For Tamari, Siblings Stay the Same, G
Feb 25, 2017 13:05:27 GMT 10
Tamari, Idleness, and 1 more like this
Post by Rachy on Feb 25, 2017 13:05:27 GMT 10
Title: Siblings Stay the Same
Rating: G
For: Tamari
Prompt: #2: The Conte Kids
Word Count: ~ 1300
Summary and any Warnings: No matter what age, siblings stay the same.
I hope you enjoy, Tamari, and I apologise for posting so late!
The room was empty of all of things that had made it his space. His books were gone, the scarf Aunt Cythera had knit was folded on the trunk of winter clothes, and the small sketches and carvings scattered around the room were gone, and the room overall had become an uninhabited space, visited only for dusting.
“Don’t you want to have something to come home to?” Liam asks, turning up to his older brother with a frown. “All of your books, why can’t you come and get one when you want to read it, why take them all?”
“Just tell me which one you were looking to borrow, and I’ll send it back.” Roald replies, with a nudge that was almost teasing.
“No, but you live here. This is your room, and your home, and you’ve taken everything.”
“I’ll have a new room. And then, when I become a squire, a new room, and then, when I’m a knight, a new room again. This was my room, and I’ll stay here when I come back for the summer, but I won’t live here again. You didn’t want to stay in the nursery forever, did you?” Roald said, and laid a hand on his shoulder. Liam pouted, but didn’t shrug him off.
“Everyone else is going to be bringing all of their things with them. Their whole lives. Everything that’s special. And I live in the Palace all of the time. And if I leave my books, and come back for them, or if I come back for Papa’s birthday luncheon, or go riding with the girls, if I do any of that when it’s not my free day, I’ll be treated as special. And I don’t want to be treated special just because I’m the Prince. I want to be the same.
“So you’ll take everything with you, and leave everything else behind.”
“I’ll still be here when you need me. And you might not like it now, but when you start page training, you may find yourself doing the same thing.”
And when Roald woke up the next morning, and found his room with his siblings sleeping in awkward positions around him, he swallowed and blinked and reminded himself that change was a good thing, and they would still be here when he got back.
*
“Don’t you feel like it’s odd, me leaving?” Jasson asked, leaning with his hands resting atop his bow.
“No.” Lianne replied shortly, loosing an arrow into the target. Jasson’s face scrunched, and he scowled, reaching for another arrow and reloading his bow.
“I think it feels odd.” He focused his attention on the next target, a small strip of fabric, and loosed.
“You think everything feels odd, you whinge. It’s disguising the fact that you are trying to distract me because you can’t accept that I am the superior archer amongst the two of us.”
“Superior archers don’t get distracted,” he replied loftily as her shot hit the target, and he smirked to see that at this distance, his shot looked better. “And you are just asking for Mama and Aunt Buri to take you to task.”
“Better me than you being taken to task for your poor sportsmanship. Let me have archery, and we can be equal in our horsemanship, and you can have everything else.” She fires the first of three shots at the final target, and Jasson watches with heavily hidden pride.
“How chivalrous.” He mocks, and huffs a sigh of disbelief when her third shot hits. He loads his own bow and starts to aim.
“We’re all flying the nest, and you’re flapping your wings the least. I have my Rider Group, and Vania has hers, and we’ve been, to continue the allusion, jumping out of the nest more frequently. Like you did as a page. The barracks are easier than another wing of the palace, and I hate sending a runner to Mama and Papa. You’ve gotten comfortable, since you’ve been back.” Lianne’s head shakes as she speaks, and they watch his first arrow sink comfortably into the target, but without the precision of her shot.
“I flapped my wings plenty. I went to Steadfast, I travelled when I was a squire. I’ve flown out.” He misfires and winces as the arrow shoots wide.
“Not since your leg. You came home, and you had your Ordeal, and you’ve stayed. It’s a good posting, Jasson. You need to be free of us.” She pauses, and his third arrow flies as true as her own. “Don’t even make a joke right now, Jasson, I’m being sincere.”
“I won’t be free of Papa as the Voice.” He says softly, and they start the long walk to the targets.
“No. But you will like joining the Bazhir tribes more than you would like going back to Court life. Understanding, rather than questioning.”
“Yes, understanding, rather than questioning, that at the first target, I won.”
“It’s overall that counts.” Lianne glowered.
