The Parts We Play

Away With This Pretense

Denar and Kaius left the building with Irene, whereupon the sorceress whirled on them.

"What did Cara's family do to her?" Irene asked sharply.

"It was... complicated," Kaius began shortly.

"Her parents never did anything directly. And they kept House Okhrana away from Cara as much as they could," Denar explained. "But her father was still bound by the oath to let her be trained to protect House Tarron. Her aunts and uncles and the Okhrana cousins, we think, did some damage."

"Her father arranged for her combat training to be with one Varvatos Vex, rather than other House Okhrana members," Kaius recalled. "But- I remember seeing Cara get taken away for something or other by Okhranas at least once. She came back with bruising, damaged and missing nails, small puncture wounds, exhaustion- she refused to talk about it."

Denar lowered his voice instinctively. "She would get sick randomly, too- we think they exposed her to toxins to give her immunity. We have no way of proving anything now, though, since all of them but her are dead. I hope by Seklos' mercy she's somehow processed and forgotten that part of her childhood."

"The law the House lived by was strict," Kaius added. "To always be trustworthy to the Royals; to never trust anyone else. To become walking personifications of death, and accept unconditionally the fate of dying on behalf of House Tarron. To whittle away within oneself everything that made them alive, and become vessels of their Oath and nothing else. They couldn't have romantic relationships or even talk too much about their own lives with Royals, couldn't pursue any line of work that didn't somehow protect House Tarron."

Irene stared in horror. "... oh," she said softly. "Oh, fuzzbuckets. She's told me she's supposed to protect the Royals, but almost nothing else. She- she never said anything."

"They weren't allowed to talk to anyone about the details of their training," Kaius explained. "Not even House Tarron."

Irene whistled softly. "Thank you for telling me," she said. "I'll be discreet."

The brothers nodded before departing.

***

Victoria had mentioned to Archie, in passing, that Cara didn't remember much about Akiridion-5. Archie had passed this along to Krel, and now Krel had Aja and Denar back on Akiridion, looking through the abandoned Okhrana manor attached to the palace for anything left from Cara's childhood.

Meanwhile, Krel did his best to both distract and uplift Cara. They stopped by Stuart's truck first, then went to a little spot that put ice cream inside of donuts, and then headed to a music store that sold various instruments.

Cara was ogling a particularly expensive, high-end violin in both a case and a glass display, delicately painted with patterns of vines and flora, butterflies and little bees, when she stopped abruptly and turned towards Krel.

"What are you doing?" She asked suspiciously.

Krel straightened a bit. "What?"

"You're up to something," Cara said, squinting at him with a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She pointed at him, waggling her hand, casual and relaxed, her smirk slipping fully to the surface. "You've been dragging me all over Arcadia. You prefer to be indoors. What's going on?"

Krel blinked, opened his mouth to reply, then huffed a sound between a laugh and a sigh. "It's a surprise. Will that be enough to satisfy you?"

Cara laughed a little in return, tucking her hands in her pockets and hooking her thumbs on the outsides of them. "For now," she teased.