Completed Making Sense of the Devil

[Kaira Yehven]

Kaira loitered by the front entrance of the Carvyre Estate, staring as the guests that filled the room she had been in the past couple of hours now made their way back to the main city limits of Valenntenia. From the door, she could see the walls surrounding the ancient city, but in addition to the scenery, the Tower stood most prominent. She lingered here to remember the many times she spent here, seeing her only friend and reading to her when her illness struck a heavy hand. In those last days, Kaira was forbidden to see Liya Carvyre. It was Lady Carvyre that told Kaira to remember her friend the way she remembered last she saw. That Liya health declined so rapidly, she looked a ghost by the time she passed.

"Kaira." Came the disgruntled sigh from Lale. Kaira turned to see the other woman, pinching the bridge of her nose before dropping it to see the Guardian. To her credit, Yehven smiled despite what was said before the party died off significantly.

"Lale, I just wanted to speak to you. About what you sai---"

"What I said about the Stones that have been outdated? Which part struck you?" Lale leaned against the archway, watching Kaira with that calculating gaze many Carvyres shared. Except Liya, she reminded herself.

Kaira chewed her bottom lip, hand fidgeting with the skirts of her dress. She had attempted to look polished and nice for the party, to represent herself as a Guardian of a Runestone. "You said I was unfit to be Guardian of Faith. Why?" Her brows furrowed. It was not in her nature to pick a fight, to question something that was the opinion of another.

But Lale Carvyre had a way of striking such questioning.

 

[Lale Carvyre]

Lale did not have the energy to be subjected to this after this night, but there was no way in avoiding the conversation with the Guardian of Faith. Instead, she waved a hand to the right of the entrance hall, where a small tribute to Liya had been housed for the past decade. "Can you honestly believe that Liya walks among the Ancients? That her soul is at rest? Faith is subjective. You are a figure not ordained by the Ancients themselves, not like the High Priest. Your predecessors ruined that position."

Kicking off from the archway, Lale strode over to the tribute altar. "My mother prayed every day after the funeral. She prayed to Faith and Wisdom, Passion and Fire. Faith and Wisdom, the Ancients would give her clarity in the days ahead. Passion and Fire to ignite her dedication in prayer, to ensure her youngest daughter's soul would rest easy with the Ancients."

Kaira after a long while crossed the hall to stand beside Lale.

"You think the Stone is not needed because there is another filling the position?" Kaira found it humourous. Lale turned to look at her, seeing that moment of the Guardian holding back something.

"What?"

"Hm?"

"Did I miss something, Guardian Yehven?" Lale lowered her head slightly to peer through her lashed at Kaira, giving her the look of doubt to the other's innocence.

"I just find it amusing you think the work I do is the same as the High Priest. The Stone speaks to its' Guardians differently each time once serves. Everyone knows this." Kaira fought the smile from growing any larger into a grin.

Lale did not reciprocate it.

"Educate me. What does Faith do for you, Kaira Yehven?"

 

[Kaira Yehven]

Kaira knew she had to be careful of what to say when answering Lale. The other woman was quick and cunning, able to pierce with those slate grey eyes and see a lie being spoken. And she knew Kaira, at least, there was some memory at play.

"The Faith Stone to me serves the people. They come to me to find their comforts, to share their grief, or to simply pray for benevolence from whichever Ancient they want to be heard." Kaira looked down at the altar, seeing the marble carved depictions of the Ancients Lady Carvyre had prayed to. "I bear all for them. Their worries, their hope, their doubts. I take it all in, so they do not have to. I... serve the people by taking what worries them most."

Lale was quiet, long enough that Kai turned to look up at her. She bit at her lip, chewing on her thoughts.

Kaira could not help but feel uneasy when it came to this version of Lale. She didn't speak it, but she could sense the stirring thoughts in the woman that stood beside her.

