Balle, Day 25 (4)

"I am not my mother."

"Certainly not." Obliviously, he continued to laugh. "I believe you're the sole reason this continent is so envied. The fame of our palace has gone far and wide."

The Su'Adrit wordlessly returned to her task, trying her best to refrain from nurturing her sour disposition any further.

It really wasn't anything to be so upset over. She knew better than anyone that Cera Dionar Sarivi liked to talk aimlessly.

Still, the irritation in her heart couldn't seem to go away. The words and the numbers she had marked on the receipts began to run in front of her eyes and meld into each other.

She sighed and stood. "I'll take my meal now."

The Master of Ceremonies absently acknowledged her statement, too absorbed by his own accounts to pay attention to her.

Verinia thought she might be sacrificing too much coin from the sovereign coffers for the upcoming feast. As it was, she'd refused several of Cera Dionar's ideas for the celebration, yet the expenses seemed to be growing still.

How could such a simple ball cost so much?

The greater sun had come to its highest point. Her insides had begun to warm from their frozen state, giving her the faint sensation of hunger.

Hunger was not something she felt often, and never in great amounts. Because she would freeze herself so often, everything in her body would slow, so sometimes food would take days to be digested. And even when there was nothing in her stomach, it would lie dormant from how slow her blood flowed.

Nobody but Eva knew that she wouldn't touch food for days. Because of this rarity, Aletha Crem was more than overjoyed to grant her request of the mid afternoon meal, sending servants to her with an abundant array and a reprimand for not taking her morning fast break.

She was left sitting in the orchard with more food than she could have hoped to eat in her life. Verinia looked at it for some time, wondering how she would rid herself of so much and remembering why she rarely ever gave the palace cook personal requests.

"Quite the feast." A smiling face came into her line of sight first, followed by the rest of Kaelbi's broad body.

It was strange, the build of his body. He wasn't a knight, as he had never received any training for knighthood, yet he held the stature, perhaps even the mass of one.

Kaelbi's movements were graceful, as befitting someone of the Su ranks, but they did not have the precision of a weapon-wielder.

There was an apple in her hand. Verinia tossed it at his face before he could properly get his bearings.

Her eyes lowered and her lips pursed gently before she spoke. "Join me, please. I've too much here for myself."

Kaelbi sat, turning the apple around in his hand to admire its crisp, plump cheeks. "Light Tower has the grandest orchards in New Oalta."

"Oh, these don't compare to the richness of the midlands," she supplied humbly as her hands began to prepare a plate of food. "Kuth, for example, produces waterfruit the size of my head."

"We have an orchard in Ederis as well. Silverdrops. They aren't the largest but they are the sweetest I've eaten." Kaelbi had a distant look in his eyes as he tossed the apple in the air and caught it without looking again and again.

Verinia's eyes darkened.

"Would you return to your home?" She asked gently, taking up a plump fruit with her slim fingers.

"I'd like to raise a family of my own there." His hand flew to cover his face and caught the white-skinned fruit she'd thrown without him looking.

"Our own silverdrops. They may not be as sweet but they are bursting with syrup." She smiled and gave him the plate.

Kaelbi shivered when his fingers grazed her hand.

"Your skin is—"

"Cold?" Her smile grew. "Perhaps my greatest feat."

"And gleaming. I noticed it when we first arrived but I thought it was the light." He took her hand and held her arm up to the light of the joint suns. "It's as if your very being were made of diamond dust."

Verinia tried to be patient, a skill she did not naturally possess, as Kaelbi rubbed her skin to determine if she wore any lustre oils. When he showed no intentions of releasing her, she took her own arm back.

"Well, I am the Lady of Light Tower. It's only fair that I outshine our father if all I'm to do is embellish him."

"I was told the Su'Ailfi was fond of impressions." Kaelbi grinned, turning his attentions to the food. "I see now that you are as well."

"I am not my mother." Verinia laughed. "You've seen nothing if you haven't seen Syvia with her dramatics. That one always enjoys taking away people's ability to speak."

They fell into an easy conversation, wherein the First Princess tried her best to bond with her new sibling, and her efforts were not unappreciated. He inquired after her in kind, wanting to learn more of the things he hadn't witnessed during his time of growth.

Kaelbi was a curious individual, perhaps more intelligent than she had believed, though subtlety was not his strength. His heel bounced from the ground in an untimed rhythm, unintentional and unnoticed.

She wondered what the cause of his anxiety was. Had something happened with Elina, perhaps?

"May I ask you something intimate?" The unease moved from his leg to his face, and he wouldn't look at her as she remained silent. "Has your heart beat for another?"

The Su'Adrit struggled and failed to keep the surprise from making an appearance on her expression. "I suppose it has."

Even as she said the words, Verinia knew they were speaking of two distinct forms of love. Her heart beat for Oalta and its bright future in Halen. Kaelbi's perhaps beat for a more self-interested reason.

"How have you lived without them?" He raised golden eyes and the distress in them was obvious even if he hadn't looked at her. "I've fallen prey to Vaelsa, I'm afraid."

She tried to smile sympathetically, but she truly didn't know what to say. It wasn't that Verinia was opposed to love. Love and sentimentality were different things, after all, and she loved Halen very much, but the love Kaelbi claimed to feel was foreign to her.

Hopefully it would remain foreign.

"The god of love is cruel with his games," she said, in place of the stark 'I know not of which you speak' that was sitting in her mind. "I've found joy in other things, when what my heart craves is kept from me."

"Things such as?"

"I quite believe your pleasures and mine are of different natures." Her fingers fidgeted. "You are the Sovereign's son. The misses of court consider you an intrigue, if you'll indulge them."

He laughed disbelievingly. "And have war waged upon my head by a Su'na?"

"If you meddle with those of the same blood as us, you will face consequences. But the null blooded Ra'nii are quite different altogether," she said easily. "Ask father to give you concubines."

Kaelbi eyed her carefully. "I suspect there is more of a reason to your encouragements."

"And you would be correct." Verinia cast him a glance of amusement. "It's idle gossip, truly, but I'd heard there is a new mine found in the state of Berin and I'd like to know the truth of it."

"I doubt you have an interest in mines." He looked at her hands. "Resplendent as you are."

"Perhaps not, but the null bloods have attempted to raise themselves above the stature of the Eight Houses before, if not in influence, then in riches. We have enough of that with the tensions of the midlands."

Kaelbi seemed to have understood something. "You want to know whose territory the mine is in and the value of it."

"Precisely." She smiled conspiratorially. "Would the company of beauties distract from your bleeding heart, brother?"

He returned the expression and stood gracefully from his seat, taking another silverdrop from the platter. "I believe I have several requests to make."