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Rainfall on Judgment Day
Chapter 4
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past
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"Truly?" Sain blinked, looked from Kent to Lyndis and back to Kent again. He set his glass down on the desk with more force than he intended, barely regarded the loud chink as it met the wood. "How could this happen?"
"We did not mean for it to, Sain," the younger man said. He lowered his hand until it remained fisted against his side. "Do you think we wanted it?"
"But surely," Sain began, "surely you—the both of you!—realized what could have happened when you…" he let the end of his sentence trail off. "And for the two of you to do such a thing in the first place—unthinkable!"
Lady Lyndis spoke, her voice low and calm despite the pleading look in her eyes. "But it happened, Sain, and now we are paying for it."
Sain simply looked at her. "Lady Lyndis!"
"Please, Sain," Kent said, and Sain was taken aback by the pleading tone in his friend's voice; Kent never pleaded, never begged, never asked for anything even if his own life was at stake, and yet now… "Please. We have no one else to turn to now but you."
"No one but me?" he asked, the words coming out far sharper than he had intended. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "What about Wil?" he said softly, turned and looked at Lady Lyndis. "Dame Florina?"
The lady of Caelin shook her head. "They wouldn't understand," she said, Even her eyes pleaded with him, asking him to understand.
His attempt at calming himself down was futile; he crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to quell the anger that was slowly building inside him. "And you expect me to?" Could they not see the seriousness of what they had done?
"Of course!" Kent ran a hand through his hair frantically. "You're always spouting nonsense of following your heart and fighting for love and how in the end true love will conquer all barriers. And I'm sure that you and Dame Fiora—I mean, how could you not? That is all we did, and yet you condemn us for it?"
That was it; Sain felt something within him snap, and for the first time he could remember Sain felt the urge to cause Kent physical harm. Instead he glared at the younger man. "I am courting Dame Fiora with the respect and dignity she deserves—I would never think of touching her before the wedding night, with or without her consent. But you…" He shook his head in disgust, glanced at Lady Lyndis quickly out of the corner of his eye quickly before looking back at Kent. "To justify your actions in such a way is simply disgusting; there's no other word for it."
"You think I do not respect Lyndis?" The color was rising in Kent's face now, ears already bright red as he returned Sain's glare, voice rising in volume as his skin became steadily more and more flushed. "You think that I do not care for her?"
"And so you use your feelings for her as even more evidence that what you did was not wrong, as if she were not a lady of noble birth but the pagan whore Lundgren had said she was?"
Kent clenched his jaw tightly, and Sain could see a vein beginning to pulse visibly in the younger man's temple. "Do not," he said, jaw still closed tightly, "refer to her as such. You know that it's not true."
Lyndis raised a hand weakly, as if the power of the action could stop the two of them from arguing. "Kent," she said softly. "Sain. Please."
He chose to ignore her, chose to continue venting at Kent. "And what you said about Fiora wasn't true, either." He swallowed thickly and looked away. The tension in the room was tangible, and finally Sain spoke again. "Leave," he said. "Now."
"What—" Kent began, and out of the corner of his eye Sain saw Lyndis lay a placating hand on his arm.
Sain closed his eyes as the pair left; the door shut quietly behind them as the mechanism of the lock clicked softly into place.
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Xirysa Says: Two chapters, just because I can.
Apologies to those of you who were following this story intently; writing as of late has become more difficult for me, so if my writing sounds super forced... That's why. It's also why these chapters are so bloody short. With everything going on, all I'm trying to do is get back into the writing mood. That's not to say I don't want feedback or critique; on the contrary, review these chapters as you normally would. That is all.