"You think it is not a worthy Stone to serve, but some people here depend on it. Especially those that are grieving. I take that from them, I transfer it to peace until it lasts a while before they fall back into that pit. When I please with those wishing to no longer exist without their loved one... they hear me." I wish I was there for your Aunt. Kaira wanted to add. Irina Carvyre, she remembered the story from when she used to be small and spend the day with Liya. She barely remembered the Lieutenant that married into the family, but Kaira remembered her kind laugh. She had left behind three sons.

"How does that serve you, Guardian Yehven." Lale rephrased.

"It doesn't. It is not for me, not as much as it is to serve Valenntenia. I believe I was chosen because I can put others before myself, truly."

"If that is so, then why did you keep your Vanguard appointed for so long? His career was wasted on you. And do not claim sentimentality. I think I remember a time you and Mikko were inseperable."

"Puppy love." Kaira set her jaw.

 

[Lale Carvyre]

Lale struck a nerve.

In her triumphant moment, Lale turned to peer slightly down at Kaira. She was a pretty young woman, timid, but her beauty was the first thing anyone would see. Her kind and gentle demeanor would not hinder the idea of courting the Guardian, the Daughter of Valenntenia. Hm. That title alone would scare many. It was appointed by the very people of Old Town, the ones that watched this girl burdened by the loss of both her parents within the same year, grow up into the very icons of her departed parents. She was both the Vanguard hero her father was, and the ideal of faith her mother was.

And still, Lale wanted nothing else to do with her.

Kaira was the only thing left that reminded her of her sister. The two were inseperable, almost like she had been with Vill, but instead of parting ways as two families became bitter, Kaira and Lale shared a moment of grief and understanding before Lale put herself first and left Valenntenia to further study the medicinal practices of Arethil.

"Puppy love." She repeated, smug. "And yet he served you... three years? Without complaint. I checked the records before they could put them away. You put in a request he be moved onto something more worthy... and they punished him for being useless." If her father was still the General, he would have done better for a Cendrillon soldier.

"You were right, Lale. I am capable of taking care of myself. The Stone does not allow me to leave this city for too long, and there are more than enough Vangaurds stationed within Valenntenian walls to come to my aide should I need it."

 

[Kaira Yehven]

Kaira did not raise her gaze, afraid she would be too annoyed seeing the satisfaction on Lale's face. She had grown into that Carvyre cruelty she had seen in Odhran, and even his siblings held the same edge. She had grown up hearing the slander against the Ancient house, but Kaira and her mother had always given people the benefit of doubt.

Carvyre was testing her patience, exploiting the very thing Kaira had thought she could keep quiet.

 

[Lale Carvyre]

The cruelest smile pulled at her lips, watching Kaira refuse to say anything more.

"Capable, yes." Her hand went to fix the placement of some religious figures on the altar, fidgeting with the portrait of Liya, the very last one she had been able to sit for. "But whether you are needed... that is the real discussion. We already have a High Priest. We have the sacred texts, we have believers. We do not need an Ancient Stone to dictate the type of healing humans have been burdened with since the beginning of the ages."

Lale turned to face the Guardian, staring at her straight on.

"We have survived without Faith before your appointment, Kaira. It is a waste of a Stone."

 

[Kaira Yehven]

Lale's words were cruel, and Kaira could see the intention there in Carvyre's eyes. It hurt, of course it did. It had started with the Somners, doubting she was right for the Stone, that they rushed into appointing a Guardian after so long.

Kaira stared at Lale.

"Perhaps you are right. A waste, but it has done some good around here Lale. If only you stayed and witnessed it yourself." Crickets. She tried her best to keep the tears from spilling, but the silvery tracks forged a new path down her cheeks.

