It is not my problem, she told herself for the hundredth time as she ran between the trees. That’s no concern of mine and there’s nothing I could have done anyway! Repeating the words didn’t soothe the guilt gripping her chest tightly, however. She may be a timid girl, but Kasis was no fool. She knew right from wrong and she certainly knew murder when she saw it. Worse yet, that boy bore a sigil on his jerkin. He was a noble of some land – and so young too! Younger than herself. Maybe I really should’ve helped him... No. Who am I kidding? I’m no fighter! The only thing I could’ve done was die beside him. Besides, they were three while I am but one - no - half of one. She was a woman grown but still a child in truth. So she did what any child would. She ran. The only thing right now that mattered was to get far away from there and to never tell a soul. Now more than ever, she wished she had listened to Juels and stayed away from Kashan Forest.

After running nonstop for quite some time, Kasis couldn’t help but take a break to catch her breath, hunched over her knees gasping. I haven’t gotten far enough, but it can’t be helped. Her petite body was never meant for such things. Pushing aside a lock of her dirty blonde hair, she struggled for more air. Only five more breaths, not a moment longer, she told herself. A noise came from behind her amongst the forest floor and her breathing came to a stop. Slowly, she scanned the area with green eyes, questioning every tree and branch she saw. Another moment passed and she gave up her search, but a small fear ebbed into her. The woods were too dense; too dark, even during the day. There’s no way I can hope to spot anything in here. Taking one final deep breath of air, she sprinted ahead again, not once looking back. Almost there, she thought. I’ve been running now for some time towards the village, so it should see it soon enough. But she couldn’t get out of this forest fast enough; she couldn’t get to the village fast enough, she thought.

Soon after, she emerged through the forest’s edge, with twigs and leaves caught in her worn-out shirt and trousers. Beneath the slope she stood on, her hometown Ireida was visible. It was a small village of some twenty-odd houses, all of which were closely built together from slabs of brick, stone, and mortar. Towering some ways to the north of it was Dhraken Hall; an immense and gloomy forte when compared with little Ireida. There, Lord Roswell Tytos resided to watch over Ireida, Kashan Forest, and his other lands. And at the top of the castle held his banner, the crossed bronze axe and silver sword of the Tytos; and higher still, the silver sword, gold lion, and silver shield of the Royal Family of Varia, the Vontyrr’s family sigil. The castle had no towers but both banners could still be easily spotted atop its black and grey walls. She had never seen the royals, but she knew that Lord Tytos was one of those who swore fealty to them and she imagined their castle would be much more grand than Lord Tytos’ forte. Of Lord Tytos himself, she had only ever seen a few times and she couldn’t even remember the man’s face. Regardless, she knew she couldn’t go there; Dhraken Hall was a league or more away and more importantly, nobles within The Reach weren’t renowned for their patience and love of commoners. No, I won’t find any help there at all, she told herself as she brought her eyes back to Ireida with her mind made.

Kasis ran down the slope, her breathing still haggard. As she came closer to Ireida, she slowed her pace to that of a strut. I must look normal; relaxed; like nothing is amiss. Wiping away the sweat from her brow, she entered the village and went for the most part, completely unnoticed. From time to time a person looked towards her but hardly seemed to notice her. For as long as she could remember, people seemed to easily forget about her and she was always more than willing to use that to her advantage. It was thanks to this little skill of her, that she had even managed to become adept at sneaking out of the stables to go within the forest, no matter how much Juels forbade her. Feeling pleased with herself, the hints of a smirk threatened her lips, but she dared not let it show. She continued through the village hidden in plain sight as she walked in front of numerous people unrecognised. A smile may draw attention to me, and I can’t have that – I have to get home first and make it seem as if I was never missed.

