Author's Notes: I fixed up some spelling and grammar issues in the last chapter (mostly towards the ending. The words flow a little better and make more sense in some sentences. Fixes were made after Seto see Kisara touching the dome's edge.
It was a mostly quiet walk back to his home, the only sounds being the crunching of the cobblestone and dirt between the two's feet. Seto led the woman across the hills and down the path to his farm. She followed closely behind him, leaving Seto to wonder why she didn't walk at his side. As the house came into view, Seto couldn't help but let out a yawn. Not only was he still feeling the exhaustion from his lack of sleep, but he was now sore from his battle with the edge. He flicked his fingers at his side to remind himself to not only ice the girl's wounds, but to tend to his only cuts.
Before reaching the door to his home, he looks over his shoulder, as the girl had slowed her pace to stare at his field of crops. By the time he had his hand on the door, the woman had come to a stop, just staring endlessly at it. Seto questioned if she was always this aloof considering that every time now that he'd seen her, she was getting lost in her own mind.
But this gaze she held, it felt familiar. More than just the fact they'd met briefly the day before, but a feeling that he could only describe to be nostalgia. And yet… it felt like there was something in between them that would keep them apart. It put pain in his chest, but he blamed it on having a shortness of breath from the blow to his tail bone.
"Coming?" He called to her, not as intensely as he had earlier.
It took a moment before she replied. "Yeah. It's just… This is the fields you want to protect, right? The ones you wanted to pray for?"
Seto now join her in stares to his land. "Yeah. I'm one of the few farmers around here that grow food for the kingdom. Every year, they send out someone to determine which farm will have the honor of having their harvested goods used for the royal family. For the last six years, my crops have been chosen among the rest. My fields are smaller than the other farms though, so I have to work extra to make sure each harvest is more bountiful than the last. Every season, I add a new plot and expand on my land."
"Don't you have anyone to help you?" Kisara now turned her attention to him, absorbed in his voice.
"I used to..." He sighed, "but like most of the men around here lately, my brother went to the imperial city to find work as a soldier. It seems like when anyone around here grows up, they just want to leave and head to the city."
"What about you?" She asked a lot of questions. "Do you plan to go there?"
He bit the inside of his bottom lip for a moment before choosing his words. "My brother's going to be receiving judgment from the oracle and wants me to be there for it. It's the only time I will ever go past the market town at the kingdom's walls. While I'm sure he'll try to get me to sell the farm and stay, I don't see the appeal..."
He turned his gaze back to Kisara, who smiled gently his way. "You prefer the edge then?"
"You could say that," he turned away from her, opening the door to his house and walking inside while expecting her to follow him in. "I like my line of work out here. And if not me, who would uphold our family's farm?"
"So it's really just you working these lands?" She stared back to the fields for a moment before finally following him inside.
"I've no reason to lie about that." Walking inside, the two enter into the kitchen. "My mother passed a long time ago and my father's a whole other story. I haven't seen him in years either. Mokuba left only months ago, but visited recently to give me the invitation for his judgment. And that's all there is to my family."
"M—Mokuba?" She quietly repeated, saying nothing more about it. "I see. So one last thing..."
As Seto pulled out a chair from his table, implying for her to sit and wait, he looked back to her, watching her confused expression. "Go on. It's been a while since I've had to talk so much, but I don't mind."
She seemed to get flushed as he said that, but she took a seat as Seto stepped to the side, walking to the corner of the kitchen and pushing aside a small cabinet to reveal a cellar door.
"If you didn't have this farm… would you have wanted to go live in the city with your older brother?" Kisara sat with her hands resting on her lap as she inspects the kitchen and studying the layout of the house. "Or would you still live out here, even if you weren't working as a farmer?"
He grabbed hold of the boards of the cellar door, lifting them upwards and pushing it open. It wasn't that he had trouble answering her question, but it was quite the opposite. He could answer every question she had with ease, and atop that… Truthfully. Seto didn't talk much to people at all, but it was like he had no problem just blabbering away with her.
"I'd miss the trees, the wooden structures, and the fresh air. The view of the open ocean is wider on the edge than anywhere else in Atlantis. You can see all the fish in the sea just as you walk outside. There's no bridges over head casting shadows and stealing away what little sun light we get. When there's storms above the ocean, I can watch the waves fight one another, and the currents warm the area as they become quickened with rage." Seto looked to Kisara, letting the cellar door fall back and lean against the wall. "Even without this farm, I'd find something to do out here. It's the only place I feel at home. It's the only place that's different from the rest of the kingdom."
And she was quiet once more, giving nothing more than a simple nod to acknowledge that she had heard him. As her gaze fell to her hands, she again fidgeted with her bare wrist. Seto also averted his gaze, looking forward as he crouched and jumped into the crawl space that he could barely stand in. Below the floor boards of his kitchen was a cellar where he kept all the things that needed to be kept cold. The room was lined with bricks for insulation, the floor however rounded to a drain where the melt-water would gather. While there wasn't too much ice held down here at the moment, it was usually stock piled with it for the preservation of his crops.
