Enlightened Empire

Chapter 449: Bitter Reunion

In a formerly abandoned courtyard in Huaylas, Inti and Brym sat together for dinner, after a seemingly endless day. This wasn't her sister Mellana's yard, of course. They couldn't stay after what had happened earlier. This was a yard the finance minister had specifically requested from Lord Ichilia. He had even paid for it in full from his private property. After all, if they stayed in the Gold Manor, they would only be spied on, and there was much to talk about.

However, Inti had been silent all this time. She had been so unresponsive that Brym even had to drag her here by himself after his newest negotiations with Loreius Ichilia and Avitus had been completed. All day, Brym had handled everything by himself, always taking care of her.

She couldn't keep moping like this, she knew it. Thus, she took a deep breath and said what she should have said hours ago.

"I have to thank you, Lord Brym." Inti bowed to the chubby foreigner who sat on the same table and was shoving grilled venison into his mouth. "If you hadn't spoken up when you did, maybe I would have never seen my sister again."

However, when confronted with a lady's sincerity, Brym simply smiled patiently, like he had done all day.

"No need to thank me, Lady Inti. I felt a personal obligation to get involved, so you owe me nothing." His smile became a bit warmer. Somehow, Inti could tell that his words had come from the heart. Soon however, Brym's face became more serious.

"Rather than that, the important question is what will happen from now on. Has your sister voiced any desires or plans about her future?" he asked. Now that she was once more responsive, Brym seemed eager to ask for her advice.

"Desires, huh?"

As her voice trailed off, she stared past Brym's face and out of the window into the darkening sky. Only a few dozen meters away, her sister was surely enjoying married bliss in her new home. Brym had made sure to buy a house close to Mellana's. As her expressions involuntarily soured, Inti recalled her reunion with her sister earlier in the day.

_________

"Please do not worry, Lady Inti. I will handle all matters outside that door. Reconnect with your sister, and don't bother with anything else. I'm sure you have much to talk about."

In front of Inti, Brym reassured her, before he closed the door to the small living room of her sister Mellana's current home. Outside, not only Brym was waiting, but also the guardsman called Avitus — Mellana's presumed husband — as well as the vicious Loreius Ichilia, no doubt steaming with anger at the most recent development.

However, just as Brym had said, these weren't issues for her to consider. Right now, there were only two people left in the room. All she had to do was focus on her sister. Thus, she turned, and saw her sister sit at a table, one the new family might be using for dinner on ordinary days.

I know she is pregnant, but just sitting down by herself and ignoring her guest, her own sister no less, is still rude.

After her shock had lifted, the first thing Inti had felt had been relief at her sister's safety. However, before she could ever express it, this relief was soon replaced with irritation at her sister's lack of consideration. A collection of small and large things came back up in Inti's memories, all of which soured the family reunion. Without a word, she stomped up to the table, pulled out a chair opposite Mellana — which produced a harsh scraping sound on the wooden floor boards — and plonked herself down.

For several seconds, she offered her sister a cold stare, nothing more. Meanwhile, Mellana had grown visibly uncomfortable. She tried to retain her usual, elegant smile, but her facade soon cracked around her eyes and the corners of her mouth.

"Inti. I'm so glad we could meet again, with both of us well," Mellana tried to break the silence, but Inti remained cold and wordless.

"How have you been over the past year? Well, I hope," the older sister tried again. However, once more, Inti wouldn't engage with her small talk.

"So you were pregnant," the younger sister replied instead.

"Yes. Me and Avi found out early this year. We tried for a while, so we are glad we finally succeeded. The child is due in autumn."

At the mention of her husband and her coming child, Mellana stroked her belly as her expression softened and drifted out of the open window. It was a picture of homely bliss, saccharin enough for the old-fashioned pastoral poets of Arguna to write entire hymns. Yet once again, Inti remained stoic.

"You are pregnant," she simply reiterated. "Pregnant with some Ichilia guardsman's child."

"He is not 'some guardsman', sister. He saved my life," Mellana insisted in her usual tone, calm and elegant. Even so, she very slightly raised her voice for the first time since their meeting.

"No need to hand over your body as thanks," Inti bit back, a sarcastic sneer on her lips.

Finally, Mellana's facade cracked. A deep frown developed on her face, though her voice was still calm and even, albeit with an added touch of frost.

"Being with Avi, having a child, that was my choice, and I did not do it out of mere gratitude, or duty. I am happy here, and I will not have you or mother or anyone else choose who is or is not good enough to be my husband. Do you have any idea how long ago I met him, or how? Any idea if my feelings for him are true? You know nothing about my real feelings, and you never asked me for them. We meet again after a year, and all you do is accuse me. What do you know about Avi? Or the risks he took for me?"

For a moment, Inti was stunned at her sister's powerful attack. Before she could gather herself, her sister had already continued her barrage.

