This story is part of the Wanderer series.
Karin stayed still, keeping her eyes locked on the fire pit as the group exited. The yurt quieted down as Nozomi’s peeping voice drowned out.
Slowly blinking, the elder’s eyes left the entrance a moment after they disappeared, turning towards the northern princess. “I can prepare some tea in the meantime.”
Karin politely returned the elder’s gaze. “It can wait.”
Silently nodding, the elder did not make the same offer to Chiara, assuming Karin’s answer extended to her. “It has been several moons since we had visitors. Especially from the capital.”
“There is no concern,” Karin blandly assured. “I did not forewarn my visit.”
Picking up the iron stick in front of him, the elder tended the fire, flipping the fresh pieces of lumber. “It is brave of you to take your brother’s place and journey to the northern provinces.”
Karin turned to the pit. “It must be done.”
“Is the young prince well?”
“He is.”
“And your uncle, the Emperor?”
“He is well.”
The elder continued to tend the pit in silence for a moment longer, with Karin’s curt answers providing little room to expand the conversation. Once he set down the stick, he returned his gaze to the princess, smiling silently as she kept her eyes on the fire.
“You have matured marvelously, princess.”
Karin blinked, eyes slightly widening. Though she did not respond, by word or by gaze, her altered, alerted posture showed she had heard him.
“I… do not know what to say,” she eventually admitted openly, finally returning the old man’s gaze with a slight blush. Yet, keeping her lips tight, she hid all other signs of emotion.
The elder uttered a wheezy chuckle. “The only portraits we received depicted the princess as a little girl. To see how you have grown with my own eyes is an honor.”
Karin lowered her eyes. “I was never one to sit down for a painting.”
He chuckled again. “It would behoove you to do so. The village wishes to see the heavenly family. Perhaps the other villages share the same sentiment.”
From the far side, Chiara spied on Karin from underneath her dipped face, watching her stoic reaction to the elder’s glowing words. Neither Karin or the elder noticed.
“I speak for the village when I say it relieves us to hear the heavenly family survived the coup.”
Karin slightly narrowed her eyes, forehead subtly furrowing.
Hearing a loud crackle, he picked up the stick again. “Twice in a generation is enough to worry elders such as I that the divine mandate is fading.”
Karin gazed blankly forward, through the tepid steam, conjuring her conviction. “Rest assured, the usurpers and their outside benefactors will face justice for their actions.”
The elder glanced up as he stirred the firewood. “There was foreign intervention once again?”
“False promises of reunification with the old empire’s territories,” she vaguely stated.
Shaking his head, the elder returned his eyes to the pit. “The greed of men knows no boundaries.”
Karin did not respond. Sidelined, Chiara awkwardly fidgeted her toes, watching them curl and uncurl underneath as she faintly rocked back and forth.
Setting aside the stick, the elder placed his hands flat on his lap. “I only pray the poor souls lured unwittingly into this vain struggle are shone with a fair light.”
Karin returned her eyes to the elder. “My brother will judge them with a steady hand. On that, I can promise.”
Turning his head gradually, the elder gazed deep into her eyes, observing her unflinching conviction for her sibling.
“And yourself, princess?”
She blinked, her head backing up ever so slightly.
“Were you in his place…” the elder continued. “Would your hand be steady?”
The question threw her off, out from behind her familiar shield. Retreating away, she thought deeply on the elder’s words, letting the fire reflect in her eyes as the elder stared at her patiently.
“I am not there yet,” she eventually conceded.
Nodding once, the elder slowly turned his head to the pot, gazing blankly forward. On the other side, Chiara, who was still sneaking a few peeks as the two conversed, flinched as the elder gazed her way. She ducked her head down below the pot’s lips, but the elder did not notice her behind his glazed eyes and the wavering steam.
“The shadows of your father and mother still linger?” he posited quietly, with a low voice, to himself. “To what horizon do the heavens carry your trials?”
Karin’s face became stiff upon the mention of her parents. Though she was able to hold back the flood of emotion swelling from her chest, her face clearly exhibited her pain. Her posture rising, her forehead furrowing, and her pupils shrinking.
Yet, quickly, and deliberately, it all washed away to guilt, the recent memories burnishing in the back of her mind. The cackling face of her traitorous colonel, and the tearful face of her nomadic captive from the east.
“It is their shadows that blinded me to the threat staring at my face,” she said aloud, voice wavering. “It is my vengeance that became my shackles rather than my blades.”
The elder looked at Karin with surprise, his old eyes widening for the first time. The princess, brows still furrowed, kept herself locked on the fire, her shoulders rising and her hands clenching into fists on her lap.
“It was the forces within my faction that initiated the coup, and threatened to tear the capital in half. I was absent to stop it before control was already wrestled out of my hands.”
The elder stayed still, silently contemplating over her words.
“Could it be… you were banished, princess?”
Closing her eyes and finally relenting her frown, Karin took a deep breath, easing her shoulders.
“No. I dissolved my faction, and my brother took me into his own.”
Opening them again, she turned her eyes to face the elder, straight and honest.
“My power is stripped. My eyes are open. And my vengeance has no platform to do more harm.”
Resting back, the elder sunk his shoulders, surfacing a warm smile once again. “I am relieved.”