He took a short look around the room, making a mental reminder to bring a few barrels of water down to prepare to make more ice for the arriving harvest. He then stepped forward, grasping some of the chunks that lay scattered on the shelved wall. With that, he ascended back to the kitchen, climbing out and standing back up. He walked over to his stone sink, looking around for a cloth that he could wrap the ice in. The one he saw however was dirtied, so he walked out of the kitchen and into his small bedroom, grabbing one of his face washing clothes that he had hung to dry at some point. He placed the chunks of ice in that, wrapping it and returning to the kitchen where Kisara awaited him.
He walked forward, handing the ice to her. That's when she saw the cuts on his knuckles, causing her to hesitate. She looked up to his eyes, in which he rolled and just gestured again for her to take the ice. Again, she looked at his hand before reaching forward and taking hold of the makeshift ice bag. She then looked to her own wound, the bruises more prominent now that they had time to form. She placed the cloth on her arm and closed her eyes.
"Thank you, Seto. For putting up with me. Both now and yesterday." Her voice was calm, but sounded so sad.
"That's one way to put it." He went back to the cellar door, pulling it shut, and standing once again. "You don't have to thank me for doing something that anyone should do."
"But I've caused yet another interruption for your prayer… I feel as I should do something for you in return." She opened her eyes, locking her gaze with him yet again.
Just like before, he felt like he couldn't look away, trapped in place by her stare. "You don't owe me anything. Consider it an act of kindness… And don't worry about the prayer. I'll head there after I've gathered new produce and cleaned the bowl I use."
"Why not use the same ones?" She was curious. "Just because you dropped them doesn't mean they're tainted."
He felt a bit offended by her question. "I may not have extravagant displays for my offerings like yours were, but I don't want to give the Dragon of the South anything less than perfect quality. This prayer is important to me..."
But the more he spoke, the more he realized that he was probably saying what she felt about her own offerings. She had so many to offer up…. And yet the winds blew for the first time and put out the flames of her incense and denied her of her wish.
"I'm sorry..." She turned her head to face the door, refusing to look at him as she heard the disdain in his voice.
"No, I'm sorry…" He could finally look away, using this time to move the small cabinet back in place over the cellar door.
The room was left in a silence that was deafening to him at this point. He felt like he should say something, but didn't want his words to cause her any offense. Her prayer must have meant so much to her… So much that she came to the Southern Dragon's Shrine just to give an impressive offering. The furthest place in Atlantis, and she came just to give a prayer here.
"What was it…. That you prayed for?" As soon as he asked, it felt like the air was swept from his lungs and his mind filled with regret.
Slowly, he turned his head back to her, but she didn't look back to him. Instead, she stared out the window of the door, again gazing at his fields. A calm befell Seto as he realized she hadn't been paying attention to him. He could breathe again, and shook his head to rid himself of the thought.
"Your offerings were beautiful." It slipped off his tongue. "I guess… You could say I'm jealous of their display. I'm sorry for having a tone before..."
"Thanks… I—well..." She shook her head before turning back to face him and a small smile curving on her lips. "I thought no one else cared for the Southern Dragon's shrine… It's so much smaller than the other shrines, and there wasn't a single offering when I arrived… I wanted to show her that I care… I'll be honest, I was surprised that in all the time that I've been here visiting, you were the only person who came to offer any kind of prayer to her."
His gaze fell to the floor. "The only time anyone else goes to the shrine is right before the harvests. Everyone always prays that their harvest will be the greatest so they would be chosen by the royal family… Honestly, I fall into that selfish mass as well."
"You must care for something greater than that, to go more often though." She exhaled a deep breath. "'A good harvest, bountiful gain for the royal family, protection over my fields, and guidance for the coming years.' Those things you pray for… What about those are selfish? You weren't asking for riches, for the fame of the royal family's acknowledgment. You must have good morals to word things the way you do."
He snickered. "At least someone thinks so."
After that comment, he clenched and released a fist, feeling the cuts on his knuckles beginning to feel like they were scabbing over. He turned to the same cabinet that he had pushed away earlier, leaning down and opening it to rummage through. He found some bandages, and a vial of alcohol he used for clean wounds like these. It was one of the few things he could look back on and thank his father for preparing him for things like this.
"You'll get hurt sometimes. This may hurt to clean, but it'll be far worse if you let the wounds fester." The memory of his words played in his head.
But he quickly pushed the thought away as he closed the cabinet, and returned to the table where Kisara sat in the chair adjacent to. From the corner of the kitchen, he grabbed the second chair, the one that used to be Mokuba's seat, and pulled it over to join her at the table. Sitting, he unrolled the bandages, and bit the cork cap off the vile. He held the bandages over the top of the vile, holding it in place with his other hand before turning it upside, minimizing the amount of alcohol that poured from it. Once it started to soak through, he flipped the vile back to its resting position before scrunching the bandage in his hand to soak more of it.
As he started to wrap his hand, Kisara set down the cloth bag of ice and turned her whole body towards him. "Here, let me help."
