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Chapter Six: Solsday
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Kyr Merin opened the front door just in time to hear his younger son's outraged yell. He quickly hurried to the room, but stopped short just outside the doorway. If looks could kill, Kain would currently be a smear on wooden floor, judging by the death glare Jaeden was giving his older brother from the raised perch of his bed. Clenched in one of Jaeden's fists was a soaking wet cloth, and his face and golden bangs were also wet. Between that and Kain's uproarious laughter, it was obvious that Jaeden's rude awakening had been caused by the cloth being unceremoniously dropped on his face.

With an aggravated scowl, Jaeden threw the cloth at Kain. Kyr noted with amusement that his son aim was quite good—the cloth scored a direct hit on Kain's head. However, it was probably time to intervene.

"Boys, what's going on here?" he asked with affected sternness.

His sons both looked up immediately, surprised. As a rule, he was rarely angry, unless they had been disobedient or had lied to him. After a moment, the expression in Kain's eyes shifted from confusion to comprehension. Despite his best efforts, Kyr had never been able to maintain a straight face for very long. The side of his mouth twitched in an attempt to suppress his smile.

"I was merely waking Jaeden up, father," Kain said before Jaeden could marshal his thoughts.

"Indeed? With a refreshing, healthy dose of cold water?"

Kain ducked his head momentarily to hide a smile of his own from Jaeden, who had since leapt down from his bed to the floor. "Yes, father. The day has already begun, but he was still sleeping."

"But it's Solsday!" Jaeden protested weakly, knowing Kain had already won the unspoken argument Kyr was listening to. Jaeden relished his sleep, making it a chore to convince him to leave his bed on any morning. Kain always had this responsibility, and to make it easier on him Kyr had given him permission to use whatever means needed to wake Jaeden up. Kyr regarded his sons carefully for a moment, considering the judgment that this particular situation merited.

"Jaeden," he said at last, "the sun's rising gives Kain cause to wake you, although his manner was... unorthodox. Since you're awake now, make your bed and prepare for the rest of the day. Kain, find Jaeden breakfast, then let him tag along wherever it is that you decide to go today. It's time for my "night's" sleep and I don't need any similar disturbances."

Both boys nodded obediently and went about their assigned tasks. Kyr always took his chances to rest seriously, because the time of his next opportunity was never a given thing. Accident or illness often conspired to leave a watchpost empty, and if no other replacement could be found then he was the one to take the absent guard's place.

He had, in fact, been doing that last night. Saidi Serden, Mayor Drion's eldest son and a recent addition to the guards, had managed to injure himself in an overenthusiastic sparring match yesterday. Kyr sighed as he entered the bedroom he and Renée shared. Though 21, Saidi still possessed an impetuousness that would one day be his downfall. As an excellent bowman, he was a welcome addition to the guards, but he definitely lacked maturity and wisdom. Which was why Kyr had spent the past 24 hours franticallyrevising the guard shifts schedule, and then standing in for Saidi on the boy's nighttime shift when there were no other options available.

He didn't blame the lad, not when he was so eager to prove himself, but Kyr hoped that Saidi would quickly learn that respect would come in time, not immediately. He would expose himself to too many dangerous risks if he continued on his current path. Kyr shook his head as he placed his sheathed sword in a corner of the room. The energy of youth could not make up for the rashness that usually accompanied it.

Determinedly banishing all thoughts of Saidi and of his duties from his thoughts, Kyr changed out of his grimy clothes and climbed into bed. He smiled at Renée, who still slept despite Jaeden's outcry and Kain's laughter, and thought to himself for the umpteenth time that he was the luckiest man in the world. Renée understood his devotion to the town, and never complained about his odd working hours or frequent absences. He loved her with all his heart, and even though he could never deserve her, she loved him in return. He lay down beside her beneath the blankets and gave a sigh of complete contentment.

Everything was perfect.

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Kain tapped his foot impatiently against the wooden floor as he waited for Jaeden to finish getting ready. Finally, he emerged from the back of the house, raking his fingers through his golden-blonde locks. He wolfed down his breakfast as Kain retrieved their training swords from their room.

"What's today's plan?" Jaeden asked as he stuck his sword through his belt. Kain did likewise.

"First we'll see if Erik's awake yet," Kain said.

