The servant girl saw that the book was pink; is she special?

No, she isn't a god. She is most decidedly human. You'll see more of her in Chapter 26.

You titled that last chapter as "First Death." So does that mean there will be more?

Yes, sadly. There will be more…

I got the Evanescence CD!

Me too! I have a particularly liking to "Hello." I believe a friend of mine said something along the lines of "Okay, I want to kill myself now," while listening to the lyrics. Doesn't it make you feel all fuzzy inside…

How did General Aleyn know that Nathan and Clarine knew Nobles' Bane? Were other houses destroyed in the process of destroying Nathan/Clarine's? And why didn't Lord Travion/Travis as Lord Provost know?

He doesn't. All he knows is that his son has mysteriously disappeared, and that Kenric frequented a certain house while on his journeys to Corus (he set spies on his son whenever he left the castle, the trusting papa that he is). The other houses maybe have been slightly disturbed while trying to destroy the singular house that they intended, but I'm sure that the neighbors were too afraid to say anything about it. And General Aleyn and Travis were never on very friendly terms, so this would just be another way for him to snub the other.

How do you say Riyanna's name?

Ree - yon - uh

24. The Delights of Conversation

Nobles' Bane: Chapter 22

Travis met them on the road, leading a cart that contained Clarine's cold body. She didn't know how he had managed to retrieve it; apparently, the soldiers had tried to set the house on fire.

Together, four people with one dead body, they had traveled back to Caleb's village where they had been offered a place to stay for the night.

It was late twilight now. They should have been asleep a long time ago.

But Nathan refused to be move from beside Clarine's body in the cart.

And she was able to hear her brother's pacing in the room beside her own. She tried to ignore it, to press herself down into the blankets and force sleep to come.

But it didn't. And after several long moments, she sat up with a sigh. She pulled on an extra shirt and entered Travis' room.

He wasn't yet changed from his dirtied clothes from earlier that evening. He glanced up when he heard his door open, but didn't look at her.

"It shouldn't be this way."

She waited.

"I told myself that I would purge myself of pain and loss a long time ago. Pain, loss, guilt, regret. All those foolish emotions."

"Those emotions make us humans."

He shook his head. "It shouldn't be this way. I hardly even knew her." He looked down at his hands, but didn't seen to recognize them as his own. "And yet, the pain doesn't go away. The guilt doesn't diminish. I'm the Lord Provost, for Mithros' sake. Why couldn't I have saved her?"

She wandered about his room and settled herself in front of the single window. Looking out, she could see the cart. And Nathan, holding the stiff body. Clarine.

"Would you have felt like this… if it were Nathan who had been killed?"

Travis blinked. He came to stand beside her and looked out the window. There was a long silence before he finally answered.

"No," he admitted. "But Clarine… was different."

She understood. She had always thought the lady foolish. Had always thought her trusting and gentle nature, her patience, to be great weaknesses.

But they had actually been Clarine's greatest strengths.

Of all of them, it was Clarine who had least deserved to die.

"Nobody blames you, Travis. Not even Nathan."

"I blame myself," he said severely in response.

"Very well," she said, straightening her back. "Then I'll blame you too. I blame you for killing Clarine. I blame you for all this pain you've caused."

Travis blinked his eyes and looked at her.

She turned on him angrily and poked him in the chest. "I blame you for getting Axe and Danel captured." Poke. "I blame you for the execution being moved forward by two weeks." Poke. "I blame you for becoming a noble, the Lord Provost." Poke. "I blame you for getting yourself kidnapped." Poke. "You know what? I'll blame you for our parents' deaths too."

He caught her wrist before she could poke him again.

"You're a bully, you know that?" he said grudgingly.

"That's what older sisters do to stubborn younger brothers," she informed him. She sighed. "Life, especially ours, is far from perfect. Loss occurs everyday. Don't let the guilt eat you away." She lowered her voice and looked at him almost pleadingly. "Especially not after we've just found each other."

Travis pulled her into a hug. "You're right," he finally said, sounding a big reluctant.

"But of course."

He gave her a mock growl. "And I'll do my best to keep the guilt from eating me away. Just as long as you promise not to poke me again."

She smiled at him. "I promise."

"Thanks, Lauryn," he whispered to her as she turned to leave. "Good night."

"Good night."

Once she was in her room, she started to settle down under her covers again when something caught her eye. Grimacing, she pulled herself over to her window. From her window, she was able to see something that she hadn't seen from Travis'. A familiar shadow that lurked beneath a tree, watching Nathan silently holding Clarine.

