooms, she fell almost immediately into a deep, troubled sleep, haunted by images of gilded plates and a dark-eyed man. She was still groggy by the morning, when she was awoken by a lady-in-waiting, dressed, and taken outside to a courtyard. It only occurred to Kalasin after the lady had left to ask what she was supposed to be doing and where she was supposed to go.
“Your Highness?”
She spun to find Emperor Kaddar walking toward her, hands in his elegant breeches and face very blank. They exchanged the formal bows and curtsies required by Carthaki custom and Kally struggled to keep from panting as she stood. It was unbearably hot.
She forced a smile and sat down on a carved bench. Kaddar looked at her quizzically and she thought a fisherman’s curse. If only she’d glanced at the itinerary for today! Would it be bad manners to ask exactly what he expects me to do?
Kaddar answered without her prompting. “I had planned to take you to see one of Carthak’s largest museums today, if you are willing. Uh--” He lifted a hand, then dropped it.
Kally almost laughed at his confused look. It was adorable, much more than the blank facade he had adopted at every other occasion she’d seen so far.
“Of course. I would be honored.” Kally stood up and smoothed her too-heavy skirts. Then, shyly, she offered him a smile and was rewarded by the first one she had seen on his face.
More demurely than she ever would have thought herself capable of, she took his proffered arm and they walked through the gates together, out into the city that would someday belong to them.
But, Kally thought as she looked up through her eyelashes at Kaddar, who flashed a second smile back, perhaps that’s not such an abhorrent thought after all.
Rating: G
Word Count: 522
Pairing: Kaddar/Kalasin
Round/Fight: 1/A
Summary: Ready or not, things are going to change for Kalasin. And soon. With the prompt "beginning."
Kally felt, as she was escorted to the rooms she’d be staying in for only a week, like she was woefully unprepared for what was to come. She wasn’t, of course. She had been preparing for this her whole life, giving up her dreams and her friends and everything she’d ever known just to secure an alliance already made.
She was maybe a touch bitter about it.
But she had put on a brave front, hadn’t she? She had kissed her brothers and sisters good-bye and curtsied to her parents. Most impressively of all she had gotten on the boat, and not run away to Tyra like Jasson had half-heartedly suggested. And that night she had met the blank-faced man she was to marry. He was attractive, certainly, but his utter lack of visible emotion disconcerted her. It was utterly alien.
Now she was walking through the corridors, struggling even in the late evening to keep from flushing abominably in the thick dry heat of a Carthaki summer. Whoever planned her trousseau had not taken the weather into account and she was boiling in her high-necked overdress. The servant -- not a slave, she had asked -- kept glancing back at her, probably wondering at her sluggish pace.
When she finally reached her rooms, she fell almost immediately into a deep, troubled sleep, haunted by images of gilded plates and a dark-eyed man. She was still groggy by the morning, when she was awoken by a lady-in-waiting, dressed, and taken outside to a courtyard. It only occurred to Kalasin after the lady had left to ask what she was supposed to be doing and where she was supposed to go.
“Your Highness?”
She spun to find Emperor Kaddar walking toward her, hands in his elegant breeches and face very blank. They exchanged the formal bows and curtsies required by Carthaki custom and Kally struggled to keep from panting as she stood. It was unbearably hot.
She forced a smile and sat down on a carved bench. Kaddar looked at her quizzically and she thought a fisherman’s curse. If only she’d glanced at the itinerary for today! Would it be bad manners to ask exactly what he expects me to do?
Kaddar answered without her prompting. “I had planned to take you to see one of Carthak’s largest museums today, if you are willing. Uh--” He lifted a hand, then dropped it.
Kally almost laughed at his confused look. It was adorable, much more than the blank facade he had adopted at every other occasion she’d seen so far.
“Of course. I would be honored.” Kally stood up and smoothed her too-heavy skirts. Then, shyly, she offered him a smile and was rewarded by the first one she had seen on his face.
More demurely than she ever would have thought herself capable of, she took his proffered arm and they walked through the gates together, out into the city that would someday belong to them.
But, Kally thought as she looked up through her eyelashes at Kaddar, who flashed a second smile back, perhaps that’s not such an abhorrent thought after all.