Chapter Eleven | Kalie

' Adaman looked at Grace's hand and touched it gently. "I know you wonder why Eytukan seems withdrawn sometimes to you. But that's only because he's so scared he's going to lose you, too." '

It had been about two days since Jake had properly seen Neytiri, and that worried him. While she was meant to spend all her time with him, he knew that she had other commitments as well. But, it was how he had left her last time that set him on edge.

"Calm down – Neytiri isn't one to hold a grudge," Tsu'tey reassured him as they walked towards the council room. As Jake was meant to report to Eytukan every once in a while, Neytiri went with him. Since he wasn't there, Jake asked Tsu'tey if he could come with him. He just couldn't be alone in a room with Eytukan currently, due to obvious reasons. Tsu'tey found this absolutely hilarious, but he could see where he was coming from, and said he would take him. Besides, it gave them a chance to talk about current 'affairs'.

Jake gave a sarcastic laugh. "Didn't you once tell me that when you were children, she chased you around Hometree wielding an arrow since you jokingly proposed to her sister, and she got mad?"

Tsu'tey stiffened. Why the hell did he tell Jake that? He knew Jake would use it as blackmail against him one day, he could just see it. "Shut up," Tsu'tey warningly snarled at him. Jake smirked. At that, Tsu'tey added, " – Mr. I'm-Too-Scared-To-See-Eytukan-On-My-Own."
Now it was Jake's turn to frown, and Tsu'tey to smirk. "You can't blame me."

"Hey, I got worse than you," Tsu'tey reminded Jake.

Jake shifted his glance to him and gave him a look that said, 'Yeah, right'. "How so?" He knew Tsu'tey had found out about Grace and Eytukan's adulterous ways in a less than savoury way, similar to himself, but whenever Jake probed, Tsu'tey snapped at him, and Jake let him be. He was fairly sure that was going to happen now.

Instead, Tsu'tey hesitated. "Well... let's just say you came a few minutes earlier than me, and let's leave it at that, all right?" he said, still trying in vain to erase the image of Grace half naked on Eytukan's bed. They both should have talked to Adaman, considering what he walked in on.

Jake thought about what Tsu'tey said, and shuddered. "Oh dear God," he said, wincing. "All right, yes, you got a lot worse." Since they were upstairs in the royal's area, they could talk a little bit more freely about such a subject, since everyone was downstairs save for Eytukan, but Jake still lowered his voice a little. "I just still can't get over the fact that Grace is sleeping with – " Jake was cut off by a sharp blow to his side, causing him to be winded. He snarled, enraged, at Tsu'tey. "Tsu'tey, what the fuck – " Jake then followed Tsu'tey's gaze, and paled as he saw nine and a half feet of Neytiri coming towards them. "Oh shit. Hide me," he said, going to cower behind his friend from Neytiri's wrath.

Tsu'tey looked at Jake. "Oh... Yes, I'll get right on that," he said sarcastically.

Neytiri marched towards them, purpose in her step, and pointed a slim finger at Jake. "You!" She snarled. Jake's ears flew back. "Moron! What the hell happened to you two days ago?"

Tsu'tey reached behind him and pushed Jake towards Neytiri, which earned him a quiet yet vicious snarl from the Avatar. "I have a perfectly good explanation," he said, feeling like a young primary student who was found with his hand stuck in the lolly jar. Neytiri arched an eye ridge. "I found Bree."

Neytiri looked at Tsu'tey and then back at Jake. "What the hell is a 'Bree'?"
Tsu'tey came to Jake's rescue, somewhat. "He found an Avatar – Grace's niece, actually," he explained to Neytiri. "You need to start keeping up with clan events."

Neytiri turned to Tsu'tey then, curling her lips back in a snarl. "Watch it, Tsu'tey," she warned the warrior. He frowned at her. Neytiri turned her gaze back to Jake. "So where is this Bree, then?"

"She's probably with Grace," Jake assumed, trying to figure out how to apologise to Neytiri for leaving her high and dry – or low and wet, either way. He didn't get to, however, as another voice came behind them, "No, she's with me."

Neytiri, Tsu'tey and Jake turned to see their leader behind them, and beside him was the young woman. She was a bit taller than Neytiri, Jake noted, and her relation to Grace was clear with the set of her face. Tsu'tey frowned a little at Bree. He didn't know whether to dislike her, or hate her. Jake rather liked her, but now that Neytiri was rather pissed at him, he wasn't too big of a fan. Eytukan looked over at Jake. "I needn't see you – sorry, I should have sent word of that."
Jake looked at him quizzically. Eytukan might as well have been speaking French or Mandarin. "Huh?" he asked.

