“Um,” she had said, then. “Thank you, General.”
That brought him out of his daze at last. Faren put her down quickly, wondering if he’d intruded after all. She didn’t seem upset, though, just shaken like he was. Could she have known? The girl gave no indication that she did, but there was still the obvious fear in her eyes. She turned to go, and Faren almost let her, before he remembered to ask her if she was fine.
She looked confused by the question, but that was easily explained by that Faren simply terrified most people he met. With everyone else, it didn’t bother him one bit, but a gesha wasn’t supposed to feel that way with her gerion. Of course, she didn’t know that yet. For some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her just then.
The moment had knocked him off guard, and he needed to process it himself before he could tell her. Not to mention he needed to find out what was going on with her in the first place, being a human on Briolina that no one knew about.
Finally, he suddenly realized that he truly had made a mistake. While every inch of him ached to bring her into his arms and hold her there, he had to force himself not to show emotion.
It was a joke, that’s what it was. Only he had never been good with jokes. Fate was apparently clearly upset with him. Not only had he been paired with this young human star that didn’t think living beings should bleed, while it was his entire purpose to make them do so. No, it had also made him expose his sudden weakness to someone he definitely shouldn’t have.
Faren had a keen sense of any room he was in, and he knew for a fact that they were being watched.
A joke, he thought, blood thundering in his veins at the sight of his gesha looking at him, bright-eyed and more innocent than any person he’d ever met. A joke. The one time in my life I need to keep my feelings in check and they do not obey.
It was his valor squares. All warriors took time to learn to control their emotions, to never let their weaknesses show. After all, the squares pulsed that information out for all the world to see. But Faren had never felt the need to learn that. He barely had any emotions at all.
The recognizing moment was different. It wasn’t as obvious as if he was screaming, but if Primen was anywhere near them right then… A senator with his perceptive powers would have no problem reading everything he needed from the situation.
The feeling of making a mistake was wholly new and not welcome at all to Faren.
He turned and left, leaving Leiya behind, feeling her gaze at his back as he went. He was resolved not to look back, not catch another moment of those beautiful eyes staring into his.
He’d gotten what he’d wanted, hadn’t he? A gesha. A weakness.
Faren had always known that he was somehow faulty, which was why he almost never trusted himself. It was like when he had suspected that Diego was keeping an eye out for the rage in him. He could see through everyone else, but he couldn’t be sure that he managed to see within himself. That had always been a mystery to Faren as much as he was a mystery to others.#p#分页标题#e#
With no one else he could turn to, he went to the only person he trusted. Luckily, the Triumphant was stationed at Briolina for the time being before embarking on another engagement.
He found Diego in one of the arenas, the spear twirling in his friend’s hand like it was an extension of it. The ease with which Diego wielded any weapon bordered on the supernatural, but Faren knew better than anyone how much hard training there really was behind it. He still sometimes saw the boy with the scars on his face when he looked at him. No scars marred Diego’s features now, he had gotten too good, but Faren remembered there had been a price.
“I hear you caused quite the commotion,” Diego said when he saw Faren enter.
The arena was empty but for the two of them. Faren didn’t move to accept the challenge, he hadn’t come to duel. He honestly felt little need to prove what they knew already, that he could give Diego a fair fight, but the commander of the Triumphant would still win somehow. He had that annoying habit.
He didn’t respond either, but Diego hadn’t expected him to anyway. Faren could trust Diego to know him, better than anyone probably.
“Did you find her?” Diego asked, returning to his exercises.
“Yes,” Faren said.
On any other day, it would have been slightly amusing to see Diego Grothan miss the mark, but Faren hardly noticed. Diego turned to him, a look of clear surprise on his face. Even with the valor squares on his neck projecting his emotions to the world, Faren had never felt that open. With Diego, things were simple – you always got what he showed you.
“Really?” Diego asked.
“Yes.”
Now his friend was glaring, but there was a smile on his lips.
“I keep forgetting you don’t appreciate being asked twice. I didn’t mean to ask if you were sure, it was meant to have you elaborate, maybe?”
Faren wasn’t entirely sure he could. What was there to say, really? He had found her, his gesha. She was his now and he hers. Everything else was just… details. But problems, too.
“She was there at the reception,” he opted to say at last.
Diego sighed. Faren knew he was difficult to deal with, much more so to understand, but Diego seemed to do it with ease.
“And?” he urged him on. “Did you tell her?”
“Not yet,” Faren said.
Diego looked surprised again.
“Why not? Did you not like her?”
Faren didn’t see how that was relevant. The Brion sacred bindings didn’t necessarily dictate that you had to like your fated.
“She was fine,” he said.
That was an understatement, and judging by the look on Diego’s face, he knew that as well. It was impossible for Faren to think of her as anything less than perfect, it was just the way the bindings worked. But he was trying to be objective – that was the whole problem.
Diego was waiting for him to continue, leaning on his battle spear.
“There’s a problem,” Faren began. "Two of them."
“If fate wanted our lives to be easy, I doubt we would be generals,” was all Diego said.
“Leiya,” Faren stated in return.
No, there was the look of surprise.
“I really hope you mean Leiya like someone like our new star Isolde keeps telling me about.”
“No,” was all Faren said.
Diego hesitated for a moment before speaking. Faren shook his head impatiently. Of course his friend would think twice before saying anything even slightly negative about his gesha, but that was not what he’d come for.
“I see the problem, yes,” Diego said diplomatically. “She’s bound to be a bit shocked, to say the least.”
“Yes,” Faren agreed. “That’s not the problem.”
“What is then?”
"She's human."
Alright, he got to surprise Diego quite a lot, but that one he'd expected at least.
"That's not possible," Diego said, frowning. "This is Briolina. Isolde and the ambassadors are the only humans here."
"No," Faren said.
Diego gave him a hard look, but after only a moment of studying him, nodded.
"Interesting," he said, mirroring Faren's own thoughts. "I wonder who brought her here and why."
"So do I," Faren said darkly. "But I have an idea. Therein lies the other problem."
"Which is?"#p#分页标题#e#
“I can’t let her fight.”
Now Diego looked at him seriously.
“Explain,” was all he said. All geshas initially fought their fated. Once it may have been an impulsive decision not to trust fate that had brought the gerion to her, but it had become a tradition. A gesha would deny her mate, to show she wasn’t going to give in easily. The Brions were fighters, after all.
“Primen knows,” Faren said. “He saw the moment. He’ll go for her. And he knows she's human too. He's somehow involved.”
Diego relaxed a fraction. There was the reason Faren could always trust him. Once Diego understood, it was all right.
“I see,” he said.
“She has to come to the Unbroken,” Faren stated simply. "I can only protect her there, while I find out the truth about her past."
Diego didn’t try to deny that. While he had stopped Faren from taking his righteous revenge on the senators, Faren knew Diego hated the scheming bastards almost as much as he did. Primen was after them, there was no doubt of that. Faren didn’t think himself paranoid for believing something that was obviously the truth. And on Briolina, the senators still carried quite a lot of influence. Only on the battle ship would Leiya be safe.
“So you want to take your gesha to your ship. The little star who loves Briolina and hates warriors, adores singing and performing to people,” Diego said.
There was no judgment in his voice. He understood. He would have done the same. He had done the same, in a way. Diego hadn’t asked Isolde’s opinion when her safety was in question. That was the lone idea that gave Faren hope that his future with his gesha wasn’t going to be a complete nightmare. She was bound to hate him anyway. But he could hope she’d understand.
“Yes,” Faren said.
Diego nodded.
“Fate does not want you to have it easy,” was all he said.