*
“Rivalry extends to letters, these days.” She taps her finger against the letter, and raises her eyebrows at her youngest sister. “Lianne says that your Rider Group lost with a great lack of skill and finesse without you. And that she had heard from Liam after my last letter.”
“She’s just jealous she wasn’t whisked away to Carthak to visit her dearest sister.” Vania smiles, and takes a sip of her drink.
“It was an open invitation, and you came for my son.” Kalasin lays the letter down, and Vania grabs it with greed.
“And I was romantically whisked away here by my husband. Sister, dearest nephew, there’s little difference.” She waves her hand vaguely, but her eyes are sharp as she devours Lianne’s words.
“Roald won’t say if he’s worried about Liano and her page training. I prodded, but he’s being a pain.” Kally watches her sister closely, and Vania is too busy reading the letter, despite the fact that she has her own letter from Lianne sitting on the table beside her.
“She writes differently to you than to me. She talks about all of the Rider stuff to you, and your letters are longer.”
“Don’t be jealous, Vania. She won’t write about things you know like the back of your hand, and she won’t write when she can speak to you, or write and know her letter will be with you with the next rider.
“Maybe. And maybe Roald isn’t talking to you as a brother to sister, but Prince to Empress about heir and heir.” There is a flippancy to Vania’s words, rather than any harshness, but Kalasin still flinches.
“I won’t forgive you for adding more to my worry.” Kalasin replies cooly, a harsh twist on her face.
“Everyone is fine. Really. Liano is just anxious, and so Roald, being already anxious, is now anxious about her anxiousness, and Shinko is not anxious and calm.”
“I just miss him, most of all, sometimes. It varies on the day, you see. I won’t miss you for a while, because I’ve seen you, and you’ll have been here long enough by your leaving that I’ll be glad you have left –“ Kalasin says, straight faced.
“I won’t forgive you for that now.” Vania frowns.
“You’re easiest to live vicariously through, so I’ll look to your letters to hear about the others, and how Jasson is, and Liam, and Mama and Papa, and you’ll let slip all of the things that they may not share.”
“I know you could visit, Kally. I know you could. Even Kaddar or Binur could.” Vania replies earnestly, all facetiousness lost.
“I know. Some things are easier not to do. And it’s not as though we could all be in the Palace again, all be children again.” Kally sighed. “I just miss a bit how things used to be.”
Rating: G
For: Tamari
Prompt: #2: The Conte Kids
Word Count: ~ 1300
Summary and any Warnings: No matter what age, siblings stay the same.
I hope you enjoy, Tamari, and I apologise for posting so late!
The room was empty of all of things that had made it his space. His books were gone, the scarf Aunt Cythera had knit was folded on the trunk of winter clothes, and the small sketches and carvings scattered around the room were gone, and the room overall had become an uninhabited space, visited only for dusting.
“Don’t you want to have something to come home to?” Liam asks, turning up to his older brother with a frown. “All of your books, why can’t you come and get one when you want to read it, why take them all?”
“Just tell me which one you were looking to borrow, and I’ll send it back.” Roald replies, with a nudge that was almost teasing.
“No, but you live here. This is your room, and your home, and you’ve taken everything.”
“I’ll have a new room. And then, when I become a squire, a new room, and then, when I’m a knight, a new room again. This was my room, and I’ll stay here when I come back for the summer, but I won’t live here again. You didn’t want to stay in the nursery forever, did you?” Roald said, and laid a hand on his shoulder. Liam pouted, but didn’t shrug him off.
“Everyone else is going to be bringing all of their things with them. Their whole lives. Everything that’s special. And I live in the Palace all of the time. And if I leave my books, and come back for them, or if I come back for Papa’s birthday luncheon, or go riding with the girls, if I do any of that when it’s not my free day, I’ll be treated as special. And I don’t want to be treated special just because I’m the Prince. I want to be the same.
“So you’ll take everything with you, and leave everything else behind.”
“I’ll still be here when you need me. And you might not like it now, but when you start page training, you may find yourself doing the same thing.”
And when Roald woke up the next morning, and found his room with his siblings sleeping in awkward positions around him, he swallowed and blinked and reminded himself that change was a good thing, and they would still be here when he got back.
*
“Don’t you feel like it’s odd, me leaving?” Jasson asked, leaning with his hands resting atop his bow.