Neytiri translated for him, and then looked at the Avatar. She stuck out her hand for her, which Bree took in surprise. Neytiri gave Jake a look, and he took her Na'vi greeting. He wondered if he was somehow turning into Neytiri's representative, or if that was what she somewhat had in mind. "I see you," he said, touching his fingers to his forehead and then to Bree. Jake had noted that he never once saw Eytukan do that to Grace... Maybe since he felt they were so close, he didn't have to. Or maybe, they were further apart than he thought.

Bree did the same to Jake. "I see you, Jake," she told him. Tsu'tey gave a deathly glower to the young Avatar. He didn't know what it was about Bree; he hated her. Her bearing was cocky in a way Tsu'tey didn't like. She held her head too high, her walk was just too free. She didn't hold any concern for the world around her. She seemed to think she was invincible or something of the like.

Eytukan said something to Neytiri, and Bree caught her name, in the flurry of words. Neytiri gave a simple nod in reply. "Come, Jake, Bree... Tsu'tey," she said, including Tsu'tey in it as well, until Eytukan said, "Tsu'tey, may I have a word?"

Tsu'tey cringed internally, but nodded his approval to Eytukan. Jake looked concerned, but Tsu'tey shook his head, and Neytiri and Jake went off, Neytiri oblivious to the exchange between the two of the three main males in her life. Eytukan gently gave Bree a gentle push towards Jake and Neytiri, and she looked at him quizzically. And then she caught on, and went after them, leaving Tsu'tey and Eytukan alone. Tsu'tey now fully understood why Jake was so worried about talking to Eytukan in private; he felt the creeping sense of unease as Eytukan's eyes pierced him. "Tsu'tey, I want you to look after Brianne Augustine over the next few weeks," he instructed.

Tsu'tey's ears flickered, and he frowned. "Sir, so sure that is wise? I have warriors to train..."

"Funny that – I never see you doing it these days," Eytukan pointed out. Tsu'tey's frown deepened. "Brianne is a good student."

"How do you know?" Tsu'tey daringly asked, carefully omitting out the sentence, 'How much has Grace really bribed you to say that?'

Eytukan snarled threateningly at Tsu'tey, his intelligent and intimidating topaz eyes staring right into him. "You better damn well not disobey me, Tsu'tey. You're not leader yet, and if you keep such an attitude up that mirrors that of your father... I can easily change my mind." With that threat implanted, Eytukan left, leaving Tsu'tey seething after him.

· · ·

Grace had taken herself to the quiet confines of the royal's lounge. No one who didn't know about her and Eytukan would come up here, so she wouldn't be kicked out. At least, that's what she hoped. She drummed her fingernails against her knee as she waited on a seat, her expression showing that she was deep in thought.

Her cat-like ears flickered as she heard a voice coming up the passageway, as well as the rustle of papers. "... Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine..." The voice came closer, and Grace straightened up as Adaman stepped in, his fingers flicking through some pieces of parchment. He looked at her in shock, having clearly not expected her. "Oh, Grace. I'm sorry – I didn't realise anyone would be here." Especially you, thought Adaman. He was half-tempted to kick her out, but despite what he felt for her. Their friendship had been the first Grace had struck up when she came to the clan, but now Adaman felt terribly awkward around her. Now that Eytukan was sleeping with her, he found it hard to strike up a conversation that didn't begin with, 'So, when are you leaving Eytukan and coming to your senses?'

Grace shook her head gently. "I didn't mean to, but I was waiting for you," she told him.

"Me?" Adaman echoed, looking at her strangely as he went to place the parchments on the table that was strategically located four metres away from the chair where Grace sat. Adaman had always meant to move it closer to the chair, but never did.

Grace looked at Adaman, wondering how to cover herself to not get in trouble for what she was about to say. "I heard you talking to Eytukan yesterday," she admitted. Adaman didn't seem to take much notice of that statement, as he continued to shuffle the papers into some sort of order, and Grace continued, "Who's Kalie?"

The sound of rustling papers stopped. Adaman seemed to freeze, and after several moments, he placed his hands on the table, his head going down slightly. He turned around to her to say, "I'm not the one you should ask, Grace." Adaman quickly went to move away, but Grace reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Adaman, we've been friends for over a decade," Grace reminded him, as a bit of an incentive.