The walk felt like it took a journey with the guilt heavy on her mind. She ought to have saved him, she knew. But she also knew that the moment she tried to help him, she would share the same fate, and she could not see any other way it would’ve ended. She shook her head vigorously, trying to chase away the thoughts as she emerged in front of the doorsteps to her simple home. The building was a combination of wood and brick two stories high and acted as both an inn for travellers and a home for her and her family. But something was wrong. Her already heavy heart sank even further when she spotted it. There was a horse in the stables that was not there before this morning; before she had snuck out. That meant a visitor had come to the inn. But that also meant that she wasn’t here to tend to the mare, as she should, and yet it was in the stables... Then that could only mean –

A heavy hand clotted Kasis behind her head and she yelped, leaping forward from the sudden blow.

“Kasis! Why were you not where you ought to be, you damn girl!” Juels roared. Kasis looked up to her foster-mother as her hand smoothed over the growing lump in the back of her head. Juels may have been a woman, but she hardly acted the part. She was strict, stubborn, and a towering six feet of lean muscle. She was a purebred Rynnite through and through; something she often boasted. And yet, despite that, there was no denying her beauty. Her caramel skin always made eyes lust after her. She flaunted a figure that always brought trouble and she knew it too. She wore a simple cotton shirt and skirt in such a way that showed enough flesh to make minds wander and eyes hungry. Her bosom looked almost to be choking under a tight knot in her shirt and her skirt hung low on her hips, teasing them and her stomach. Despite all of this, if one were to look beyond her seduction, one would always find those lines of muscle etched into her biceps as she moved her arms. Most stunning of all her features, however, was her jade eyes. They were so green that they might be emeralds from the treasures of Simeon “Cutthroat” Jeckles, or so many men would tell her. It was for her eyes, that she was named, she had once told Kasis. And it was for her eyes that many tried to woo her. But Rynnites were hard people and easily angered. All who tried to win her only won her rage. All but one failed; Gillian, her husband and Kasis’ foster-father.

“Kasis! Were you in those damn woods again!” Juels threatened, her arm poised in the air to strike again.

For a moment. A very short moment. Kasis was in the forest again. But she wasn’t watching the boy; this time, she was the boy and Juels was the one who killed her. The poised hands her foster-mother held in the air became the sword that struck down the little lord and now it would strike her down as well. The sight sent a cold shudder through her and panic gripped her throat tightly as her head began to spin. Just before she saw the blade slash down to meet the crown of her head, she collapsed.

She saw it in brief and random flashes. Scenes of a burning town, screaming people running for their lives, and blood flowing everywhere flickered in front of her like the pieces of a puzzle. In everything she saw, there was always blood; an endlessly flowing river of it. She tried to scream out but couldn’t find her voice. Fear had already cut her too deep. She tried to say something but was far too young to form her words. All she could do was cry, rubbing her small hands in her eyes; hands that were smaller than she remembered. Then she saw them. Juels and Gillian coming towards her, stepping over burning rubble, blood, and the dead.

“Child! Are you alright! Are you hurt? Child... What’s your name? Come with us! We’ll help you, child!” she called out to her. But the words were beginning to become muffled, jumbled up amongst other words. She could no longer make out what she was saying. The memories flowed too quickly – fire, a dying person begging for life, the flash of a sword, the dying cries of animals, and always the sight of blood... so much blood.

“... - Kasis! Kasis! Are you alright!” Juels was to her side. She wasn’t sure when she moved there, nor when they got inside the inn. Juels must’ve taken her; it wouldn’t be the first time or a challenge, as small as she was. Her body was in cold sweat all over and her breathing was laboured. Had she blanked out? She couldn’t recall but that would be the only reason why she remembered that dream. She hadn’t thought on it for the last seven years. The memory weighed heavily on her. It was her earliest memory and her darkest. No doubt, that noble’s death was what brought it back after so long... All that blood, that poor boy’s blood...

“Child! What’s the matter with you! Answer me already, Kasis!” Juels shouted at her.

“I-I’m... I’m fine. Sorry”, she mumbled as she leaned forward from lying down atop a wooden bench in the dining area. Her body felt weak and stiff; foreign to her. That fear from all those years ago seemed to have resurfaced.

“Sorry. I’m fine now. Truly”, she said with a bit more composure. Juels clearly didn’t believe it. She stared at Kasis for a while longer, her eyes squinting suspiciously. As always, Juels was sharp. She had a special skill for picking up on things others didn’t want her to pick up on. Thankfully, before she could begin her questioning, Gillian entered the room with a guest whom he was laughing with. One look at Kasis and he forgot about the guest and seemingly flew towards her with haste and urgency.