"You did not know how Avi abandoned his family, only for me! And how could you, when you know nothing? How, do you think, are we paying for our daily needs here? The food on this table? Avi carries this burden alone. No one can notice that he has a fugitive hidden at home. To do it, Avi pretended to lose his family's money on gambling. He broke off contact with his own ever since, all so he could secretly keep the 'gambling money' and take care of me, and our future child. Not once did I ask him to do anything like that for me. Yet not once did I hear him complain, although he has suffered so much in silence. If such a man cannot meet your high standards, dear sister, then I do not care. Such a man is certainly good enough for me."

Mellana's powerful speech, presented in a calm voice without fluctuations, had quite the impact. However, Inti wasn't fooled. After she had been overwhelmed earlier, she remembered why she had been so upset since entering the room.

This selfish girl in front of her could praise her husband all she wanted, but Inti would never waver, not after everything she had been through over the past year. Still, out of respect for her sister, and to make sure that her future niece or nephew wasn't harmed, Inti stayed silent on Mellana's faults. Her hands balled into fists as she barely managed to hold herself back from shouting back insults and accusations. Yet her idiot sister seemed to mistake such silence for weakness.

"When I saw you enter that courtyard, I was happy, you know?" Mellana continued to prod. "Finally, our family would be reunited again. Yet your reaction has disappointed me. Is all you care about the honor of the family?"

Finally, after another unprovoked complaint, Inti exploded. She jumped from her seat and shouted in her selfish elder sister's face, pregnant or not.

"You were happy with the reunion, were you!? Then where have you been!? It has been a year! A year! While you were sitting here, playing house, we have all fought with our lives on the line!"

Even now, Mellana remained seated. Even now, she didn't raise her voice.

"I never chose to fight, and it was never my fight to begin with."

"Then at least send a letter!" Inti hit the table between them, enraged by her sister's lack of emotion, and by her lack of accountability. "If you were so concerned about your family, at least you could have let us know that you were still alive! You could have left this abandoned ghost town any day you wanted, over the past half a year at least, and gone back home. And yet you just sat here and enjoyed your honeymoon!"

"So this really is about Avi's status. I knew it," Mellana shot back a cynical answer, which only made Inti more angry. Her comeback didn't even make sense, right?

"I don't give a rat's ass who you pick as your man! Just don't choose someone from House Ichilia while your family is fighting a war against them!"

"Avi is different," Mellana insisted. Finally, Inti felt like she had shouted out most of her anger, and calmed down somewhat. Though that didn't mean she believed her sister's nonsense.

"Is that why he's still protecting Loreius Ichilia to this day, because he's such a disloyal rebel to the Ichilia name?" Inti sneered. At last, Mellana lost her cool as well. This time, it was her who hit the table, though she still remained seated.

"You know nothing about him!" she screamed, a calm sea which had turned stormy. "Don't get involved in my family affairs!"

"So that's how it is, is it? You're no longer part of the family, now that you've found a man for yourself." Again, Inti could feel the anger rising up her throat. "You keep talking about family, but you've never considered the feelings of any one of us at all. You never thought what kind of damage your little stunt would cause. We lost three ghost warriors trying to find out what happened to you. Did you know that? Three! Those souls rest on your conscience. None of them had to die, but they did, because you wanted to play wifey to our enemy's private guard, and you didn't want to see any of your family at the wedding banquet!"

Inti's chest heaved after she had unleashed all of her anger. All this time, she had lived with the guilt of killing her sister, of endangering her life with the mission in Huaylas. Now she realized that Mellana had simply taken it all as a joke. While everyone else had been mourning her death, she had been enjoying herself with her new man.

After seconds of uncomfortable silence, only disrupted by Inti's heavy breathing, Mellana finally lowered her proud head.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and then hesitated, before she continued. "I know it won't change a thing, but I truly am. I didn't want any of this, not until I was in prison. From there, things just happened. I didn't plan it in advance."

Seeing Mellana — the older sister she had been concerned for all this time — so downtrodden finally cooled down Inti's overheated head. She sighed and asked the only question she really cared about.

"Please, just tell me one thing: Why did you never write us? Why did you never come back? At least tell me that much, if I'm still your sister."

When Mellana looked back up, there were tears in her eyes, though her face looked determined, and not one drop was on her face.

"I'm just... tired of it all," she said, after some more hesitation. "All the fighting, and hiding, all year round. I spent four years hidden in this city. Every day I was afraid that I would be exposed. Every day, I had to fear for my life. And for what? Because of our dead father's loyalty to the dead emperor? Why should I have to suffer for them? I gave most of my best years to those dead men. Why can't I just have something for me, for once? With Avi, I can just be happy. Just happy, you know? None of you could understand what it's like, having a child. Not even mother. To her, even childbearing was only ever a duty, just like everything else."

"Watch yourself," Inti interrupted her sister's rant, her face once more warped with angry. She wouldn't see her mother slandered like that, not after everything she had sacrificed for the family.

"Sorry." Mellana took a deep breath, before she continued. "I was just... tired. I thought I could simply disappear. That everyone would think I was dead, and so no one would come looking for me. And then I could just live my own life, in my own way, and find my own happiness. I never wrote you, because I never wanted to be found."