Jaeden grinned mischievously as they shut the front door behind them. "I wanna wake him up!"

"Knowing him, you won't get the chance to," Kain replied.

Indeed, Erik was already up and in his father's library by the time Jaeden and Kain arrived. Mayor Drion's library was the largest in Ryven, and filled an entire room in the house. When not training (or attending the town school), Erik could usually be found reading in one of the large, overstuffed chairs in the middle of the room. The brothers entered to find him engrossed in a book on astronomy. Jaeden shook his head at the studiousness of his best friend. It was Solsday, by the Creator, and Erik was reading!

Well, if he couldn't wake Erik up, then at least he could try to scare him. Books were one of Erik's worst weaknesses—usually he was too alert for Jaeden to sneak up behind him, but when his nose got stuck in a book he lost that particular sense of awareness. Taking full advantage of this knowledge, Jaeden crept up behind the chair Erik occupied, took a deep breath, and then proceeded to yell directly into his friend's ear.

The reaction was, as always, priceless. The book flew majestically through the air and landed with a loud thump among a heap of others, while Erik himself half-jumped and half-fell out of his chair. By that time, he had re-gathered his scattered wits and shifted into a defensive position against his unknown assailant. However, said assailant was laughing so hard that he had to use the chair to support himself.

With a sigh, Erik straightened and waited for Jaeden to calm down. "Morning, Kain," he said amiably. "Enjoy the sunrise?"

"Hey, how did you know?"

"You land right above my bedroom when you jump on the roof, you know. You're too heavy to land without making noise now."

"Oh. Sorry." Kain smiled sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. Jaeden, are you done yet?" Erik added, glancing at his friend. With great effort, Jaeden managed to pull himself together. As he did, the door opened and Dyani stuck her head in.

"Erik, is som'n laughing in here?" she asked, the last vestiges of sleep still clinging to her causing her to mumble slightly.

"You missed Jaeden startling Erik, Di," Kain said. "So yes, Jaeden was laughing his head off until just now."

"Oh." Dyani went and sat in the chair Erik had recently vacated and looked at the boys expectantly. "So, what're we doing today?"

Jaeden and Erik exchanged glances. Dyani was great, as girls went, since she didn't make a fuss over perfectly normal things like bugs and getting dirty, but she was still a little sister. The unwritten Code of Older Brothers (And Friends) stated that little sisters were supposed to be teased mercilessly or ordered away, neither of which worked very well on her. The code could only be ignored to certain extent, or the two boys would be the ridicule of their schoolfellows. It was bad enough that they tolerated her as much as they did.

Before either boy could come to a conclusion about what to do with her, a whispered exchange passed between Kain and Dyani, and Kain spoke. "You two interested in a friendly duel?"

"What?!" Jaeden exclaimed incredulously. "Two against one? You wouldn't last a minute against us!"

"No!" Dyani interrupted sharply. "You two against the two of us."

Erik eyed his sister with equal incredulity. Sure, he had seen her practice with a staff occasionally, but not anytime recently... "You think you can match us?"

"Come on, Erik," Jaeden said. "Let's do it!"

Erik nodded and the two Serdens retrieved their respective training weapons from their rooms, then met Jaeden and Kain in their rear yard. Like most, it was dry, packed dirt with a perimeter of grass and other plants.

"Sudden Death?" Erik asked.

"Yes," Kain replied. Any hit to the torso would "kill" the "wounded" person, forcing him or her to sit out for the remainder of the duel. Whichever team lost both members first would be the loser. The two teams squared off against each other and without ceremony their duel began.

At first, Kain and Dyani possessed the upper hand, with Kain launching the main offensive and Dyani attacking wherever she found an opening. Jaeden and Erik were forced to remain defensive, and each received several cuts and bruises on various limbs from a successful hit. Kain and Dyani remained relatively unscathed.

However, as he observed his sister while fending Kain off, Erik noticed that she was becoming overaggressive and occasionally leaving herself unprotected. He considered thee likelihood of success of various plans of action, anfeventually concluded that there was only one way for he and Jaeden to win, and he didn't like it much. However, he was slowly tiring, and knew that Jaeden was worse at conserving his energy the Erik was himself. With a mental sigh, he waited for the most opportune moment to execute his plan.