She sighed as she slipped out of the building and into the cool night air.

"Why aren't you asleep?"

Kenric jumped, but relaxed when he saw her.

"I'm not sleepy."

"That doesn't explain why you're out here trying to catch a chill."

"He didn't have to do this. He didn't need to kill her," Kenric whispered.

She sighed. "Kenric," she began.

"It's my fault. My father, he must have had me followed during one of my excursions out of the castle. There was no other way for him to pick Nathan and Clarine out as different from any other couple in Corus."

"The things that your father does is out of your control, Kenric. Don't blame yourself for things your father does; there's too much evil that he's done."

"You know, when I was little, I tried so hard to win his approval. His love." Kenric's voice was bitter. "I was a stupid, stupid child."

"Every child wants his father's love. I know that I always wanted my father to love me," she offered.

He went cold. "Indeed? So did you act like a petty, spoiled brat to win your father's approval? Did you try to push other children down the stairs? Did you get them mauled so badly by dogs that they lost their left arm?"

He was so angry and harsh that she took a step back.

"I'm sorry, Lauryn," he immediately apologized, reaching for her hands. "I shouldn't be taking it out on you."

"Tell me," she said, letting him pull her into his arms. "Tell me what happened."

He rested his chin on the top of her head before speaking. "I never knew my mother. I was told that she died from a horse riding accident when I was still a baby. My father was the only one I had. The only person I could turn to. I had little available in companions, father never liked it when I loitered around the servants or their children. I so desperately wanted his approval."

He paused, and she waited for him to continue.

"I was nine and stupid, trying to pick a fight with another boy my age, one of the slaves' children. I remember looking up and seeing my father watching me on the other end of the hall. He always liked it when I was mean and rude to the servants and slaves. So I pushed him. I pushed the little boy back, towards a few steps that were behind him." Kenric shivered. "Falling down those steps would have been more painless than what really happened. Before he even reached those steps, he stepped on one of my father's hunting dogs." She grimaced: she had seen a few of those hunting dogs during her brief stay at the castle. They were vicious animals, trained to blood and hunting. "The dog went crazy. And I stood there, watching, absolutely horrified. I glanced up at my father, hoping that he would call the animal off. But he didn't. When he saw me looking at him, he just laughed. He laughed.

"And I never wanted to hear him laugh again," Kenric said quietly.

"You were only a child, Kenric."

"The boy lost his arm and nearly bled to death, Lauryn."

"You forget, Kenric. I was there at the castle. I heard what the others said about you while I was pretending to be a servant. The anger they felt, servants and slaves, whenever I said anything unkind about you wasn't feigned. Whatever you did in the past, they've forgiven you for it."

"It's not that easy."

"It is. If those who were offended are no longer angry, what right do you have to continue blaming yourself? The servants and slaves, Kenric. They adore you. And I can understand why."

Kenric was silent. Then the arms around her tightened.

"Lauryn." His whisper was a secret caress, the only thanks he would offer her.

She returned his hug and nodded.

Kenric's gaze wandered over to Nathan. "I should go talk to him."

She sighed. She had talked to her brother, and now Kenric. Might as well talk to Nathan too. "No, I'll do it. You go on and get some sleep."

Kenric hesitated before nodding. "Very well." He pressed his lips gently down onto hers. "Good night," he murmured just before he entered the building.

Lauryn paused for a moment under the tree before approaching the cart.

"Nathan, it's late. You should get some sleep."

Nathan didn't even glance up at her, he continued to hold Clarine as if she hadn't spoken.

"Nathan."

She still got no response.

"Nathan, if I have to knock you out before dragging you inside, I will--"

"She was pregnant."

"What?"

"You couldn't see it in her form yet, she was only three months pregnant."

Lauryn didn't know what to say.

"You're probably happy about her dieing, aren't you."

Her mouth dropped open. "I--"

"You never liked her. Don't bother trying to pretend."

"I may not have liked her, but I didn't want her to die," she replied.

"You didn't even know her. You didn't even give her a chance," he said flatly.

For a moment, her temper flared. She wanted to lash back at him with her own bitterness. Bitter anger was a weapon that she had learned to wield years ago. But she didn't.

Because, she knew. Knew that Nathan was right.

"Ironic, now that I think on it. If I remember correctly, you were the first to condemn me, to abhor me, when I confessed to caring for Clarine. A noble. And yet, here you are. Clinging to Kenric with every breath you have," he said with cold scorn.

She felt an inevitable flush crawl up her cheeks. "Don't…"

"Don't what, Lauryn? Don't point out your own hypocrisy? Your fickle double standards?"