“Kasis! Where were you? Are you hurt? Is everything fine!” he began all at once. Before she could even get out a word, he threw his arms around her neck and pulled her tight and close. Despite she was not his child; Gillian had always treated her like his own daughter, ever since that day they found her.

“Let her breathe, Gilly! If nothing was wrong with her before, something’s bound to be wrong with her now!” Juels barked at him.

Reluctantly, he let go of Kasis and looked towards her with nothing but worry on his face. Juels stood just behind him with crossed arms and the look of exhaustion etched into her own face. The two of them made for a queer couple, she thought. If Juels wore the pants, Gillian wore the dress. Where Juels was stubborn and strict, Gillian was relaxed and easy-going. She admired Juels for her personality and her strength, but she feared her for the same reasons but Gillian was different entirely. His grey-blue eyes seemed to not know the word anger whereas Juels’ were all too familiar with it. His hair always remained in an uncombed reddish-brown tangle, whereas Juels’ jet black hair would be pinned up in the flashy and complex twists of the Rynnites. Gillian’s body just seemed average but Juels’ own figure was athletic and seductive. Even their complexions of white and tan clashed against each other. She was a purebred Rynnite, while his own heritage was mixed between Ducalyn and Vayan. The two were as different as night and day and yet husband and wife.

She remembered finding the courage once to ask Juels why she married Gillian. She also remembered that was the first time she ever saw Juels blushed like a shy girl and avoided the question, telling her to ask Gillian. When she did, Gillian’s reaction was even more shocking; he had looked so somber then, but all he said was, “Her eyes looked sad. So I decided to put some light in them, nothing more”. She didn’t understand it then and she didn’t understand it now and maybe, she never would.

“I’m fine Gillian. Really”, she said with a smirk more so for his sake than her own. Truthfully, however, she wasn’t. The trembling in her fingers had yet to stop after remembering how those men struck down that boy and how her foster-parents found her. But she dared not drag them into it. That went doubly so for Juels. Just then, her green eyes locked with Juels’ own jade ones and she knew that she was still suspicious of her. Scared that she would somehow find out, she broke the gaze and made some excuse to tend to the visitor’s horse in the stables.

“Kasis. You’re ten and six now. Don’t forget that. So stop playing in that damn forest and act your age already! We won’t be around forever, you know”, Juels called out to her before she reached the door. She stiffly turned and nodded her head all the while avoiding Juels’ stare. But she could definitely feel it on her. Making another spin, she turned around and made for the door anew. It was only then that she remembered the visitor. A tall man dressed in a dark grey surcoat with the crossed axe and sword in its centre. The man looked elderly but nice enough, she supposed. He nodded towards her with a smile when their eyes met and she returned the favour, exiting the inn.

In the stables, she found the guard’s mare, a rather young and healthy beast. She brushed the creature’s brown fur slowly to take her mind off of both new and old memories. Since she never found much comfort in the company of others, she instead often found herself enjoying the company of animals, especially horses. To her, they were beautiful and strong creatures and she always enjoyed spending time grooming them; welcomed it even. However, on days where business would be slow, she’d often slip away to the forest to see her other friends. She only wished she had not gone today.

A chill crept through her body and she gave an involuntary shudder. No matter what she tried, the little noble was never far from her thoughts. The incident constantly nagged at her mind, and the more she tried not to think of it, the more she did. Why would anyone kill a noble boy anyway? Surely, if she could see he was a lord, so could those men. Juels had once told her that whenever nobles fought other nobles, it meant horrible times for the commonfolk. It meant war. Varia wasn’t the friendliest of kingdoms to its neighbours and was currently in some dispute with Klimek, but she had not heard any whisperings about war between the two. She wondered if the boy’s family would start one out of justice and revenge. Most would, nobles or not. If they did, they’d certainly also blame her for leaving the boy to his death. All the more reason why I must never tell a soul, she reassured herself.

