DISCLAIMER: I do not own Attack on Titan
Agh, missed update can be blamed on stupid school and my horrible motivation issues.
XIV
Kisanna adored fashion.
Being brought up in a household where your family dumped riches onto your head was a contributor. She loved the wealth, the glamour, and the colors. The shiny trinkets that gleamed in the aura of the chandeliers (the craftsmanship!-) and the beautiful lanterns decorating the halls. Then there were balls and dances and music! Oh, she loved it all with a fiery passion!
Erase the slate. Repeat.
Day after day, needle after needle, and scrap after scrap used. Lift and throw, needle and sow, twist and bend, then knot and tie. Sweep and brush and tan and hide. Lace is fitting, but silk is rare, carefully with the stitching, or father will get mad.
Erase the slate. Repeat. Her father would order. Until you get it right.
Every day it was the same mantra. Whenever she was punished, whenever she became too emotional or her actions were dissatisfactory to the family, or whenever she could not correctly perform her role, she'd be sent to the library.
The horrible blackboard waited for her.
Scrub, scrub, scrub. Every scratch and claw and slash and mark. Scrub, scrub, scrub. They won't come off, she knows this, but she knows if she doesn't do it, she'll get hit. Scrub, scrub, scrub. They won't ever come off, so she's always hit.
Scrub, scrub, scrub-
"Princess?"
She remembers clearly, that day. A pebble hit her window, the night after a dreadful punishment. Her eyes still stung from the tears as did her abused wrist. She lifted the pane and gazed down. It confused her to find two small lads around her age gazing back up.
"Climb the vines!" the glasses one whispered.
"Why?" She had asked, astonished and afraid.
"We're going to set you free." The other said, surely and resolutely, like he was going to personally climb up to her and drag her away if she refused. She wouldn't have minded it, but she crept down anyway, abandoning all sense of judgment as tears began anew.
"Thank you." She said.
They smiled.
She didn't learn their names until they came again. And again. And again…
Father was not happy. Mother was horrified. But Kisanna wanted this. She wanted nothing more than to be the bird to break free. It didn't end that way, did it? Father threatened to personally send Isaac's father to the guillotine. Breino himself would be on the chopping block if she didn't do something, and fast.
She exiled herself to her grandparents. She knew- clever as she was- where the wayward blacksmith was headed. She knew Isaac was convincing his father to leave and Isaac did speak highly of Shinganshina. She was smart, conniving in some ways, but desperate in most others.
She was just so happy they were together again.
"Kisanna?"
She smiled at Breino, the muscular boy leaning against the forge and turning a concerned eye towards her. She realized she'd been sitting for too long. She'd usually be initiating conversation. Well, she supposed he knew best when she was distracted, after being friends for so many years.
"I'm fine." She straightened her back out of habit. She offered a reassuring tilt of the lips in his direction, "Just reminiscing through memories. I'm so glad to see you and Isaac again…"
"You say that every day." He said not unkindly.
Her smile grew, "Perhaps I'm a little disbelieving, like a dream come true."
He frowned, looking sad and mildly offended. "I'm real." He rasped, as if it tortured him to say something like that. Maybe it did, she realized, for Breino. How simple would it be for people to forget him and to simply…disappear?
She didn't like that. "Your fitting in well here, I'm hoping?"
"Yes." He nodded, casting a considering gaze over to his work. With a shrug, he discarded it and pulled up a chair. "It's a fair job for fair pay. I still can't believe how…easy…it was to get this position."
Kisanna frowned, remembering agonized wails and bloody shirts and tears-
"It's better now." She reassured, "It seems everyone's nice here."
"Sosai is kind." Brieno agreed and he chuckled, "Everyone else is so wild and have well rounded personalities. One moment I believe I got them figured out, and then Middy comes home with a hang glider."
Kisanna briefly wonders when he started calling the Fire Fairy works 'home'.
"That was surprising." She agreed.
"She's adventurous." He turned his gaze to the door leading to the study, the very faint voices barely slipping past. "Tinker's not happy with her practicing out back."
"Miss Fiery doesn't seem to mind." She took in his hopeless look and refrained the impulse to touch him. "You're in good hands here, Breino."
"Will you stay?" He whispered, lowering his head but gazing up at her with such hopeful baby blue eyes. "Isaac managed to convince his old man…"
Her heart melted and she said, "Of course."
"Your parents will find out." His eyebrows furrowed in distress, "Your grandparents will move you."
"They won't know." She wouldn't let them take everything away again. She had to plan, be clever once again, and she'd do everything in her power to never leave this town. "I'm staying, Breino."
He smiled weakly, "We did that last time."
It didn't work went unsaid.
"It will work Breino." Even she caught the vulnerability in her voice. Doubt was creeping in her chest and she felt the outrageous urge to cry at the unfairness in the world. "I'll make sure of it."
"You could ask for help." He looked around, as if that help would randomly appear, "Maybe…maybe you could ask Captain?"
Kisanna smiled, at his enthusiasm, but more so the way he referred to his boss. "I'll ask."
He smiled gratefully, "Thank you, Kisa."
She was kind of regretting her decision as she stared the red head in the face two hours after their conversation. She didn't have anything to do. It was better now than never. But, she inwardly despaired, what if Nyll did not agree? What if she was cast out? Oh no, what if Breino was thrown out? He wouldn't survive! Isaac- oh, poor Isaac- he wouldn't be able to do anything and she'd be moved to another district and back to Erase the slate. Repeat.