She stifled the immediate protest of: But I didn't mean to fall for Kenric.

After all, Nathan had almost certainly not ventured into the streets of Corus expecting to love Lady Clarine.

"What I meant to say was," she said after she had gained some control, "don't blame Kenric for what has happened. You may curse me all you like, but don't censure him."

"Why ever not? Isn't that what you did to Clarine?"

She took a deep breath, released it. Then she turned on her heel and started to walk away.

A tense, angry hand gripped her elbow painfully.

"Where do you think you're going?" Nathan demanded tersely. "I'm speaking to you."

"Nathan," she said, her voice sharp, "you're not just speaking to me; you're itching for a fight. The past is past, Nathan. And if I can go back and apologize to Clarine personally about what an ass I was, I would. But I can't. I can offer an apology now, but you will be the only who hears it and you will not accept it. I can go on for hours about how I regret being a petty, selfish bitch, but you won't hear a word of it. If you want a fight that badly, wait until tomorrow morning. I'm too tired to appease you tonight." She tried to jerk her arm free, but Nathan's grip only tightened, almost pulling a pained gasp from her throat.

There was a silence in which the natural sounds of the night were only interrupted by their tense, haggard breaths.

But then Nathan suddenly let her go.

"She was innocent. She wasn't supposed to die," Nathan whispered.

She offered him the respect of her silence.

He released a great, shuddering sigh before slumping back into the cart. "She was so happy and excited about starting her own family before--"

Before you arrived and messed up everything.

She knew that those words weren't exactly what Nathan had been about to say, but she was betting they were pretty accurate.

He lowered his gaze to his dead wife's face which he held tenderly in his lap. "And I was excited too." His expression suddenly became contemplative and his voice musing. "For all we've known each other, Lauryn, for all we've gone through; we're still strangers, you know that? When we became friends, we only had one rule."

Never mention the past…

"And neither of us ever wanted to break it. But that's how I knew. Knew that Clarine was special. She made me want to tell her of my past, to explain all."

Lauryn had known that she had always turned a blind eye on Clarine's good qualities. But she had never quite thought about what those qualities, what the young noble-born lady had really meant to Nathan. And she was just starting to understand.

"And so, I told her everything. I gave her the burden of my past to help carry. She, in return, gave it back to me in the form of new life. New opportunity."

She blinked, uncertain to what he was referring to exactly. He caught her look.

"The baby, Lauryn. The unborn baby," he said. "I promised him that he was going to have everything that was denied to me. He would have loving parents, a comforting home, a supportive family. He wouldn't be abandoned on the doorstep of a merchant's candle shop. He wouldn't be an unwanted bastard child that was left with a mere name as the single solitary gift by his real parents. He wouldn't be beaten by his adopted parent for not selling enough candles to passerbys. He wouldn't have to run away and live as a thief.

"Lauryn, she changed everything. And in response, I wanted to be a better person. For her." Nathan shook his head. "Doesn't matter now, though." His voice was quiet. "She's gone."

"Dead doesn't always mean gone," she said quietly in reply.

He gave her a disgruntled look.

"They're only gone if you let them go. If you let their memory fade." She gazed down at Clarine's still face. "And Clarine will never be gone because I, at least, won't let her be."

Nathan was silent, and she didn't push for a response. She merely whispered a good night and retreated back into the building.

Important, unrelated to the fic Author's Note:

I have a few favors to ask you all.

I'm sure that there are a few of you who already know: Min (aka The Blind Assassin on ff.net) was recently involved in a bad car accident. She was hit by a drunk teen driver. She is now officially paralyzed from the waist down, but with physical therapy, she may be able to walk again.

Favor #1: I currently have a guest book set up on my website. (address: well, since ff.net doesn't let links come through my html documents or whatnot, you'll find the guest book at my website: go to my profile, click the listed website, and find the link for the guest book in the upper corner.) I would really appreciate it if you can drop by and write Min a supportive note on it (doesn't matter whether or not you know her). After the notes are written, I plan on printing out the guest book, putting it nicely together, and mailing it to Min.

Favor #2: Be creative. A simple 'I hope you feel better' is nice, but it could be so much better if a little more effort was applied. Imagine: what kind of note would you like to be reading if you were in Min's position?

Favor #3: Spread the word. I honestly don't know how well this is going to turn out. For all I know, I might end up with a grand total of 5 notes. I don't care. I'll still be sending them to Min. But, please, let's show Min our support even if she may be miles away.

Favor #4: Don't drink and drive.

Thanks.

~krizsta