“Excuse me?” a voice came from behind her. Gasping, she spun around startled.

“Sorry, did I scare you?” said the voice with a chuckle. The owner of that voice seemed to be about average height and some ten or more years older than Kasis. He sat mounted atop his gelding with the sun behind him, almost like a knight you heard of in stories. Even his hair was such a bright blond, that it almost disappeared into the light of the sun.

A moment passed with no words being exchanged between the two, “... Right then. A quiet one are you? Well, whatever” he said, leaping off of his horse.

“I take it you’re the one in charge of the stables here then? And that horse over there -”, he gestured with a hand towards the mare she was brushing, “- is Wessen’s no? Seems he’s already here then” he finished without waiting for a response.

He tossed his gelding’s reigns over her arms and gave her two pats on the shoulder. “Brush him as good as you did Wessen’s now, you hear? I won’t have that old man’s Lyla outdoing my Storm” he said, giving the black horse a stroke along the nose.

“Oh right. There should be more of us coming soon enough. So keep an eye out for them, won’t you? We’ll be giving your inn quite some business tonight, I wager. You do a good job on Storm, and maybe you’ll win yourself a gold euron ‘eh? You could use it to cut that unruly hair of yours if you aren’t going to keep washing it” he said, scuffling Kasis’ hair.

He thought she was a boy, Kasis realized. It didn’t make a difference to her, however, for she had already become used to many mistaking her for a boy. Most visitors thought she was a young boy with her height and how her dirty-blonde hair might actually be blonde if it was ever washed. When she did tell them otherwise, many called her a liar and some even threatened to strike her for it. So Kasis learned it was just easier to keep her mouth shut.

Without saying anything, she nodded her head in agreement at the man as he marched inside and closed the door behind boisterous laughter; no doubt, coming from his friend inside.

The next few hours saw visitors coming well past dusk, as the blond knight had promised. Most of them bore different sigils on their clothing. Kasis could only identify the cross axe and sword of Tytos, but she did see one of a brown fox curled into a ball and another that was of a flaming sword. She had kept an eye out for the boy’s sigil as well; the strange flower she had never seen before, but she did not spot it on anyone’s arms. She wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

A thought occurred to her then. Why would all of these soldiers decide to meet here all of a sudden? What if... What if they were the ones behind the murder of that boy? I mean, they were only three then and this group numbered than a dozen, but they could’ve had more within the forest, right? It seemed possible enough. And frightening. She first thought to eavesdrop on their conversation but immediately thought better of it. If these men were indeed those from the forest and caught me listening in on them, my life would be forfeit. So instead, she went into the stables, sitting down in the rafters looking down at the horses below with her thoughts.

What if they killed Juels and Gillian? No. Why would they? They weren’t the ones who saw anything, just me. Would they kill them because I might’ve told them? No no no, that doesn’t make sense – They don’t seem to recognize me. If these really were the men, then they either didn’t see me in the woods or they’re simply not those men. But then, why would so many different soldiers arrive here at this place? None of them had the same sigil of the boy by the looks of it, so they can’t be here for him. Is there something else? Maybe it’s –

The clangour of steel-on-steel broke her thoughts. Peering down to the floor below, she saw that she was still alone save for the horses. Yet again, she heard what ring of steel against steel. A fight, she realized with a jump. She leapt down to a lower rafter and scurried her way to the floor of the stables in a hurry. Just before sprinting through the door, she instead hid behind it, peering outside to see what was happening. She was not about to just become involved in a swordfight that had nothing to do with her; but then again, it was peeping that got her in her current situation in the first place.

Outside was completely dark now and she could easily spot Dharyun, the star in the centre of the Hanging Man. It made her realize just how long she was inside for and made her question why Juels or Gillian had yet to come and get her. Supper must surely be happening right now –

Another ring of steel broke her thoughts again. This time, it sounded to be coming from right beside the stables. Nervously, she shuffled forward and poked her head beyond the stables’ door and looked to her right. Two men were surrounded by others who simply stood and watched in silence. The two in the middle were constantly hacking and slashing at each other, taking heavy breaths between each blow. With each blow they made, her fingers trembled and again, the flashes of a memory played in front her eyes.