Seto could only stare, but nodded as he held his hand forward to her. She removed what he had already wrapped, mimicking what he had already done to soak the bandages, but in a more delicate manner that both soaked the bandages more and didn't spill even a small dribble. After setting down the vile, she rubbed the soaked bandages in her hands, before clapping her hands together like she was about to preform a prayer. She even closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before finally wrapping up his hand.
His hand definitely burned, but the sensation was much warmer than he anticipated. "What was that all about?"
"It's what the healers in the city do." she giggled, continuing the wrap. "I know it's childish, but part of me always believed that even someone like me without magic could heal wounds faster if I did what they do."
"That is childish." He chuckled. "But there's nothing wrong with that. I was just curious."
"There." She finished bandaging his wound before sitting back against the chair, and resuming tending to her own bruises. "I don't think I mentioned before, but your home is beautiful, from the interior to the exterior. Your fields are graceful."
"I wouldn't call this shabby place beautiful." He wiggled his fingers, get a feel for how tight the bandages were. "But I do take pride in my fields, so I will take the compliment. You have my thanks."
With that said, a silence once again filled the room. Neither of them could figure out a thing to talk about. To fill the void, Seto cleaned up the left over bandages and the vile of alcohol. He'd have to buy some more to have ready for the next time he'd surely manage to get himself hurt. The vile was nearly empty at this point, but he still wanted to keep it where he'd remember it being.
As he finished up, a thought finally came to his mind, "So you're from the imperial city?"
"The Dragon's District to be specific..." For some reason, she didn't sound genuine when she answered. "Where all those who are more closely related to the first White Dragons are taken to."
The flaw in their city. Anyone one with even the smallest resemblance to the original white dragons was force from their homes to live in the imperial city's Dragon District. He had heard that it was littered with orphaned children, taken from their families at such a young age only to never see their families again. Sure, there were others around who would take care of them, especially being so high in status compared to the rest, but even they don't get the freedom of those in the lower classes. The King's will to keep the dragon's close to him would always trump the will of his people. It was his law. And opposing him was a lost cause.
"I'm sorry to hear..." He couldn't turn to face her knowing that fact, "I'm sorry to have asked."
"It's alright," her tone still seemed to waver. "I'm not bothered talking about it."
"It's taboo though..." Seto didn't want bad karma from speaking about it. "So what brings you to the Edge? So far away from the city?"
She closed her eyes, momentarily dreaming of her own desires. "To see the shrine, and experience what it feels like to be so far away from home for the first time. It took years to get my father to agree to letting me visit this place. He wasn't all too happy about it either."
"Your father?" He finally turned back around, leaning against the small cabinet.
"Well, he's not my birth father," she continued her tale, "but he's the father figure who took me in and raised me."
"Understandable… From what I hear, that's pretty common..." Seto fidgeted with his bandages. "I don't really understand why no one likes for the dragon bloods to go anywhere outside the kingdom walls. I've spent the majority of my life trying to stay outside the walls."
"So you don't much like the city either?" Kisara smiled up at him. "I'm glad I'm not the only one."
But hearing that was heart breaking. Every bone in his body felt sore knowing that she would never have the freedom that he had. Much like the others with dragon's blood. It was just like his mother, being forced away from her home to live as a servant for the princesses and the queens.
However, Seto did want to try to lighten the mood. "You mean you don't get tired of the white walls every where and the constant decor of silvers and gold?"
"Oh deary me, never!" The sarcastic tone made him chuckle.
"It's refreshing to meet someone from the city with an actual personality." Seto sighed. "It seems like everyone else is so prim, proper, and holds themselves so high. I won't lie, I was intimidated by you at first. But… You're odd. In a good way?"
"Odd in a good way." She repeated again, looking rather confused by Seto's choice of words. "Are you always so forward?"
"Not in the slightest. But I find it rather easy to talk to you." His eyes met the floor. "We probably met in a past life. If I had to guess, that would probably be why I'm comfortable talking to you. I've never felt the connection to anyone else."
Kisara held her tongue for a moment before averting her eyes. "There's always a chance."
As Seto looked back at Kisara, he face was rather flushed. "How's your arm?"
"Hm?" She must have been in a daze again. "Oh, it's alright. It doesn't actually hurt. I don't want to have to explain this to my escorts. They're over protective..."
"And yet they let you about by yourself?" Seto snickered. "Did they let your wander or did you run off?"
The mischievous expression as she raised her brows said enough. "I may have bribed one of them..."
Seto snickered, liking this girl even more.
"Speaking of… I should probably get back to them…" Kisara turned a bit in her seat and handed back the cloth of now melting ice. "Seto, I thank you again for today. I hope I didn't cause you too much trouble."
"Not at all," he pushed himself forward as to no longer be leaning. "Why don't you keep that. I'll at least walk you back as far as you want. I'm sure your escorts won't take to kindly to you running off and showing up with some guy."
Kisara took it into consideration. "Why don't you walk me to the shrine? You still need to do your prayer after all. Two birds, one stone."
It was pretty logical. "Two birds, one stone. Alright, let me just gather what I need for the offering."