"Stop staring."
She jolted, smiling grimly, "A-ah, sorry, Miss Fiery."
"You asked for me?" Nyll wasn't really paying attention. Sitting in bed and still recovering from her fever. Piles of documents were laid out in her lap as she rested against a mound of pillows. Kisanna noticed the dead stare and the bags and wondered just what type of person she was asking help from.
"Where are the others?" She asked instead, internally wincing and already hearing her mother's harsh voice scolding her. Instead, the red head waved distractedly out the window.
"Outside."
"Ah, I see…" She fidgeted, a tiny voice in her head screaming you're going to screw everything up!
Nyll sighed, exasperated and resigned, before folding the paper in front of her. She turned her head to face the tanned princess, eyebrows raised, "What do you want, daughter of the lumber company, princess and only heir to the Ellsworth Estate?"
Kisanna gaped. Nyll stared back expectantly.
She knows. A terror gripped her and her fists clenched. She shoved the tears away because she would not cry in front of an enemy. She knows!
"…what do you want?" She forced out, ready for some sort of business or threat or, the most horrible scenario, held for ransom.
As if sensing her thoughts, Nyll scoffed, sounding tired and slightly offended, "Rephrase the question for someone who isn't a criminal."
Kisanna flushed, embarrassed. Were her thoughts so jumbled that she had just indirectly insulted Breino's boss of all people? This person was his last hope at a peaceful life. Why was she botching it up?!
She breathed. No, she just had to think. Lately, she'd been doing more over thinking then strategic thinking. Paranoia had been eating her through. It just seemed too easy. Could she really have her friends again? Was this all a dream or will reality come back to hit her-
No. Think. Rephrase the question. What does Nyll Fiery want? No, that doesn't seem right. What question better suits such an enigma-
Oh.
Kisanna straightened her back and met those dead greens, "What do you see?"
Nyll did not miss a beat, "A girl with too much time on her hands."
Kisanna frowned, feeling agitation curl in her gut and suppressed the urge to snap. This girl had no idea what she's been through. How could she? She was a pampered prodigy and Kisanna was…
"I hardly know you, Fiery." She hoped she noticed the difference. She was disappointed when Nyll didn't even bat an eye.
"That doesn't stop you from coming here." The red head folded her arms and leaned forwards, her eyes narrowed in a way that made Kisanna uncomfortable. It was as if Nyll could see all her secrets as plain as the documents at her feet.
Kisanna frowned, "Are you testing me?"
Because being the princess of a noble family, pride was a major issue, Kisanna included. She had to stop herself from lifting her nose up at the firework prodigy. For Breino. For Breino…
"Yes." Nyll said so bluntly that she almost missed it. She opened her mouth, stuck between confusion and humiliation. Nyll didn't let her, "Do you know why?"
She bit her lip, taking a step back and already regretting coming into the room. She eyed the door longingly, "N-no."
"You're smart."The bluntness caught the princess off guard again. She stared at the red head with wide eyes. Nyll gazed down at the documents, her hand searching through the pile, "…I know a caged animal when I see one."
Kisanna froze.
She knows! The panic returned and she bit her lip to stop from out crying in rage. She knows everything!
"Are you…?" She couldn't make out the words. Her legs trembled. Her hands shook where they clutched her sleeve ends. She tried desperately to hide behind her hair. The only relief was that Nyll wasn't looking at her with those eyes anymore.
And then a letter was in front of her. She blinked once, then twice. The red head was shoving it towards her, not making eye contact in an almost shy (or possibly disgruntled) way. The stamp on the letter wasn't freshly sealed. It looked a few days old.
Hesitantly, she took the letter, staring down at the address on the back. This time, she let her legs collapse and she sunk to her knees in relief and awe. It felt too good to be true, those little letters there.
"If you'll take it." The distant voice of Nyll Fiery reached her ears. She nodded, slowly and distractedly.
"…yes…" Her mouth formed words her mind wasn't processing, "I…I don't want to b in my family's shadow any longer."
"Give the letter to your grandparents." At this point, Kisanna didn't question how much the red heads knowledge was. She was absolutely, positively sure the words in this letter were enough convincing for her to be…to be…
Free.
"That's it?" She asked. She looked up at Nyll, hopefully and desperately. She thought she saw the red head smirk, if only for a moment, before her face was blank once again.
"Yes."
"Thank you." She breathed a sigh of relief, the ache of an unknown weight leaving her shoulders, "Thank you, Nyll."
"Whatever." The other girl grumbled, "Don't start calling me captain…"
Despite everything, Kisanna managed a laugh. "I'm surprised. Breino started that, didn't he?"
"Yes." Nyll didn't sound too happy about it.
Kisanna smiled, seeing the red head in a new light, "He's only ever called one other person by that name, one he respects very much."
Nyll made a disinterested sound, gazing intently down at the documents, eyes professionally scanning through them. The sight seemed too strange for such a young person and Kisanna smiled wryly.
"I look forward to working with you in the future."
"Yeah…the future…"
She wondered why Nyll looked troubled, but decided to give the good news the Breino.
Erase the slate. Repeat.
She walked home with the letter in hand, grateful to never have to hear those words ever again.
A lot of people are worriedly asking me if people will die. I'm not saying anything for the stories sake. More information on the Kiranese trio brought to light and Middy's new toy heh.
Prom is approaching. Updates are becoming hard. Ugh. I have hooooomoooowork i dont want to dooooooo.
Review.