The sound of clashing swords rung out and again she heard the boy pleading with the men. One man ducked a blow, and she saw herself approaching a small slope in the forest. The man struck again but was parried; yet, she saw the group of three looking down at the one while hiding behind her rock. The man’s parry was poor and he was knocked off his feet and immediately, the other man hoisted his sword and then –

She screamed, collapsing to her knees with tears streaming down her face with her hands clasped over mouth in her horror. Somewhere between that, the words, “I’m sorry” were shouted, but they seemingly went unheard. Every pair of eyes in the group rested on her, startled by her scream; even the two who were fighting looked towards her confused.

The men started murmuring amongst themselves and then one made his way towards her. She wept even more then, certain that she was dead. Stupid Kasis, she screamed in her head. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why’d you scream! Stupid girl!

She pinned her eyes closed, scared stiff. She wanted to move and run; to run as fast she could to anywhere but there. But her feet had turned to stone; her shoulders to shivering ice. She didn’t know what to do now. It was over for her. These men would certainly do her harm for spying on them. What if they really were the men from the forest? Or worse yet, what if they were just some lawless mercenaries? Was there even a difference! Both were certainly capable of killing her.

Every step the man took towards her echoed with his boots scuffing against the ground and with each one, a shiver ran through her spine. She had never felt so scared in her life. She wished then and there, with all her heart that she could just disappear. But magic was only something in stories and would do her no good here. Her feet would not carry her and she could not will herself to do anything. Hopelessly, she realized there was no way she could run away this time.

A hand grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her forwards. When she looked up, she only saw Juels in front of her with an exhausted face.

“Kasis, calm yourself. Those men were only practising, messing about as soldiers do” she said at once. “What really is the matter with you, child? You’ve been acting queer all day” she continued after a brief pause in a soft voice. Using a thumb, her foster-mother wiped away her tears and looked her in the eyes.

“Let me help you. Tell me what troubles you, child. I can’t help you unless you tell me” she said, and Kasis broke down in Juels’ arms again, never being so happy to have misunderstood the situation.

Juels said nothing but held her close, comforting her in her chest. Through tear-filled eyes and between meek sobs, she noticed Gillian standing behind Juels as well looking down at her with a sad smile. All she could manage was a nod of her head towards him, to show that she was fine.

Time had passed before Kasis regained her composure and the crowd outside continued with their competition. Juels and Gillian both sat across the table in front of her, inside the warmth of their small inn. She picked lazily at a plate of chicken, loaf, and cheese as she explained what happened during her day. She wasn’t paying attention closely but she noticed in the corner of her eye that Juels had become visibly worried. Gillian however, seemed to have remained unchanged for the most part, but both remained silent during the story.

When she finished, Juels remained still for a moment longer. Kasis then noticed just how quiet the room really was. It was unsettling. Trying to busy herself, she resumed picking at her food, expecting Juels to be wroth with her.

“What type of flower was it?” she finally asked the girl. A bit slow-witted and confused, Kasis looked up to her foster-mother slowly.

“Huh?”

“The flower on the boy’s sigil. What was it?” she asked again in an eerily quiet voice.

“I... I don’t know... I’ve never seen one of them before. But it was some bright colour. Like red or pink or something” she responded.

Another moment went by where Juels’ eyes just drifted eerily to the table. Gillian’s own were on his wife; watching her closely. Feeling out of place and tense, Kasis returned to picking at the scraps of her food, although she did not eat anything more.

Unexpectedly, Juels stood up, pushing back the chair from beneath her. Startled, Kasis looked up to her now expecting a lengthy lecture about proper table manners and listening to what adults told her about avoiding the forest. Instead, Juels just looked at her and then to Gillian. Some unspoken words were said, as Gillian nodded and began moving towards the rooms in the back.

“Wh-what’s happening? What’s going on, Juels?” she asked scared with her eyes darting from Juels to Gillian and back.

“Pack your things, Kasis. We’re leaving Ireida. This place... it’s not safe anymore. Not for much longer anyway.”