"You are not the first to doubt my position. If I were truly unfit to be a Guardian, then the Absalon would have revoked my title." Kaira turned on Lale, stepping closer to the other woman and unleashing the stifled frustrations she never knew existed in her. "The people would have rejected me in my three years of service as I spend every day being with them. I take their sorrow and their despair and spin them a future of hope and acceptance. I lock myself away in a deteriorating building because it is the last place anyone will find me. I do that for our people, Lale. I could help you with your grieving still!"

 

[Lale Carvyre]

"I stopped grieving the moment I realised there was no use in doing so." She had provoked Kaira, and now the younger woman only irritated her by being... Kaira Yehven. "Liya is dead. No one can fix that. This city failed her! Our medics are rubbish in comparison to those in Dornoch."

"Liya refused to be seen sickly! Don't you remember, Lale? Why your mother asked mine if I could keep her company." Kaira did not back down, and Lale stared at the Guardian.

Until she turned her gaze to look down at the miniature portrait of her sister.

"There was so much you did not see, Yehven."

 

[Kaira Yehven]

"Then tell me. Do not push me away like you did that day. I needed you, Lale, because I thought you were the sister I never could have. I had just lost my father, and then my mother soon after. You left me!"

And Kaira still had the letter Lale had sent to her promising to visit her and check in more often, but the next dawn, Lale Carvyre had left Valenntenia for almost two years before returning for family events.

She almost expected her to abandon the city after her own family fell to shambles.

 

[Lale Carvyre]

"Because I did not want to dwell on death." Lale walked away, back to the middle of the entrance hall and pointed to the front door.

"Leave. You are no longer welcome in this house, Yehven. I do not need to be reminded of my sister, of the deepest wound I may ever endure. I am not like you. I do not lean on Faith."

"Then is it selfishness you lean on?" Kaira sneered.

A dangerous smile curled on Lale's lips, daring to take back the distance and slowly back Kaira into the wall. "One day, this city will turn on your and their Faith. You will lose their love, Daughter of Valenntenia, but I will still have something to fall back on. Glad you did not forget the Carvyres think of themselves before others." Lale reached up and tucked a strand of Kaira's dark hair behind her ear. Such a soft gesture could not have been felt more like a threat. "If you want me to be so open with you, perhaps you heed my words. Prove to me that Faith is needed here, that you matter as a Guardian."

It was the only way out of this. To be so harsh and cruel on her late sister's only friend...

 

[Kaira Yehven]

Kaira never thought herself a violent person; to act on her emotions. She could feel deeply, empathise with others and make them heard and understood. After the passing of her parents, she could have succumbed to despair, but she knew they would not want that for their daughter. Kaira kept their vision alive, kept their spirits remembered. The Daughter of Valenntenia was bestowed upon her when the Old Town saw to her growing years, helped guide her and watched over her. She never neglected the House of Blessings, did not stop her prayers and found time between drills and training with the Vanguard to spend time with her grandfather.

She had lost two important people in her life, but she never wavered.

Her grandfather thought it unique, awe inspiring, and put it to the Somners that she must be put to the test to be a Guardian.

But looking up at Lale now filled her with anger that did not feel like her own. Her Stone burned, almost searing at her sternum and Kaira hissed, stepping away from the lady of the house. "Prove to you? When I have proved myself the last three years to this City? What you are expecting of us, what you are asking of us and the Absalon... there is more to it, Lale. I know this. I know you."

Before she could be witnessed tearing up, she turned towards the door. "I am going to visit you father in the morning. Will you be joining?"

 

[Lale Carvyre]

Her father?

Then she had remembered the request of Odhran Carvyre earlier this day, when Lale came to check in on him.

"No. There are family affairs I must tend to. He will be pleased to see you." She did not turn around. Kaira had the curious ability to unarm oneself with just her eyes alone. The angelic promise held in those dark hazel eyes.

"Ask him about Liya." It was all he spoke of during her visit. As if Liya stood beside him in death.

"Good evening to you, Guardian Yehven." Lale spared a quick glance to Kaira before storming off to another doorway, leading to the wing of the estate that housed the old General's office.