Chapter 13: A Gift

Despite what Rena had stipulated, she and Solomon actually did end up falling asleep together sometime early in the morning, before light had begun to shine into his room.

She was awkward at first.

Rena hadn’t been held by anyone in decades. Let alone a man.

She tensed up when Solomon first wrapped her arms around her. But eventually, she settled in and closed her eyes.

Solomon watched her for a bit, kissing her occasionally before he fell asleep as well.

After ten years of intensive knight training, Solomon always wakes up at dawn.

He thought he and Rena might wake up at the same time, but when he opened his eyes again, she was already gone.

It didn’t surprise him much. Initially, he hadn’t expected her to stay the night at all.

He wished he could have seen her off. Maybe slept with her again once or twice.

But they had already flirted with danger too much last night. Better not to push it further.

Solomon threw off his covers and prepared to get out of bed.

But when he moved the blankets back, he found a few things waiting for him in place of Rena.

A letter, a small wooden box, and the underwear she had removed before their intimacy yesterday.

Solomon rubbed the grit out of his eyes as he picked up the note. He’d never read Rena’s handwriting before.

It was terrible. Worse than chicken scratch.

’The men at the barracks always talk about how they like women’s underwear. I don’t get it, but I thought you might have an interest in it.’

Solomon stared at the lace fabric for an uncomfortably long time, resisting the urge to bring them to his nose and inhale. He kept reading instead.

’Staying the night was nice. Probably wouldn’t hurt to try it a few more times… Whenever we get the chance.

I wanted to wish you good luck with your time at the academy. Though I doubt those snobby instructors will be able to teach you much more than you could learn on your own.

Everyone thinks that you and Raizel are the future of this clan. Uriel hears the whispers, and he has become increasingly erratic as of late. I’ve begun to doubt his ability to surpass or replace the Patriarch. He certainly doesn’t take his swordsmanship seriously anymore.

I’m not sure why you have decided to enter the academy. I suspect it has something to do with Raizel, though. This is exactly the kind of eccentric thing that he would get into his head.

Regardless, I expect you to come back to me as an even better soldier and scholar. Maybe next time we meet, you can be the one to tell me things I don’t know about myself and help me grow.

…As a warrior, I mean. And I only meant come back to me in the sense of proximity, not… anything else.

I’m sure you’ll make many connections at the academy. From what you’ve told me, leadership is in your blood. I hope the seed of greatness your father gave you fully blooms.

Grow well, Solomon A’Kenai. I’ll be watching from afar with great interest.

Happy Birthday. I hope you like your gift.

-Red’

Solomon finally put the letter down and brought up a hand to cover his face. He was hiding a smile.

Maybe he liked Rena more than he had ever really thought. He’d certainly told her enough for that to seem true.

Solomon took a couple of minutes to sit in bed before he removed his hand from his face and grabbed the box sitting in his bed.

Unclasping the lid, his eyes marveled at the gift sitting inside.

–

Raizel made his way to the front door of the castle.

As always, he found Solomon already there waiting for him.

His brother was already dressed in his travelling clothes for their excursion today. A simple long coat draped over his shoulders helped to hide his arms that were covered in thorny black gauntlets.

A long sword was fastened to his side within it’s scabbard. The last time Raizel counted, that was the sixth this month.

He opened his mouth to wish his brother well on another year of life when his eyes suddenly settled on a particular abnormality.

“Unbelievable. You figured since I’m shelling out for a fancy new sword you would go out and buy yourself some gaudy jewelry? Without buying me something as well?!”

“…I’ll buy you breakfast instead. That should even us out a bit, you glutton.”

“Ha-Ha.” Raizel was not amused.

He leaned forward a bit and inspected the new circles of gold hanging from his brother’s ears.

“…Dragons?”

“I like dragons.”

“Most people did last I checked. A little too much unfortunately. But I heard your people held them in particularly high regard.”

Solomon wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say to something like that.

He and Raizel were brothers by every metric except blood. But there were things about himself that Solomon had never divulged.

Mostly because Raizel had never asked.

But with his letter from Rena still fresh in his mind, Solomon was thinking quite heavily about the things he hadn’t told his brother.

“…Sorry.” Raizel scratched the back of his head. “I shouldn’t have said something useless.”

Solomon started to tell him that he wasn’t offended when his brother suddenly wrapped his arm around his shoulder and started leading him out the heavy wooden doors.

“As an apology, you should let me pay for a night on the town. We’ll go out, have a drink, maybe do a spot of gambling and-”

“You remember that your father is hosting a banquet today, right?”

“Obviously, why else do you think I’m bothering to pay for your drinks. Generosity?”

The two of them laughed as their conversation carried them out the front door.

A carriage with fresh horses was already waiting for them, along with a coachman who was still yawning.

As they climbed in, Solomon had to be the one to burst Raizel’s bubble.

“It’s a good little joke, but you know we have to go. Your father gave us permission to leave the island, so we can’t throw mud in his face in return. We don’t need that kind of scrutiny.”

Solomon and Raizel were unquestionably the most controversial young figures in the castle to date.

They were the youngest in their class to master all Twelve movements of the Angels Wings. And the youngest to ever reach Yellow core in the clan’s history.

Their achievements were thought to be even more outstanding because Raizel was the son of a concubine and Solomon was a child found on the streets.

Raizel sighed as he rested his head on the inside of the carriage.

“Seems we’ve done too good of a job at being exceptional… tell you what, I’ll go if you tell me who was waiting for you in your room yesterday.”

Solomon clammed up inside but kept his facial expression neutral.

“Ha. I know you like to play the role of a womanizer to lower people’s expectations but I think you’re really starting to become obsessed with them. You’re sensing them in places they aren’t even present.”

Raizel’s gaze narrowed. “I never said anything about it being a woman.”

“….Fuck.”

Raizel let out a low whistle.

“Wow. Must be quite the woman for you to be this secretive… There’s only one explanation.”

Solomon carefully controlled his breathing and heartbeat so as not to seem anxious.

“She must be ugly. Poor bastard.” Raizel shook his head sadly. “Teeth probably point in every direction all at once.”

“…” Solomon could not articulate just how badly he wanted to hit his brother right now.

“Or maybe that’s why you’ve been putting all this weight on lately. Training to sweep her off her feet because she’s heavy and-”

“Why are you such a consistently unlikable human being?”

“Genetics.” Raizel shrugged.

The carriage suddenly lurched forward and Solomon glanced out the window at the rising sun in the distance.

He lept at the opportunity to change the subject.

“Want to tell me where we’re going yet, or are you going to keep up the secrecy act?”

Raizel smiled. “When’s the last time you enjoyed a day on the water?”

“When I was eight and I smuggled myself in a barrel of port wine to escape my burning homeland.”

“So you’re overdue for some water? Great! That’s why we’re going to spend the day sailing with our coastal guard.”

Solomon raised his brow. It was happening again. Raizel was coming up with another random plan without any sort of buildup.

“Do I want to ask why..?”

“I don’t know why you’d want to. It takes the fun out of everything if you know the reason why we’re doing things.”

“You said the same thing when we snuck out four years ago to start that business under false names.”

“And we’ve both become very rich men because of it!”

“Yes. Nobles do love their skin tonics and aphrodisiacs, don’t they…?” Solomon rolled his eyes.

“They love it enough that I was able to pay for four years of schooling at the academy and I can’t even tell the money is missing. But forget all of that…”

Raisel smiled mysteriously as he looked out into the horizon.

“Today is the day our journey truly begins. I can feel it.”

Once again, Solomon was quite certain his brother was just being delusional.

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