Disclaimer: I own nothing except original characters, like Mali.

A/N: Well, here's your chapter! I hope you guys like it. Next chapter, the first character besides Amiti, Karis, and Ivan shows up! Hope you like it! Solblade44 has suggested Stormshipping for a ship name for this, and I think it works pretty well, lol.

Solblade44 – Thanks, glad you like it! And I like Stormshipping, thanks for the idea! Would add it to the summary, but there's no room.

Anne Iriel Devay – Haha, well, he is over 30 so unless he's Lemurian or something, it would be kind of weird. Poor Eoleo, he doesn't get shipped. Unless you count pirate ships, but…gah, I'm making no sense. Yes, Sveta will show up in a bit, when everyone else shows up. Thanks for the review and for your support. And I know what you mean about Matt/Sveta, there's just something about being willing to go die with another person, haha…Lensshipping for the two of them then?

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A Different Kind of Storm

CHAPTER 5

Discovery

XxXxX

Steam rose off the top of his bath that night, wisps of vapor clinging to the surface of the water before drifting off and hovering around the room. He leaned back, his mind quietly going over the day's events. It had been a trying day, all things considered. Giving both Ivan and Karis separate tours of the palace had been the highlight.

"You wished to speak to me, Your Majesty?" called a voice from beyond the curtains that separated the bath from the rest of the room. Amiti paused for a moment before acknowledging the speaker.

"Mali," he said at last, his tone neutral.

"Yes?" asked the old woman.

"…What were you thinking, giving Karis that dress?"

He hadn't lied to Karis when he said that it didn't matter to him whether or not she wore it. That part was true. It didn't matter, not to him. What mattered—what had surprised him—was the distinct message that the dress gave out. Karis didn't know it, but Mali hadn't just picked out any simple dress of Veriti's, she had picked out the one dress saturated with symbols of Ayuthay's royal line.

A dress normally only worn by a princess.

Or a queen.

"Lady Karis is a most interesting woman," said the maid. She paused for a moment, and even though she stood behind thick curtains and he had his back to her, Amiti could almost see the change in her expression as she dropped the façade of subservience and picked up almost effortlessly the motherly face she wore when he was younger and she had been his nurse. "…I've seen the way you look at her."

Amiti stared down at the surface of the water. It seemed to ripple outward, light from the torches that hung around the room flickering over its clear surface as it moved in controlled ripples. The lights danced, reminding him of the lights strung up around the throne room that night. He remembered kneeling to the ground, the stone cool against the thin fabric of his ceremonial robe as he bowed his head. His advisor stood over him, and he felt the crown's cool metal descend, its weight resting on him. He remembered his advisor's hand on his shoulder as he bid him rise, remembered the roar of cheers rushing through the crowd as he did.

"Long live King Amiti!"

"Hail King Amiti!"

And he turned and acknowledged the crowd, saw his friends standing at the forefront of the sea of faces. Matthew beaming up at him like a proud friend. Sveta standing at his side, a smile on her face and her clawed hands coming together in enthusiastic applause. Tyrell beside him, waving and cheering so loudly that Amiti thought for a moment that he would fall over. Himi standing with her hands clasped demurely in front of her, but smiling sweetly up at him as her red eyes danced. Rief cheering and clapping, his glasses so far down the bridge of his nose that they were almost falling off. Eoleo grinning from ear to ear, looking like his kid brother had just learned to sail for the first time. Hou Ju and Ryu Kou [1] smiling, waving, cheering…

And then there was Karis.

She stood behind Rief, a smile on her face, her green hair hanging unbound around her shoulders for once as she clapped her hands. She looked up at him, her violet eyes aglow with pride. He looked at her, met her eyes, and smiled back, and his heart leapt when he saw her eyes light up. Suddenly it seemed like all the lights in the room dimmed. She held his gaze for a moment before her mouth moved, echoing the crowd's chants.

Long live the king…

He swallowed. He hadn't realized that his mouth was dry as he looked away from the water, knowing that Mali was still waiting for an answer. If he thought about then, it hurt.

"…Karis has made it quite clear that she is not interested," he said, his tone neutral. "I'd thank you not to interfere."

