Orphans they might be, at their age, it felt odd to try and track their origins.
They had been accustomed to this adopted arrangement for more than a decade. They weren't considered nobles, but commoners seemed too out of place of a word to describe them. It's not as if they had never thought to think of their parents.
For Kassis, there were never any doubts that he lived with his mother for a period of time. For how long and how close they were, these details seemed to elude him. He didn't think it worthy enough, considering how he had never been mistreated in the castle. Maybe he would someday, when their Lord bothered to tell him some sort of clue.
But he was ever so elusive with their origins. Try as he might, and he did, Lord Ragnall always chalked it up to the fact that they were not ready. And Kassis gave up finding out when they will be.
Vihrea on the other hand, felt a bit different. They was a sense of longing in her, like a void that couldn't be filled up no matter how hard she tried, a pervading sense of loneliness that stuck to her like glue. Feeling out of place wherever she went, like a circle in a world of squares.
She also gave up asking Lord Ragnall, that ever so mysterious man they're technically supposed to call father, but only Grace and Soj know how much they detest calling him that. Who was their father? Had he ever acted like one? He was more of an uncle than anything.
"Once or twice, perhaps." Kassis answered as he fiddled with the amulet around his neck.
"That's... odd. So you don't think of it much then?"
"What's there to think about? My life right now is good, I never have to starve or worry about where I go. If the Lord has orders, I follow. If he wants me to go east, I will never go west."
Vihrea scoffed. "So you're just a puppet."
"If you put it like that, sure." Kassis shrugged. He didn't think it important to mind the details. In his heart, he didn't really have the loyalty to die for their Lord.
Unlike Grace, Soj, or any of his loyal retainers, there really wasn't enough of a bond tying them together like this.
"Preposterous, should be the right word, really." Kassis continued explaining. "After all, when it comes down to it, would you go and die for him?"
He looked down, but was startled upon seeing that she was also looking at him.
The intensity of her stare made the blood rush to his ears, as if he couldn't believe someone like Vihrea, who always seemed so lax, was now scrutinizing him like a tigress.
She was the first to look away. "We'd be traitors if anyone heard us."
"Then better to count our remaining days if so."
"As if you'd die that easily," she muttered under her breath, seemingly annoyed at his tenacity for life.
"Why did you bring it up?"
"Bring what up?"
"Our parents."
"Why are you curious?"
"Because it's you."
Vihrea paused. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He wasn't sure how to explain it himself. In the eyes of others, Vihrea might seem serious at heart, but he had an inkling that there was something underneath all of it. Maybe it was the way she fidgeted with the hilt of her sword every time she slaughtered an animal, bringing up the intensity of her training every loss she encountered, or how her footsteps were audibly heavier after a mission.
Trying to hide something but always giving away a small thing so as to not make it obvious. Artificial is the closest thing he could think of. Because she hadn't opened up like this, at least not intentionally.
"Never mind." He shook his head. Better to keep it to himself.
Vihrea decided to let it go. It didn't seem all that important.
"You should go."
"Trying to get me to leave, aren't you?"
"Yes because if others discover this place of mine, I will rat you out to Sir Kapfem without a second thought." Kassis retorted. He liked this place very much, already compromising to let Vihrea take a rest at such a secluded place.
"Interrupted your rest at your sanctuary now, have I?" Vihrea stood up and patted the dust off her clothes. "Fine, seeing as you've also indulged one of my rare moods. This'll be an eye for an eye."
Once Vihrea walked off to resume her training by the lake, Kassis fell back into one of his rare momentary naps. He would think about her strange words another day.