Within a few minutes, that moment came. Dyani, impatient to win, overextended her staff in an attempt to perform a Dual-hit maneuver, a somewhat complicated staff move above her level of skill. She moved too slowly in its execution, which allowed Erik to break off from parrying Kain sword and stab her in the side with the blunted tip of his own wooden sword.

By doing so, Erik left Jaeden alone and outmatched, and Kain was able to immediately disarm and "kill" him. Before Kain could turn to do the same to him, however, Erik hastily ducked and swung his sword upwards and across, hitting Kain in the lower torso in a movement that would have probably have slit open Kain's abdomen had they been fighting with real weapons. A second later, Erik's sword was on the ground and he would soon have a nice bruise on his side, but it was too late. He and Jaeden had won.

Kain stared at Erik for a moment, his gray-green eyes full of shocked disbelief. Then the older boy whipped off the fastest loser's salute Erik had ever seen and disappeared over the low fence into the town streets. Still somewhat stunned himself that his plan had worked, Erik turned to where Jaeden and Dyani were picking themselves up off of the ground.

"I can't believe you did that!" Jaeden cried. "You let him kill me!"

"It was the only way for us to win. I didn't want to, Jaeden, honest."

Jaeden relented at Erik's earnestness. Erik wasn't one to lie, and his reasoning made sense. "All right, if you say so. Ha ha, we win!" he gloated, punching the air with a fist and doing a wiggling victory dance that looked ridiculous. Dyani growled and poked him in the ribs, causing him to quickly retreat out of her reach, since he was extremely ticklish. As he did, he finally noticed Kain's absence. "Where'd Kain go?"

With a shrug, Erik pointed in the direction Kain had gone. "He ran off that way. It was weird. You should probably go after him, Jae."

"Aw, he can take care of himself."

"You missed seeing his face. Besides, Kain isn't one to do something like that, you know?"

Jaeden nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I better see what's wrong with him. See you later." He hoisted himself over the fence was lost to sight.

Erik then turned to Dyani, who was leaning despondently against her staff. "You know why you guys lost?"

"Yeah. I messed up," she said miserably. "Kain's gonna hate me."

"No, he won't, Di," Erik said as they returned inside. "Do you know why I got you?"

"No." She sat in one of the large chairs in the library and pulled her knees up to her chin.

"You left yourself open, for one. And two, you tried to do a move in a fight that you haven't practiced enough to know. Only use something in a fight when you know it by heart."

"That easy for you to say!" Dyani bristled. "You get trained by Master Kyr himself. I've only been taught little bits of staff-fighting by Kain, and he's learning sword-fighting."

"And that's all you'll be taught, Dyani," interrupted a new voice. Liessa Serden stood in the doorway, frowning severely at her daughter. "Ladies don't fight. That's for the men. Since you have so much unusedtime, I've decided it's time that you learn proper woman's work."

"But mother—"

"No buts, young lady," Liessa said sternly. "We'll start today, to keep you out of any more mischief. Now you go wash up and change out of Erik's old clothes. It's a mystery how you ever got hold of them in the first place. Come to the kitchen when you're done and you can help me make midday."

Knowing better than to protest further, Dyani reluctantly obeyed. Liessa also bustled off to her work, leaving Erik alone in the library once more. With nothing else to occupy his time, he retrieved his book on astronomy and returned to reading.

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Jaeden spent the remainder of the day searching off and on for Kain, but no one could give him very helpful information towards his brother's whereabouts. He even checked their house several times, though he refrained from telling his mother about Kain's disappearance. His father, fortunately, had at first still been asleep and then had already left for his next watch, so he didn't question Jaeden about why he wasn't with Kain.

Eventually, Jaeden came to the conclusion that his brother had either disappeared off the Continent, become invisible, or changed his choice of solitude multiple times throughout the day. Since the first two choices weren't physically possible, he was forced to admit to the third, which was merely irritating instead of ridiculous.

Just as the sun began to disappear behind the trees, Jaeden decided to recheck one last possibility. Returning to Erik's house, he entered the rear yard and hoisted himself up polished wood of the flagpole.

There, lying on the slopped roof with his hands behind his head and his sword at his side, was Kain. He remained silent as Jaeden sat down beside him, ignoring the blonde in favor of watching the changing colors of the sky.