"If you say so, my king," said Mali.

"I do."

He waited for her to say something further. Only when his bathwater had cooled and he rose did he realize that she had left the room.

XxXxX

The reception hall was empty now, although it was still as grand as it had been during coronation night. Standing at the center of the vast stone floor, staring at the room around her, Karis could almost see it the way it had been then. The windows hadn't been completely fixed yet, but Ayuthay wore its battle scars with pride, just like its king. Dignitaries and court members had twirled across the floor—lights strung up around the room as the band played.

Tyrell and Eoleo were well past drunk, and Tyrell was currently working up strategies to get a pretty court lady to dance with him while Eoleo looked on in amusement. Matthew and Sveta stood by one of the windows, conversing softly. Rief and Himi were talking as well. Rief's cheeks were strangely colored, and Karis found herself wondering if somebody had mixed up his drinks. It was the sort of prank Tyrell would play. She stood at the edge of the room then, beside one of the empty windows, a delicate wineglass balanced in her hand.

The main celebrant had managed to slip out of the room amid all the revelry. Karis remembered looking up and watching him slip out the door, dressed in his ceremonial white coronation robe. She remembered looking up across the room to see Matthew and Sveta looking up at her, remembered seeing Matthew incline his head briefly towards the door. She walked towards it now the same way she had in her memory, taking a moment to rest her hand on its cool stone surface.

…If she hadn't followed him…

She closed her eyes. He was standing on a balcony overlooking Lake Barai, an empty glass dangling precariously from his hand. His cheeks were flushed—she remembered Tyrell and Eoleo enthusiastically offering toasts, ranging from the coherent "To the new king!" to the less sensible "To the best hair at the party!". If it wasn't for the flush on his cheeks and the slight unsteadiness of his posture, though, it would have almost been impossible to tell.

Lanterns floated on the surface of the lake. If she kept her eyes closed, she could see them. Many-colored lanterns, lighting up the city. Each one bore on it a name.

Very, very few were from Ayuthay. Paithos and a handful of guards had been the city's only casualties, and the throne room had been above ground even then. But the delegates had brought them—Passaj, Harapa, Champa, Morgal, Sana. She remembered standing there earlier with Eoleo as he floated a single solitary lantern for Briggs, then didn't say a word about it afterwards. Remembered letting Morgal's queen turn towards her and press her face into her shoulder for a moment as Volochek's small lantern joined the crowd. Remembered Hou Ju and Ryu Kou standing huddled together, a single lantern for Hou Zan drifting over the lake.

Remembered Amiti as he set his lantern down—remembered for a moment the look of grief and disbelief on his face as Paithos's lantern moved to the center of the lake. She remembered reaching out a hand, wanting to reach out and hold onto his shoulder, wanting to pick up the pieces, wanting to do something, anything, to make that grief go away. But before she could, Ayuthay's king was standing, shuttering his emotions quickly behind the masking expression he had been wearing since the ceremony as he turned away and allowed others to approach.

Her fingers had touched him then on the balcony, wrapping around his shoulder as she stood next to him, overlooking the lake.

"He would be proud…"

She remembered the way he stiffened beneath her touch, his breath catching for just a moment, before it was gone and he was King Amiti again, his eyes fixed on the lake's glittering surface. And she remembered leaning closer, wanting to do anything to help, wishing that this was a wound that she could heal.

Remembered the way he suddenly pulled away and turned towards her, his green eyes burning as he looked at her. Remembered his breath on her face, the taste of fine wine on her lips, the delicate wineglass falling to the ground and shattering. Remembered her hand on his shoulder—tentative, unsure whether or not she should push him away. Remembered the railing at her back, remembered his right arm hooked around her as his left hand gently traced her face.

She remembered his fingers trembling across her cheek as he pulled away, looking down at her with clouded eyes, his mouth still an inch from hers.

"…Stay…"

The word was enough to shake her to her senses, her fingers finally closing around his shoulder as she pushed outward softly, staring at him with wide eyes. He looked down at her for a moment before his eyes darkened and he stepped back, walking to the other end of the balcony. He stood there and watched her, his expression remote, his eyes not really looking at her, all the pain shuttered away behind his expression again.