Once the truth was spoken, it could never be unspoken again. Now Inti knew the answer to her question, for better or for worse. To her sister, all of them had only ever been a burden, a nuisance. When the heat left her head, the cold hit like a hammer. Her body was once more as numb as it had been on the way here. With stiff movements, Inti turned around, and opened the door to the outside.

Without looking back, she mumbled: "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're still alive, sister. And congratulations, you get your wish."

Without waiting for a response, Inti left the room.

With her mind back in the present, Inti looked back at Brym, in a much worse mood after recollecting the fresh memory.

"I'm not sure what that sister of mine desires, really." She sighed, not for the first time since the reunion. "One thing is for certain, she won't do any more work for the kingdom."

"Well, she also can't stay here, that's for sure," Brym casually commented, as if it was an obvious conclusion.

It's not obvious to me.

"Why not? It's what she wants after all," Inti said in a sour voice. Wouldn't her selfish sister be happy if they just left her here and forgot all about her?

"Because if she stays here, her family will sooner or later be used as hostages to blackmail the southern kingdom," Brym replied.

Okay, it was obvious after all.

Only now did Inti properly wake up. Ever since she had seen her sister, she hadn't been able to think about anything else. Finally, she remembered that there were larger issues at play here, beyond her family drama.

"What about the Ichilia bastard?" she asked the most important question straight away. Lord Ichilia was the reason they had come to Huaylas after all, and he was also the man with the most power in the city. His attitude towards her sister would be more important than anyone's, as would be his attitude towards cooperation.

"For now, Lord Ichilia has been pacified," Brym simply stated, though Inti was convinced that the process had been anything but simple. "We have both decided that your sister's business is a good thing for both sides. Rather, a death would have made things a lot more complicated. Since our business is important and neither of us seems happy with our people, we'll both just ignore the whole affair. Lord Ichilia will allow his disloyal guard to leave, though Avitus will have to shed the family name, of course. Still, that seems to be the best outcome for everyone involved. At least no one will have to die this way."

"I understand." Inti thought for a second, and had to agree. "So Mellana will have to leave here."

In response, Brym brushed off his hands on a towel and stood up from the table, apparently finished with the meal.

"In that case, we should convince her as soon as possible. If what you said is true, she might be unwilling to leave on her own. You can inform her of the issue at hand." Brym hesitated for a second, and his eyes softened, before he added: "Or I could talk to her, if you prefer."

However, Inti wasn't so fragile that she needed special treatment. Although she had forgotten to eat in her numbness, she could do that later.

"No, thank you. I will handle it," she said, with a steeled heart. "She can go back to Saniya if she wants. I'll leave her with Naoka, he'll guarantee their safety."

After their earlier talk, Inti really didn't want to spend any more time with her sister. Though the concept seemed to surprise Brym.

"Naoka?" he asked, one brow raised. "But what about you? Won't you go back to Saniya? Or will you return to Arguna instead?"

Faced with a future beyond tonight, Inti suddenly saw herself stumped. She certainly didn't want to go back to Arguna, not for a while. She had left for a reason, and had little intention of returning until the city calmed down or a major event required her input. In her original plan, she would have traveled to Saniya from here, but she would be damned if she spent her first time off in years in the same place as her selfish sister.

After thinking for a while, Inti finally realized that she had no idea what to do from now on. When she finally looked back up, she noticed that Brym had been patiently waiting on an answer for a while now.

"I'm not sure yet. What about you?" she tried to deflect from her embarrassment.

"Well, what can I do?" Brym laughed, even though nothing about their talk had been funny. Maybe he just thought it was necessary to lighten the mood. "There's still plenty of cities to visit in the north, and plenty of bonds to sell. I will be busy for quite a while longer."

"In that case, I will go with you," Inti made a snap decision.

"Huh?" was the eloquent merchant's succinct response.

Although the new plan had come out of nowhere, it made more sense the more she thought about it. She could travel around the country and see the sights she had only ever heard of, since she had spent all her life in the capital. Even better, she would be traveling with Brym, who was always pleasant company.

"Well, I owe you a great debt. First Naoka, and now this. Who knows if we would have ever found Mellana if you hadn't spoke up." She hastily made up an excuse to tag along, but Brym brushed off her sincerity.

"Someone had to," he just said and waved his hand around, as if there were countless others around who would have done the same.

"No, most certainly not," Inti insisted. After all, her travel plans depended on it. "I am greatly in your debt, Lord Brym. Please allow me to follow along and repay you in any way I can."

"Well, it's not the worst idea. We've started working with the ghosts in our shops, and I could use a liaison," Brym finally said, while stroking the stubble on his chin. "And considering the things you've gone through today alone, I think you deserve a vacation anyways."

Finally, Inti's smile returned, as she jumped out of her seat as well, ready to convince her sister to leave her new home.

Now that she had organized a ride for herself, she had plenty of time to mull over today's events, as well as her own future. There was much soul-searching to be done. Luckily, there were many wealthy lords in the north, and with Brym's love for coin, they would be visiting all of them.