"Kain..."

"I shouldn't have lost, Jae," Kain said abruptly. "I've had five more years of training than you and Erik. If I can't beat you, how can I protect you? And I know your going to say that you don't want my protection, or something like that, but you're honestly pretty awful with a sword, Jaeden. You've got a long way to go before you'll be dangerous with one." He paused, but continued before Jaeden could respond. "It's my duty to protect you and mother when father's on watch. I wanted to prove that I could. And failed."

Jaeden sighed to himself. "Erik got a lucky strike in at you, and Dyani isn't exactly the best person to have as a teammate. Besides, like father says all the time, it's okay to lose in practice, as long as you learn to not lose that way in a real fight."

"Mm." Kain continued to stare upwards at the sky.

With nothing else to say, Jaeden joined him and together the two silently watched the sky darken. Below them, lamplighters lit the watchlamps which lined the streets and shops began their closing routines. Finally, Kain stood.

"Come on, let's go home," he said. "Dinner should be about ready."

When they reached their house, Jaeden stopped Kain in front of their front door. "I didn't tell mom that you disappeared today."

He was rewarded with a brief smile of gratitude from Kain before they went inside.

Dinner was still cooking, so after greeting their mother Kain and Jaeden went to clean up. As they did, Jaeden asked Kain a question that had been bothering him for most of the day.

"Where were you today? I looked everywhere."

"I spent some time out at the river, and just walking around town, then went back to the roof of Erik's house."

"Oh. So what do we tell mom?"

"That we went to Erik's. It's the truth."

"Ah." Kain had at some point learned the art of speaking selectively, something Jaeden had not yet ever managed to do well.

Jaeden finished cleaning up and arranged his books for school the next day. Finding a mathematics problem that remained unfinished, in a bout of uncharacteristic scholarliness he applied himself to calculating the correct answer. The unusual day had put him off of his normal evening pursuits, and he wanted something to occupy himself besides staring at the wall.

At last, Renée called that dinner was ready and the three sat down to eat. Jaeden ate silently, allowing Kain to talk and answer her questions about their day. When they finished, he and Kain began to clean up. Their mother had been emphatic that her sons learn how to take care of themselves, since, as she always said, there was no telling how long it would be before they found women who would put up with them.

Just as Jaeden handed Kain a cup to put away in one of the cabinets, a sound caused the cup to slip from his suddenly nerveless fingers and hit the floor with a sharp thud. The guardtower alarm bells were ringing wildly. Now that he was listening, the unmistakable sounds of fighting could now be heard outside, and the crackle of fire accompanied shouts of triumph and cries of terror.

Instantly, Renée reacted by barring the front door with the heavy wooden crossbar and dashing into the back of the house to do the same to the rear door. Kain grabbed Jaeden's wrist and followed her after pulling something away from where it was secured beneath the wide lip of the wooden countertop.

They appeared at the opening of the small hallway between the bedrooms leading to the back door just as it slammed inwards. Renée gave a small scream of fear and stumbled back towards where the two boys stood, unmoving.

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AN: Cliffhanger! ::runs behind barricade constructed against angry fans:: Please don't kill me! I gave you an extra-long chapter to make up for it! ::watches statement fail to appease:: Ah, nurn. Well, anyway, that was more of the lives of the Ryven group. Please, tell me what you think! (Reviews give inspiration, which means a quicker update.)

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Reviewer thanks:

neoqueen: Glad you liked it.

PyroChic: Well, there's your answer... and I'm honored that you like my descriptions.

Ele: The city of Moire is the site of the next chapter. I hope I can expand on it more then. Just... don't kill me for not finishing the Ryven scenes first, ne?

Ishi: Hurrah, another long review! I love being given comments about what I can do better in the story. Chapter 5a has been edited, just for you ;).

Baughb: The wizard-elf likes it! Huzzah!

Dannee-san: I'm so glad you're coming back for more! Hope you enjoyed this installment, and I'll be trying to clarify the plot and history more as I go on.

TK: As you demand, oh Queen of Kats... more story for you to enjoy.

Meeeeeeee....!!!: Hah! I have my review! Grati! ::hug::

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Thank you all! And to everyone else, review! A minute of your time to make the author ecstatically happy to know that someone's reading her work.

Until next time,

Ocianne

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