Karis swallowed, her mouth dry as she turned and headed, not back into the reception hall, but to her own room.

Because she couldn't—couldn't stay with him…

"Everything alright?"

Karis jumped at the sound of the voice, spinning around quickly to see her father standing there, looking at her with a concerned expression on his face. Her own face was a bright red, her heart beating madly in her chest as she took a deep breath. She sincerely hoped her father wasn't using Mind Read.

"I—uh—yes!" she said. "You scared me."

"Sorry," said Ivan. "…You seemed a little upset about something, Karis."

Karis shook her head. "I was just thinking about the coronation," she said. "The reception was in here."

"I see," said Ivan. He looked around the room. "I don't think I've heard you talk about the coronation. Anything interesting happen?"

Karis studied his face, trying to decide if he knew or not. She couldn't tell. Reading her father sometimes was like trying to read glyphs without the Glyph Book—indecipherable and time-consuming.

"The…the usual," she said with a quick smile. "Tyrell got drunk and made a fool of himself. Matthew stood in the corner more or less. Someone spiked Rief's drinks." She shrugged, gesturing vaguely in the air.

"What did you do?" asked Ivan, smiling faintly at her.

"I—." She faltered for a moment. "I…uh…stood here."

"…Stood here?" asked Ivan.

"Uh…well, I danced a bit, but Tyrell kept stepping on my feet, and…um…I had one drink—one!—and…I talked to Amiti for a little, but that was about it." She took a deep breath, knowing that she was digging herself further into a hole with each word she said. "I'm going to go look at the other rooms now."

She turned towards the door and pushed it open. Ivan followed her into the hallway.

"There aren't any," he said.

Karis blinked at him. "Any other rooms?" she asked.

Ivan nodded, gesturing at the next door, the one that stood at the end of the hallway. By her estimates, Karis had gotten through about a third of the palace today—the entire central area. She had been inching her way towards the west wing since then. The door marked the border between this part of the palace and the next.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "The palace is a lot bigger than this."

He frowned and walked over to the door. Karis followed him, letting him open it. Her eyes widened. From this side of the door, the palace was clean and well-repaired, but the other side of the door was strewn with wreckage. The windows had been replaced, but that was about it. They had not been cleaned since their replacement, and the inside looked just like it had after the Grave Eclipse. Completely untouched. There weren't even construction crews working to restore it.

"W-What—?" she asked.

"I spoke to one of the guards," said Ivan. "Apparently, Amiti decided that the palace only needed to be functional and livable for now. The construction crew's efforts were better spent rebuilding the town."

She turned, thinking back to what she had seen when she first walked around town today. A few buildings were still undergoing construction and repairs, and the people worked hard. She had thought then that it was too bad they couldn't all live in the palace, which was finished. She hadn't thought…

"Why do I need three wings when I'm the only one living here? I don't need a palace when my people don't have houses." said Ivan. "…Those were his exact words, according to the guards." He frowned. "It can't have been an easy decision. The west wing was where he lived as a child."

Her fingers brushed a layer of grime from the wall, her eyes still wide. She didn't ask him where he had gotten that information. Mind Read was useful—she had experienced first hand (through Sveta) just how useful and terrifying it could be. She looked at the hallway, at the ripped tapestries and broken statues. She could almost imagine Amiti as a child running up and down the halls, some all-suffering nursemaid chasing after him.

Typical Amiti. For all of his "high standards", he would still refuse to live in luxury while his people were out in the cold. Her fingers made tracks in the dust as she pulled away from the wing, closing the door to it and its memories behind her. Ivan watched her, his expression unreadable.

"…Do you want to look at the library, Dad?" she asked after a while. "…I think I'm finished looking around."

He nodded, and she followed him towards the library, her thoughts twisting and turning as she tried to make sense of everything.

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[1] Hou Ju and Ryu Kou – Prince and princess of Sana. Matthew and party saves Hou Ju at the same time as they save Eoleo, and Ryu Kou travels with them for a while. Neither are Adepts.