The healer gave a sigh, and moved to sit beside Grace. "I would have assumed Eytukan told you. But, not many people know of Kalie," he told her, a bit of a look of disbelief over his features. Just as Jake had though that morning, Adaman wondered if Eytukan really wasn't as close to Grace as he had originally thought. If he kept this from her, what else was he keeping? Adaman didn't need to ask himself that question; he knew exactly now how much he would be keeping from her. Eytukan was going to kill him for telling Grace.

"When Eytukan came to the Omaticaya clan under Taron's rule, he was only eight years of age," Adaman began. "We quickly struck up a friendship, and then we both branched out and met Mo'at and Kalie. Over the years, it quite obvious that Eytukan was falling for Mo'at, at least it was to us. Especially Kalie. She and Eytukan always had this special bond. He was almost like a brother to her, just as she was a sister. But she wanted more than that.

"When he was seventeen, Eytukan's mother, Nari't, died in childbirth from eclampsia – which are convulsions – and she lost Eytukan's half-sister as well. You know that Eytukan's father, Auel, died when he was only six years old. Nari't married this man by the name of Tzumakan. Eytukan's doctor, a man by the name Píran, warned her against falling pregnant again, but Tzumakan forced her. After her death, Eytukan was... Grace, I'd never seen him so angry, and so upset. While Nari't hadn't entirely been in his life for the past few years since he was taught here, since his birth clan was in another country, he still loved her. He took me and we threw Tzumakan out. I think from there Eytukan grew more reserved, even to me. But he became the most fantastic warrior of his day, and because of that Taron gave him the leadership of the clan after his death, due to his own son having died young and he no longer had an heir. I told Eytukan he needed a Tsahík, and he of course asked Mo'at. She said no.

"Well, you know some of the story. Mo'at went and married someone else, and..." Grace nodded as Adaman trailed off. She knew what had happened in between, and Adaman didn't want to say it. "Eytukan was distraught once more. I tried everything to cheer him up, and I mean everything. But it was actually Kalie who broke his shell. They grew closer, but Eytukan didn't love her, per se. At least not the way she wanted. He was still pining after Mo'at. Kalie could see she'd never be his number one, and she herself grew terribly upset over it. I guess because of that she didn't truly take care of herself, and her immune system broke down. She caught a deadly influenza, and she died in Eytukan's arms a few months later."

That concluded Adaman's story. Grace looked down, processing all of that. "So he blamed himself?" Grace asked Adaman, bringing her gaze back up to him.

Adaman nodded sadly, his usual bubbly spirit having been subdued after bringing up such memories. "Quite. Mo'at eventually came back, since her mate was... Well, he was as bad as Ateyo was to you." Grace swallowed and shuddered, and Adaman felt bad for reminding her of that dark period. "Eytukan, amazingly, took her back, but she continued to hurt him after they were married." Adaman looked at Grace's hand and touched it gently. "I know you wonder why Eytukan seems withdrawn sometimes to you. But that's only because he's so scared he's going to lose you, too."

Grace looked at Adaman, feeling a lump form in her throat suddenly. She suddenly felt so guilty, remembering how she had talked to him before he threw her out of the clan a year ago, having slept with Miles while she was with him. All those infractions added up. Grace had to think what Eytukan had ever done wrong to her, and she couldn't think of much, whereas her list went on. What sort of a person was she? "But why didn't he ever tell me of this?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. She couldn't fall apart right now.

Adaman pulled away from Grace, wondering how to answer that question. "As close as we are, I don't know all his thoughts – thank Eywa," he added, hoping to put a little bit of light into this grim conversation. Grace didn't really smile. "Maybe he was scared because of what you would think of him. He hates himself for what happened to Kalie. But you know, since I've come back, and I've found out about you two, I've noticed he's a little more like his old self. A little more open, and happier. So, he can thank you for that, and so can I." Adaman smiled at her.

Grace managed to smile a bit back, her heart still heavy after what Adaman unloaded on her. She patted his hand. "Thank you," she said, getting up.

Adaman stopped her. "Grace, just one more thing," he began.

Grace turned around to face Adaman. "Of course?"

Adaman looked at his old friend, and warned her, "After Kalie's death, all Eytukan could think of himself was that he was a murderer. And after a battle with your people, after hurting one of them, he honestly loathed himself. He got some... pretty bad demons as a result. So all I'm asking is you just keep an eye on him, please."

Grace slowly nodded her agreement, and she squeezed Adaman's hand gently. "I will," she promised.