“No.” Lianne replied shortly, loosing an arrow into the target. Jasson’s face scrunched, and he scowled, reaching for another arrow and reloading his bow.
“I think it feels odd.” He focused his attention on the next target, a small strip of fabric, and loosed.
“You think everything feels odd, you whinge. It’s disguising the fact that you are trying to distract me because you can’t accept that I am the superior archer amongst the two of us.”
“Superior archers don’t get distracted,” he replied loftily as her shot hit the target, and he smirked to see that at this distance, his shot looked better. “And you are just asking for Mama and Aunt Buri to take you to task.”
“Better me than you being taken to task for your poor sportsmanship. Let me have archery, and we can be equal in our horsemanship, and you can have everything else.” She fires the first of three shots at the final target, and Jasson watches with heavily hidden pride.
“How chivalrous.” He mocks, and huffs a sigh of disbelief when her third shot hits. He loads his own bow and starts to aim.
“We’re all flying the nest, and you’re flapping your wings the least. I have my Rider Group, and Vania has hers, and we’ve been, to continue the allusion, jumping out of the nest more frequently. Like you did as a page. The barracks are easier than another wing of the palace, and I hate sending a runner to Mama and Papa. You’ve gotten comfortable, since you’ve been back.” Lianne’s head shakes as she speaks, and they watch his first arrow sink comfortably into the target, but without the precision of her shot.
“I flapped my wings plenty. I went to Steadfast, I travelled when I was a squire. I’ve flown out.” He misfires and winces as the arrow shoots wide.
“Not since your leg. You came home, and you had your Ordeal, and you’ve stayed. It’s a good posting, Jasson. You need to be free of us.” She pauses, and his third arrow flies as true as her own. “Don’t even make a joke right now, Jasson, I’m being sincere.”
“I won’t be free of Papa as the Voice.” He says softly, and they start the long walk to the targets.
“No. But you will like joining the Bazhir tribes more than you would like going back to Court life. Understanding, rather than questioning.”
“Yes, understanding, rather than questioning, that at the first target, I won.”
“It’s overall that counts.” Lianne glowered.
*
“Rivalry extends to letters, these days.” She taps her finger against the letter, and raises her eyebrows at her youngest sister. “Lianne says that your Rider Group lost with a great lack of skill and finesse without you. And that she had heard from Liam after my last letter.”
“She’s just jealous she wasn’t whisked away to Carthak to visit her dearest sister.” Vania smiles, and takes a sip of her drink.
“It was an open invitation, and you came for my son.” Kalasin lays the letter down, and Vania grabs it with greed.
“And I was romantically whisked away here by my husband. Sister, dearest nephew, there’s little difference.” She waves her hand vaguely, but her eyes are sharp as she devours Lianne’s words.
“Roald won’t say if he’s worried about Liano and her page training. I prodded, but he’s being a pain.” Kally watches her sister closely, and Vania is too busy reading the letter, despite the fact that she has her own letter from Lianne sitting on the table beside her.
“She writes differently to you than to me. She talks about all of the Rider stuff to you, and your letters are longer.”
“Don’t be jealous, Vania. She won’t write about things you know like the back of your hand, and she won’t write when she can speak to you, or write and know her letter will be with you with the next rider.
“Maybe. And maybe Roald isn’t talking to you as a brother to sister, but Prince to Empress about heir and heir.” There is a flippancy to Vania’s words, rather than any harshness, but Kalasin still flinches.
“I won’t forgive you for adding more to my worry.” Kalasin replies cooly, a harsh twist on her face.
“Everyone is fine. Really. Liano is just anxious, and so Roald, being already anxious, is now anxious about her anxiousness, and Shinko is not anxious and calm.”
“I just miss him, most of all, sometimes. It varies on the day, you see. I won’t miss you for a while, because I’ve seen you, and you’ll have been here long enough by your leaving that I’ll be glad you have left –“ Kalasin says, straight faced.
“I won’t forgive you for that now.” Vania frowns.
“You’re easiest to live vicariously through, so I’ll look to your letters to hear about the others, and how Jasson is, and Liam, and Mama and Papa, and you’ll let slip all of the things that they may not share.”
“I know you could visit, Kally. I know you could. Even Kaddar or Binur could.” Vania replies earnestly, all facetiousness lost.
“I know. Some things are easier not to do. And it’s not as though we could all be in the Palace again, all be children again.” Kally sighed. “I just miss a bit how things used to be.”