Prompt # 09

Concubine

Karin lived her days consumed by a fierce hate for the world – a world so unfair that had forced her to live each of her moments in a state of heartache.

Throughout her childhood, as she had grown up, she had thought that she would have the perfect life. She had been betrothed upon her birth to the Emperor's youngest son. Her family were part of the Imperial inner circle and though her father would have preferred a boy to carry on his line, Karin was made useful in her marriage contract.

Karin had grown from a child to a young woman and had known that the hand of the second in line to the throne would be hers. She had married him as expected and she was content.

She had always been an ambitious woman and she had eyed the older brother of her husband as an obstacle at first – had he not been in the way then she would have been guaranteed a place as Empress in the future. She had almost mentioned it to her husband – her mind forming the perfect way to clear the path to the throne – but she saw how much her husband idolised his brother and so she held her tongue.

Karin silently despaired at the fact that her husband lacked the drive to do whatever it took to get forward in life. She had been raised from a young age with her father's lessons in her mind – no matter how much blood needed to be shed it was worth it to ensure wealth and social prosperity.

Regardless, Karin taught herself to settle for what she had – she was almost at the pinnacle after all and so could satisfy herself in the knowledge that she would want for nothing.

Karin could even ignore how her husband did not speak to her unless necessary and how she never saw him outside of their bedchambers. Karin could ignore a lot of the negatives in her life because she was where she wanted to be.

What Karin could not ignore – what nobody could ignore – was how a year went by and there no sign of a child growing in her womb.

As the second son of the Emperor the child she carried for her husband would likely never grace the throne, but it was crucial for her husband to have a line of his own. For the first time in her life, things did not go in Karin's favour.

It was expected therefore when her husband took a concubine and it killed Karin inside.

Had it just been a means to ensuring her husband's heir then she could have overlooked it, but it was not. While she had been betrothed to her husband from a young age, all the details ironed out by their parent, this woman had been chosen by her husband.

The woman with the green eyes and cherry blossom hair had been her husband's choice… something she never was herself.

Karin heard rumours from the servants in the palace – how her husband had grown up with the girl and had spent happy childhoods together. Had the girl's social ranking been just a little higher than her birth dictated, then they would likely have been married.

Karin hated the woman for this reason.

Her husband's mistress was gentle and kind and the people who dwelled in the palace all spoke of her in glowing utterances.

Karin loathed her for this reason.

But what Karin could not abide, what she absolutely detested was that her husband, the silent man whom she barely ever saw, hardly left that woman's side.

Karin would glimpse them walking together in the gardens of the palace and there would always be a smile on her husband's face. A smile he had never given his wife.

Karin reviled the fact that this woman who was so much below her had everything that Karin was due.

Barely two months had passed before the woman was declared with child. After that moment Karin seldom saw her husband. He was always with her and had even taken to sleeping away from his marital bedchambers.

Karin's life crumbled each day as she saw the concubine's stomach growing. She wished for horrible things, thoughts that were unbidden and that she would never utter aloud. Wishes for the pregnancy to falter, for the woman to be a failure as woman in the same that Karin had failed. She wished for her husband to return to her side, and she wold not care if her never spoke or looked at her, just as long as he was hers.

It was not to be however, and the woman reached the end of her pregnancy with no complications and was the picture of health. And just to twist the knife a little deeper, the pink haired girl gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Karin watched from the shadows as her husband hovered protectively over his new family. There was emotion in his eyes that Karin had never seen before.

Karin's heart hardened and melted all at once.

It was that very same evening when Karin was walking past the Emperor's chambers and heard her husband's voice within. She paused and listened as her husband asked his father to elevate his concubine's status.

Karin's heart clenched. Her husband was opening up the path to marry the mother of his child and where would that leave her? Divorce was a great dishonour and Karin would not – could not – allow it.

Her feet carried her to the room where the new mother and baby slumbered.

Karin stood over them, her eyes glaring down at the woman who had stolen all she had ever wanted. A discarded pillow lay beside the bed and before Karin knew what she was doing, the downy object was clutched in to her hands and hovering above the woman who was going to replace her.

Karin's breathing grew harsh as she lowered the pillow but her hands were stilled by a quiet snuffling sound.

Karin's eyes shot to the side and she spotted the bundle resting in a small bassinette. She moved away from the cause of her heartache and approached her husband's – but not hers – child. The child was wriggling in his bed and Karin observed him with an odd sort of detachment.

She felt nothing towards this child; no hate, no love, nothing.

He looked exactly like her husband and for that reason Karin's hands dropped the pillow back to the floor. She recalled the joy she had seen in her husband's face – joy caused by the two slumbering figures in the room.

She did not want to destroy that.

Even though it was not reciprocated, Karin cared for her husband. This one bond in her life that had manifested in to love was the reason Karin left the room and went back to her chambers silently, all thoughts of revenge having flown from her mind.

It was the reason she took up one of her husband's decorative daggers in her hands and knelt on the floor.

Karin was angry with the world, but she loved her husband an so she would free the path to his happiness. Even if that meant removing herself from his future completely.

So a fic in which Sasuke and Sakura technically didn't appear anyone?

It was interesting to write this and even I felt a little bad for Karin by the end!

I did some reading on the roles of concubines and it was quite interesting how many rights some cultures gave them.

Thanks for the reviews, your feedback means a lot. The next chapter of Echoes is nearly ready to upload so hopefully that will be up tomorrow.

Until next time!